Access to photography has never been greater, yet now the risk of the family archive dying out has never been more of an issue. This article explains why the digital age has put the family archive in danger, and what we, as photographers, can do about this.

There has never been a time in history when we have documented our lives more, now that everyone has a smartphone camera in their pockets. The snapshot has become completely disposable. Once valued as part of a family archive, now only "Instagram-worthy" images are uploaded to social media—complete with filters—then deleted from phones to clear space for more pictures of plates of food and picture-perfect selfies. This is a frightening prospect, as it changes what we choose to document and what we filter out. Over time, this alters how family life is captured and relayed to generations to come.

For those of you old enough to remember, there was excitement involved in returning from vacation and sending your film rolls to be developed, in what was usually a 7-day service. Waiting with bated breath for the prints added to the sense of anticipation and prolonged the memories of your trip. The joy of flipping through packs of 36 glossy 6x4 prints, reliving the adventures captured, is a sentiment cherished by those who experienced it. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, my parents used to invite friends and extended family over in the evening to pass around family photographs and tell them all about our trips away. Some others would bring their own images too, if they had recently traveled or had a special occasion. Nowadays, digital images from vacations are shared online during the trip, with updates almost every day or, at the very least, all shared in one dump at the end of the vacation. Now, I likely wouldn't click on a social media post from a friend's vacation to view 100 or more images unless I had some time to kill. Swiping and liking is no comparison to holding printed photographs in your hands.

As the only living photographer in the family, I have automatically become the custodian of my family archive, responsible for cataloging and caring for the images so that future generations can connect with us and witness the decades of documentation, which provides an insight into who we are as a family.

My great-grandparents' wedding photograph, estimated to have been taken around 1900, is displayed proudly in my mother's home. Yes, one single photograph exists of the couple, with crooked smiles to commemorate the special occasion. At that point in history, portrait photography was reserved for the wealthy, and so, for people like my great-grandparents, paying and sitting for a wedding portrait would be a very special occasion. It was possibly the only portrait they ever had taken in their lives. This image is hung on a wall in a hallway with no windows, away from direct sunlight to minimize fading. The image has also been scanned to preserve it for future generations, but who knows if the digital data will be readable in TIFF format by then.

Caring for Printed Images

Historical documentation is irreplaceable, and the same applies to the family archive. Printed photographs, when stored effectively, can last for hundreds of years, offering invaluable glimpses into the past. These visual records capture moments and memories that would otherwise be lost, preserving the essence of family heritage for future generations. Most old prints have been created using negatives and photosensitive paper. C-type or silver halide prints are the most common for these family snaps, either from film or more recently from digital negatives. When stored correctly, these will last for well over 100 years.

Treat your family photographs like museum artifacts, because they are an important indicator of your family history. What you store these prints in is just as important as the location of long-term storage. If you have numerous loose prints, consider cataloging these by date, even if you are just estimating the year, and group them by size. Larger prints can be stored in archival boxes that are acid-free and suitable for long-term storage.

My mother at 18, 1968

Ideally, for smaller prints, photo albums are a fantastic solution for storage. If this takes up too much space, you could opt for boxed storage or acid-free photo sleeves, which will allow for more streamlined storage. Tissue paper is great for fighting against moisture, but you will need to ensure that you use acid-free tissue paper for this purpose to avoid any chemicals contaminating your prints. It is a good idea to swap out tissue, every 10-12 years should be frequent enough. Your negatives should be stored flat in appropriate sleeves to avoid deterioration or damage.

Choose a dry, safe, and secure location for your printed archive, with a constant temperature. Your garage is likely going to experience too much fluctuation in temperature and invite damp air in colder weather. Choosing indoor locations would be better, such as a closet, a dry basement, or a loft. Ensure there is plenty of airflow, and your photographs are not on the floor or stored against external walls to maintain a stable temperature.

Your Digital Archives

Another key step to ensuring the long-term survival of your family archive is to digitize your printed photographs. Investing in a flatbed scanner will allow you to digitize prints and photo negatives to ensure that your family archive lives on after prints have deteriorated.

As photographers, you should already have an organized digital archive; however, if not, it is not too late to get your digital storage in order. There are many methods for this, and everyone will have their own workflow. However, current best advice is to have your images backed up in three places to avoid loss: one copy of your images in cloud storage solutions like Google Photos, iCloud, or Dropbox, and two separate hard drives. These hard drives should not be stored at the same address, so consider renting long-term storage or asking a family member to keep some drives as a backup. Your images should be properly named and organized by date, with a clear folder structure to help find those images when you need them. If you don’t already, get into the practice of adding keywords into your metadata so that if you forget when an image was taken, you can search for the image by describing what is in the image.

Spread the Word

Engage in conversations with people about their family archive. Ask what they do with their images once they have shared them on social media. More often than not, day-to-day life is now captured with a smartphone, which is where the images are kept until they upgrade to a new phone with larger storage capacity, with some opting for cloud storage. It has been eight years since I closed my photography studio, yet I still receive requests from past clients asking if they can have further copies of their images. One customer told me that she had lost all of her images of her daughter as a young child due to a water-damaged phone, and hoped that I still had images from her newborn photoshoot, which, of course, I did. Another customer contacted me after losing printed portraits of her child in a divorce, seeking further copies. I have had requests for, and given away, many digital images after finding out that people I photographed had passed away. Having an organized digital archive allows me to do this, but most people are not photographers and have not set up a digital archive, meaning that there is a high risk of image loss among members of the public.

In an era dominated by digital screens, the physical family archive offers an offline experience, allowing individuals to switch off and engage in a more mindful and reflective activity. Looking through these photographs provides a unique opportunity to appreciate the past and strengthen familial bonds away from the distractions of modern technology. It is such an enriching experience, which doesn’t have to end in the digital age. Losing the family archive would mean facing a significant disconnection from family history and roots. These archives are more than just pictures; they hold emotional and cultural significance, revealing who looks like whom, and providing a sense of identity and lineage that binds generations together.

Document life as it is, not in picture-perfect setups. When documenting your family, don’t consider your online connections as your audience. Consider your children, and their children, who I’m sure would like to see life as it was, not as you wanted it to seem.

By adopting best practices for digital image storage and educating others, we can preserve our family archives for future generations. Let us take proactive steps today to safeguard the precious moments of our lives. Do you have any tips for organizing or storing your family archive?

The following is a press release written by Findmypast:

• Research from Findmypast has revealed that 1.18 million wartime stories could be lost to history forever, as two thirds (64%) of Brits admit they haven't researched an ancestor who served

• To combat this, all records on Findmypast will be free to the public over the Remembrance weekend (7-11 November 2024) 

• Delve into ancestors’ wartime experiences – from WRENS to frontline troops – in millions of military records

• The 1921 Census will be free to view for the first time, offering a snapshot of interwar life

• Uncover the details of family heroics and tragedy within the pages of Findmypast’s treasure trove of historical newspapers

• Preserve stories and memories in a family tree and take advantages of helpful free tools and features

This Remembrance weekend, Findmypast is offering free access to all records to enable more people to discover their family’s wartime experiences.

This comes after new research conducted by Findmypast revealed that 1.18 million wartime stories are at risk of being forgotten, with a staggering two thirds (64%) of Brits admit they haven't researched an ancestor who served. 

From 7 November – 11 November, anyone can delve into the billions of records and historical newspapers on Findmypast, including the exclusive 1921 Census for the first time.

With millions of military records available – from WWI service records to medical records, enrolment forms, and rolls of honour – you can trace every detail of your ancestors’ wartime service across the globe. 

With millions of women serving in in uniform and undertaking civilian wartime roles, make sure to uncover their stories in record sets including the WRENs files, Red Cross volunteer lists, rolls of honour, and service records. 

Newspapers on Findmypast offer a treasure trove of information and stories. You might find details of your ancestors’ wartime heroics, images of your community during the blitz, or fascinating insights into the reporting of major milestones in the war. Follow history as it happened with free access to millions of newspaper pages, digitised in partnership with the British Library.

With the 1921 Census offered free for the first time, you can also discover the impacts of the First World War on your family’s lives. Uncover their changing occupations and reflect on tragic losses, all documented in the largest and most comprehensive census in British history. Trace their lives further into the 20^th century with the 1939 Register, taken on the advent of the Second World War.

Plus, you’ll get free use of all Findmypast’s tools and features to aid your research and grow your tree. Preserve your findings with Findmypast’s online family tree builder, and allow the clever hints to get your family history further, faster and with more accuracy. Search for ancestors within the branches of other members’ tree and uncover new connections. Discover milestone moments with Family Notices, and map these onto their profile. 

Sarah Bush, Managing Director at Findmypast said: "Remembrance Day provides the perfect opportunity to reflect on our ancestors’ sacrifices, but research shows many stories remain untold. We’re encouraging people to honour their ancestors by uncovering their wartime stories. Every family’s wartime experience is unique, so we’re making our vast and varied collection of records, newspapers and tools on Findmypast free to ensure that no story is left behind.”

When Chelsea LaRoe was 4 years old, her Utah father vanished. “I spent my entire life wondering why he left and if he ever thought about me as a kid growing up,” LaRoe said in a Nov. 4 video release shared to Facebook by the Weber County Sheriff’s Office. “It made me sad, angry and filled with questions.”

Decades later, a knock at her door in August finally gave her some answers. “That day changed everything,” LaRoe said. Two Weber County detectives told her they had information about a family member. “I thought, ‘I don’t have any family members in Weber County,’ and they told me it was about my dad,” she said. Using genetic genealogy, detectives identified a body found burning within an abandoned boat in a field as her father, Kevin Lynn Capps, Detective Ty Hebdon said in the video release.

‘BODY WAS UNRECOGNIZABLE’

After seeing a fire blazing in a field in the spring of 1992, deputies arrived to find “an abandoned boat (that) was engulfed in flames,” Hebdon said. They also saw a body “within the boat and flames,” according to Hebdon. Deputies put out the fire, but “the body was unrecognizable,” Hebdon said. Deputies didn’t find anything around at the scene to help identify the body, according to Hebdon. The fire and person’s death were considered suspicious, Hebdon said.

Through an autopsy, investigators learned the body belonged to a man between the ages of 30 and 45 years old, Hebdon said. Investigators checked dental records of missing persons from surrounding areas and states, but none belonged to the unidentified man, Hebdon said. Despite efforts to identify the man, including submitting his DNA to national databases, his name remained a mystery, Hebdon said. “The case has been cold for the last 32 years,” Hebdon said.

GENETIC GENEALOGY TO ID

With a newly formed cold case task force, Hebdon said the sheriff’s office reexamined the case with a “fresh set of eyes and ideas.” “Detectives set out on identifying the victim by using advanced DNA testing, including investigative genetic genealogy testing,” Hebdon said. Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related. The sheriff’s office partnered with Othram Inc., a forensic genetic genealogy company, after getting funding from the Utah Department of Public Safety, the company said in a news release. Othram said its scientists created a DNA profile for the unknown man, which was then used in genealogy research. This profile helped law enforcement find potential relatives for the man, Othram said.

After a relative submitted a DNA sample, the remains were confirmed to be Capps, the company said. He was 30 at the time of his death, according to Hebdon. “At the time of Kevin’s death, he left behind a then-4-year-old daughter,” Hebdon said. The day LaRoe learned her father’s body had been identified gave her “closure of knowing,” she said. “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I just did both,” LaRoe said. Anyone with information about Capps and the circumstances leading to his death is asked to contact deputies at 801-778-6646.

Weber County is about a 40-mile drive north from Salt Lake City.

Read more at: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article295065919.html#storylink=cpy

School maintenance staff across Minnesota have a new task on their to-do list: Report to the state the levels of lead in school drinking water.

Since 2018, Minnesota has required its schools to test for lead at least once every five years. But until an update made in the 2023 legislative session, there was no requirement that school officials report the test results to the state and no threshold for the amount of lead that requires action. The new standard, which took effect in July, requires districts to report test results and remediation efforts to the state.

Schools are now required to remedy within 30 days any faucet with lead levels higher than five parts per billion — the limit set by the Food and Drug Administration for bottled water — or else directly notify families of test results. Districts have five years to test all of their buildings and get levels under that threshold. By law, a school is not financially responsible for remediation if high lead levels are caused by lead pipes owned by a public water supply utility.

Before the updated mandates, “there wasn’t a whole lot of guidance for schools on when they take action,” said Anna Schliep, lead drinking water coordinator at the Minnesota Department of Health.

There is no safe level of lead, a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause mental and physical development problems in children, according to EPA. The metal is found in older water pipes, plumbing fixtures and even in the soldering that connects piping.

The Biden administration has attempted to tackle the problem by making water systems map lead service lines — or pipes on private property that connect homes and businesses to public water supplies. Minnesota, meanwhile, committed $240 million last year to help replace those lead service lines and is collecting information on lead pipes in a statewide map. The state Department of Health plans to create a similar map later this year showing lead levels at schools and childcare centers across the state.

Checking old plumbing

St. Paul Public Schools has more than 6,500 water taps across the district. Though district staff have been regularly sampling water since 2009, efforts ramped up this year, said Brian Bergstrom, the district’s environmental specialist. He aims to test lead levels in two buildings per month — a schedule that will ensure all taps in each of St. Paul’s 74 buildings are tested within the five-year timeframe required by the state.

“We don’t just want to meet this new number because it’s the new number,” he said. “We want to use this as the justification to take a holistic look at our aging infrastructure in a lot of our older buildings.”

Earlier this year, the district hired a plumber to replace fixtures with high lead levels. If a tap shows lead levels above five parts per billion, the water is shut off and a work order is put in, Bergstrom said. St. Paul schools facilities staff also aims to install additional filtered water fountains in buildings, for which the state offers grant money.

In Fridley schools, maintenance staff recently conducted an audit of each water fixture and implemented a schedule for custodians to flush the plumbing. The state Department of Health recommends running water through pipes to clear any stagnant supply after school breaks stretching longer than a week.

“We want this to be the last worry for our families and want them to know we’re on top of things,” said Rochelle Cox, senior officer of operations for Fridley schools. She added that testing reports and monitoring plans are available on the district website.

Jim Muenzenmeyer, buildings and grounds director for Eastern Carver County schools said the district’s previous threshold was 20 parts per billion.

“We had no problem getting to that,” he said, adding that bringing all the district’s drinking water below the new standard will be “fairly easy” but take more staff time.

Some of the highest readings are in “low-flow situations” — sinks in unused corners of older schools, like in a long-shuttered dark room once used to develop film, Muenzenmeyer said. Those taps may require a more frequent flushing schedule or removal if they are no longer needed, he said.

“We realize the importance of this,” he said. “Everyone wants clean water for our kids.”

On the 100-year anniversary of race riots erupting in the predominantly Black-populated and affluent Greenwood District in the city of Tulsa, OK, the city launched an investigation into unmarked graves in likely mass burial sites resulting from the riots. The laboratory assisting Tulsa, Intermountain Forensics, turned to the National Archives for records to help identify individuals from those graves. Based on those records, the first positive identification was made earlier this summer: a World War I veteran named C. L. Daniel.

Letter written to the Veterans Administration on behalf of C.L. Daniel’s mother citing Daniel’s death ‘in a race riot in Tulsa Oklahoma in 1921’ from the Deceased Veterans Claim File of C.L. Daniel in the National Archives at St. Louis’ holdings.

View in National Archives Catalog

The 1921 event has been called both the Tulsa Race Riot and Tulsa Race Massacre, and it resulted in a massive loss to Black lives and properties. Investigations into the excavated burial sites sought to identify the remains using a combination of forensic genealogy and community statements and family histories about family members interred after the riots. 

This extensive research led to many possible identifications, but in July it yielded its first result. Intermountain Forensics came across possible veteran matches for the burials and consulted the National Archives to confirm the identity. 

“The Intermountain Forensics 1921 Tulsa Identification Project forensic investigative genetic genealogy group  submitted several requests related to burials,” said Anna Kampwerth, a supervisory archives specialist at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). “The requests were for World War I–era veterans, an era heavily affected by the 1973 fire and which requires the most additional reference research for our team.” 

Kampwerth and their colleagues used identifying information from the request to confirm relevant holdings at the National Archives at St. Louis, which shares office space with the NPRC.

“We are able to expediently provide many archival auxiliary records . . . like the Deceased Veteran’s Claim File used for the Tulsa burial identification, to facilitate NPRC’s responses to benefits cases,” said Theresa Fitzgerald, Director of the Personnel Records Division of the National Archives at St. Louis. “We look forward to further working with members of the media and other stakeholders as these identifications continue.”

Deceased Veterans Claim Files are part of the permanent holdings of the National Archives at St. Louis. These files contain records of veteran and next-of-kin claims for benefits and entitlements. They can include medical and benefits notes created by Veterans Affairs employees about the veteran’s service, as well as letters and submissions by veterans and next-of-kin to support their claims. This information makes these records important sources in cases when the original personnel file was lost in the 1973 fire. 

C. L. Daniel’s file has been digitized and is available in the National Archives Catalog. Additional Veterans Claim Files can be found across the National Archives’ holdings. 

“Requests like these generate a lot of interest in the National Archives’ holdings,” said Vivian Green, an archives technician at the NPRC. “It’s an important part of my job, and I look forward to finding more answers about our nation’s history.”

Media and genealogy-related requests can be submitted to the National Archives at St. Louis at stl.archives@nara.gov, and burial-related requests should be directed to the National Personnel Record Center through eVetRecs. 

Check the Calendar of Events for veterans-related programming throughout November, including 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge on Wednesday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m. ET and Inside the Vault: Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War on Monday, November 18, at 6 p.m. ET.

At the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Genealogists on October 26, 2024, the Society voted to present the Donald Lines Jacobus Award to The Vick Genealogy: The Study of a Southern American Family in White and Black, 2 vols.  (Marceline, Missouri: Walsworth Press for the Joseph Vick Family of America, 2023), by John Beatty, CG.

The author, John Beatty, CG, is Senior Librarian at the Genealogy Center of the Allen County (Indiana) Public Library, a nationally-known institution for genealogical research.

The Newberry has recently completed the digitization of over 750 maps printed in Italy during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Franco Novacco Map Collection, one of the strongest of its kind in the world, reflects Europeans’ evolving conceptions of the world during a time of widespread exploration and colonization. 

Many of the maps in the Novacco collection feature battle scenes, such as Il Grande et miracoloso fatto d'arme navale... a black-and-white map portraying the Battle of Lepanto, created by Stephanus Ghebellinus in 1572. 

Il Grande et miracoloso fatto d'arme navale... Stephanus Ghebellinus, 1572. Call number: Novacco 4F 109 (PrCt)

A large portion of the collection includes world maps of all sizes, ranging from functional to more experimental. One 1590 cordiform map, for example, places the heart-shaped world inside of a fool's cap, resulting in an unsettling visual commentary on previous conceptions of world geography. A 1555 map, alternatively, presents the world in gores, or segmented parts, which can be cut out and pasted onto a sphere to create a globe. This blend of art, science, and history is at the heart of the Franco Novacco Collection.

Cordiform world map within fool’s cap. 1590. Call number: Novacco 2F 6 (PrCt)

“Whether you want to wander through marveling at sea monsters or compare intricate differences in representations of Rome, the Novacco Collection has something for you,” David Weimer, Robert A. Holland Curator of Maps and Director of the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, emphasized. “These maps illustrate the startling breadth of scientific and artistic practice in Early Modern Europe.” 

The Newberry Library acquired the Novacco Collection from the Venetian map collector Franco Novacco himself in 1967. Since then, the maps have only been available for viewing on-site in the Newberry’s reading rooms. In early 2022, the Newberry received generous funding from Mr. Rudy L. Ruggles, Jr. and Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps to begin digitizing the entirety of the collection. 

World map in gores, Antonius Florianus, 1555. Call number: Novacco 4F 46 (PrCt)

Using special cameras and lenses designed for flat art photography, image technicians from the Newberry and The Digital Archive Group created high-definition images that will enable researchers around the world to study these maps in staggering detail. The Newberry Digital Initiatives and Services team then organized the digital assets, adding descriptions and metadata to improve searchability and ease of access. 

With growing digitization technology and newly fortified digital asset management systems, this project plays a role in the Newberry’s larger goal to increase the accessibility of its collections, making it possible for anyone around the world to view renowned archival documents. 

"Although the Newberry holds one of the world's premiere map collections, this format has been significantly underrepresented in our digital library, since we lack facilities for oversize digitization," said Jen Wolfe, Digital Scholarship and Outreach Librarian. "The Novacco digital collection allows us to start to fill in that gap and open up more of the Newberry’s cartographic materials to a global audience." 

The Novacco Collection has been fully digitized and is now available as part of the Newberry’s growing, free Digital Collections, with high-resolution files available for public re-use. The maps may be of particular interest to scholars of map history, geographers and cartographers, art historians, and map enthusiasts. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lili Pangborn is Communications Coordinator at the Newberry.

I received a somewhat frantic e-mail recently from a reader of this newsletter. She mentioned a specific genealogy CD-ROM disk that was produced a few years ago, but her question could apply to any CD disk of any topic. She wrote (in part):

"Help! I have a CD-ROM disk of [name deleted here] and it cracked. I want to replace it, but can't seem to find it anywhere. The company that produced it no longer appears to be in business. Any suggestions? Is there any other CD-ROM that has equivalent materials?"

Sadly, I was not able to offer much help. A cracked CD disk is useless, except maybe as a coaster for your coffee cup. Even a scratch the size of one human hair can render a CD-ROM disk useless; if it has visible physical damage, the problem is even worse. To make matters worse, the company that produced her disk is now out of business, so I doubt if she can find a low-cost replacement. I referred her to to eBay to see if she can find a used copy of the same CD for sale.

With a bit of hindsight, anyone can quickly determine what my correspondent SHOULD have done: she should have made a backup copy while the CD was still usable. Then again, how many of us ever do that? I know that I occasionally create CD backups although not as often as I should.

Such a solution would not have been practical a few years ago. To make it worse, many od today’s computers don’t even contain CD-ROM or DVD-ROM disk drives (although you can still purchase EXTERNAL CD-ROM drives that plug into modern computers’ USB connectors. 

Blank CD disks cost 40 cents or less when purchased in quantity at most any discount store. Making backups of your CD disks should be a trivial exercise. After all, how much would it cost you to replace a CD-ROM disk that becomes defective?

Most new computers or new CD-ROM drives include software to write to the CDs. In fact, most have an option to copy the entire contents of a disk to a new, blank disk. This is true for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems. Check the software already installed on your computer; I suspect you will find that you already have everything you need. If not, you can download free software that will make copies for you.

Macintosh users already have the required software: open FINDER, click on APPLICATIONS, click on UTILITIES, and then click on DISK UTILITY. In fact, the Macintosh Disk Utility will duplicate Macintosh, Windows, and Linux disks alike. If you would like a more robust disk duplicating program but one that is available free of charge, look at Burn at http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net.

Linux users have a variety of free CD-ROM utilities to choose from. I normally use K3B but can find others.

A Second Backup Plan

With today's hard drives typically having a storage capacity of a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes) or more, it is now practical to create backup images of CD disks and to store them on a hard drive or, perhaps even better, on USB flash drives. After all, one large hard drive can now store hundreds of CD-ROM disk images. Probably the best method is to create .ISO images of the original CD disks. An .ISO "image" file is a method of merging all the files on a CD into a single compressed file according to a defined format. 

You can read more about .ISO images in the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_disc_image.

The process is somewhat similar to creating a .ZIP file: many files can be combined into a single file for archival purposes. Having a single file simplifies the issue of maintaining backup copies. When needed, you can extract the .ISO file and copy it back to a new, blank CD-ROM disk or to a USB flash drive that will be identical to the original. ISO images are especially useful when the original CD contains hidden files, a common occurrence. The .ISO files will store hidden and non-hidden files alike without any extra intervention required.

A comment about USB flash drives: Flash drives are a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is that flash drives have their own issues about how long data can be stored. Seehttps://www.usbmemorydirect.com/blog/how-long-do-flash-drives-last-usb-drive-lifespans/ for all the details. The good news is that flash drives have become so cheap that you can now save 2 or 3 or even more copies on different flash drives without going broke.

My advice? Never make a single copy on a flash drive. Make at least 3 different copies onto different flash drives and then save them in 3 (or more) locations.

Microsoft does not supply software to create .ISO files. However, most third-party CD and DVD burning utilities will add that capability. If you do not presently own a Windows program that creates .ISO images, InfraRecorder at http://infrarecorder.org/ does a great job of creating ISO disks on Windows systems. Best of all, it is free, open-source software that doesn’t include junkware. Insert a disc, click the “Read Disc” button, and select a source drive to read from and destination ISO file to create.

Macintosh users already have all the software needed to create .ISO files; look at Disk Utility as described earlier. Several free Linux utilities are available to copy disks and to create .ISO files; look for the program called K3B or something similar.

A Word About Copyrights

Anytime you make copies of something, you should stop to think about copyright laws. In the U.S., copyright laws generally allow you to make backup copies of anything you legally own for your own personal use. However, you cannot give or sell copies to anyone else without the copyright holder's permission. As long as you make backup copies and keep them strictly for your own use, you should not have a problem with copyright laws.

Your Action Plans

I'd suggest you look at all the CD-ROM disks you already own. Which ones would be disastrous if they were damaged beyond repair? Make a copy of those disks NOW!

In September 2024, we published 56 million historical records from 8 collections. The newly added records are from the United States, Canada, France, Ireland, and Poland. They include births, deaths, burials, and marriage records. Some of the collections also include images.

Search them to discover a family treasure!

More details about each of the collections added may be found in the MyHeritage Blog.

From an article by Carol DiPirro-Stipkovits:

I have loved maps since grade school, and I’m still fascinated by them. I’ve been gifted several over the years and my home now has a dedicated wall to hold the collection of both those and estate sale finds, which includes a large pull-down from a local elementary classroom dated 1964. Am I aging myself? Do these still exist? 

Understandably, when I discovered the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection, I was thrilled. David Rumsey is President of Cartography Associates, a digital publishing company based in San Francisco. In 1980, after a successful career in real estate, Rumsey, who is clearly even more fascinated with maps than I am, began to collect eighteenth and nineteenth century maps of North and South America, the era during which modern cartography began. Eventually, he expanded his collection to rare sixteenth through twenty-first century maps of America, North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic, and the world. The collection now contains over 150,000 maps and other cartographic items and is one of the largest private map collections in the world. In 1995, Rumsey made his collection available to the public by building the online David Rumsey Historical Map Collection. There are now over 130,000 items online with new additions being added regularly. The collection is available on his website davidrumsey.comfor free viewing.

How can these maps help genealogists? Old maps bring your ancestors’ hometowns to life. They give you a glimpse at what the world looked like when your ancestors lived there and what was happening at that time. You can also see borders change over the years. 

To search this collection, find as much information about your ancestor’s hometown as possible—country, state, ancestral town name, other geographical details such as nearby villages, rivers, railways, etc. These are all clues to find the right place on a map. I pay attention to railways as I have ancestors who were employed as trainmen so likely lived close by. Use the search box at the top right of the site. If you can’t locate your ancestral town, try searching nearby village names. 

If your ancestor lived in an area that was involved in a disaster, say the Chicago Fire or San Francisco earthquake, using these as search terms may show reconstruction plans or detailed drawings of buildings that were damaged or destroyed. 

The newest feature is “search by text on maps,” which can be accessed next to the search box. A quick search of “Tonawanda” came back with 694 results. The maps can be viewed by hovering your cursor over each result. When you find a map you’re interested in, choose ‘Open in Georeferencer’ and use one of my favorite tools on this site: map overlays. There’s so much you can do with this feature including overlaying it with a modern map to find lost street names.  You’ll want to play with opacity until its easily readable. Clicking Compare in the bottom right will give you additional maps of the same area.