WELCOME

Welcome to the 23nd issue of the quarterly online newsletter supplement to "Self Portraits: The Self Family NetLetter," the Website dedicated to Self family research at http://www.selfroots.com

You are receiving this newsletter because you were kind enough to join "Self Seekers: The Self Family Association." We appreciate all of your contributions, large and small, and we hope you will continue to support our page, our surname list, and this newsletter.

When the warm weather begins, no one feels much like sitting in front of the computer plugging in names and dates. Our thoughts turn to fun in the sun and outdoor activities. If you're planning a vacation this summer, you might want to combine your visit with a trip to a family cemetery or an old homestead, or even go to the area where your Self ancestors lived. We'd love to hear about your adventures and about any new information you may discover. And while you think of them, give a thought also to your multi-great-grandchildren who will one day honor you and long for the happy days you're spending now.

We are so happy to be the largest repository of Self information. With several domains, a second Webpage at RootsWeb, a surname forum and a suite of cluster pages at RootsWeb (see the link on "Self Portraits"), a Listserv, a Collaboration Surname list on the LDS "Family Search" site, well over 5,000 pages of connected and unconnected Self lines, and over 1450 valid e-mail correspondents willing to share information, we are well able to help you with your family research. We are also the Surname Resource Center (SRC) for the surnames of Self, Selfe, and Selph. We also host SelfSite at RootsWeb, an extension of Self Portraits containing our Census pages as well as state-by-state and county-by-county "loose ends," Selfs presently unconnected to any of the major branches; and Self Family Album II which presents more old Self photos. Family Record Online enumerates families presented on our Self Family of the Week page. And each time a new "Self Seekers" newsletter is released, we upload the one for the same month from the past year to our public page for all cousins to enjoy.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

We would like to have your gedcom so that we can add your information to our database. With your permission, we will also list and distribute your gedcom on request (but only with your permission). Please send us gedcoms so that we can start a library that will help others. If you've already submitted one, kindly re-send so that we will have the latest information. We would appreciate being kept informed of new family members as well as other changes.

If you haven't joined our Self Surname Mailing List yet, please subscribe. Instructions will be found on the main page of our Website. Note that we also host the Swindle, Eden, Edens, Cease, Breeze, Brezee, Bishop, Snackenberg, Snackenberger, Schneggenburger, and Salazar Surname Lists as well as listservs for Erath County, TX., King County, TX., Bossier Parish, LA., Murray County, GA., and Clay County, NC. In addition, we host the King County, TX, Murray County, GA, Union County, GA and Clay County, NC USGenWeb sites. Our four county sites join "Self Portraits" in featuring a handy search engine for locating topics discussed in previous messages posted to their corresponding listserv--please click on the button directly beneath the instructions for joining the listserv on the main page of each site.

Membership fees remain the same in 2003: Regular Member, $12 and Charter Member, $25. If you are a Patron Member, your initial contribution is gratefully acknowledged and good for the lifetime of the "Self Seekers" association. Please send in your payment for 2003 if you haven't already done so.

And PLEASE contribute something to this newsletter. Photographs, articles, family trees, and reunion recaps will be gratefully received and enjoyed by everyone--and they will be released to the general public one year after first publication so that they can be shared with all cousins who visit our sites.

Where were you when it happened?

Most people report that they were away from their computers or that their machines were off and they had just booted up. When they next turned their attention to the screen, it was blank or contained some weird message. Sometimes there were clicking or beeping noises, and once in a while a burning smell if the power supply's fan had malfunctioned. In any case, though, it's very obvious what happened: the computer had crashed, and all that genealogy data was either gone or inaccessible.

WHAT REALLY DID HAPPEN?

A computer is a marvelously complex object. I've been working with computers since 1974, and they still surprise me with their many problems. Computers and their components get old and wear out. Some parts are just weak and fail before their time. A few computers are just plain "lemons" right from the start. They're especially susceptible to power spikes and brownouts. Software can also become corrupted, especially if your computer gets a "virus." There are so many things that can go wrong that it's a good idea to back up your genealogy data and other documents as often as possible as you make changes and additions to them.

TYPES OF BACKUP

There are many ways to back up your data. Some of them are: backing up to another directory, backing up to another computer, backing up to the Server, using diskettes, using removable media, and creating a CD-ROM.

BACKING UP TO ANOTHER DIRECTORY

It's often a good idea to keep two copies of your work in different directories on your computer just in case one section of your hard disk becomes defective. If you follow this practice, keep your backup folder separate from the one where you keep your working copy. In most cases other than sudden catastrophe caused by power outages or gross mechanical failure, the hard disk will give warnings before becoming totally unusable. It's a good idea to run ScanDisk or CheckDisk with surface scan every so often. If you receive a message regarding "bad sectors," write down the number of sectors and, if possible, their location and check these against a new report each day. Steadily increasing and varied numbers indicate that the problem is getting worse and it's time to back up all your data to an external host. You should definitely purchase a new hard disk at this point.

BACKING UP TO ANOTHER COMPUTER

Keeping your work on two different computers is a very good idea. If one machine fails, the other one will keep your data safe. While not absolutely necessary, it's best to choose a secondary computer on which identical application software--such as your genealogy program or your word processor--is installed. Better yet, a computer at work or in another house or building is a safer choice than one in the next room.

BACKING UP TO THE SERVER

If you have a home network, you may want to keep a copy of your data files on your dedicated or peer server. An even better place is your network server at work. Not only is it in a different location, but your Server's IP number could allow you to download your data remotely in case of emergency. Check with your Supervisor to see if there is storage room (it will take very little space) and if company policy permits personal use of the Server before you use this option.

USING DISKETTES

Backing up to diskette is the cheapest, easiest way to safeguard your data. Diskettes can be stored just about anywhere, and you can carry quite a few with you so that you can keep them in a separate location. If your files are very large, you can back up with compression by using Microsoft Backup (which comes with your Windows operating system) or other backup software for PCs and MACs. There are many such programs available as share- or freeware on the Web.

The only drawback to diskette backup is that diskettes can quickly become physically defective through constant use or rough handling. There is usually no warning sign that problems are about to happen. So if you choose this method, it's best to make two or three sets of backup diskettes just in case--or use another option along with the diskettes.

USING REMOVABLE MEDIA

In addition to diskettes, there are other removable media that can be used for backups. The most common of these is tape. Backup tape works like cassette tape, housed in a plastic case and wound onto spools. Sometimes the cartridges are large, and sometimes they're small, sometimes rectangular and sometimes almost square. You'll need to consult the manual that came with your tape drive to find out what capacity you need to buy. Remember, too, that data tape is different from regular cassette tape, so you'll need to purchase it from a computer or office supply warehouse or from a similar section in a department store. Once again, you can use Microsoft Backup to back up your data files to tape. Some tape drives come with their own backup program. Tape drives may be fixed--some are even installed directly in one of the drive bays of your computer--or portable and may operate using serial, parallel, or USB cable, parallel affording the slowest transfer of the three.

Another removable medium used for backup is the zip drive. These devices may be internal or external, and they require a cartridge that works just like a diskette. Unlike tape backup, which is usually strictly for storage of data, zip cartridges can be accessed directly. We should warn you that zip drives often have connection problems with the computer. You may put in a cartridge only to find that your system doesn't recognize it. This error may be continual or intermittent.

CREATING A CD-ROM

With the availability of inexpensive CDRW (CD-Read/Write) drives and blank CD-ROMs today, most newer computers come with this hardware as well as software designed to help you back up your work to CD-ROM. If stored and handled properly, this media will last for a very long time, and the chances of data loss will be miniscule.

You should know something about the nature of home-made CD-ROMs before you make this choice. The CDRW has two states: open and closed. In the open state, a CDRW can be written to time and again--you can add to it and delete from it just as you can from a diskette or from your hard drive. The problem arises, though, in the fact that you can't use it or read it in another drive. We've even had an instance where the very same program used in creating an open CDRW couldn't read that disc when it was accessed from another computer. In order to make the CDRW readable anywhere, you'll have to "close" it. Once you do that, you can copy your data files from it back to your own computer's hard disk, but you can't change or erase those files. You will need to create a new CDRW the next time you back up your data.

Thus, you have a choice to make. Should you leave the CDRW open so that you can back up files that are constantly changed, or should you close it so that you can access the files from your computer at work or from the machine of a friend or relative? A lot depends on the frequency with which your files are altered. Ours undergo changes every day, and we generally leave the CD open and close it after, say, a week or two--but still, we run the risk of losing all of our data in between times. If you don't make changes very often, it's cost effective to close the CDRW to make sure you can read and recover your data from any computer's CD-ROM drive.

WHAT TO BACK UP

Because we work mainly with genealogy-related files, we concentrate on backing up documents created in our word processor and database software as well as our complete Web pages, including any photos or text files embedded in them. Of course we have other data as well that needs to be backed up at regular intervals: our financial spreadsheets, our card file of addresses and phone numbers, personal photos, and other miscellaneous documents. It's important to know that today's operating systems are so compex that if your computer crashes, you're better off reinstalling that system and then re-creating folders for your saved data files. Trying to copy your system and application files would generate too many bytes and take way too much time.

If you absolutely must have an image of your entire computer, there are ways of doing this. Software, such as Norton's "Ghost," will make a mirror image of the drive and store it on CD-ROM or on a designated network drive. We would recommend "ghosting" your entire computer once or twice a year, or whenever there are so many new programs, features, or changes that it would take hours to restore them from a generic state.

SUMMARY

As your computer ages, you can expect your hard disk to fail. And even the greatest care can't prevent loss of data due to power outages and other externally-caused damage. This means that you should back up your precious genealogy records using one or more of the backup options available today. If possible, you should keep a copy of your up-to-date files in a remote location just in case you should misplace your primary backups or some disaster should happen at home. Backing up data each time things change can be the "silver lining" in the black cloud of a computer crash.

We're sad to report that our supplemental Self site at MyFamily.Com is now history. What started as a way for families to keep in touch with far-away relatives and children at college soon attracted genealogists--especially those who had no time for creating and maintaining a personal WebSite. Members of each site contributed directly to the repositories of photographs, articles, obituaries, etc., and many of us had an unbelievable number of passwords. Then, MyFamily.Com, parent company of RootsWeb and Ancestry, decided to charge people for the privilege of keeping their sites.

The amount of money is minimal the first year, just $9.95, a "66% discount," although it becomes less affordable as time goes on. "When one member pays for the site, all other site members enjoy the same benefits for free." We're not sure if that means that we're supposed to collect a dollar from everyone who belongs to the invited group. Even so, some of the most heavily used sites can really get their money's worth out of the space allotted for the upload of graphics and data.

Also, while there are those who will make a big fuss over one more instance of "selling out" what was once free genealogy for commercial gain, we can understand why MyFamily.Com has chosen this route. It costs a lot to maintain Servers, set up accounts, and provide cheap or free Web space to anyone who wants it. Other choices were "donations"--the kind Dr. Brian used to solicit--and annoying advertising--so all in all, paid sites seems the most fair and reasonable option for everyone.

The reason we've refused to buy into this "offer" has nothing to do with its cost or with the moral outrage of the genealogically pure at heart. It has to do with time. MyFamily.Com appears to have rushed into this decision without proper notification. We only found out about it through a posting to a listserv last Saturday evening. Despite our presence on RootsWeb for many years, we didn't receive any personal notice at all. Despite having a "MyFamily.Com" site, we heard nothing in advance. It's not legally binding for the powers-that-be to give fair warning--at least not to our knowledge. But in the business world, that's usually taken for granted if not expressly written into contracts of many kinds--you're expected to give at least 2 weeks' notice (preferably more) when you change jobs; most landlords require 30 days' notice when a tenant decides to move, to name just two examples. Failure to provide such notice may result in a monetary penalty. Perhaps MyFamily.Com is taking care of that by charging just 33% of the actual cost for the first year. But we still find that money can't buy our time--and it would take time to reconstruct the site elsewhere, time we don't have.

We don't advocate either paying for your MyFamily.Com site or abandoning it--but we wanted you to know why we've made our own choice. Thank you for participating!

Have you ever had a "supernatural experience" while doing genealogical research? We'll bet you have--and we'd like to know about it for a future article. In the meantime, let me tell you about one such event that happened to me long ago--one of many, but the one that will haunt me forever, so to speak.

It was the summer of 1963. I had just turned 18. I had spent the past two years exhausting every record in the Truro (Massachusetts) Town Hall in search of individuals belonging to my "first family," and I was now researching in nearby Provincetown, the eastern-most village on Cape Cod. The LDS microfilm project was just beginning then and had not yet begun work in my area, so I was privileged to handle the original cool, musty record books.

Since the Town Hall fire many years before, the old books had been kept in a thick, impenetrable vault. I would tell the clerk what years I wanted to view, and she'd go get them and bring them out to me. On this bright August morning, I asked for the book from the mid-1800s. The usual clerk wasn't there. I had never before seen the woman sitting at her desk, but she was very pleasant and efficient and brought me the book within a matter of minutes.

I can still remember the look and feel of that book: small, unlike the typical gigantic ledgers used in those days--about the size of an average magazine but almost square--a dark red cover with no writing and very little wear and tear. The most wonderful information was hiding inside: almost everyone listed there was part of the family I was working with. There were both births and marriages, also unusual for a single volume. Best of all, the families they formed had, in many cases, moved to Provincetown from Truro--so I now knew what happened to a good many "dead ends."

In those days there were no laptops. I had to copy everything by hand into a notebook and type it up between visits to the Town Hall. Copying from this book took me quite a while and gave me some severe "writer's cramp." My parents expected me to be home in time for dinner, so I got up from my little table reluctantly at 2:00 and prepared for the 75-mile drive back to Falmouth. I had about 10 pages to go, but I simply ran out of time. The clerk took the book from me, promising that I could use it next week, and disappeared back into the vault.

The familiar clerk was working the next week. I didn't see the other woman anywhere. I asked for the book that I had used on my last visit and waited while the clerk went into the vault. After about ten minutes she came out only to tell me that she had looked everywhere but was unable to find the book I'd asked for. This time I described it for her, and she tried again, coming back empty-handed for a second time. I was really confused. I showed her my handwritten notes to prove that they had been for the dates covered by that volume. At this point, she invited me to come into the vault with her. A thorough search proved that she was correct--the book was gone.

The clerk told me to wait there while she went to speak to her supervisor. When she came back, her face was as white as the proverbial sheet. "You couldn't have used that book last week," she said. "You must have been mistaken."

"But I KNOW I used it!" I insisted. "I even told you what it looks like! How could I possibly know that if I didn't see it?"

"That's what WE'D like to know," admitted the clerk, "because that book was destroyed in the fire, long ago."

This isn't the strangest thing that's ever happened to me, but it's right up there. Did you enjoy this story? Please send us one of your experiences--it can be very short and simple, and it can involve a book, a computer, a cemetery, an old house, or items that belonged to your ancestors--any number of things. We'd really love to hear your story!

Maybe your ancestors used to tell stories about life in the "old days," stories you remember hearing as a child. Please tell us about them. We will even supply editing and formatting; but we'd all love to know about daily life in the Self families of old--and you may be able to help. Please contact us. And please state that your story is specifically for the newsletter.

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