Archiving email to free up disk space and insuring it is available for future reference is an important task that is best not left for later. One can put off long-term storage until there is nothing to store.

Two programs from Fookes Software offer excellent choices for backing up and archiving email so that it is easy to retrieve and use. Mailbag Assistant and Aid4Mail are two products that one should not do without. The needs of an individual or organization will determine which one is best suited to the task. Both can handle a wide range of email formats.

Mailbag Assistant has an interface that allows one to view the contents of Mailbag Archives, and if you choose you can forward or reply to a selected message using your default email program. In addition, it offers advanced sorting, and searching to quickly find the email you seek. It can handle tens of thousands of email messages in an email folder. It also has scripting options if you want to make a script to process on a regular basis.

Aid4Mail has multiple versions for the individual to the corporation. It can read a variety of mailbox formats, but is designed to archive rather than read the archives. One option allows it to create a CD of selected email messages that can be read in a web browser. Aid4Mail is also very valuable for converting mailboxes from one format to another if you want to move to a new email program.

Both of these relate to genealogy as a way to store important information received in email. One way to back up ones genealogy is to email it to yourself. Both products can split attachments from messages so they can be accessed independently of the email message.

There is a lot of overlap between these products in the area of creating archives, but they are geared to different uses. If all you want is a quick archive of your email or to move to a new email program, then Aid4Mail is the one to choose. However, if you want to be able to look through the archive and interact with it like an email program, then Mailbag Assistant fits the bill.

Whichever program you choose to do the job of archiving your important email, be sure to keep a copy of the archive in a safe place, in case disaster strikes. If you do not have the room to store print-outs of all the information in all your email, then archiving is the way to go.