t
Tired of lugging around
your research binders?
Copy your genealogy to a
flash drive and leave your
notebooks behind.
Watch researchers entering the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and you might think they’re about to board a plane. The luggage they’re wheeling along isn’t full of clothes, though—it’s stuffed with family group sheets and pedigree charts. (You never know what your research might turn up, so why not have all your notes handy, right?)
Well, if you’re one of those people who can’t bear to leave any of your genealogy papers at home when you head off to visit a library or genealogist relative, you might want to lighten your load. Of course, if you’ve used genealogy software to organize your family history research, you could take along a laptop computer and leave your three-ring binders behind. But lugging a laptop can be a hassle, too. If a computer will be available at your destination, all you need is a little flash drive that plugs into a USB port—and these tips for making your pedigree portable.
expensive flash drives have larger capaci-ties and extra features.
If your genealogy program is already installed on the computer you’ll use with the flash drive, you need only to copy your family file from your home computer to the flash drive. Personal Ancestral File (PAF) < www.familysearch.org> is installed on computers at the Family History Library and Family History Centers, and those facilities can also install Legacy Family Tree < www.legacyfamilytree.com> and RootsMagic < www.rootsmagic.com>. So if you use one of these programs, simply copy your family file ending in the file extension .paf, .fdb or .rmg to your flash drive. You can include pictures and scanned documents linked to your family file.
| By Rick Crume
Also known as a jump drive, thumb drive or USB key, a flash drive is usually about 21⁄ 2 inches long, weighs less than an ounce and easily fits in your pocket or hangs from a cord around your neck. Despite its tiny size, a flash drive has room to hold all your family history files and probably your digitized family photos, as well.
Flash drives are affordable, too.
Amazon.com < amazon.com> sells a 2GB Kingston Data Traveler 100 for under $7 and a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer for under $6. Either one is most likely all you’ll need. More
If your genealogy program isn’t installed on the computer you’ll use with the flash drive, you might be able to run the program from the flash drive. It’s easy to run Macintosh software from a flash drive. But to run Reunion on a flash drive plugged into a computer not licensed for the program, you’ll have to enter your license information. (Remember to write it down before you go.)
For Windows users, RootsMagic 4 has a new feature called RootsMagic-To-Go, which lets you install the program on a flash drive, copy your RootsMagic data files from your computer’s hard drive to the flash drive and copy your modified data files from your flash drive back to your computer’s hard drive.
Many Windows genealogy programs, such as Family Tree Maker and Legacy Family Tree, cannot be installed on a flash drive. But there are some workarounds. Unlike traditional flash drives, U3 Smart Drives come pre-installed with software that lets you run some programs (not Family Tree Maker) from the drives. U3 Smart Drives require Windows XP, 2000
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