Organizing



January is the month of white sales, organizer sales, beginnings and new resolutions!  So let’s begin this year off right and organize your family history.  One of the most important tools for a researcher is organization.  Your future searches and your success depend upon how you file your papers, how you sort your sources and where you put the collected digital and paper files. 

My history of organization began in 1999 after I had been doing genealogy for about 5 years.  I took one week off from researching and decided to organize my genealogy papers.   I figured, what good was a document if I couldn’t find it?  After reviewing several organizing systems, I transferred everything to the numerical system that I still use today.  A few days into my organizing quest, while deep in the mist of piles of white paper and stacks of miscellaneous documents my living room looking like someone had spewed sheets of paper everywhere, I wanted to give up.  One of the wisest genealogical decisions I ever made was to decide to continue on and organize all my stuff!  Today, fifteen years later, I am still using the same basic system and more importantly, if I need a document, I can find it!

I do most of my research by location, the numbering system rather than the color coding system works best for me by allowing me to research everyone in a certain locale.  The best organizational tool is the one that works for you and the one you are able to keep up with.  Because after all, what good is a source if you cannot find it again?

January 2016 will examine organization and include motivation and ideas of how to organize paper and digital files as well as photographs.  

Good luck and let me hear on how you are coming on the organizing challenge

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