The news that former President Bill Clinton underwent a heart procedure yesterday has focused media attention on heart disease and its consequences.  Earlier this month, the American Heart Association promoted its “Go Red for Women” campaign, which aims to educate women about heart disease.  Sadly, heart disease is the number one killer of women in the United States.

For family historians, now might be a good time to consider compiling a medical family history. The illnesses and diseases that our relatives had may impact our health and that of our future generations. Knowledge is power.  Knowing that heart disease or cancer or autism or asthma afflicted our father or grandmother or fifth cousin won’t change whether or not we or our children get the disease,. But the knowledge may help us make better lifestyle choices for ourselves and our families.

To help you get started compiling your family’s medical history, the Mayo Clinic has some tips on what should be included.  The Family Health History Initiative, developed by the U.S. Surgeon General’s office, has additional information, along with a free web-based program.

There are more than 41 million black residents in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.  And by 2050, the Bureau predicts the black population will exceed 65 million, including those of more than one race.  Many of these individuals have started, or will begin, to search for their ancestors.

Two events, in my opinion, have had a dramatic impact on people interested black genealogical research today. The first was in 1976 when Doubleday Books published Alex Haley’s fictional account of his search for his family history. Haley, who died in 1992, won a Pulitzer for his novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. A television mini-series adapted from the book and aired by ABC in 1977, won a number of awards. 

But I think the real significance of Haley’s Roots has been to open minds and hearts to the truly personal nature of family history research. Our ancestors are not just names on microfilmed copies of censuses or barely legible scrawls on decades-old church registrars.  They were real people, who lived and breathed, and above all, endured the joys and sorrows of their time.

The second event was the 2008 election of the first African American to the Presidency of the United States.  Politically historic, for sure. But I believe Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, also inspired a resurgence of interest in black family history, including this article in the New York Times.

Here are some resources for family historians seeking their African American ancestors:

African American Research (NARA) 

African American Ancestors

University of South Florida Africana Heritage Project 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Cyndi’s List for African American Researchers

African Ancestored Genealogy 

Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

You can learn more about Black History Month and interesting statistics about blacks in America from the U.S. Census Bureau’s newsroom.

One of the many tragedies of the January 12, 2010, earthquake in Haiti is the loss of records.  Although it’s been reported that the Haitian National Archives was not severely damaged,  there are many churches that were damaged or destroyed.  The extent of loss of genealogically-necessary records is not yet known.

I’ve run up against a few stone walls researching my family history because of gaps in the availability of records.  Tracking my ancestors has been hampered by the 1911 fire at the New York State Library and the loss of the 1890 Federal Census in 1921.  I may never be able to retrieve military records of family members due to a 1973 fire in St. Louis that destroyed 16-18 million personnel records.

Discovering my Irish ancestors is an even more difficult task. In 1922, the Irish Civil War took its toll on census records housed in the Four Courts.

Which brings me to the questions: how safe are your family records? Have you safeguarded your genealogical research?  You may have already spent years collecting information and documentation for your family tree. You may be just beginning your search for family history. Whether you are a newcomer to genealogy or an experienced researcher, today might be a good time to review ways to keep your important information organized and secure. 

It is essential to back up all your family history files.  Most of the current genealogy software programs have a backup feature.  Note, however, that when you use a genealogy program’s backup feature, you will most likely be saving your files in that program’s proprietary file system.  You may not be able to retrieve those files if your software program becomes obsolete, or is not compatible with newer computer operating systems.  That said, it is still a good idea to get into the habit of using your genealogy program’s backup feature.

I also like to keep my family history information in text (.txt) and document (.doc) files.  I print them out and add them to the file folder I keep on each individual ancestor I’m researching. That way, if my computer has an issue, I still have “hard” copies of my research.  I also back up these files (along with my genealogy software’s backups) to CD and DVD on a regular basis.  Ideally these disks should be stored in a fireproof container or safe deposit box, but I must admit to being lax in that area.  One of these days I’m going to look into the feasibility of using an online backup site.

This isn’t intended to be an all-inclusive list of how to back up your family history.  Hopefully, it will serve as a reminder that you need to have a backup system that will work for you.