Obsolete Technology



I have been going through photos and letters at home in the hope of putting some order into my own Family History Collection. As I was going through some boxes I discovered a floppy disc that I had saved my father's eulogy on. Like most people I no longer have a floppy disc drive on any computer in the house. Luckily I remembered that the library still has a portable drive available, so I can transfer the data. This prompted me to finally get together some old home videos of family events  and investigate copying them into another format as well.

Many people will be in a similar situation with information and perhaps video and photographs copied onto formats that may no longer be readily retrievable now or perhaps in the future. For family historians and anyone interested in history it does pose an interesting question.

Will our precious memories be easily available to future generations?


Printed photographs and written records are not a problem but if we don't keep track of where and how we record information, there is a  risk that in the future, the stories we want remembered may be lost.

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