THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON 17 DEC 2013 AND UPDATED ON 3 APR 2019
WHO DOESN’T WANT TO BE ABLE TO LOCATE THAT BIRTH, DEATH, MARRIAGE, PROBATE, LAND RECORD OR PHOTO WITH A CLICK OR TWO OF YOUR MOUSE?
No one wants to have to search and search to try to find a document or image that you KNOW you saved to your computer. Whether it was last week or last year, you should be able to locate anything you want, easily, with a click or two of your mouse.
Here is how I do it:
- CREATE YOUR MASTER FOLDER: Decide where on your computer you want your genealogy information to be located. Such as in your C drive under PICTURES, DOCUMENTS, GENEALOGY, MEDIA or something else. You decide where that “Master” location will be. From that point on, ALL of your images will be located in that folder and in the subsequent sub-folders you will create. When I say "images" I am talking about photos, census, land records, probate etc. Anything that you scan or download to add to your family tree.
- CREATE YOUR SURNAME FOLDERS: Once you’ve decided on the MASTER folder, it’s time to create your surnames folders. I began this process about 12 years ago when I only had 2,000 people and not very many surnames. Therefore, I created folders for each surname. You could also create a set of folders for paternal lines, maternal lines or set of grandparents etc. There are many ways to do this. Just remember YOU WANT THIS TO BE EASY. As the years have gone by, many more surname folders have been created in my files.
- Here’s what I’m talking about. I use Windows 10 and this set of surname folders is under my MASTER folder which is located on my C drive.
(YOU CAN CLICK ON ANY OF THESE IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM)
Under each surname I want sub-folders to identify the documents/images I have saved. I want them to be very clear and very easy to identify. Birth, death, marriage, cemetery info, immigration, newspaper articles, probate etc. In the ensuing years I have added a DNA folder for each surname. Others have added their own particular folders, depending on their needs and their own family. That's the advantage of having this system. You can update & change it at any time, while still keeping your base system in place.
HERE IS A SAMPLE OF THE FOLDERS I HAVE UNDER EACH SURNAME:
I have found over the years that these folders cover most everything. I rarely use the Misc. folder, but it’s there in case I run across the odd item that won’t fit elsewhere.
Just to be clear. Here are the steps:
· Create your MASTER folder in you C drive – called Genealogy or My Surnames or whatever you want.
· Create surname folders
· Create your sub folders (see my suggestion below so you don't have to create all these sub folders each time under every surname. YOU CREATE THEM ONLY ONCE AND COPY AND PASTE THEM.
Under each surname you will have a list of sub-folders to easily identify your items. Create these sub folders just ONCE (see my instructions below) and keep them where you can find them. Then copy & paste them under each surname.
HOW TO AVOID HAVING TO REPRODUCE THOSE SUB-FOLDERS FOR
EVERY SINGLE SURNAME
Nobody wants to have to right click, then go to “new folder” and create each of those sub-folders for every surname, over & over, right? Here is how I avoided that problem.
I created a folder under C:/GENEALOGY called “Gene-folders for each surname file.”
Here is the list I have created. ONE TIME.
I do this just ONE time and then I SELECT ALL the folders, copy & paste them into each of the surname folders. BINGO! You are done and ready to move on.
NOTE: Shortcuts that make it even easier.
Ctrl A to highlight the folders you want to place in the surname folder
Ctrl C to copy copies the highlighted folders. Now go to your surname folder &
Ctrl V to paste these sub folders in the surname folder.
The keyboard shortcuts above can be used for anything and will save you tons of time, no matter what you are copying & pasting.
NOW THE FUN PART - Find all of your documents/images scattered all over your computer and move each of them to the folders you have created. WOW! How easy is this going to be when you want to find that specific birth, marriage or death record?
EXAMPLES: Let’s say I’m looking for a birth or death record for someone with the surname HART.
Here are examples. I want to find a birth record for Henry G. Hart. You can see that I’ve clicked on birth under the Hart surname and there are all my records. It's easy to find Henry G. Hart on the list. I like to view my files in list format with a preview on the right hand side. And, here it is. Just like that you've found the exact record.
Now I want to find a death record for Ashley Hart. I go to the HART surname folder, then click on "death-obits," then on the right hand side you see all the death records and can easily locate Ashley's record.
How easy was that?
LET’S TALK ABOUT NAMING YOUR DOCUMENTS/IMAGES
We all or at least most of us started out with file names like, Grandma, Easter 1910, or my Mom in 1950.
We have learned that those file names don’t work. In fact, if that kind of identifier is written on the back of any photo we should “fix” it so that someone in the future knows who this person is.
These rules apply to ALL photos and to documents.
Whether you are scanning & saving them, or you grab them from a website. Whether they are census records, birth records, probate records or family photos.
There MUST be a file naming standard.
I use this rule for naming all of my files.
WHO, WHAT, WHEN AND WHERE
I begin with the LAST NAME IN CAPS, then proceed from there with the first name (if known), what the record is and then when & where. You may use underscores, dashes or spaces between the items. I have used underscores for years and still do. You might not always have all 4 pieces of information, but you record what you do have.
In viewing the sample above for the HART family, you can see how easy it is to locate a record using this method.
A WORD ABOUT CENSUS & CITY DIRECTORY RECORDS - My naming standard for these two records does change. I want to be able to locate those records by the year, since there are generally so many of them for each surname. Therefore, I put the year first, then the Who, What, Where. Example: 1910_GOULD_William & family_1405 Cole_DetroitMI
NOTE: Use of the A-L, M-Z folders that you see in the very first screen shot. I created these folders for those surnames that I don't think I will do very much research on. Like perhaps a 4th cousin twice removed, or grandfather of your great uncle's wife's father. Maybe you were only looking at them to try and find more information on a particular person. You might only want to save one or two documents. To me this doesn't generate a whole new surname folder. You can still copy & paste the sub folders under the A-Z folder so I can locate items easily.
If you should find that a particular surname that started in the A-Z folder has now become more of a focus and you are saving a lot of documents or images, then just create a surname folder and transfer the images to those files by using copy and paste.
I have had to do this, but not very often. I still find the A-Z folder useful for my purposes.
Now multiply this by how many times you are searching for a record and you will find that having a system is worth its weight in gold. It may take you a little bit of time to create your system, but in the end you will be forever grateful for having done it. I know that back when I had to come up with something that would actually WORK, it made my life going forward a thousand times easier.
I certainly hope this has been helpful. If you have comments, please share them with me. I’d love to hear your success stories too. Did this system work for you once you implemented it? Have you come up with an even better system? I’m all ears.
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