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Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

To print or not to print?

January 3, 2013 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

questionmarkI admit it. I like to print out source documents I find online. When I see a census record for an ancestor, for example, I have an overwhelming desire to print it out and put it in that ancestor’s paper file. That system has worked well for me, though of course there’s potential for all those printed records to take up a lot of space.

Yesterday, I was listening to Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems podcast, specifically the Digitize, Organize, and Archive episode in which she interviews Denise May Levenick about organizing family memorabilia and genealogy records. Listening to that, I was inspired to take their advice and try to squash my compulsion to print and instead save these documents as pdfs.

I thought I’d do that today, but I’m realizing that I take some comfort in having paper records. I know my house could catch on fire and the records would vanish. But I think I have more faith in my house remaining unburned than I do in my hard drive not failing. As I’m typing this, though, I know that’s not the true reason. (I back up to an external hard drive and I have an online backup service.) I think the real reason is that my paper files are more organized than my electronic genealogy files.

Saving pdfs rather than printing would require me to clean up my electronic act. And that would be a good thing. As I see it, I’d need to come up with a good naming system and file hierarchy. I’m a Mac user and I typically rely on its excellent search functionality to help me find what I need on my hard drive. But I can imagine that pinpointing specific records in a search might be more difficult.

One advantage I can see to saving these documents on my hard drive is that sometimes I’m doing research in the absence of my paper files. I might be using my laptop upstairs, while my file cart resides downstairs. I might be at a library or a conference. I can certainly see advantages to saving, not printing.

So I’m going to continue printing, but only until I get my head around doing a better job with organizing my hard drive. (Step 1: Read Denise May Levenick’s book, How to Archive Family Keepsakes, which offers information on file naming protocols.) Once I clean up my electronic genealogy files, I think I’ll try saving, rather than printing, and see if I can feel comfortable.

 

Filed Under: Challenges, Organizing, Reflections Tagged With: Family Curator, genealogy gems, record keeping, research, vital records

Help for your keepsakes

August 30, 2012 By Janine Adams 2 Comments

How to Archive Family Keepsakes coverI just received a book I’d pre-ordered, How to Archive Family Keepsakes, by Denise May Levenick, of the blog Family Curator. The book is published by Family Tree Books.

I’m very excited to read it. I’m looking forward to learning not only how to deal with the (few) family keepsakes I own but also how to help clients who have inherited such items. As an organizer, I see a lot of inherited items–furniture, keepsakes, photographs and information. In cluttered homes, storing and caring for these items can become a real challenge.

If you’ve been fortunate enough to inherit family photos, memorabilia and genealogical information, this book might help you, too.

After I’ve read it, I’ll post a review. It looks absolutely terrific.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: excitement, Family Curator, keepsakes

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about me

I'm Janine Adams, a professional organizer and a genealogy enthusiast. I love doing family history research, but I find it's very easy for me to get overwhelmed and not know where to turn next. So I'm working hard to stay organized and feel in control as I grow my family tree.

In this blog, I share my discoveries and explorations, along with my organizing challenges (and solutions). I hope by sharing what I learn along the way I'll be able to help you stay focused and have fun while you do your research, too.

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