Organize Your Family History

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Loving my electronic file system

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A snippet from my Finder window

Back in January, I blogged about reorganizing my electronic file system. I took inspiration from Ben Sayer of Genealogy Tools, creating a file structure format for each individual, organized into surname folders on my Mac. What I name individual documents within a folder is fairly loose, but the folder naming structure has been standardized.

I’m happy to report that it’s been a success! I can easily find a document I”m looking for and, even better, I’m now saving documents with confidence and alacrity. A nice side benefit of that confidence is that I’m printing fewer documents that I find online. (I blogged about the printing dilemma in January as well.)

I wanted to save money on paper and toner by printing less. What I didn’t take into account, though, is that I also save time by saving documents rather than printing them. It takes a bit more time to type the file name than to click Print, but once I’ve done that, the process is over. I don’t have to file the paper documents. And they’re also easier to retrieve. Since I store my genealogy file cart in a closet in my office, retrieving files took a little effort.

Another benefit is that when I’m feeling industrious, I can link images of source documents from my hard drive directly into the Reunion software I use. Once I get consistent about that, I’ll really be set and it will be so easy for me to see the research I’ve found.

I’m saving more documents and easily using this new naming protocol for folders. The next step will be to work on my backlog. My 2012 files are not consistently filed. But I know if I work on it a little at a time, I ca bring order to my hard drive!

My electronic file system has evolved a great deal since 2013 when I wrote this post. In 2021 I published an Orderly Roots Guide called How I Do It: A Professional Organizer’s Genealogy Workflow that provides detailed information on how I organize my own genealogy research, which is now 100 percent digital. It is available for $19.99.

To print or not to print?

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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.

 

Taking stock of my records

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My genealogy file cartI love the last couple of weeks of the year. This is when I set goals and resolutions. And I also typically try to do some decluttering and organizing around my house. I’ve already started the goal-setting process for my genealogy work. But I realized this morning that I needed to spend some time organizing my genealogy records and see where things stand.

I started doing genealogy research back in the first part of the 21st century. My records then were all paper. In fact, I hand wrote my ancestry charts. Since taking up the research more seriously this year, I’ve done more electronically (my family tree is now entered into software), but I do have a tendency to print things out and file them. I blogged awhile back about how I organize my genealogy files.

Above is a photo of the file cart that holds my genealogy files. As you can see it’s looking a little unruly. During that lovely week between Christmas and the end of the year, I think I will go through those files, see what I records I have and what’s missing and tidy things up. I’ll also explore the contents of the files I created years ago called “Census possibilities,” “Places to go,” and “Research tips.” By the end, I hope to feel like I know where things stand with my research. I suspect I’ll end up with a list of things to research, mysteries to solve and holes to fill.

If time allows, I’ll also spruce up my electronic files. They’re in decent shape, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I’ll write a post when that process is over and share the benefits I gained from this effort!