Organizing Your Family History on Your Computer. Copyright 2007 by Ancestor Link. All rights reserved.

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1 Organizing Your Family History on Your Computer

2 Ancestor Link Visit our web page at:

3 Family History research must be organized to be of value. Many methods have been developed over the years. Some have been better than others. Ring Binders Manila Folders Hanging Dividers Notebooks Loose Sheets of Paper Post-it Notes Etc.

4 How Do We Organize Our Family History on a Computer? Perhaps just as important is the question of WHY we organize our Family History on a computer rather than on paper only.

5 What Does the Computer Do for Family Historians? Clear and not misunderstood It is easy and inexpensive to reproduce. Easy, fast and inexpensive to share with others. Less storage space is required. Faster to find what you are looking for Easy to correct errors without re-writing

6 Example of Space Saved OR

7 Is Electronic Storage Always Best? Is there ever a time when paper would be better than a computer? Perhaps. Paper written today can still be read in 100 years unless storage conditions cause either the paper or the ink to fail.

8 Organizing the Family History Information on Your Computer There are two major goals when you organize the Family History information on your computer. Make the information easy to find and use. Make it easy to protect your information against loss

9 Rule #1 Put all of your Family History Information together in one place on your computer.

10 Where Do You Put Your Family History Information? Step 1: 1. Decide where on your computer you want to store your Family History information. This should be a location that you can get to easily. (Note: A good place for this might be inside of the My Documents folder, but it can be anywhere you choose.) 2. Create a single folder on your computer. 3. Give it any name you wish

11 Create a Folder in an Easy-to-Reach Location I have my Family History folder inside of the My Documents folder. I gave it the name: AAA-FH_Stuff The triple-a at the beginning makes it always appear as the first folder within My Documents.

12 A Single Folder for All of My Family History Information

13 Why Put All FH Information in the Same Folder? If your Family History is scattered around your computer, it will create several problems: 1. You will be trying continually to decide where to put information when you find it. 2. When you look for something, you will not know where it is. 3. Most Important You will not be able to protect your information easily.

14 Why Put All FH Information in the Same Folder? Your Family History information is in a single, easy-to-find location on your computer. 1. You will always know exactly where to place a specific piece of information. 2. When you look for something, you will know exactly where it is. 3. Most Important You will be able to protect your information easily.

15 An Organizing Method that Really Works The method described here works smoothly and is not overly complicated. It is not the only method that works, but it is the method I use.

16 The AAA Folder

17 Folders within the AAA Folder

18 Folders within the AAA Folder

19 Text Document Folder

20 Four Major Family Lines Booth Warren Dixon Hands

21 Text Document Folder

22 Folders within the AAA Folder

23 Document Image Folder

24 Document Image Folder There are several surnames within each folder.

25 Naming Files within Major Family Line Folder Surname first in upper case Given names next in lower case Finally a description of the record

26 File Naming Convention If you name your files as suggested, they will be alphabetized and you will find them easily. Surname first in upper case Given names next in lower case Finally a description of the record

27 Folders within the AAA Folder

28 Photos of Family Members

29 Heirloom Photographs Photos of family treasures Non-map photos of places

30 Folders within the AAA Folder

31 Folders within the AAA Folder

32 Personal History Folder

33 Personal History Folder

34 Personal History Folder

35 Annotated Photo Album

36 Within the Personal Historian Folder

37 Folders within the AAA Folder

38 The GEDCOM Folder

39 Folders within the AAA Folder Everybody has need for a catchall folder sometime. It usually contains only temporary files until they can be classified.

40 Folders within the AAA Folder

41 FH Program Data and Backups

42 Important Important! Important! Backup your information frequently!

43 Backing Up Your Information Is Easy When it is well-organized.

44 How Can We Backup Our Information? 1.Backup to another computer 2.Backup to a 2 nd hard drive (internal or external) 3.Make a CD or a DVD. 4.Make an electronic copy in PDF format. 5.Make a paper copy.

45 How Can We Backup Our Information? 1.Backup to another computer 2.Backup to a 2 nd hard drive (internal or external) 3.Make a CD or a DVD. 4.Make an electronic copy in PDF format. 5.Make a paper copy.

46 How Can We Backup Our Information? 1.Backup to another computer 2.Backup to a 2 nd hard drive (internal or external) 3.Make a CD or a DVD. 4.Make an electronic copy in PDF format. 5.Make a paper copy.

47 Backup to Another Computer Hard Drive Copy of Information Hard Drive Computer Computer

48 What Other Computer? There are two common ways to backup to another computer. 1. By cable from one computer to another in the same location. Perhaps two computers in the same family. 2. By internet from your computer at home to another computer at another location. The most common situation is when you send your information over the internet to a company that rents space on their storage drives.

49 Backup to External Hard Drive Hard Drive Copy of Information Computer External Hard Drive

50 Backup to an External Hard Drive

51 Backup to 2 nd Internal Hard Drive Hard Drive 1 Hard Drive 2 Copy of Information Computer

52 How Can We Backup Our Information? 1.Backup to another computer 2.Backup to a 2 nd hard drive (internal or external) 3.Make a CD or a DVD. 4.Make an electronic copy in PDF format. 5.Make a paper copy.

53 Properties of Backup Methods Details Easy to Use Storage Protection from Data Loss Another Computer All Somewhat Complicated Compact Very Good Second Hard Drive All Easy Compact Very Good CD or DVD All Very Easy Compact Very Good Electronic PDF File Partial Itemby-Item Tedious for full backup Compact Very Good Paper Copy Partial Itemby-Item Tedious for full backup Extensive Long-term

54 My Preference I use two methods: Regular Backups to an External Hard Drive Periodic Backups to CD or DVD

55 Suggested Storage of Backups Make three (3) copies on CD or DVD. 1.Keep one copy at home. 2.Take one copy to the safe-deposit box at the bank 3.Send one copy to a relative who lives in another place.

56 Why So Much Care? If you have spent hundreds of hours of your life compiling the information, you should protect it from getting lost. If you are a typical family historian, some of your information is available only in your collected records.

57 Backing Up from One Hard Drive to Another SyncToy is a computer program. SyncToy makes an identical copy of a folder on one drive to a folder on another drive. SyncToy is easy to use. SyncToy is FREE.

58 How Do I Get SyncToy? Go to Enter SyncToy in the search window at the top right of the screen. Click the magnifying glass to the right of the search window. Click on the first search result to get a free download of SyncToy. Read the description of the program and decide whether you want to down load and install it. If you decide to install it, choose the download option and download it.

59 Are There Any Questions? If you take the time to organize the Family History information on your computer, you will be able to work faster and with less stress. You will also feel the quiet calm that comes with knowing that your information is safe.

60 Th, Th, That s all Folks!