At the end of last month, I confessed how I’d found a stash of unfiled genealogy-related documents and vowed to go through them for 30 minutes a day until they were gone. I also had a rather large library of genealogy journals I want to at least skim.
In the comments of that post, a number of you said you’d join me in this paper-busting challenge. I thought I’d write a post today to let you know how it’s going for me and ask how it’s going for you.
Overall, for me, I’d say the challenge has been very worthwhile. I went out of town on the 15th, but before that I did manage to go through paper every day, though some days it was for as little as 15 minutes. I managed to resist going down rabbit holes or chasing bright, shiny objects that appeared while I did this. I kept my eye on the prize.
The best part is that I’ve kept very little paper. Much of my time has been spent making sure that I either already had downloaded the documents I had on paper (particularly those from the fat envelope sent to me by the Alabama Archives) or looking for and downloading easier-to-read copies of those documents.
So I scanned a few papers but I recycled the vast majority of them. I’m almost finished with the loose paper, but I still have all those journals to go through. I’m fairly confident I can finish by the end of the month.
I’m here to tell you, this feels great. And I’m so glad that most of the time I don’t have to deal with much genealogy paper. As I mentioned in a post last week, this project has been making me appreciate my digital lifestyle!
Hi Janine, well I stalled a bit. The good news is I bought an iX500 scanner as mentioned in your book. I just now need to familiarise myself with how to create specific folders and then start scanning that suitcase of folders filled with documents. I must make sure my folders are named appropriately and then rename each document according to your file naming protocol . Is this correct? Then do I put the relevant documents into my surnames folders? Thank you for your support. ❤️
Julie, do you use a Mac? I’m afraid all my advice is Mac-based, so I hope this helpful. I think if it were me, I’d group the papers by surname, separating direct-line ancestors from collateral relatives. (That’s because I have a separate folder structure for direct line and for collateral). Then I’d scan all the papers for one surname or person into one pdf. Then I’d separate each document into individual files, rename them and file them into the appropriate folders.
I would come up with some way to indicate that I had not yet processed these files, though. Not having given it a lot of thought, my first inclination would be to put an asterisk before the file name. So all my documents for one ancestor would be together, including those that had been processed (i.e., data extracted, source citation created, document copied into source record in reunion) and these new documents that have yet to be processed. Once I processed one, I’d remove the asterisk.
Another way to do it would be to have a folder of the unprocessed documents where you placed them after scanning, separating and renaming them. Then you could just go through the folder document by document and once you’d processed one, file it into the person’s folder.
The benefit to scanning a whole bunch of documents for one person or surname at the same time is that you don’t have to rename each file as you scan it, which would slow the scanning way down.
I hope that helps!
Thank you Janine, that is a great help. Yes I do use everything Mac an I use Reunion too. I am very interested in your comment about your file structure. Would you mind sharing how you separate your direct line and collateral ancestors. This would help enormously. I am currently putting everything into surname folders with sub folders within that for each individual. Then I enter the information from there into Reunion. Many thanks. Julie
Of course–I should have realized you had a Mac since you use Reunion.
In my Surnames folder, I have subfolders for my direct-line ancestors’ surnames. I also have a subfolder called Collateral, and within that I have surnames of my collateral relatives. Within each folder are folders for individuals (and within those folders are documents). So it sounds like we’re doing the same thing, except I separated the collateral relatives and put them one level deeper, within the Surnames folder. That helps me find my direct-line ancestors a little more easily.
This post, which outlines how I handled a downloaded obituary for my grandfather’s brother, has a screenshot of my folder structure which might make it easier to understand if it’s not clear: https://organizeyourfamilyhistory.com/process-downloaded-document/
I sorta had a mixed bag on this challenge. I was able to go through all of my old loose papers and I was able to recycle most of the papers. I have short stack of papers to scan, but because I have a slow scanner (all in printer) I have set aside an hour per week to scan these papers. If I do anymore, I will get bored out of my mind. I still have a plastic file box that has documents that I need to go through. At least these files are filed by surname so it will be easier to go through them and decide to scan or toss.
It sounds to me like you did very well, Jerry, and that you’re almost through the project!