We will begin posting a Genealogy Tip of the Day or Genealogy Link of the Day on a daily basis.

Today’s tip is this article on backing up your genealogy.

How are you doing your genealogy? Do you only work on paper, only on a computer, only online, or some combination of those methods? What would you do if you had a fire, flood or some other disaster that erased or destroyed your work?

Many people use a combination of methods for various reasons. You can work in a genealogy program and create a GEDCOM file for backup and upload that to cloud storage or download to a flash drive that you keep with you. You can email it to yourself (another form of cloud storage). If your genealogy program syncs with an online tree (Ancestry or Family Search, for example), you don’t have to worry about your work being lost.

If you only use paper files, consider making copies and keeping them in a different location than your home. (My family’s home burned down when I was 5 and we lost nearly everything, including family photos.)

Another issue is what to do with your genealogy when you die, but we’ll cover that another day.

Happy ancestor hunting!