diff --git a/ec2-automate-backup/README.md b/ec2-automate-backup/README.md
index 05786c4..ad34858 100644
--- a/ec2-automate-backup/README.md
+++ b/ec2-automate-backup/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ ec2-automate-backup requires one of the following two parameters be provided:
 
 `-n` - tag snapshots "Name" tag as well as description
 
+`-d <key>` - duplicate specified volume tag(s) to snapshot tag(s). For example, 'ec2-automate-backup.sh -v vol-6d6a0527 -d "Name¤Type"' would duplicate tag key Name and Type with there values from volume to snapshot. As you can see in the example the delimiter between keys is "¤". This function will not, at the moment, work if key or value contains a space.
+
 `-h` - tag snapshots "InitiatingHost" tag to specify which host ran the script
 
 `-k <purge_after_days>` - the period after which a snapshot can be purged. For example, running "ec2-automate-backup.sh -v "vol-6d6a0527 vol-636a0112" -k 31" would allow snapshots to be removed after 31 days. purge_after_days creates two tags for each volume that was backed up - a PurgeAllow tag which is set to PurgeAllow=true and a PurgeAfter tag which is set to the present day (in UTC) + the value provided by -k.
diff --git a/ec2-automate-backup/ec2-automate-backup.sh b/ec2-automate-backup/ec2-automate-backup.sh
index 4c67bab..83ffef1 100755
--- a/ec2-automate-backup/ec2-automate-backup.sh
+++ b/ec2-automate-backup/ec2-automate-backup.sh
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ get_EBS_List()
 		then echo -e "An error occured when running ec2-describe-volumes. The error returned is below:\n$ebs_backup_list_complete" 1>&2 ; exit 70
 	fi
 	ebs_backup_list=`echo "$ebs_backup_list_complete" | grep ^VOLUME | cut -f 2`
+	ebs_backup_list_tags_complete=`echo "$ebs_backup_list_complete" | grep ^TAG`
 	#code to right will output list of EBS volumes to be backed up: echo -e "Now outputting ebs_backup_list:\n$ebs_backup_list"
 }
 
@@ -73,11 +74,23 @@ create_EBS_Snapshot_Tags()
 		snapshot_tags="$snapshot_tags --tag Volume=${ebs_selected} --tag Created=$date_current"
 	fi
 
+	#if $tag_duplication is set, then duplicate specified volume tags to snapshot tags
+	if  [[ -n $tag_duplication ]]
+		then
+		ebs_selected_tags=`echo "$ebs_backup_list_tags_complete" | grep $ebs_selected`
+		IFS='¤' read -ra tags_for_duplication <<< "$tag_duplication"
+		for tag_key in "${tags_for_duplication[@]}"; do
+		  tag_value=`echo "$ebs_selected_tags" | grep "$tag_key" | cut -f 5`
+		  snapshot_tags="$snapshot_tags --tag '$tag_key=$tag_value'" #FIXME script can't handle spances in key or value
+		done
+	fi
+
 	#if $snapshot_tags is not zero length then set the tag on the snapshot using ec2-create-tags
 	if [[ -n $snapshot_tags ]]
 		then echo "Tagging Snapshot $ec2_snapshot_resource_id with the following Tags:"
 		ec2-create-tags $ec2_snapshot_resource_id --region $region $snapshot_tags
 	fi
+
 }
 
 date_binary_get()
@@ -168,7 +181,7 @@ user_tags=false
 #sets the Purge Snapshot feature to false - this feature will eventually allow the removal of snapshots that have a "PurgeAfter" tag that is earlier than current date
 purge_snapshots=false
 #handles options processing
-while getopts :s:c:r:v:t:k:pnhu opt
+while getopts :s:c:r:v:t:k:d:pnhu opt
 	do
 		case $opt in
 			s) selection_method="$OPTARG";;
@@ -177,6 +190,7 @@ while getopts :s:c:r:v:t:k:pnhu opt
 			v) volumeid="$OPTARG";;
 			t) tag="$OPTARG";;
 			k) purge_after_days="$OPTARG";;
+			d) tag_duplication="$OPTARG";;
 			n) name_tag_create=true;;
 			h) hostname_tag_create=true;;
 			p) purge_snapshots=true;;
@@ -241,4 +255,4 @@ done
 if $purge_snapshots
 	then echo "Snapshot Purging is Starting Now."
 	purge_EBS_Snapshots
-fi
\ No newline at end of file
+fi