Originally, I had all my research in folders according to the last name. This was okay when I first started doing genealogy because I didn't have a lot of different families for one surname. However, over the years, that quickly changed.
Another problem with the aforementioned system is both my paternal great-grandparents have the same surname. To further confuse the issue, there are several individuals on both sides of the family with the same given names. (William is a very popular name in my family, as is William Robert. FYI...John is very popular on my maternal side. LOL) When it came time to enter the research, I was sometimes hard-pressed knowing which side of the family the person belonged on.
I have to admit, I have done a little better with this resolution. I did start putting some of my records in individual folders. However, I come from generations of large families (I only had three siblings--my father had 14!!), so I run into the problem of space for every family having their own individual folder. I decided I would only create folders for my closest family members and then my direct-line ancestors. I think this should workout for me. I guess time will tell.
No on to the other stuff mentioned in my title. As previously stated in one of my earlier blogs, I use Legacy Family Tree software for tracking my family history. It had a neat feature of mapping the locations in my master location list, as well as mapping a persons life, so to speak. I noticed awhile back the mapping feature was no longer available in the master location. I wasn't sure when it stopped working just knew it didn't work. I kept thinking with each new update the issue would be fixed, but it hadn't happened as of the latest update. So, I decided to uninstall the program and reinstall it, thinking I might have done something inadvertently to the program to cause the feature to stop working.
I downloaded the latest version of the program, uninstalled the program from my computer and reinstalled it only to find it still didn't work. I sent a trouble ticket to Legacy to find it is a problem with Bing and they are working on a fix for the issue. So, basically, I did this for nothing. I thought no big deal because I didn't have to start from scratch creating my family tree.
Today, I found out it was a big deal after all. In uninstalling Legacy, it also uninstalled a folder I use all the time that housed all my documents. I never thought about it removing this folder with its uninstall. Had I known at the time it would remove the folder from my directory, I would have moved the sub-folders to another location. Or, better still, submitted the trouble ticket and waited for the outcome. (See, this is what impatience gets you. LOL)
All is not lost, I am proud to say. I had forethought enough a couple of weeks ago to make a backup copy of my genealogy files on my Google drive. Unfortunately, I have downloaded several documents since I did this. Although, finding a dozen or so documents is better than trying to find hundreds.
So, learn from my mistake. If you ever have to uninstall your genealogy software for any reason, first make a restore point before you uninstall. Had I thought to do so, I wouldn't be downloading my files from my Google drive while I blog. I could have just restored my computer to before I uninstalled the software. And always make sure your backup copy is up-to-date. Oh well, we live and we learn.
Until next time...good luck digging in the past!
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