Backing Up Your Family Tree

Note to readers: I haven't been posting lately due to several unforeseen issues. I haven't ran out of free genealogy resources to share so keep checking back to see what's new.

Murphy's Law says that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong. Unfortunately, this applies to genealogists as well. There is nothing more frustrating than spending a great deal of time, decades in the case of some researchers, only to lose everything due to a computer problem. Whether it's your hard drive failing, a virus, or accidentally deleting your GEDCOM, losing all your hard work is going to be heart-breaking.

BackupMyTree is a free service designed especially for genealogists. Users have the option of downloading software that automatically searches their computer for family tree program files and makes a copy that is stored on a remote server. Whenever the tree is updated, the software makes another copy and stores it with previous copies. For those that don't want any more software, backups can be done manually as well.

Unlike other backup services, which delete files after a set amount of time or after another backup is made, BackupMyTree maintains previous family tree files. This is a really nice feature when you realize you've been chasing an erroneous line in your tree. Rather than painstakingly go back through your tree to remove the incorrect data, you can simply download the previous file. You can store up to 25 previous versions of backups with no time limit.

One feature I really like with this free genealogy resource is that you are not limited to a single family tree. I am currently working on three family trees-one for my side of the family, one for my husband's, and a third for a friend of mine. With this service, I can feel secure that regardless of what tree I'm working on, it's safe from the unexpected.

1 comments:

  • Karen says:
    September 21, 2010 at 9:26 PM

    What a great service - you can't have too many backups! Thanks for the link.

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