Sorting Saturday - Digital Surname Sorting

I've heard lots of recommendations as to how to sort your files.  The bottom line is, that it has to be something that works for you...not someone else.  You need to be able to find your files when you need them.  This is how I sort mine...

Currently I'm researching 2 family trees.  My step-father's (Trunzo) and my children's (Cayemberg).  I have a "Tree" folder for each tree I'm conducting research on.  I could have split them further...one for my side of the family and one for my husband's, but when I'm entering people into my family tree program I'm entering both sides so it makes more sense to keep them under one.

Those "Tree" folders are broken down into surname folders.  Then under each surname folder I break them down a bit more into specific records/events. There are folders for Birth, Census Records, Death, Education, Immigration & Naturalization, Marriage, Military, Newspaper, Pictures, Probate, Property, and Tombstones.  Outside those folders I have miscellaneous items that don't really have a specific home.  I could create a Misc folder, but as a matter of personal preference don't.  I like seeing them floating around without a home so when I notice that I'm starting to acquire multiple records that can be grouped together I then create a new folder.  If I created that "Misc Folder" I know myself and just wouldn't check it often enough to see if things were ready for a new grouping.  Also in the free space I've got a surname "Research Log".  When I conduct research on a specific surname, in the log it goes.  It's also a great place for surname "To-Do" lists.

I use the PAF program for my family tree, but I have to admit that I'm eyeing the Legacy software after attending some of Legacy's webinars.  I like what I'm seeing.  I just haven't made the commitment yet.  More research is needed to see how flawlessly my tree will transfer.  Anyway, before I get distracted talking about a genealogical wish list...I was going to mention that in the PAF program I ensure that I've got people being assigned MRINs (Marriage Record Identification Numbers).  I'm sure the majority of programs can assign MRINs.

What this means (if you didn't know) is that people are assigned a specific number when they get married.  Documents in my binders are filed by Family Group Records and since the basis of those family groups are marriages, if someone got married their records go to that MRIN not under their parents.  Since my binder filing system already does that, my digital system mirrors it.  I don't place multiple copies under different surnames.  They go with their married surname.  So what do you do when you've got several marriages for an individual?  Well, that's really up to you.  I usually put them with the last marriage's MRIN, but you may have your own system.

The PAF program (and I'm sure most others as well) can print out a report that gives you the MRIN along with the couples they belong to.  It makes a perfect index when you can't remember what someone's married name was.  But I digress...that is more helpful with binder/paper files and that's another Sorting Saturday!

Sorting Saturday - Photo Files

Benjamin and Daniel Cayemberg with their Papa, Patrick Cayemberg.

So last Saturday I was looking for pictures of my boys picking apples in Wisconsin. It was about 3 years ago that we went and I had some great pictures of my boys having fun with their parents and grandparents in the orchard.  I couldn't find the pictures on my laptop.  My desktop is a hopeless wreck and is soon to be replaced...I wasn't even going to attempt to log onto that thing!  But I swore that they should have been on  my laptop!  Couldn't find them.

Over the summer I had installed Windows 7 over my crap program, Windows Vista (an evil joke Microsoft put out that should have been labeled as malware considering how it wreaks havoc on everything).  I suppose because we tried installing it over top of the old program it took up more space and we had issues with me running out of room on the hard drive.  I'll stop trying to be technical, because I can only pretend to understand the headache that was my computer in past months...fixing the technological train wreck was my hubby's job.  The point is, after we resuscitated my computer and fixed the space problem I noticed pictures missing.

Benjamin Cayemberg - Wisconsin, Autumn 2007

All was not lost.  I do have a backup on an iomega drive (I do need to back it up more frequently though), so I pulled out the iomega and started transferring files back over to my laptop, and then actually backing up my laptop (not just pictures, but everything).  What I realized was that I needed to reorganize my files.  I had a good system, but grew neglectful of it.  So that's what I spent a few hours of my time doing last Saturday.  It felt good too.

So what's my system for sorting my photos?  Well, I used to file them by date when I was younger.  That's wonderful if you can remember when something happened.  I found that through the years I couldn't remember, but I could remember places. 

Daniel Cayemberg - Wisconsin, Autumn 2007

I haven't been outside the U.S. yet (apart from a couple short day trips to Mexican border towns that didn't include pictures), so my  folders are by state.  I upload my pictures to Shutterfly, so within each state folder I have at least 2 sub-folders..."for upload" & "uploaded".  Pretty self-explanatory.  I don't take a lot of video with my camera (I'm bad...I should take more), so if I actually have video, I put that in it's own sub-folder.

It's a system that works for me.  It may not work for everyone.  I mean, the bottom line is that you've got to be able to find your stuff.  As long as you can find your files, that's what really matters!