The following article on preservation of digital data exerpted from the excellent Eastman's Online Genealogical Newsletter should be read by anyone concerned with digital archiving and preservation.
Gordon - Do you subscribe? What are the benefits, etc.? I have the international Ancestry.com membership, and also Footnote.com (now a wholly owned subsidiary of Ancestry - which basically "owns" several sites such as Rootsweb.)
I'm deep into a genealogy / family history project that just keeps getting deeper somehow. It's like a treasure hunt - and not everything can be found on the web, or is ever likely to be on the web. (Learning the ins & outs of visiting Probate Courts, county land & tax offices, local genealogy societies, etc. VERY interesting.)
One tidbit: Went to the family history area in Ohio a couple of weeks ago. After some planned activities, had a free day. On the way to do yet more cemetery photos, happened through a small-town (VERY small - about 500 people) senior center that was having a lunch & rummage sale. Went in to visit & talk. One thing led to another ("call so & so about such & such"), and a couple hours later we found ourselves on the chunk of land purchased by a Channel Island original immigrant ancestor to the area. We had no idea until I expressed an interest in finding the property "some day," and the owner who had invited us to look over old church records & such said "you're sitting on it." Then she showed us the ORIGINAL land patent purchase document, 1823, signed by President James Monroe. - Drove us around the property, opened the old country church (now closed) for us to go in & see. THAT'S the kind of experience the web will never provide, though I found information that helped make it possible.
Just curious whether one more membership would prove its worth, or just be more to read when I could be doing the research & organizing of all the info.This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mary Jo Disler,
"For what is age but youth's full bloom, A riper, more transcendent youth" - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Posts: 2074 | Location: West Bloomfield MI USA | Registered: June 13, 2002
