Baldock/Fagg/Small Family History

After an almost catastrophic hard disk failure, and a protracted period trying to get the data ‘repaired’ and migrated, and the operating system reinstalled, my computer finally got back up and running.

Hard Disk failure (Photo credit: shibuya246)

Fortunately for me, although the S.M.A.R.T. data on the drive (sorry, technophobes!) was telling me that it was only 5% healthy (!), it remained stable enough for me to get all my important genealogy data recovered. I then had to reinstall the OS, and reinstall (and configure) my software before I could get going again.

I am glad to say, that I am now back up and running. I will also be revisiting my backup strategy which, although I had one, was probably not ideal.

Note to all: If you don’t want to suffer premature hair loss, or major stress, make sure you have a backup strategy, make sure you test it with dummy restores, and then make sure you have another strategy!!

Yet another recommendation from Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers is the social networking mapping site called uencounter.me. It allows you to plot events and attribute photos and messages at locations on maps (which appear to be Google ones).

Although the site is not aimed primarily at genealogists, the site has obviously perceived its usefulness as a tool for them, since there are drop-down boxes for ‘Ancestors’ and appropriate life events.

I already use Ancestral Atlas (although not for rather a long time), having created an account at its launch. Ancestral Atlas is specifically aimed at genealogists, so it would be interesting to see how many will use uencounter.

Do you use such sites, or can you recommend others? Comments welcome.

Today I was made aware of a ‘new’ genealogy social networking and blogging site called FamilyTreeCircles. The site allows you to create a blog without needing knowledge of specialist systems such as WordPress, and allows you to publish stories and research. You also add your location and surname interests so that others may link up and make contact through the site.

I have signed up this morning and have already found someone who seems to have a 17th Century BALDOCK link. Although their post was 11 months ago, I have responded.

I guess this is when I learn how active the site really is….

Thanks to Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers for the referral.