This has been a difficult article to write because all of us have unique ways to organize our documents that hopefully work well for us. I certainly do not think that my way is for everyone, but it works for me because I am dealing with an overwhelming number of paper documents, and I am very visual.

The most important step in collecting documents, though, is to ORGANIZE them!

Dealing With Paper

When I first began collecting family information and asking questions, I was in elementary school—the few photos, obits, and notebooks fit in a shoe box stored under my bed. Eventually, that grew to an underbed box, but everything was still contained and easy to organize in envelopes and stacks tied with ribbon.

I gradually added my own research to the box; then Grandma died in 1996, and I inherited 20 (yes, really) boxes of photos and documents that Grandma had kept through all of her adult life. I now have school records, Sunday School cards, death certificates, obits, marriage licenses, newspaper clippings, military records, letters, diaries, and miscellaneous other items. Plus prized photos dating back to the Civil War. Thankfully, Grandma labeled most of the photos.

Mom died in 2016, and I inherited five large plastic tubs of more papers and photos. While it is great to be entrusted with all these items, it was a time-consuming mess to sort and organize. Some days I just wanted to give up.

What had first been a nice neat amount of family history items suddenly became a landslide. Here is my most basic advice on organizing:

• First, do not throw anything away until you have carefully gone through every single piece of paper. That odd piece of paper may go along with something else and solve a mystery.
• Sort every single thing into piles (I did by last name, and then went back and resorted by individuals).
• At this point, you need to decide exactly how you are going to file all this—paper, digital, or hybrid (both paper and digital). I opted for hybrid.
• How about space? Do you have file cabinets or shelving, or both? What about a closet that can be converted to a storage area for these important items?
• Now that you have (or have made) a place for all this paper, organize the paper by person and put it in a file folder or large envelope. I have many people in my family with the same name so this is what my folders look like:
• Figure out a system to separate your maternal and paternal lines. It can be using different colored files, or colored stickers. The important thing is that is works for you.
• Keep a bulletin board handy for lists of questions, and other info that you are currently working on.
• I quickly discovered that I had more than one file folder for most of the direct ancestors, so I opted for three-ring binders and sheet protectors for these folks. Each one has their own binder, and I chronologically arrange the documents inside so I can see what I have and what I need (a timeline of sorts).
• I also have gone to family groups in large three-ring binders because it seems that, as I find info on one family member, I also find items on other family members, especially siblings. I just put insert dividers with a name of a sibling on each divider. The direct person has a divider that gives their basic info and refers them to an individual binder.

What About Digital?

I grew up in the generation that desktop computers were just starting to become available. I had to learn to use a computer, and it certainly was not part of my day-to-day life. I work in medical records, and at that point everything was on paper. I was trained and experienced in using paper—well within my comfort zone.

Computers terrified me. As time has passed, I have now come to see computers as a really useful tool. As a family historian, it is a wonderful help to search for information, but also for storing that data. It may be a slow process to digitalize the records, but it is well worth the time.

I have slowly been scanning all these documents and storing them in files that are exactly like the paper ones—the only difference is that they are now digital. I store them on the computer, and I also back them up to an external hard drive that is stored in a fireproof safe. There is also the option for “in the cloud” storage.

I use a simple four-part system to label the digital files: Surname-firstname_yyyymmdd_state-place_item (example: Garner-Reba_19350330_PA-LancasterCo_marriagelicense).

I would recommend investing in a good scanner (I use an Epson Perfection V550) that scans photos and papers. I also own a good external hard-drive, and it proved to be worth every penny when my computer unexpectedly crashed last year and everything on it was lost! The computer files were all put back on the computer from the backup—time lost but nothing else.

Summary

This article is simply to encourage you to figure out a way to organize your family files. They are of no use to anyone if the documents cannot be located—any way of organizing them that works for you is what is right for you. Just organize them.

Upon your death, neat files are a whole lot easier to deal with then messy stacks of papers and photos that will probably and sadly get thrown away. I put in my will where I want my files to go.

If you want to see more on how I organize my own family history, here is the link to the blog for that post: https://lancastercountyfamilyties.blogspot.com/2018/01/my-organization-system.html

Happy Organizing!!!!

SIDE NOTE: I continue to research Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, families, and specifically am looking for Applebach, Boehm/Beam, Caskey, Findley, Garner, Groff (“Swamp” John), Newpher/Newfer, Ressler, Stover, Yost, and Wolf families.