Organizing Your Research - Part 5

We have been discussing how to organize your research.  I am finishing the topic with a few more tips and a review:

And what about all those thousands of emails? Keep them all! I bought my computer in the spring of 2005 and I have every (genealogy) email that I have received in the past five years. Once again, I use the search feature to look for names, dates, or conversations I vaguely remember but didn’t want to print out. I helped the NIELSON family 3 years ago and all the emails related to that are still in that folder. I do sort the emails by surname – Castos being the heavy favorite – at about 20 a week x 52 weeks x 5 years = at least 5200 Casto emails! But I’ve rarely lost a single one.

Here is an important tip that a lot of researchers don’t think about. If your computer crashed and you lost all your data, have you made a back up? I can hear the heads nodding yes already! Let’s take that scenario one step further. If a wild fire were to force you into immediately evacuating your home, is your backup disk in the same room as your computer? Ah, most people would say yes. I took the time to make TWO extra backups of my data, scanned the most precious photos and certificates and those items that I would be devastated to lose, and I gave the cd’s to my brothers who live in different cities.

So, lets do a quick review.

 

• There is no great magic wand to make years of papers go away but you don’t have to organize it all in one day, either.

 

• Organize your files in a manner that works best for the way YOU think about your research. Combine binders and folders to create something that works with how you want to find your information.

• Plan ahead for what you’re trying to accomplish, the space you have to work with, and don’t waste money buying filing accessories you may not use.

 

• If you use sheet protectors, make sure you have good quality archival type on hand for the really important documents. Regular pages you’ve copied or printed don’t always need to be in the best type but for those important documents you want to last, spend the extra money.

 

• Write on the back of photos! You may remember where and when that vacation photo was taken and I bet your grandmother did, too, so she didn’t write on the back of hers. For best results, use photo safe ink pens and have your favorite photos printed on good quality paper at the store.

• Speaking of photos, we all love our digital images but will our “jpg’s” of 2010 even be viewable on whatever devices your descendents will be using? Think about the future of your research as well as your use of it today.

 

• Do not get overwhelmed just because you have so many documents to sort through. Grab a small stack at a time or have a buddy help you go through them.

 

• Make technology work for you with your electronic versions. You can use search engines on your computer to find “lost” documents and emails but it helps if you start with a naming system that you can easily remember.

 

• Make backups of your research and your documents so that all your hard work won’t get lost. You don’t have to do this frequently but don’t forget to update it every once in a while, either.