LUGers
The basic philosophy behind cataloging and classifying
documents is to be able to put each item in a place where
it is to be found with minimum effort. File IDs are
used to identify documents, to keep them in an order,
and are used when searching for documents.
We can file paper documents as we get them, one after
another. The first item is number 1, the second is 2, etc.
This is an easy way to store documents physically.
But as the inventory grows, is not the easiest system
for finding items.
Generally we prefer to store like items together, i.e.,
all census records together, all marriage records
together, etc. It can narrow down our search to
a smaller group of items.
File IDs should start with the most significant
subject first and end with the least significant.
For example: A census record's file ID would
most likely start with the word "census" or
its abbreviation. Next would be the location
followed by the date the census was taken.
Location should start with country, then proceed
down to the least significant location, usually the
county, town, or parish. A marriage file ID might
start with "Marriage", then where, and finally when.
One could add a "who" to make the order
what, where, when, and who. You might like a
different order. And you may need a bibliographic
citation with author, title, etc. for some documents.
As you can see, the file ID I propose can get rather
lengthy. What, where, when, and who may each take
more than 4 fields. I have locations taking 6 fields
country, county, district, parish, town, and street.
It might be best to shorten the file ID to "what"
and a unique number. I would not include "who"
as there may be more than one "who" per document.
Since you use a computer, size is a very minor problem.
You could use the computer to help calculate the
file IDs, keep them in order, and search your holdings.
And you can use your computer to print labels for
your file folders.
The above is incomplete and may not fit your way
of thinking. Just a few ideas from a retired librarian.
JimS
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Andrea Heslin wrote:
Here is the system that I recently created for myself. It works for me,
maybe it will help others, I do not know though as we are each such
unique individuals and all think so differently.
Like others, I have trouble keeping up with all my documents and
correspondences. This really created a huge mess for me and I became
very determined some 8 months ago to get this under control. This is
what I came up with and so far it is working extremely well.
______________________________________________________________________
1. I had my computer guru and certified to build and repair PC's son
custom build me a new "super" computer. In other words, one that will
have plenty of ram and 2 large hard drives so that when there are issues
with the main C drive requiring reformatting, it will only be one hard
drive and not the one with all my research data on it. We also put in
the top of the line in graphics card to handle reading census images
without hiccup, superb when photo editing, burning DVD's etc. It was
very expensive, between 2 and 3 grand but that also included a new
larger monitor for my very aging eyes. It is far more of a system then I
will ever really actually need but it works fantastic for me. He put in
a lot of goodies I will likely never use.
2. I am currently scanning all my documents, having taken a break from
the actual research part for a while to get caught up with my source
documents as most of what I have still needs to be gleaned and sourced
into my data.
I store the images into a master file on my second hard drive, labeled
as the Master Genealogy Research File, and into individual sub files
beginning with tiles such as 1790 Fed Census, 1800 Fed Census, 1810 Fed
Census, etc. Birth Records, Death records, Marriage records,
Directories, Cemetery Records, so on and so forth.
3. I also back this up to individual CD-ROMs labeled in short form such
as for the birth records it says ID: BthR1.
4. I created an Excel spreadsheet where I list each document as such:
Number (just to show how many I have recorded);
Title of document: Example: Certificate of Baptism;
Date (date document created or date discovered);
Names in Document: These are the surnames I list that were located in
the document;
CD-R ID: (the CD-ROM I have stored it to);
File ID (My physical paper file storage which has a master file Example:
labeled such as Birth Records with two individual sub files marked as
sourced and un-sourced to be placed according to whether I have recorded
the info in my family database. Since my first priority at this time is
getting my sources scanned and preserved right now, many of my documents
are going in the un-sourced files until I can get back to them at a
later date.)Also, I gave each census year it's own master file with the
two sub files, eventually I will store the sourced one by state as well
within each years master file.;
Drive and File location: My hard drives are partitioned so it is
important for me to know which partition my master genealogy file is
located on and what subfolder as well to get to it directly if I need to
without having to go to my physical paper file and handle each document
again. Example of how this would look is; Drive P; Master Genealogy
Research File/Marriage Records.
Sourced: and this is a yes or no question for obvious reasons.
Also, My Excel file is my temporary PC file system as I am working on
creating an MS Access database to record all this to so that I can post
queries to it and have it bring up results of all documents with a
certain surname in it and linking me directly to the actual images
within my comuter. Ultimately I will use the Excel file to help me get
my data into the MS Access database rather quickly.
The CD's I am burning are strictly insurance for backup just because we
all know just how fickle computers can be.
I apologize for the length of this message but wanted to share my system
in case it may help others in creating their own.
Andrea
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