If there is one thing I am profoundly grateful for over the course of the past four years with this website it is the number of Westovers out there who have reached out to me through it.

I’ve met so many wonderful people – distant cousins who I likely never would have otherwise known.

We live in an age where such far flung connections are possible.

As I continue my research into DNA research I find the miracle in that work is completely tied to making instant connections online. In another time it just would not have been possible.

But while we bask in the success that online connection brings us I urge one very loud caution about the Internet and technology:

NEVER TRUST A WEBSITE.

What I mean by that is we make use of all these services intended to help us find our family and while they work they also store our information.

That’s great – as long as that website is there and it works.

However, as I meet more and more people online and work with still even others offline I am struck by how many times people lose information they have stored on a website.

One cousin wrote asking me what she could do about her Blogger account. She had kept a blog for four years, documenting her family’s activities. She rightfully considered that record part of her family history. Then she went inactive on the blog four a period of four months due to a difficult pregnancy. When she returned to it – it was gone.

She wrote letters, sent emails, and sought out help – all to no avail. Keeping and having no back up meant her record was truly lost.

That was a free service.

Some think that because they pay for a service their information is “safe”.

This isn’t a common story but I’ve heard things like this before: A man was active and paid for an account at Ancestry.com for years. He lost his ability to pay, went inactive for a couple of years, then was able to come back.

When he came back – yep, it was all gone.

All of this is part of the reason why I started my own website. This site is mine from the ground up and it sits on a server that is all “mine”. I have a daily backup routine to archive the information here and it sends my backups to two offsite locations.

I recently was asked by a cousin if he could store his photos, genealogy and documents here. Of course, the answer is yes. In fact, I’d love that. The more family we have doing that the better our collective record becomes.

But I would tell you not to trust this site either.

It could be gone in an instant due to a hacker, or a server failure or a natural disaster.

There is one and only one answer to your family history records: You build it, you keep it, you store it, you share it. You are the keeper and you alone are responsible for it.

Everyone should have their own stand-alone program for genealogical data.

There are very practical reasons for this. First of all, everyone’s genealogy is unique. All of my siblings, for example, share my family story but they have one of their own. Their genealogy should include their spouse’s. That makes it different than mine.

So they should keep their own records and work them with regularity. They should, of course, share their records and do what they can to safeguard them by keeping multiple copies with several people. They could use stand-alone computer programs to help with that.

There are dozens of programs available and many of them now automatically interface with FamilySearch when you are online.

But their value is that you can and should keep them OFFLINE.

You should frequently back them up and then give backups to family located in other locations. (Backups make great gifts).

My mother so distrusted the online world she printed everything. I have sitting in my basement dozens of boxes of printed genealogy.

I’m not saying that’s the way to do it. But I understand the thinking and sometimes I’m grateful I’ve got those unopened boxes sitting there…just in case.

The organization of all the stuff that goes into family history – the research logs, the photos, the documents, the many online links and repositories – it is all a burden, of a sort.

But the more you put into it the more you get out of it. And it’s real value may never be realized until you’re long gone.

It will be completely worthless if we digitize it all and give it away to some online resource we cannot control. Who knows what will become of it.

Back it up, store it in various places, and never trust it to be safeguarded by anyone else.

I have been slow to adopt the use of DNA testing in my family history. But this past week I finally gave in. I bought the test, spit in the tube and mailed off my sample. It will take a couple of months before I get results.

What am I hoping to learn?

That is the whole thing about DNA testing and why I have been a slow adopter.

I have not felt that I needed DNA testing to do my family history. I know where I come from on all sides. Yes, I have certain “holes” on my lines, just as anyone does, but there is no burning mystery that I have felt a DNA test would resolve.

So why do it?

Critics of DNA testing point to security and privacy as reasons to avoid taking a test. I think that’s over boiled conspiracy stuff. The truth of the matter is that if anyone really wanted and valued my DNA they could get it. I leave it everywhere, as does anyone else.

Some call DNA testing a lazy way of doing family history. But I don’t buy into that either.

The truth is that for many people family past has been taken from them, hidden from them. Adoption, family secrets, hidden shame, criminal lives, and a whole host of “reasons” deny many people access to traditional means of uncovering roots. DNA testing provides a scientific method outside of human record keeping to point towards some answers.

Is there any of that in my family past? I don’t know. Probably. I don’t see how any family can avoid this kind of stuff over time.

The truth is that I do have unsolved mysteries. I am seeking answers from my Croatian family and I’d like to know more about family from my mother’s side where I’ve run into a variety of roadblocks.

DNA might help with that.

Over the course of the past year especially I have heard some stunning stories that have come as a result of DNA testing. I have heard of brothers and sisters separated at birth being reunited. I have heard of cousins finding each other and connecting dots for each other as family history was shared.

Think of DNA as a kind of social networking tool for family history. You walk down the street you have no way of knowing if that stranger you pass is a relative of some kind.

I’ve often wondered about that living as I do in Cache Valley. Our Westover family DNA is all over this valley. There is no wonder why when I some times mention my name I get long stares and questions of what relatives I have or have had living here.

I think DNA testing is a byproduct of the age of the Internet. It is one really cool way for us to find common threads among us and connect.

My sister-in-law, Mary, has been a major influence in embracing DNA testing for purposes of family history. She is herself a child of past family members who changed identities for whatever reason. It’s been left to her to unravel the story and DNA I think has connected her with individuals who are helping to piece the story together.

Those individuals are cousins – family, really.

And they are searching for answers too.

I also know that as more and more people get DNA tested and make themselves available to potential “matches” out there the more valuable the overall data becomes for everyone.

If I publish my DNA with my family tree perhaps I can help others out there figure out their family story.

That appeals to me greatly.

When it comes to the nuts of bolts of family history – the names, places and dates – I cannot claim to be a passionate genealogist. I gather enough of what is important to prove my ancestry and to get temple work done but for me the real meat and potatoes of family history comes from figuring who these people really were.

I want the story. I want the lesson. I want the heart.

In the end, that’s what I see that DNA accomplishes. It gets people out the quagmire of data and into the sunshine of family relations.

After all, who doesn’t want to meet a new cousin they’ve never known?

I don’t know where my DNA trail will lead. But whatever happens you will bet I will share here.