When the Cloud Collapsed, Genealogy Continues

 

Guess we now know which Genealogy software companies use Amazon! MyHeritage.com and Findmypast.com are up and running. (2 PM Eastern)

I hope this is a wake up call to all of you who haven't SYNCHED or DOWNLOADED your trees elsewhere!

All of the software companies are working. I'm able to access all of my info because I've saved it other than Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.

When the cloud service is restored you may want to read my blog articles on how you can prepare for the next time. Here's the how to for FREE - Legacy Family Tree does not synch but you can upload a downloaded .gedcom from Ancestry. This means you won't have pictures of the census or any other media but you will have the information about your ancestors. This older blog article talks about a previous version of Family Tree Maker, I've updated to the latest and greatest which fixed the problem I encountered and provided the work around. I don't use FTM's vault, a cloud service, but you might want to consider it given what's happened today with Ancestry. I no longer use RootsMagic since version 8 as later updates would not allow me to synch with Ancestry. They do have a free version for smaller trees you could download. I do appreciate that their tech folks recommended I try downloading my tree with the free version to see if the problem was corrected; it wasn't but they are aware of it and working on it. Click here for the free version.

Your genealogy research does not have to stop when a part of the internet breaks. Go make a cup of tea, write up what you've been working on, and make a plan for the future so you don't get caught without access to your information. Here's links to an older blog about writing up your research using AI. If you aren't comfortable with AI, here's an alternative. Remember, once upon a time there was no "online" for us to use to help us with genealogy.

The Hidden Discoveries of Writing Your Research

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As genealogists, we spend hours pulling records, analyzing handwriting, and piecing together family connections. Most of that work happens in the collecting stage, we hunt down wills, census pages, land deeds, and church registers. But it isn’t until we write that we begin to see what those records are really telling us.

Writing forces a shift in how our brains work. Collecting records is like gathering puzzle pieces. Writing is when you finally flip the pieces right-side up and begin to see the picture. Patterns emerge that you hadn’t noticed before. Gaps in the timeline become obvious. A stray witness on a deed suddenly matters because you’re weaving the story instead of cataloging the fragments.

I saw this firsthand with my ancestor Daniel Hollingshead. I had collected a mountain of records: tax documents from Cheshire, court cases, marriage records from Barbados, and family land deeds in New Jersey. It wasn’t until I began to write his story that the threads pulled tight. Suddenly, the narrative was clear:

• A grandfather’s failure as a tax collector plunges the family into crisis.
• An uncle flees to Barbados after funds are stolen.
• A young Daniel joins the military, is posted to Barbados, and marries into sugar wealth.
• He returns to New Jersey with enslaved people, rising socially but carrying moral shadows with him.

The facts were always there in the records. But the story, the irony, the Atlantic World connections, the moral reckoning , only emerged when I tried to explain it in writing.

That’s the hidden power of writing: it doesn’t just preserve what you’ve learned, it teaches you something new. Writing sharpens your research questions, reveals new avenues to explore, and brings ancestors to life in ways a database never can.

So the next time you feel stuck in the research grind, try writing a short biography or family sketch. Even a rough draft will show you what you’ve missed. You might be surprised at what discoveries are hiding , not in the archives, but in your own words.

Saving Google Photos

 

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Are you tired of Google telling you that you need to purchase more storage? Are they threatening to shut down your email? One way to lessen the storage is to remove your photos from Google Photos. You can do this in batches which makes the task quicker. Here’s a quick how to. The photos below were taken on Sunday, August 7, 2016. I want to save all of them so I click the checkbox next to the date. If you don't want to save all, click the checkboxes next the pictures you want to save:

• Click the 3 dots and select download

• The download will pop up and click it.

• Now, drop and drag to your Desktop. There you can rename – I add the date.

• I create a folder by year (Right click your mouse, click “New” “Folder” and name the folder by year.
• When done with saving the photos for that year, I drop the folder into Dropbox.
• If you have a lot of pics, you can easily extract them at one time. Simply click the “Extract All” icon:

• Make sure you have created a folder to place them in or they will be all over your desktop!

• Just select the folder from Browse and click “Extract.”

Next you’ll want to delete the Google Photos you’ve saved.

1. Simply click the dates again and the checkmarks will return.
2. Click the 3 dots and select delete.
3. The deleted photos will remain for 60 days in Google Photos Trash; if you need to clear up space immediately, on the side bar, under Collections, scroll down (it’s hidden) to Trash:

• 4. Clicking on Trash will bring up all the photos you deleted. To lessen your storage numbers, click empty trash and they will all permanently disappear – make sure you are ready to get rid of them as you will not be able to retrieve them after emptying trash.

I’ll be honest, my storage numbers did not significantly drop after deleting large amounts of photos but they have stopped harassing me to buy more space! I also have a lot of emails saved which I plan to move out of Gmail. Will give you the process in an upcoming blog.

As an added safeguard, back up your Dropbox to a stand alone hard drive!

Fall Genealogy Tasks

 

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The weather hasn't yet cooled and I'm not complaining but it is officially fall.

Before I get back to writing my next and final (hooray!) family genealogy book on our Great British lines I decided I had to practice what I preach and take care of some pressing tech tasks that I have put off for way too long. The first was really bothering me as it was boring and there are so many more interesting things to do in genealogy then preserve photos.

Long ago, in 2002, a world that was radically different then today, my cell phone saved all of my photos to a desktop program called Picassa that Google later purchased. I used that product until 2018 when Google rolled it into Google Photos. That's when my problems began.

When Picassa ceased to exist it lost some of my photos, years 2002, 2007, 2010, and 2019. I wasn't worried about 2002 & 2007 as my kids were still in school and I was still scrapbooking so I have those photos. I digitized the scrapbooks so we were good. 2010 & 2019, not so much. Sure, other family members probably have some of the photos but I always was the main photographer so much of that is lost. I know, it could be a lot worse but still, not happy about it.

The next issue was with the rollover, some of my photos were doubled and even tripled. New photos were created from group shots - just the heads of whatever the tech decided to select. Then it began creating memory albums. Now that doesn't sound bad but it became a problem because it used up space and Google, tying all their products together, kept reminding me I needed to purchase additional space from them or I could no longer have a functioning email.

Occassionally, I'd go into photos and delete some of the duplicates and albums but they just would pop back up. On my to-do list was to remove ALL of my Google photos, store them in Dropbox, and back them up to a standalone hard drive. BORING. but. necessary.

For Valentine's Day, one of my kids gave me a picture frame where you can store and see changing photos. This gave me the impetus to get the photos out of Google. Next week I'll print the detailed directions on how you can do that fairly quickly and easily, meaning not saving one photo at a time which I initially was doing.

I also realized that I needed to synch my Ancestry.com tree as it's been awhile since I did that. I no longer use RootsMagic and since I last synched, I got a new desktop so I didn't have Family Tree Maker downloaded to it. Now FTM has come out with their update (in May 2025 but it's called 2024, go figure). I somehow missed the promotions but they have one remaining, half price for current license members so I took advantage of it ($40 instead of $80). I decided if I was going to save Dropbox to the stand alone drive I might was well include my Ancestry tree since I've just blogged about how I was working at updating it. Yes, it's still a work in progress but I'd rather save what I have as I'll never be done with it.

Next up was to delete everything on my stand alone drive as it was all old and not relevant so I turned it back to factory settings. Took hours!

Meanwhile, one of our adult kids had their credit card stolen and the thieves, being really stupid - (Jose Lopez - I am calling you stupid!) bought items in their own name and then had it sent to our kids' address. (Now you see why I am calling Jose stupid - really, does he want to get caught? Don't even need a forensic genealogist for that one.)

Jose or whoever was the original thief, was fairly smart at the beginning. Only purchased from stores the kid always uses so for the first two weeks the scam wasn't noticed. Then, boldness hit and the thief began using it for large sums at stores never used by the kid. By the time it was noticed thousands of dollars of items had been purchased but thankfully, some get to be returned to the companies since they arrived at the kid's house. (Jose, did you think you were then going to be a porch pirate, too?) Kid called the credit card company for a dispute and the police to file a report in case Jose was local and was going to be paying a home visit. Cop informed us that a local woman got taken for $499,000 the previous week because they also stole her social security number and took out loans. What a nightmare!

That made me realize it was time for me to update some of my own financial practices.

1. You may have some items on recurring charges. We've decided to use a separate card for those because it's a major pain to have to contact those vendors to change an account if your card is shut down.
2. Since the card was stolen locally (we know this for reasons I'm not disclosing so the guilty can get their due, too bad, Jose, that bed you bought won't get you a good night's sleep in jail because it's already been returned) we decided to use one card just for local purchases. It's a card with a good reputation to notice fraud quickly so we won't have to dispute lots of charges when (not if) it get's compromised.
3. We'll use another reputable card for online only purchases.

If you're thinking, that's a back up for a back up and yes it is, just like we do to save our genealogy data. This led me to realize it's been awhile since I updated my passwords so I spent time doing that as well.

Last task I haven't completed but is equally important, albeit BORING, is saving many of my emails. Lots of them contain genealogical info and I want to make sure the info is saved to the correct ancestor's file in Dropbox. That's my next project and by then, well, it'll probably be time to redo the cycle.

With the colder weather u perhaps coming next week this is a gentle reminder, dear reader, to take a look at your items to do and start plugging away at them.