Genealogy Chat

How do you guys organise your informaion? ive got fur (fie if you count my nanas first husband) sides to my family and as well as keeping the certficates in folders (when they eventually turn up) i woas wondering how you organise your orher info. for instance at the moment i have scruffy written notes all over the place and half the time i get muddled and lose my temper :). anyone got any tips or advice on how to make this easier for myself?

Buy yourself a concertina file and label each pocket with a 'main line ' name. show all the bits in the right file after you have used them, and sort them from there

Christine, I have a book for each name researched, and a rough jotter for each, I then jot every thing in the rough jotter, and then when I have it sorted, I transfer it to the main book, by my pooter I have a large tower of filing trays for names, that I keep the books, census printouts and any other info in, i.e. news paper copies, my area round my desk is a mine field, but I know where every surname is, and the conections, I think I might be what they call addicted... Bev

Hi I have files one for all my certifcates and information on peeps I have proved are decendants in alpha order of surname. I have another which I use when I searching which is also in alpha order of surname. I make sure I keep all the notes in it as to where I have searched and what information I have discovered and what certs I have aplied for and what certs I have purchased. I find it works and you know were you are. But sometimes I do slip up and on occasions double up on information like I did last night. Thats why I ve been filing lots of paper tonight my husband thinks I am Mad!!!!

I put everything on PAF - a free software program you can download from www.familysearch.org - and make regular backups. But I also have a HUGE paper-based system - very large 4-ring binders, one for each set of great-grandparents (and 3 for my husband's tree) with subsections for each branch of the family. All photos, certificates, letters & other documents are in A4-sized acid-free plastic pockets (bought in job lot at WHSmith). The binders came from work - free from our headteacher. They have plastic pockets front and back, in which I put maps and/or photos of the geographical areas where my ancestors lived. But I think everyone just evolves their own system to suit themselves - and we all think later 'if only I'd put it all on the computer/started a proper notebook/not written on post-its/made a note of where I looked/took proper references' after we've started. nell