Have I "been told"?

[Philippa_Harvey]

For a while now I’ve thought I’d gone as far as I could with my family research, or as far as the latest releases online would allow. This is particularly so considering I’ve set myself a limit on how far backwards I want to trace. My thoughts then lead me to ponder how to best present or collate all that I’ve collected over the years. This was to be a stop-gap as I know more and more records are being released on a daily basis, I just have to bide my time to see when “mine” appear.

Today I was going to concentrate on my gift of a limited Ancestry subscription to see what I could milk out of it with the time I have left, using hints and tips from the kind people on BG who responded to my frantic pleas for help.

This morning while waiting for my OH to finish getting ready for our daily coffee break I decided to check my files for both sides of the family – which I’ve kept on the computer for years – to suss out how and where I’d start with the interim project. These files and folders include certificates for which I’ve never had paper copies, information about land owned by various ancestors, articles from newspapers painstakingly transcribed, snippets of information – all the dross we tend to collect as we go along. I had folders for direct and indirect lines in each family, bits from family chats and letters and so the list goes on.

To my indescribable horror I found that a huge number of my files have just disappeared into thin air. All those hours of work seem to have gone without a trace.

Needless to say my Ancestry trawling was put on the back burner, and every spare moment I’ve had today has been spent searching for my lost information.

I am, in no particular order, dismayed, disturbed, disappointed, demoralised, despondent, distraught – but not quite destroyed.

Has anyone ever heard of selective destruction of computer files? I don’t have a virus (checked), I’m not on a network, my husband could (if he wanted) access everything I have but he would certainly not destroy. He may be sick, but it’s physically not mentally, and I can’t in my wildest dreams imagine him doing that, no matter what.

I might have to call on expert assistance here, and luckily my son in law is a computer expert so maybe………?

In the meantime I’m waiting rather impatiently to be re- “mayed, turbed, appointed, moralised, pendent and traught” to balance my current feelings.

Maybe the ancestors have just become tired of being chased and disturbed – but I would never have thought they were computer literate. Maybe that’s something that comes with heading into the afterlife. It’s the only damned explanation I can think of but I always thought I’d been kind to them and sympathetic to their histories!!

Oh well. I think the lesson for me here is that I’ll take a break, try to find out what my HD can disgorge under duress, and hope that that which is lost will be found. If you don’t hear from me for a while, you’ll know exactly why.

But strange though it may seem the question really remains: HAVE I BEEN TOLD??????

Is there a "smiley" to indicate weeping tears of blood (by the gallon)?

Philippa

[Waitabit]

Whatever you've got Philippa, has been in my files also. Have had to re-install lots of 'stuff' into Legacy files since an update.
Perhaps it's a universal 'holdup' to make us take stock of where we are, where we've been & just how much we concentrated at the time? Not to mention appreciated what we have.?

Easy to get greedy with all of the new releases of info. Are we truly grateful? & perchance humbled by the enormity of these finds? No more trekking to the local History & Genealogy building or which-ever, all handed out on a plate/screen.
Happily I'm getting to the ok, so what, stage, is that a scary thing? Been there had my fling. Enjoyed the trip & the companions met on the journeys. Forcefully brought home, there are more important NOW people in my life.

However, there must be things I still want to know, people I want to meet....off I go now.

[Philippa_Harvey]

Wendy, you have said exactly what I was thinking. Since I discovered the disappearance I've gone from all those "down" things I mentioned to thinking - well if I disappeared tomorrow, what difference would the presence or absence of the files really make? I still have a lot of info in my head, all it takes is the trigger to make it come to the surface. What's gone is gone, so hey ho. (I can't believe I really said that!!!) :balloon:

I think I'll really take a break and do a rehash of my life and see what else is out there for me to discover.

Nice to get a wake-up call when we are still healthy enough to take notice.

I take it you are still going to be popping in and out of here?

I will, with a more general interest, and maybe that way I can help someone else the way people have always helped me in the past.

See you 'round, kiddo. :cheers2:

Philippa

[Waitabit]

Funny how the little pointer hones in on here isn't it? Bet you 10 british pounds I can't keep my mind off of ..whatevers. right off to to my book now before bed , before the little dogs hem me in.
:thumbsup:

[Ladkyis]

because I am known in my family as -variously - "Mum the computer killer" "Grandma the computer killer" and "My Darling the computer killer" I do not keep anything on my computer that I am not prepared to lose. If I update the family tree program I print off the latest edition and give the old one to Mr M to shred. If I find something on the newspaper site or FMP or Ancestry I print it and update the family tree and print out a report.................... It is now a habit, the only good one I have!!!

[Peter Goodey]

You have actually checked your Rubbish Bin or Recycle Bin or whatever your operating system calls it?

[MarkJ]

If the files are not where Peter suggests, then I would stop using the computer and shut it down. Recovery may be possible - but if you overwrite the places where the files were, then they are damaged beyond recovery in most cases.

[Philippa_Harvey]

Peter, yes I've checked the bins, but to be honest I haven't deleted files for ages, so goodness only knows what's going on.

Mark, that's probably what I'll have to do. My son-in-law will hopefully be around tomorrow so I'll see if he has some spare time to help.

Ladykis, the reason I rely so much on the computer for files is that I'm useless with paper. Good intentions are there by the ton, but reality is that I get a bit carless and poke stuff "away" in whatever place will take it at the time. A saying around our way is that if you are looking for something and Philippa was the last known to have had it, then the last place to look is where it's supposed to be. Sad but true in most cases I fear.

Off to bed now so I won't be tempted to try anything else because that might just do what Mark has warned me about.

G'night all, and thanks again for your interest and suggestions.

Philippa

[mfwebb]

I hate to say this, but one word springs to mind -- BACKUP.

I should say that a backup should be taken of your files DAILY That's not to say that I do that myself. But I do make regular backups of my files on at least a weekly basis. But my Brother's Keeper database I backup at the end of every day if I have amended anything. When I say backup, I actually mean copy. I copy my Brothers Keeper databases to dropbox. My files I copy to a 32gb USB stick. They are all in a folder called Data on my PC hard-drive -- I simply copy the Data folder to the stick once a week.

All the best,

Malcolm Webb
Lincoln UK

[sandiep]

since having a wake up call myself when I got a bug.....I try to put any info onto a stick as well as the laptop.....I work with
the stick insitu to remind me.........when hubbie repaired or rebooted and got computor usuable again, according to my computor the files are still there but I cant access them and even though hubbie is well versed in computors he cant access them!!
fortunately I did have most of the missing files on a stick as I hadnt long got a new laptop.
hope you get them back Phillipa.

sandie

[Barnzzz]

I also had a wake up call when I got a new computer. I put all the family history stuff on a memory stick and happily got rid of the old computer. When I came to transfer the info to the new computer, it wasn't there ! I did have it on paper though, and it took me about 3 months to transfer it all onto the new computer.

The only problem was, that when I'd finished, I had (and still have) a whole family who don't appear to be related to anyone else in the tree. Whatever it was that linked them to everyone else must have been on the computer and not on paper for some reason. I've checked out every member of this family from my paper records and I still don't know who they are. I know they must me 'mine' somehow !

Good luck getting your files back Phillipa

[spison]

Hi Philippa,
This is probably a dumb suggestion and I'm no computer wiz but have you actually tried to search for them? I know I've occasionally 'slipped' and ended up putting a file into another file and not realized. If you remember the name (or partial name) of the missing file your search should find it and you can put it back where it belongs.

Goodluck

Jane

[Annamarie]

Philippa I do hope you find the files. This is a wake up call for many of others. Everything I have, apart from certificates is on my iPad or computer. I'm beginning to think I should compile a good old fashioned paper filing system. Might help me sort out some of the issues I have with people with the same name, same birthplace and similar birth dates.

[stepives]

Everything I have has been uploaded onto my private tree. I have also emailed all the files/pictures/scans/PFD's/ to myself, to 3 different email addresses.

I did keep stuff on CD's(and I still do), but they deteriorate, and anything electronic can go wrong, including external drives of any sort.

I've also got a large plastic storage container which is in reasonable order(honestly. :yesnod: ).

After losing nearly 1000 digital photo's 7 years ago, I trust computers as far as I can throw them.|computer|

Hope can retrieve you stuff.:thumbsup:


Steve.|cheers|

[AnnB]

Hi Philippa,
This is probably a dumb suggestion and I'm no computer wiz but have you actually tried to search for them? I know I've occasionally 'slipped' and ended up putting a file into another file and not realized. If you remember the name (or partial name) of the missing file your search should find it and you can put it back where it belongs.

Goodluck

Jane

I was going to say exactly the same thing. I've done this on several occasions and swear that I'm always going to check where I'm storing anything in future.......but I still manage to do it!

Best wishes
Ann

[BayHorse]

Maybe the ancestors have just become tired of being chased and disturbed – but I would never have thought they were computer literate. Maybe that’s something that comes with heading into the afterlife. It’s the only damned explanation I can think of but I always thought I’d been kind to them and sympathetic to their histories!!


I'm glad there's someone else out there that thinks like me. Every time the laptop ditches all my hard work, or precious info can't be found that should be sitting there on file in the records office, or I'm told that a particular document has been lost to a flood or fire, I think, "They really don't want me to do this..." :blush5:

[grisel]

Your post made me check my computer files, especially those from my early days of researching - and goodness some of them were empty and some full of gobbledygook! I have no idea if I have lost files or if they were always so - so will have to do a complete check with my paper records, a daunting task. I know I did start printing off records as I found them, but I know also that there were times that the printer had run out of ink or I was just too absorbed to remember to do that. Some I did back up but not for some time - perhaps a new memory stick for a birthday present...

One good point is that all my very many Scotland's People records are reassuringly saved on their site - and am glad to see that Find my past now do the same thing. (tho unfortunately not for my main family records which I accessed before their cut off date:sad:)

Do hope that you can retrieve your files Philippa!