Take The Time To Save Your Work

Sun., Oct. 18, 1998

Donna Potter Phillips The Spoke

No doubt, it’s happened to you, and it finally happened to me. I had eight Heritage Hunting columns prepared, and when I tried to call them up to the screen for the final edit, to my horror I found they were gone.

Because there were so few columns, I hadn’t backed them up on a disk.

We all know this happens and we all know what to do about it to prevent it from happening - but somehow we think we’re too busy to take the time.

Ha! Now look at the time I’ll spend redoing.

I’m so grateful it wasn’t 100 names from my genealogy program or the 50-page Civil War history I’ve been working on.

Several readers had mailed letters with tips, stories and trivia, which I included in those columns - and I apologize to all of you. They went out in last week’s trash after I’d entered them into the computer. I’d be honored if you’d write again.

Guess it bears repeating, since we don’t “get it” until it becomes a personal experience: It’s vital to back up your material. Take this as another teaching tip from me to you!

A reader’s tip that did survive comes from the Sept. 20 edition of Montana’s Missoulian. Seems that Yellowstone, Stillwater, and Lewis and Clark counties are the first in Montana to provide certified birth records for people born anywhere in the state since 1920.

This change eliminates the need to contact the county or a state office in Helena to obtain birth records.

Instead, people born anywhere in Montana can go to the courthouses in those three counties and pick up a birth certificate in just a few minutes for a nominal fee.

The certified documents are printed on security paper and will be accepted in lieu of birth certificates in most cases. Copies of birth certificates will still be kept in Helena. The state hopes to get all its counties online soon with this service.

What a wonderful leap forward for genealogists researching in Montana.

Jacquie Gramlow is the second-vice captain for The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers camp in Spokane. She wrote to say that membership is open to anyone descended from those hardy souls who came to Utah Territory before the completion of the railroad in May 1869. And, those interested in Utah history but who don’t qualify for membership are still welcome to attend the meetings.

The national group maintains the Pioneer Memorial Museum in Salt Lake City and has compiled and published 50-plus volumes of Utah pioneer records. The Spokane camp meets the third Tuesday of each month, October through April.

For information, contact Jacquie Gramlow at 467-6764 or e-mail dgramlow@pwi.net.

Board members of the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society are John Zeimantz, Marilu Sartain, Lola McCreary, Bruce Austin, Rosemary Braun, Lois Tomason, Jeanne Tomlin, DaniLee McGowan and Marvelene Carney. Come meet these leaders at the next EWGS meeting, Saturday, Nov. 7, at 12:30 p.m. in the downtown Spokane Library.

A free beginner’s class will be from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. that same day.

Anyone interested in genealogy is welcome to attend both the class and meeting.

FYI: I took the pledge. I promise to make backups in the future.

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