. . .and so, apparently, do tornadoes. But I wasn’t expecting both in my backyard.

Like millions of others, my husband and I were hit by Isabel on September 18, 2003. At first it was a curiosity, but when a massive tree fell (thankfully) away from the house, we decided it was time to take the situation seriously. Frantically grabbing essentials such as flashlights, cell phones, a radio, and some food, we headed for the basement.

Cowering in the Basement
I’ve always heard that when a fire or other disaster occurs, the first things that people rescue aside from family members are pets and photos. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised once I was down in the cellar to discover that one of the items I had instinctively snatched to carry to safety was the back-up drive for my computer. After all, it contained not only digitized images of many family photos, but also precious data.

As we sat down there listening to the eerie hum of the wind and the occasional cracking of trees, I pondered what I had done to protect the results of my 32 years of genealogical effort. I had the backup drive. That showed some foresight. I at least had a good portion of my work electronically saved, although it would have been smarter to have it anyplace else in the world than in the same building with me!

And I had written a family newsletter for nine years, sharing as much information as I could with hundreds of assorted relatives. So the contents of those newsletters would survive and be possible to reassemble.

And just as George Morgan suggested in his September 12th article, Protection for Your Computer and Genealogical Data, about his encounter with lightning, I had not one, but several private MyFamily.com sites where hundreds of photos and documents, master databases, DNA results, and family discussions would be safe from the reach of Isabel. Thanks to these sites, I also had an easy means of reaching out to many others who could help me reconstruct at least some of my genealogical research, if need be.

What Else Could I Have Done?
But since the tumult continued for seven hours, I had plenty of time to think about the steps I hadn’t taken. For instance, many of my photos were safe on the backup drive or online, but what about the others that weren’t? As the family historian, I’ve become something of a curator. Whenever it’s not clear where a batch of photos or other memorabilia should go, it’s virtually certain that they’ll wind up in my collection. When was I going to get around to identifying, copying, and digitizing all of them? What if they didn’t make it through the night?

All those newsletters were a good start—and those occasional articles I wrote about personal experiences would preserve bits and pieces of the family lore—but what about publishing more of what I’ve learned from all these decades of research? What about those books I toyed with writing? I’ve been fortunate enough to publish a few books mostly populated with other people’s stories, and I knew they would endure no matter what Isabel did. Maybe the time had come to extend the same protection to my own family.

And what about a genealogical heir, so to speak? I come from a family of what I refer to as “passive receivers”—folks who are interested enough to receive information from me, but not enough to go out and gather more or to volunteer to protect a just-in-case duplicate set of materials. I was a youngster when I started in genealogy, but I’m not anymore. Wasn’t it time to designate a genealogical recipient in my will, even if it meant a little persuasion on my part? And shouldn’t I make more of an effort to donate sets of the newsletters I had written to appropriate libraries and archives? Suddenly, duplication and dissemination seemed a lot more important than they had before the lights went out.

The Aftermath
When we were finally able to inspect the damage the following morning, we found seven trees landed on our property. Curious, we measured one of these now horizontal creatures and found it to be 80 feet tall. Since it was only 35 feet from our home, we were very grateful it had fallen in the opposite direction. And in a strange and almost literal “twist of fate,” the tornado had corkscrewed another tree 270 degrees away from the house, saving my home office from the worst case scenario I had imagined while huddled in the basement.

Ultimately, we went twelve days without power, and as I write these words, we are still without phone service. But we’re still here—and so is our house and so are all my genealogical treasures. We’re the lucky ones.

Yes, it Can
In spite of evidence to the contrary, we all think, “it will never happen to us.” But how many people write for the Ancestry Daily News? It’s not a very large group, and yet George’s house was struck by lightning on August 21st, and my home was hit by a hurricane-tornado combo less than a month later.

I’m thankful to have learned my lesson without the agony of “if only I had…” self-torment. I’ve got a second chance. And just maybe my experience can convince a few of you to take preventative measures now. Please don’t wait. Because hurricanes happen.

NGS Bible Rescue Update
I’d like to take a moment to thank all the generous souls who read “Help the NGS Rescue Family Bibles” back on August 5, 2003 and sent in checks to the National Genealogical Society.

To date, $1,095 of the necessary $3,500 has been raised (we have until the end of the year), so we’re almost a third of the way there! Also, if you’d like to see if the NGS might have a Bible pertaining to one of your branches, you can do a search at www.ngsgenealogy.org/library/biblerecords.htm.

Upcoming Events In upcoming months, Megan will be at:
--- Family History Fair
(12 October 2003, New York City)
--- New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
(14 October 2003, New York City)
--- College of William & Mary Bookstore (Barnes & Noble)
(28 November 2003, Williamsburg, Va.)
--- NGS Gentech04
(22-24 January 2004, St. Louis, Mo.)
--- Indiana Genealogical Society Annual Conference
(3 April 2004, Bloomington, Ind.)
--- Ohio Genealogical Society
(22-24 April 2004, Wilmington, Ohio)
--- Westchester County Genealogical Society
(8 May 2004, Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.)
--- Central Jersey Genealogical Club
(11 May 2004, Mercerville, N.J.)
--- Ontario Genealogical Society Seminar 2004
(28-30 May 2004, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

Details and links to upcoming events