The ideal genealogist is organized. That was one of the many
gems of wisdom passed along in the free online course from the University of
Strathclyde which I just took through FutureLearn.* There was a lot of advice
on the subject, from keeping track of searches and keeping results organized to
limiting searches to one question at a time.
I knew that. At least, I did when I started family history
research back in the dark ages before the internet. It was easier to keep track
then because information came in so slowly; from snail mail or winding my way
through microfilm. I still have the tally sheets where I noted down the films I
had searched. My genealogy continued to be organized when email made
communication with fellow searchers faster. Then Ancestry, FindMyPast and
searchable databases from various archives came online. It became easy just to
sit down for a few minutes or an hour for a search. Who needed to keep track of
that?
Discoveries came thick and fast on good days. Too fast to
keep up with filing. I printed off the information and put it in family binders
(not filed, just stuffed in the front) and stacked it in banker’s boxes. On top
of that there are notes from conferences and information from research trips to
archives in England, Scotland, Canada and the US.
That’s a lot of paper. I know there are systems to save info
to the cloud or on a computer which would get rid of the paper problem but that
is the way I set things up when I started. It has served me well. One of my
first computers was stolen when my house was broken into. Then there were the
couple of computers that crashed. I think I’ll stick with paper.
Now it’s time to get organized. Time to go through all the
banker’s boxes, binders and folders of seminar notes. Maybe I’ll find some
hidden treasures. Wish me luck!
Related
resources
Books:
How to Archive Family Keepsakes:
Learn How to Preserve Family Photos, Memorabilia and Genealogy Records by Denise May Levenick
Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies
and Solutions for Every Researcher by Drew Smith
Organizing Your Family History
Search: Efficient & Effective Ways to Gather and Protect Your Genealogical
Research by Sharon DeBartolo
Carmack
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