DIGITAL ORGANIZATION PRESENTATION COMING UP APRIL 12 - How to Register

 

I will be presenting How to Organize Your Digital Files.

Whether it's a vital record, land record, newspaper article or family heirloom, you should not have to look all over your computer to find it.

Saturday, April 12, 2025, 9 a.m. PDT, 10 a.m. MDT, 11 a.m. CDT and 12 noon EDT

This presentation will be put on by the San Diego Genealogical Society. You do not have to be a member to attend. This will be online via Zoom.

REGISTRATION is FREE and OPEN TO ALL

Here is the link https://www.casdgs.org/event-6104668

I look forward to seeing you there.

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2025   Diane Gould Hall
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

DIGITAL FOLDER ORGANIZING & NAMING MADE EASY-Updated 3 Apr 2019

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:

1. 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.
2. 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. 
3. 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.

NO USE OF THIS DOCUMENT FOR REMUNERATION - THIS IS A COPYRIGHTED DOCUMENT. 
COPYRIGHT © 2013-2019 Diane Gould Hall   All rights reserved

TOO MUCH INFORMATION HAVE YOU OVERWHELMED? You’re not alone

When we begin our journey in researching our family, we might have a few items left by parents or grandparents.  Perhaps we have a box or two of photos or other items?  Maybe we don’t even have that much.

We go along, entering our ancestors in our database, as we find them.  We locate vital records, census records, military records, newspaper articles, immigration records and on and on.
 
Then there comes a time when we have connected with quite a few family members, think cousins.  And, we’ve joined a multitude of groups on Facebook specific to our areas of research.  We’ve joined societies and gone to seminars.  We’ve visited courthouses and libraries and maybe even the Family History Library in Utah.  We have a tree on Ancestry and those hints just never stop popping up….and I’m talking about the good hints.
 

We have now reached the point where we have SO MUCH information, we can’t focus on which family or person to research.  This is a good problem to have, but…..this is pretty much where I’m at right now.

  

What to do?

This is the exact question I asked myself as I was driving somewhere yesterday.  How in the world can I focus on just one person or one family when all these wonderful pieces of information are coming at me?

Well, I need to find a way, because what I’m doing right now isn’t working.  Yes, I’m getting some research done, but I don’t feel as if I’m doing that deep, thorough research that I really enjoy.

Apparently I’m not alone.

 

Amy Johnson Crow wrote a blog post about this very subject, just yesterday.  It’s titled “How to Avoid Genealogy Overwhelm” and you can find her article here.

Amy did a great job of explaining just what I was feeling and how we can go about “fixing” this problem.

I’ll follow up this post and let you know how I’m doing. 

Please tell me if you’ve felt the same way?  What you’ve done about it, if anything?  The more tips we can get the better for all of us.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Digital Folder Organizing & Naming Made Easy

Office Closet Clean Out & Organization Project - Do You Have One of "Those" Spaces?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2016   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY–After you return home….then what?

You finally made that long awaited trip to the Family History Library.  You spent several days there.  You found so many books and microfilm records that you could barely record them all.
 
I use my camera to record all images from books and microfilm.  It’s faster than a portable scanner (this is my observation) and the images come out very clear.  Here is a sample.  And, please note that these images have been cropped, but they have not yet been enhanced in any way.

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

You’re home.  Now what?

Once I arrive home I remove my camera card from the camera and transfer all images to my desktop computer.  I also transfer them to two portable hard drives and to Dropbox.  You cannot have too many backups.

NOTE:  During my various trips to conduct genealogy research I have developed the habit of copying all images from my camera card to my laptop each day.  That way should your camera card fail, you have a backup.  This time I even brought along one of my portable hard drives and copied them to it each evening, as well as the laptop.  I copy the images in the original order they appear on the camera card.  Then, I create folders of each day and copy the images from that day into the folder.  Sometimes I will even create folders of different locations such as states or countries.  But, the one thing I always want is the original pictures in order, uncropped and unenhanced.

I have a special digital folder on my desktop for my trips to various libraries, whether local or out of state or country.



What I worked on today was going into each of the individual day folders and cropping the images.  I won’t be using every image I have recorded so, I don’t worry about changing the color tone or enhancing them in any way.  Right now all I want to do is crop off all that excess area.  If I decide to use the image I will make enhancements at that time.

BEFORE CROPPING

AFTER CROPPING

You can clearly see that the images look much better after they are cropped.

The next step I take will be to begin going through each of these images to glean information from them and do any follow up research necessary.  This is the hard, but fun, work that must be done after a research trip.  I will record the information as proper sources and enter the images into my Legacy database.
 
NOTE:  It is very important to take a photo of the cover and/or title page of each book, BEFORE you photograph any pages.  The same thing is true of each microfilm you use.  It does us no good to have page 465 from a particular book and not know the name of that book.

How many pictures did I take during my 4 days at the FHL?  250
How does that compare to my trip back in 2011 when I was there for 5 days?    Amazingly, I took 880 photos on that first trip.  I might have gotten a little bit carried away, don’t you think?
 
DID I PROPERLY PROCESS AND USE ALL OF THOSE IMAGES FROM THE FIRST TRIP?  NO!
  
I really don’t want to make the same mistake this time.  Once we get sidetracked it’s very difficult to go back.  At least for me it is.  How about you?

I would love to hear about your research trips. 

• How do you process the information you’ve gathered once you’ve returned home?
• Have you ever taken a trip and then not completely utilized all the information you gathered?
• Do you have an organized method for storing your gathered information, either digitally or physically?

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
MY FIRST GENEALOGY ROAD TRIP
MY TRIP TO SCOTLAND - WHAT I DID RIGHT, WHAT I DID WRONG
ARE YOU GETTING OFF TRACK...LOSING YOUR FOCUS?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

ARE YOU GETTING OFF TRACK? Losing your focus?

Do you feel like you go around in circles sometimes?  Are you just playing at staying on track and organized, or are you serious?  I had to ask myself these questions today and here's what got me started.


I was sorting things on my desk and saw the list of 33 Michigan Death Certificates I was able to locate when Seeking Michigan released new records in March of this year.  I even wrote two blog posts about how I made a list from my Legacy database before proceeding to the site to locate records.
 
Michigan Death Certificate Images Released - 1921-1939

And, then I wrote a second post about my procedure once I’ve located the death certificates.

Day Two of the Michigan Death Certificates Journey - Now What?

So, it’s not like I don’t know what to do. Right?  I added & cited a few of them.  But, then I stopped.  When I say few, I’m talking about 4 out of 33!

Why waste time locating records online, at libraries, at courthouses, from family members etc., if we don’t then record those records to our database?

Darn good question, I think.
 
Here are my examples of unfinished “business.”

• Multiple trips to Michigan for research and to visit family and bringing home all sorts of photos and documents, many of which still sit in folders.
• A trip to the Family History Library where myself and a friend spent 5 glorious days and I took hundreds of photographs of books & microfilm - still not all processed.
• A trip to the local Carlsbad Library where they have wonderful genealogy resources and I found many and photographed them - most are not processed.
• A trip to Ohio & West Virginia for one thing – genealogy research - still need to process some items.
• And, of course, downloading the much awaited death certificates, saving them in proper file format on my computer and then DOING NOTHING with them.

I’m sure I could go on.  Am I the only one?  Do you also have this “problem?”

Maybe we are in too big a hurry to “find absolutely everything.”  It’s sure fun to find things.  All that finding does us absolutely NO GOOD if we don’t process what we locate.

There is currently a project begun by Thomas MacEntee called the “Genealogy Do Over.  Many people are participating and finding it very useful. 

I think what I’m going to do, right here and now, is to begin a type of “Do Over.”

HERE IS MY PLAN:

1.  If I get an email or other contact from a cousin, new or otherwise, I will respond to them, but tell them I will get back to them.  Then make a reminder in Evernote to do so.

2.  I’m going to finish adding & sourcing the rest of those 33 death certificates I found.  In doing so I will stay focused and make notes (in Evernote) of items I want to go back & find out more about.  The goal is to enter and source the death certificates, first & foremost.

3.  I will go through the plastic tub I have that has neatly organized surname folders where I have filed miscellaneous papers I’ve intended to go back to.  I no longer file in paper files, but these are from several years ago.

4.  I will go through every digital file I have from all the library research I have done and process that information.  When I was at the FHL I took over 500 digital photos from books and microfilm.  They are organized by state & county, but I’ve never gone through all of them.

5.  Only conduct research that is directly from these items.    
I think that this process will not only make me feel more organized and productive, but I suspect it will lead to many finds.
 

CAN THIS PROCESS CAUSE ME TO GET HORRIBLY SIDETRACKED…OH MY YES!
BUT, I'M HOPING IT WON'T
  

How many of you have done something similar to this?
How many of you are participating in the Genealogy Do Over?  If so, has it helped?
Do you have other suggestions that we, as genealogists, can follow in order to avoid this sort of situation?

There is a wonderful group on Facebook called The Organized Genealogist.  With over 20,000 members there are lots of ideas presented about how to get and stay organized.

Wish me luck.  I sure hope that I’m successful and can get a lot of this work done.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
DIGITAL FOLDER ORGANIZING & NAMING MADE EASY
EVERNOTE - A VERY USEFUL AND FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU ORGANIZE GENEALOGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE

Happy hunting & organizing,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION