'Good Filing From the Start' Learn Genealogy Research (How to Research Your Family Tree) - Episode 3

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*** Show Notes ****
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ARCHIVAL MATERIAL LINKS BELOW, scroll down.

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Expanding File, Letter Size - Black

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BOOKS

SUBSCRIBE to both the NCAncestry (for North Carolina Researchers) and Genealogy TV channels on YouTube.

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Constance Knox, Genealogist, hosts.

This is episode 3 of the educational video series Learn Genealogy, as part of the "In Search of Your Family Tree" show hosted on the Genealogy TV, YouTube channel.

* * *
Thanks for stopping by! I'm sure by now you know how passionate I am about genealogy and preserving family history. I'm dedicated to teaching those wishing to learn the right way of investigating, analyzing and reporting genealogical findings.

But let's face it, genealogy is just plain fun. I love the hunt, the discovery and the excitement of sharing with others.

What you may not know (besides my lifelong passion for genealogy) is I’ve had a long career in television broadcasting and management. I’m also a wildlife and nature photographer.

Now is the time for me to take all these skills into a new side-kick. I’m using my talents in photography, television, video production, editing, and as a lifelong genealogist, combining those skills together to create the Genealogy TV and NC Ancestry as YouTube channels along with similar websites and blogs.

To borrow a line from Jerry Maguire, “help me, help you.” If you like what you see and wish to help support my effort, please consider becoming a Patreon member of Genealogy TV and NC Ancestry.

I promise… I’m dedicated to this effort.

I really appreciate your support.

Thanks so much!
Connie Knox

TIMINGS
0:48 Staying Organized
1:20 Filing example
1:51 Multiple ancestors with the same name
2:20 Family Groups and Married Couples
3:18 Backing up your files and information
3:48 Scanning physical artifacts and documents
4:03 Archival boxes for large heirlooms
4:31 Conclusion

Music Credits for Song on Word Tree Open
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#genealogy #genealogytv

[GenealogyTV]

Genealogy TV Community: YouTube recently changed the way they allow us to monetize our channels. We now need a minimum of 1000 subscribers. Sounds daunting right? I’m fully confident I’ll get there and FULLY COMMITTED to bring free genealogy video to family historians. NC ANCESTRY and GENEALOGY TV (2 channels) is where I’ll do that. You could help me out a bunch by SUBSCRIBING. It’s all free and painless, but it would be huge for me. Oh and one more thing… it’s a crazy goal… but I’m trying to get to 1000 subs by Christmas. What a great gift that would be for me- huh? Can you help me get there? Thanks Connie.

[jeanoliver]

I have been a subscriber for over a year now. But today I have decided to start at the beginning of the vlogs and get all of them seen. Thank you for your time and help you have provided during these series of vlogs.

[rebeccaabetterlife]

Thank you for such precise guidance on storing the information. I was feeling a little overwhelming but now I have a plan for becoming organized.

[terria]

Thanks for sharing your way to get such a daunting task done. I have been working on cleaning up family files on computer. Now I need to get my physical files and articles straightened out!

[PaulJHarris]

Hi, Connie. As a fellow Tar Heel I truly appreciate what you bring to the community. I am always interested in new ideas about filing systems. When I started my genealogy pursuits over thirty-five years ago I sought wisdom from those further down the road than I was.

I was most impressed by a gentleman who demonstrated to me an extreme level of organization. What he told me was, "Filing genealogical records is like real estate. The three most important things are location, location, location." Subsequently, I read a book about the organization of archives that indicated records should be kept together with other records from the same organization that created the records. Something like Record Groups. Combining these principles I began to develop 'my' system that I have been using effectively for over thirty years. I have tried to find something that would be more useful for me, but have yet to convince myself to switch.

In the vernacular of genealogy database programs I am what you would call a "Splitter" as opposed to a "Lumper, " perhaps, even an "Extreme Splitter." I maintain a one to one relationship between Source and Document. Some simple examples:

U-OH-MOR-CivM-1842-05-23 James Work and Elizabeth Myers

At a glance I can tell this is a United states, OHio, MORgan county, Civ il Marriage record dated 23 May 1842 for James Work and Elizabeth Myers. in my files (I use binders) it is grouped with other Civil event documents from MORgan county, OHio.

U-NY-KIN-ChuC-1857-10-29 William Monroe

At a glance I can tell this is a United states, New York, KINgs county (Brooklyn), Chu rch Christening (Baptismal) record dated 29 Oct 1857 for William Monroe. It is grouped with other Chu rch recods in Brooklyn, NY.

U-MI-OAK-CenU-1950-0042-16A Paul J. Harris Hh

At a glance I can tell this is a United states, MIchigan, OAKland county, Cen sus record for the United state date 1950, enumeration district 42, p. 16A Paul J. Harris H-ouse h-old.

This works great for location based documents. I'm often asked how i can find a birth record for my father with this system? That's what the genealogy database program is for. It acts as an index to all all my Source Documents. Alternatively, if I am familiar with his birth location and date, I can locate it immediately by knowing it was in Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, about 1900. Why, there it is!

U-OH-MON-CivB-1900-05-07 Paul Joseph Harris

With the further evolvement of my system I have found that my Sources fall into two main categories, Authored (Published and Unpublished) and Organization/Location Based. Authored, published starts with AP and unpublished starts with AU, followed by three spaces and the authors name, reversed, then the reversed date, type, and description. For example:

AU Harris, Joseph Hastings - 1897-12-16 letter to Bertha Elizabeth Lambert

This does group everything written by him in chronological order.

I have always resisted the temptation to use named folders to grouped documents, but since I have yet to see a genealogical database program that takes this into consideration, I keep all of my Sources in a folder called Sources.

This dialog only serves to illustrate that there are many ways to organize documents. None of them are right or wrong as long as they are useful and you are consistent in their use.

Best,

Paul Harris

[winginit]

New to your channel. It has been very informative so I’m going to spend some time today watching more, starting with video number one. Watching from North Carolina

[orianahdz]

It was my understanding that Family Tree Maker didn't sync with Ancestry.com. But in this video you mention that you back up your family tree from ancestry to FTM. I am currently searching for a software to purchase for my laptop. I'm computer illiterate and need to learn how to use the computer and software. I don't have Excel, and even if I did, I don't know how to use it. But I watched one of your videos where you used it and it sure would be handy to have. I've got lots of learning to do, lol. I really enjoy your videos, thank you so much.

[MsSherrydarling]

I did have a filing system of sorts when I first started on this journey but it soon fell off the rails. I have been keeping things that I find in a bin, for now and when I found your link in my feed, I decided it was time to tackle the mess and get things organized properly so I can get back into researching again, in the fall. I have started to store my documents and photos that I have on my computer, on an external 1TB hard drive. I am hoping it will be enough but we will see. I have so much to learn and stuff I need to unlearn in order to get on the right track. I will be watching your videos over the next few weeks to help me improve my organizing set ups. Thanks for the videos! Greetings from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, where I am working on my tree that spans the whole of Canada as well as England, Scotland and Wales : )) Even the U.S.!

[DoctorKeo]

I use the ancestors number assigned to family members by Brothers Keeper (marking sure you check don't reuse deleted record numbers) on all of the electronic files. I also use that number on Evernote to locate ancestors and use the tags to define the record type ie Baptism, census, marriage certificate, probate, and a tag for the Brothers Keeper number, to group all records together on a search by tag. Using Evernote helps with the search with the OCR feature.

[shamusosullivan]

I started with pile of papers lol

Then tried by name and county, but got really messed up in early Pennsylvanian counties that kept changing.

Now I have three main docs: research log, research notes for person and for counties. The counties are overlapping but easier in long run.

[paulaseiple]

Besides computer files, I keep hard copies of ancestry.com Profile Pages in notebooks by surnames alphabetically, and then by most recent ancestor then back chronologically. I do this to make it more portable when talking with family members and more portable for myself when I want to work away from my desk where the computer is. ( I currently do not have a smart phone, and the screen on that would be inconveniently too small for me anyway.) If there is a particularly interesting other article (marriage certificate, photo, news article), I scan that and put it with the Profile Page. On the Profile Page I have inserted the marriage dates and marriage partners of the ancestor's children so his entire big events all show up on the Profile Page.

[LeAllysonMeyer]

This is a great system. I am just now trying to make an organization system. I use DropBox, but my paper stuff needs help organizing.

[ranaefeick]

My family is Scandinavian which means patronymics, there are no surnames per se. My folders are named by ahnentafel number followed by husband and then wife name (maiden). Children of each couple (with exception of direct ancestor) are found within their parents folder in a folder of their own. This also keeps folders in order of their relationship to me. I also have an app that colors folders so I know immediately that a certain color represents an ancestor of one of my grandparents. My genealogy folder begins with a read-me first document explaining the ahnentafel numbering system and my folder coloring.

[catherineholcombe]

I am "Old School" and keep a paper trail just in case the computer storage service goes down. There was a case where an on-line backup storage service had technical issues and many of their customers lost everything.

[sandybielinski-rice]

Thank you for your information. Can you explain a little more about the physical family artifacts? What do you mean by “logged with its resource” ? Also do you name the item itself with the family surname it belongs to? Thanks, Sandy

[marykowalski]

What is a good Scanning app for my iPhone? I joined the channel today and I'm learning a lot.

[geraldbrooks]

Was wondering how you handle family group photos with numerous members (different surnames), do you scan it and attach it to each family member's profile? And afterward, how to you file it manually?

[FJgenieter]

Thank you!! In what folder do you store family photo albums (digital)? In the family group folder?

[addictedspn]

Thanks for the info! It's very helpful. I'm working on getting organized now and it's daunting! Do you recommend making folders for every extended family member we discover (such as a blood relatives in-laws) or only blood relatives/those we are actively researching?

[jacquelinefullen]

Just love these videos, the problem I have is information everywhere e.g Ancestry, Family Search, genes reunited and find my past. and loads of paperwork, certificates etc. Duplication of some family members but with information which has not been updated or transferred (a bit of a mess basically). I'm thinking delete all trees and start again from scratch. Any suggestions would help massively. Also you mentioned in one of your videos about facts and questioning everything. what would you class as a fact (certificate etc) or something verified by more than one option.
Grateful for any feedback.