"F" is for Filing

I don’t mean to harp on the problem of organizing, but isn’t it every genealogist’s challenge -- or nightmare?

I have been going through my Tanner/Blount/Waldron/Driggers files with fierce determination lately.  They were so badly in need of rearrangement!  At one time I tried to sort these items by surname, state, and county.  Not the best idea, as I could never remember which location was involved.   Stuff just got lost.

As I have mentioned before, I decided to sort this collection of documents by TYPE, creating a numbered code for each (Vital 001, Landxxx, Militaryxxx, etc.). The most significant items, like some marriage licenses, baptismal records, and obituaries, get space in the “show-off” archival album, with references from the appropriate folder. Of course I make sure to include the location code in each individual’s notes, in my computer genealogy program.  

All the material for this line is being placed under the Tanner heading (my maternal line).  It seems less confusing than subdividing it into more surnames.  My mother was a Tanner and these are her ancestral lines, so I’ll just leave it at that.  

And while I’m at it, I’m transcribing a lot of hard-to-read handwritten notes, as well as relevant correspondence. Which brings up another matter.  How do you file letters? I prefer to consider the content (genealogy, biography) rather than the form it came in (correspondence).

So I have a code for Biography/Genealogy, or, for short, BGxxx.  The label can be applied not only to letters and emails, but also those printouts of online  “trees” (documented or not), biographical entries from mug books, Bible records, and even obituaries. That takes care of just about everything in this category I feel is worth saving.

Some other categories I find useful are: Public (voter lists, appointments to pubic positions, etc.), Probate (obvious), and Other (newspaper articles that aren’t obits, for instance).  Early tax records go in the Land category because most are based on land ownership.

I used to print out census records for just about everyone, keeping them in a separate binder, arranged by location and census year.  But now that census pages are so easy to examine online (HeritageQuest, FamilySearch, Ancestry), I’m considering saving just the printouts that relate to my direct ancestors, and ditching the rest.  Good citations in the notes field will make it easy to retrieve the others as needed. (Though it’s hard to throw anything away!)

Going through all these papers again has had several benefits. For instance, I have found that transcribing family letters not only makes them easier to read, but, in my case, has led to some rediscoveries.  It embarrasses me to admit I  found family information in a decades-old letter that I had spent time hunting for at the Family History Library last fall. Oops. 

But I haven’t just unearthed old forgotten data.  I’ve been able to take a more seasoned view of all my notes and references.  Some lists, of marriages, tombstone inscriptions, and the like, are available online now, so can be discarded after a bit of checking.  Other vague notations take on new meaning now that I have more research experience.  And I’ve actually been able to throw away some old notes! Amazing!

Do you have a special system for organizing your papers?  Tell me about it!

The curse of the unfinished project ...

I’ve learned to be wary of my own enthusiasms. What seems like a fantastically wonderful idea in the early morning hours may collapse within days, deflated like an old balloon. It is so tempting to plunge right in and start whacking away as soon as the thought occurs. And so discouraging when, several hours into the project, a fatal shortcoming shows up. Or the sustained interest just isn’t there, the point is lost, and the whole thing gets consigned to the back of the file cabinet.

Another thing that dampens my fervor is the discovery that what I have is not a NEW idea at all -- my so-called innovation has been done by everyone else long ago. Of course if it still works for me, who cares?

So, when a lightbulb goes off over my head these days I like to take a while to ponder ALL the possibilities. I’m certainly not against spontaneity -- it’s just that most seemingly good ideas need time to mature. The best way to proceed, I find, is to write out the new-found project idea in the form of a realistic goal and the steps needed to get there.

One day I thought I’d like to create, and print, descendant charts for all my end-of-line ancestors, coming down at least four generations. The first try worked well and with a good deal of tweaking I even got it to fit on a single legal-size page. But the next one had so many children and so many marriages I simply could not manage it. And then a look through my files showed that I had tried this sort of thing many times before.

I was forcefully reminded that what works for one family line isn’t necessarily going to work for them all. Sometimes we sacrifice too much in an effort to be consistent -- or let the notion of keeping things uniform discourage us completely. Some families move a lot, others stay put. Some have multiple marriages, others don’t. Where family history is concerned, the only thing that is consistent is the lack of consistency!

This was my most recent lightbulb thought: to create a set of family history albums, one for each of my/our five major lines. It is an extension of the narrative idea I described last time, and would include, as well as the story line, an illustrated pedigree, the above-mentioned descendant charts, and selected photos and documents. I already have archival binders with many items included, but for this project I would like to begin afresh. Sometimes trying to revise an old unfinished project is just too discouraging, or distracting.

I’ll let you know how it comes along next time.

Genealogical meanderings ...

Isn’t it fascinating how searching for one little piece of information leads to another? It is sort of like following a meandering path through the woods, as in those childhood stories, and instead of finding the way home we discover a whole new meadow. (Or we follow a stream and come upon a waterfall.)

Pardon me while I wax poetic … I was looking for information on some children who seemed to disappear when their father died and their mother remarried; instead I found another elusive child, and evidence of the deceased parent having had an earlier marriage. So no anwers, yet, but some more questions!

Now and then, when I am stumped in my research, when census records and other documents just don’t seem to help, I simply Google the name of someone I am looking for. In this case, searching for more on Samuel Walton Currie (d. GA 1891), I was led to a GenForum query from 2002 about his very family. When messages are that old, chances of getting a response are slim, but I was lucky, and an answer came within 24 hours. And with it, ideas for more paths to follow, of course.

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Yes, I am still cleaning out the office, but needed to take a break (all those decisions about what to throw away were making me crazy), and a chance question from someone stirred me to return to this particular problem. I am truly fortunate to have friends who care about the human interest aspects of this kind of research even though they are not genealogists.

In the matter of cleaning up, I am trying to adopt the philosophy of “The Practical Archivist,” who flatly states that you do not have to keep every photograph ever taken. (This applies to my travel memorabilia, NOT my ancestral portraits!) It was always hard for me to discard even the blurriest from-a-train-window shots, but with hardened resolve I have tossed quite a few -- PLUS all those duplicates the film developers used to bless us with. Furthermore, once I scan them I intend to get rid of the old fading film. So there.

I doubt I will ever sit down and create elaborate albums of ALL my trips, but the most memorable are being arranged in an accessible format (at least that is my plan). The envelopes, bags and cartons are slowly being emptied, and I have -- at the moment -- a mild sense of accomplishment. And I am getting rid of not only useless photos, but a lot of other tangential material -- clippings and guidebook pages that have outlived their usefulness, outdated local guides, now-meaningless scribbled notes, etc. Instead I am keeping maps, GOOD pictures, tickets, interesting brochures, local newspaper items that grabbed my attention, and other things that have specific meaning to me. It helps that I keep journals, so pictures are easier to identify and I can reconstruct itineraries as needed.

I have tried using those expandable envelopes for “temporary” storage, but find them too floppy to stack or shelve, so have resorted to shunting the lot into those impersonal (boring) bankers’ boxes. Once hiddden away like that, they tend to be forgotten.

Then I found some cardboard document storage boxes from a library supply house which claim to be acid-free (though in this case I don’t really care), and which can stand upright on a bookshelf (or back on the floor in my office -- oops). Each is large enough to hold at least one trip's worth of stuff, and they will be convenient to work on, but neatly -- and uniformly -- contained in the meanwhile.

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“Why we make home videos” is the headline of David Pogue’s Personal Tech column in today’s New York Times. He discusses his efforts to transfer the tapes to a newer format, AND his readers’ comments on the whole project. (Can you believe that there are some people who don’t think he should even bother recording family activities???)

Some Personal Musings ...

I am still working on the office mess. With help from my tech-savvy daughter I was able to reduce the number of wires and cables behind the desk, and put the remaining cords on a single power strip. That way I can turn all the equipment off with a single switch if I am to be away for more than a day or two. (I have solar panels, so don’t worry too much about wasting electricity, but a power surge could wipe out equipment and data.)

Thinking about my oft-discussed research problems, I got some of the documentation rearranged and tucked into new folders. Just that act can give new insight into old puzzles. I started out with a statement about the individual in question (each issue usually does concern one single person, so far); I try to state, as concisely as possible, what it is I want to know. Then, I write down what I already know, also in brief form. That is followed by a list of searches already done, and ideas for future exploration. (As time goes by, this list gets longer.) A separate sheet has specific sources to look into, in log form. Also useful is a map of the area, if known, appropriate to the time.

The trick is to avoid getting sidetracked at this point. Thinking “oh, I’ll just take a look at the 1870 census right now and see if she is there” can lead you away from the point ot this exercise. Instead, make a note in your log to “look for _____ in Illinois, 1870 census indexes.”

I call wandering off the path this way “grazing.” Although tempting and sometimes even serendipitous, it is mostly a means of using up time. Wandering around in census indexes, or looking up resources on USGenWeb for a particular county, with no specific goal in mind, no idea of the county’s historic boundaries, and no list of previous searches, just ends up being light entertainment -- not a serious means to a stated end. (That is not say I haven’t spent many an hour doing this very thing.)

If there isn’t time to jump in with both feet, try selecting a single item to work on. Look up a census record, or look for a book title on Worldcat. (You know about WorldCat, don’t you?) And ALWAYS make a note of the resources you searched and the results, even if they are negative. That way you won’t inadvertently go over the same ground another time.

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David Pogue had a column on the fragility of our supposedly robust data storage systems in the March 23 issue of The New York Times. Every genealogist should read it!

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From Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree, by Lisa Alther (2007):

“ ..... unlike Greatgrandma Peale, I can’t link my father’s ancestors to Europe. Most lines vanish in the mid-1700s, like creeks in desert sand ... “

That's all for now.

More on organizing

My last post, on the difficulty of organizing genealogical materials, must have hit a nerve, because there have been several heartfelt responses from readers (Thank you!). I was spurred to tackle my mess once more -- it has become a logjam that prevents me from even thinking about any individual research problem.

At a recent meeting of the Sonoma County Genealogical Society, the subject was “Organizing for a research trip.” I always thought I had that down pretty well, but of course I learned a good deal, and was inspired by all these motivated people. Turns out, the suggestions they made can be applied to my current difficulties, even without an out-of-town trip on the horizon (at least not for several months).

I decided to start in on my “work in progress” folders, which have become dumping grounds for notes, census printouts, and other miscellany. (Does it ever occur to you that the workspace resembles an archeologically-defined midden heap, with piles getting higher and higher, so that we just pick off the topmost layer to work on?) For me,“Work in progress” had become a euphemism for “I’ll just put this stuff here for now.”

My first step was to inventory the folders and divide them into categories. In fact, after I made the list the subject divisions seemed to present themselves.

I have several descendancy projects, for various individuals who are siblings of my direct ancestors. It is fun and rewarding to work forward in time for a change, coming down from a known relative and trying to trace all that person’s descendants -- though there are challenges when everyone has girls!

Another set of project/problems I have labeled “mystery persons,” because they deal with individuals who figure in some way in my family history, but I don’t yet know if they are related, and, if so, how. I combined this with a couple of “lost boys.” These are young men who disappear from the records presumably unmarried and childless -- I want to know what became of them!

Then there is the catchall category I call “General Vexations,” for those irritating problems that so far defy solution. An early ancestor’s county of birth, which would lead me to his parents; the whereabouts of a relative in the years before he shows up married in Tennessee, while his brothers all stayed in Indiana; the story behind the disappearance of a little girl’s family in Kansas, which led her to be taken in and renamed (though not formally adopted) by another couple.

At the Genealogical Society meeting we were reminded that planning for a trip involves pulling relevant materials together for particular research efforts, with some background data, and I liked the idea of thaving a thin binder for each one. It can contain a family group sheet, map of the area, a timeline, a research log (my downfall), and of course a plan for doing future research. The most important thing, of course, is to have a well-defined, not-too-broad, goal in mind. It does help to put that in writing.

This can be applied to non-travel as well -- going on the Internet these days is as fruitful as many trips used to be. A binder keeps items in place and encourages you to use standard-size sheets of paper for your notes. A simple matter, but it helps a lot. And if you only have a handful of sheets for a particular project and don’t want to buy three-ring binders by the dozen, try using folders with pockets.

The key here is to be consistent. Have the same kinds of materials for each project, insofar as they are relevant. Be clear on what it is you want to find out, and be sure to include, in the form of timelines or tables and family group sheets, what you already know (with sources). Sometimes just re-arranging all this will reveal clues and suggest new search strategies. If it seems absolutely essential to have family documents at hand, make copies and store the precious originals elsewhere.

That brings us to the next question -- where is “elsehwere”? A topic for another time.

Cleanup time -- again

You’d think I could get this clean-up-the-workspace project taken care of for once and for all. I think of myself as a fairly organized person. Librarians at least know where the books go on the shelf -- and I used to file catalog cards in their prescribed and very precise filing order. But those items have predetermined places.

The difficulty comes, first, with not putting materials back in place when one is done with them, and, second, having to determine anew the place for certain acquisitions, whether they are notes, charts, printouts, or those essential scraps of paper. I hate to confess it, but I still have things in all those categories from my trip to Salt Lake City last fall.

There are archival binders, legal and letter-size folders, three two-drawer filing cabinets, a “to file” basket, several feet of bookshelves, bankers’ boxes, clamshell containers, more than a dozen three-ring binders --- the list is endless. Some are in use, and a few are empty, waiting to be used. I just cleared some space in one of the filing cabinets by getting rid of several dozen floppy discs. Floppies!! What was I thinking?

A research trip requires a certain number of papers as well as the trusty laptop. Once I return home, unfortunately, they don’t get refiled (or I forget where they went). Add to this a mix of genealogical periodicals which I scan eagerly as soon as they arrive, then set aside to put away after I check out the references of interest. (Whenever that might be.)

Then there are the boxes of family photos which I have been scanning off and on for several months. At least that project has moved forward to some degree. The scanned photos have been divided into groups based on family line and time period, and I have copied the most important of them to a CD, just to prove to myself I could do it. This will go in the safe deposit box soon. I also bought an external hard drive and activated the “time machine” feature on my Macbook, enabling automatic backups of absolutely everything. Of course if the house burned down, both the Mac and the hard drive would probably be gone -- that’s why it is so important to keep copies of photos and important documents off site in the safe deposit box.

But meanwhile the original photos, those actual prints from before the days of digital cameras, sit in boxes and binders awaiting some serious sorting and re-arranging. The archival binders have the very most precious, mostly older, photographs and documents (or copies), but there are still many, many pictures to be dealt with.

I have mentioned this before, but Sally Jacobs’ blog, “The Practical Archivist,” is well worth a visit. She is of the opinion that not every single photo is worth saving. A shocking concept at first, but on reflection, quite a useful one.

Speaking of organizing, the files on the computer need work, too. But perhaps that is a subject for another time.

Focus!

Lately you may have noticed I have been obsessed with organizing! Well, not just lately, but most of the time. It is frustrating to duplicate research efforts because the original is hidden away somewhere, forgotten.. How often have you taken the time and trouble to print out or photocopy a document, only to discover you already had a copy?

Another problem I have is finding myself plugging away on a surname, only to be brought up short with the realization that the family is far removed, with only tenuous links to my ancestral lines. This is more about FOCUS than organization, I guess, but they go hand in hand.

My attempts at visualising the big picture have also been ongoing – I wrote a few weeks ago about a wish list for computer genealogy program features. One included a way to see more people – and their relationships -- at once. I reason that if I had a view of the overall structure of the important (to me) families, it would be easier to stay on course. But a computer screen is just so big and even the most elaborate program is constrained by its boundaries.

So I turned to wall displays. It is possible to download enormous charts, in printer-friendly format, onto external storage devices (floppy discs or CDs) and take them to a local copy shop where a plotter can turn out a big sheet. And some firms do this by mail. Also, of course, most programs allow you to print out a chart on several standard-size sheets and tape them together. These all are more or less permanent renditions of the family tree, however, and we know how often new or re-interpreted data requires adjustments to the Big Picture.

What I have chosen to do for now is this:
Printing out five-generation descendancy charts for the ancestors I am working on, I fasten them to a 2' x 3' magnetic bulletin board. Its "dry-erase" feature allows me to write in data and move it around. Magnetic 8 ½" x 11" sheets, thin enough to run through most home printers, were used to print headings for the individual at the top of each chart. (The sheets are primarily used to print photos, and have a glossy white finish on one side.)

I also made a list of all the surnames involved with each line. That is, the birth names of wives, and married names of daughters. This is posted above the computer monitor so I can check it at a glance.

Why does "Bostwick" ring a bell? Oh yes, Thomas's granddaughter married a Bostwick before she married a Hickman. But my chart indicates there were no children, so do I really want to pursue that line right now?

An article "Charting Your Priorities," by Susan Zacharias, appearing in the current issue of the NGS NewsMagazine (Jan/Feb/Mar 2007) also discusses treating surnames in this way. She advocates listing every surname back at least five generations, and emphasizing the names needing the most attention by the use of various sizes of type, underlining, and bold-facing of such names, adding what is known in the way of places and dates.

As these pieces of information are found, the list is revised, but it is always there as an aid in determining priorities.

And having priorities is as important as being organized, don't you agree?