One of the top complaints I hear from family researchers and genealogists has to do with organizing their digital files.
Often, part of the problem is the overwhelming volume of documents and records that we tend to collect during our research.
Then there is also the problem of not remembering what a document is once it is downloaded. File names like 'image681x689from0x57to4892x5010.jpg' certainly do not help the situation.
So how are we going to finally get our crushing mountain of unorganized document neatly organized and tucked away neatly into organized folders?
As with any job, we need to first break this down into manageable tasks.
1. First, think about how you use your database
When you go looking for a file, how do you move through your documents? Do you just click around aimlessly – ‘… it might be over here… what about here … in my downloads? … what about here…’ A smarter approach would be to search using your file manager’s search box. This is possible if you are organized and have files named with searchable and useful terms.
2. Use with broad categories
Most importantly, have a dedicated folder to house all your genealogical research. I use a top-level folder named “Genealogy.” Categories beyond this top-level should be simple and direct, yet broad enough to be effective.“Death,” for example is a great folder name for housing all kinds of death-related material like death certificates, obituaries, death indices, and records.
“Texas Death Records,” however, probably will not be as useful. Even if you have plenty of family from the Lone Star State, you will still be guessing if an individual’s record will be in this folder or perhaps another folder. Will you need folders for every state? What about countries?
3. Find a naming scheme
This might take a couple of shots to settle into something that works for you.File names should include enough information that you know what the file is and to whom the file mainly pertains. Remember not to use periods (.) in the file name to avoid system conflicts.
"Death Certificate - Smith, John P," is how I name most of my files. Marriage records will get both spouse's names: "Marriage License - Smith, John P & Brown, Susie M."
This keeps things simple, easy to read, and neatly organized. Records that have multiple pages, I simply add an 'a' and 'b' to the end of the file name. (Ex: "Marriage License - Smith, John P & Brown, Susie M a")
Census files get a little trickier because they contain so many people, especially when two or more related families live near one another. I've found that just including the highest-ranking person in the family, generationally speaking, in the file name works the best.
4. Stick with maiden names
Digital organization is one place that I strongly recommend against using married names for organizing. Even when a record names a female using her married name, I will still name that record as her maiden name in my database.This is a deliberate decision on my part. I've written about using names in database organization before.
Here’s why:
When women marry, they tend to change their name. When a marriage ends, she may or may not go back to her maiden name. She may remarry and take on a third last name. Or more!
To make finding records about one person easy, I only use a person’s maiden name. This also keeps me from thinking Mary Smith, Mary Brown, and Mary Bates are all different people when I see their records.
By using maiden names, I can both easily find a person and reduce the chance of duplicates within my research.
5. Get rid of duplicates
This is going to take time but will happen naturally as you further organize your database. If you have selected a file naming scheme, this task will be made much easier as duplicate file names cannot be used.For example, if you attempt to name two files “Marriage Announcement – Smith, John & Brown, Susie,” your file manager will alert you to the presence of a file already named this. You can check the file and see if they are, in fact, the same.
If they are not, add more information to the file name so that you can differentiate the two. For example, “Marriage Announcement – Smith, John P & Brown Susie M.”
6. Keep it up
Before you get invested in the next research session, sit down and clean out your downloads folder. Look at files and rename them before sorting them into the proper folders.Taking care of this task refreshes your memory on who you were researching during the last few sessions and reminds you of any discoveries you might have uncovered. This habit also allows you to be better organized in the long run by keeping the contents of your unorganized download folder minimized.
Digital organization takes time to establish and will be an ongoing process after the initial setup. The reward is a somewhat neater database with information that is easy to find and use.
What are some challenges you face with digital organization? Let me know down below or over on my Facebook page.
- Patricia
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