You never think it will happen to you…it just happens to other people. But I learned differently last week.
I was doubly excited to go to Salt Lake City for a week with my good friend. First – she had never been on a genealogy trip to the Family History Library and it was on her “bucket list” which was made more urgent by a recent cancer diagnosis. I have been multiple times and loved each one.
But my second reason for great excitement was to try out my newly-outlined system for quickly capturing my “finds” in the library and zipping them into my Forever.com online program. I had all my “surname” albums (like folders) created there just ready to be filled.
What was my new method?
You may remember a recent blog I did sharing Forever.com’s phone app. I explained the following:
There are two options to use in getting your photos into your Forever account.
- Upload individual photos from your cameral roll into your Forever account. Select your “keepers”, or
- Set your app to automatically upload all photos from phone to Forever account (you will sort and delete in the Forever Library of photos).
I chose option #2 – I had set my phone app up to have all my phone photos go directly to my Forever library as soon as I snapped them.
So when I found an ancestor record – map, census, index of land records, or a short bio of them in a county history book – I snapped a photo of the record on my phone.
From there, either while at the library on their computer or on my computer after I left the library for the day, I moved each record to the proper album of a person or even a “clues” album for ones I was not sure yet were my folks and needed more research. I could attach to the photo details of what I found in the record, how it connected and lots more information.
I was quite pleased with the system and used it all week – so I had lots of photos/records when Friday, our last day rolled around.
The library closed at 5pm, but we had been working all day on finding one of my friend’s ancestors – striking out all day. At 4:30, of course, I found “him” in a book index of 1850 census records. I snapped a photo of it. WOOHOO and high fives were exchanged between us as we quickly jumped on the computer to find the actual census record. And we did! And it matched the info we knew so it was verified as her ancestor.
As we quickly packed up and exited the library, the final announcement of closing was being made. But we were on a high.
Then panic struck as I could not find my phone and I searched all through my bag – maybe I left it at the computer (but my friend had checked our work station and we both remembered it being clear). Also, we did not remember any time that both of us were gone from the station. We were non-plussed.
Even so, I rushed back in and up to the floor and checked again – the helpful staff checked all “lost and found” options as well. No phone. My friend tried calling it – went straight to voice mail. Not a good sign.
The library guest services took my name and info, but we were leaving the next day to drive home. And I had a sinking feeling I would not see my phone again.
I decided to go to the Verizon store and get a replacement phone and make sure the service to my phone was shut down. I waffled about getting another phone so quickly – hoping and questioning if mine would somehow show up (miracles do happen, right?)
But I decided to go ahead with the replacement. Of course, I was sick as I thought about the many photos of records I had taken all day. I worried about their getting transferred to the Forever account – so after getting the replacement photo and returning to our lodgings, I checked on my computer.
They were all there – safely in the library section of my Forever.com account — sigh of relief and prayer of gratitude that I had done the auto-save method.
Plus an interesting photo showed up that I knew I had not taken — it was a screenshot of song lyrics from YouTube (a rap song of “not my style or subject matter” at all) and it was time-stamped at 5:24pm. Definitely after the library closed.
It was confirmation that someone had taken my phone and I would not be getting it back. Thank you, Lord, for letting me know going quickly to the replacement phone and shutting down the old one was a wise choice.
But the BIG LESSON and my reason for sharing this experience with you – I highly recommend doing the auto-send function with your Forever account.
I had hesitated due to how many photos I would be needing to delete in the Forever Library and maybe I would just send the photos I wanted. (Yes, that shoot & send method works if you do it immediately upon taking each photo, but….will do you that? And not miss any?)
Be safe – make it happen without thinking about it because you never know when your phone may “disappear”. Just a Word to the Wise….
