Retrieving Don Blincoe's Research

As many of the “cousins” know, Don Blincoe was the main researcher of the Association in the United States. He passed away in August 2000. He published numerous books and wrote extensively for the newsletter.

Don helped me greatly and I worked with him with research in the National Capital Area & with the article he wrote on William Walter Blincoe, my gr. grandfather in the spring of 1999. I embellished Don's article in the fall 2000 newsletter.

In 2001, I obtained Don's research records from the family. They are on floppy disks. I am not a system analyst or programmer and have been unable to open of retrieve the data for the disks. From talking to Don and from studying the few printouts he sent me on my family unit, I am sure a wealth of valuable information remains on the disks. There are 43 disks. A few seem to be program disks.

I believe Don used an old Tandy computer with an operating system before Windows. If someone can open and copy Don's data to CD's, Jack Blencowe believes we could offer the CDs to members at a nominal cost and provide a hard copy to the proper genealogy organizations and libraries.

So, I am putting the call out for a computer wizard or someone who knows a computer wizard, who could undertake to open and copy Don's research files.

Gary Ellis

Roger Blinko now has the disks in New Zealand and hopes to report success by the next newsletter. This is a valuable resource that was almost lost so keep updating your technology.

Anne