Organize Your Family History

Stay focused and happy while exploring your roots

Dealing with a box of family photos

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trying to create order from a jumbled box of family photosUntil recently my mother had a box of old family photos in her closet that we would enjoy going through with her when I visited. As I’ve become more involved with family history research and with learning about proper preservation techniques, I realized that I really wanted to get the photos to my home and deal with them properly.

So when I was there a couple of weeks ago, I mailed them to myself. They arrived last week. That’s a photo of the box and its jumbled contents.

I don’t know about you, but when I see a box like that and think about creating order out of it, I get a little overwhelmed. But, luckily, something else came in the mail the next day. It was the Family Archivist Survival Kit, sold by Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist. Part of the kit is her Loose Photos Kit (I certainly have loose photos!). That includes archival-quality storage boxes and envelopes as well as instruction.

My intention is to buy the ScanSnap SV600 scanner and scan these babies. But first, I have to create some order and figure out what I have.

Knowing that I have a place to put photos after I sort them (and after I scan them) gives me peace of mind.

Step One is going to be to read the copious information provided in the kits. Step Two (unless I learn otherwise) is going to be to sort into families. And Step Three will be to sort by individual. Maybe it’s the professional organizer in me, but I know I’ll feel better once the photos are sorted and I see what I have and also have segregated the photos that need identification–of which there will be many.

Many aspects of family history research make me feel overwhelmed. And here’s another case. But having resources and supplies available to me is hugely helpful, and probably the reason I was able to actually take the box from my mother. (She’s been offering it for years.)

I’ll write here about the progress and any surprises that are thrown my way!

How accessible are your genealogy materials?

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Pile of papersDo you have a good place to store your genealogy stuff? Many of us don’t have the luxury of a dedicated genealogy room. And even if we do, that doesn’t mean everything’s accessible. When your material isn’t easy to get to, it can be hard to do (or start) genealogy research.

Organizers talk about the concept of “prime real estate,” where you reserve the most accessible storage spaces for the most frequently accessed materials. You want to make it easy to get stuff out and put it away again. When your research materials are accessible, one barrier to doing the research vanishes.

Take a look around your genealogy research space. Here are some tell-tale clues that there’s room for improvement:

  • Papers in piles
  • Books or papers on the floor
  • Cluttered work surfaces
  • Folders or binders without labels

If you can see yourself in this description, maybe it’s time to think about improvements.

Here are some things to consider:

  • Throw alphabetical order to the wind and put the binders or file folders containing your current research front and center
  • If you use binders and you find that you pile papers rather than placing them in the right spot in the binder, consider switching to file folders. (See my earlier blog post, Folders or binders? for more info.)
  • Try to create a habit of putting papers away after you use them, or creating a small stack to file on a designated day each week
  • Use a timer to help you focus on getting rid of your backlog (file for 15 minutes a day, for instance)
  • Streamline your system with some file clean-out sessions where you get rid of duplicates or unnecessary pieces of paper
  • Label the heck out of everything! (Don’t feel like you have to use a fancy label maker…regular Avery labels printed out on your printer will do)

This isn’t an all-or-nothing proposition. You don’t have to reserve an entire weekend for a complete workspace overhaul. You can make small improvements, a little at a time. (I’d start with analyzing what’s being stored in your prime real estate.)

An end-of-the-year audit of your storage space might pave the way for a breakthrough year next year!

Now’s your chance to buy the Family Archivist Survival Kit

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Family Archivist Survival KitProper preservation of treasured family photographs and other historical documents is really important, as I discussed here recently. Unfortunately, it can also be a little laborious to track down the proper supplies. And it can be challenging to understand the steps that are really necessary for proper preservation.

Fortunately, there’s the Family Archivist Survival Kit, from Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist. Here’s the thing: Sally makes this available only in the month of October. So if you don’t order by November 4, you’ll have to wait another year.

The 2013 Family Archivist Survival Kit is actually four kits in one:

  • Loose Photo Kit
  • Documents and Ephemera Kit
  • Oversize Kit
  • Photo Rescue Kit (for salvaging photos from those horrible old-school “magnetic” adhesive photo albums)

The first three kits include appropriately sized archival boxes and archival interior folders or envelopes. All these items have passed the Photographic Activity Test (PAT). The Photo Rescue Kit includes hand-held tools (white gloves, two types of pencils and a microspatula). In addition, you get ten hours of recorded instruction from Sally’s Joy of Organizing Photos workshop and other informational goodies.

I ordered Sally’s Declutter Your Photos Like An Archivist kit a couple of months ago and am now a bona fide fan girl. A professional archivist, Sally not only knows her stuff, she understands and sympathizes with the challenges family archivists face. So her information is accessible and relevant.

I first stumbled upon Sally’s information last January and wanted to buy the Family Archivist Survival Kit at that moment. Alas, I had to wait until October and, believe me, I bought it the minute I read the email telling me the kit was available. If you’re interested, don’t delay. November 4 is the last day to buy one.

Photo of the Family Archivist Survival Kit courtesy of Sally Jacobs, The Practical Archivist.

 

Some changes to Organize Your Family History

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Over the weekend, I made some upgrades to this website. Before now, it was a blog only. But I added a few pages, which you can find in the navigation bar at the top of the page. I think that turns it from a blog into a website!

Here’s a summary of what’s new and different:

  • Rather than seeing four full blog posts showing on each page, you’ll now find excerpts from six blog posts will be on each page. Just click the title of any post to see the whole post.
  • I changed up my bio in the sidebar and added a photo, so you can put a face with Organize Your Family History.
  • You can now search blog posts by category, as well as tag.
  • Speaking of searching, the search function has been moved from the bottom of the page to the top.
  • You can get a better sense of what Organize Your Family History is about, via the new About page.
  • I’m now offering some genealogy-related organizing services, which are described in the new Services section.
  • I included a link in the navigation bar to Peace of Mind Organizing, the organizing business I started in 2005.
  • You can now easily download free printables that were previously buried within blog posts. I intend to create and add more free downloads (and perhaps even some paid downloadable products).
  • I added a Contact form. (Feel free to drop me a note!)

In the coming months, I intend to amp up my attention to this site and I hope you’ll find the new content both interesting helpful. If you have any specific topics you’d like to see me cover, please let me know either via the comments or the contact form!