Do back up!! I lost all my family treemaker info when a hard drive crashed. At least I'd printed it out.

Another form of back up was to print out my most extensive family tree and make copies and send them to all my brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces, nephews, aunts, and uncles.

Not much interest in genealogy in my family but figure all the kin would at least tuck away the work that has been done so far and who knows who might find it in 50 years.

I got started from a letter a great great uncle wrote detailing one branch's family history back to the Mayflower. Somehow that letter survived 70 years until it fell into my hands.

Thanks for the suggestions too - gotta replace my crashed family treemaker - keep them coming.