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The "Down-Low" on "What's Up"!!                                              2015 09 01
Expanding Our Knowledge...                                                  Published Monthly


With that in mind, it leads us to the next phase of the newsletters future:
How To Help Readers With Their Genealogy Studies.



Genealogy 101  The Basics...

Genealogy: A line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor.

Whether a novice or expierienced, all of us need some direction and reminders from time to time.
And that's what this section is about... Simple reminders for us all about the basics.

For the most part, there is very little that can be done do to improve any original documents found.
What can be improved upon, is the knowledge of those who will leave the documents of the future.


Topic 001:
Start Now. And Create Backups Often!
The first reminder is this... Act quickly.

People always seem to feel there will be more time for this "someday". Simply put, it's not true.
Believe this or not, the information you want today may not be available for you next month!

This can happen in so many ways it's unimaginable.
Relatives pass on unexpectedly and take their memories with them, never to be heard by us again.
Many photo albums still exist without names, places or dates just because we know who they are!
It never occurs to us that we won't be able to explain them to someone who's interested one day.

Computer viruses, store room mice and divorces are but a few more ways losses can occur.
Repeated many times daily and worldwide, there starts to become a very real humanitarian loss.
It only takes one of these happenings to show you what kind of devastation this really is.

Nearly every 1890 United States Census was lost to TWO fires (1896 & 1921). More losses followed.
Many that survived the blaze were still hopelessly ruined by the resulting water and soot damages.
Thirteen years later, the Census Bureau purposely destroyed the surviving records during their move.
There are only a few specialized schedules such as war veteran records that remain from 1890.
At best, no one foresaw these things and had no warning, but some were sheer stupidity ...or worse.

During the 1500's (and earlier) things were even more invasive than that!
When a city was attacked, there would be many deliberate burnings of church records by conquerers.
This was done purposely with the intent of severing people from their past and creating a new loyalty.

Imagine this for a moment...
The written word was considered as so powerful, that it had to be destroyed from a subjects legacy.
Knowing who you are and where you come from shows very clearly to all that you belong there.
But in not knowing ones heritage, you may feel like a visitor, and be ruled by a country's conquerors.
Later generations disconnected from the truth have nothing to fight for, are then easier to rule over.

These things are recorded and documented as historical facts. They happened many times.
They continue to happen on some level every day somewhere in the world even as you read this.
The ongoing atrocities in Tibet are a testament that any legacy can still today become easily severed.

Many worldwide organizations are working hard to secure document images and index enumerations.
They're very aware that these tragedies will happen again and again in our personal and global future.
The rule of the pond is now, and always has been, "Big fish eat little fish".

The point here is this...
It doesn't matter how large or small the reason is, the result is always the same...
A loss for everyone that's involved, and a dead end for genealogists looking into the past.

The most important thing that you can do right now, is to go and talk to your family elders.
Pull out those old family photo albums with them, and ask who those people in them were!
BE SURE TO WRITE THE INFORMATION DIRECTLY ONTO THE PHOTOGRAPH BACKS!!

If you're using computer/electronic photo's, create folders labeled with full names and birthyears.
Because, believe it or not, someone will want to know about them even after you and I are gone.
In either case, don't use abreviations. Language use and slang will change somewhat over time.

Create backups to your work. Like anything else, it's not important until it's important!
Loss comes unexpectedly, and with no recovery from flood damage, fire, deleted or infected files.
Backups are sometimes the only thing standing between "a secured future" and "lost forever" .
Twice I've lost over a thousand photos to adversities. Neither of which were very well prepared for.

Hopefully the knowledge gained here will help you to be better positioned as a family historian!







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Here's What's Been Planned For The Future...



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Some Page Menu Changes Are Planned...

The "Events" section could use a good calendar...

Possibly a higher quality blog may be created so users can better interact...

As ideas and knowledge grow, so will the site-Let's have some input!

All I can do is implement the ideas....
You are the ones that can help guide the site where you want to go!

So many needs...
And so little webspace...


Please join in and help us all to find our heritage.
It belongs to all of us.
It belongs here.

So that's the down-low on what's-up!
Thanks for reading,


Massachusetts

Our family. Our website.
Leazott.com