In my previous post,
here, I outlined my notions about how to organize electronic family history stuff. Added experience has caused this to evolve and THIS post is about where things are in March, 2019. This has evolved due to three factors.
First, when I research at local libraries, the "Ancestry Library" edition will only work if you are ON a library computer. Ancestry allows you to email file links to yourself, but I have found that it works better if I simply download everything to the "Downloads" file on the library computer. In addition, "Familysearch," while free to use at home, contains some images that can ONLY be seen at a Mormon Church or a designated library such as the one in Grapevine, Texas. At the end of my session, I move everything from the "Downloads" into the "All Stuff from library" folder that resides on my USB. I then sort things out further after I return home.
To facilitate work at the library, I put things in another folder that I've labeled as "
look in libary" where I put notes to help get the most out of library time. Anything that I think has an image from familysearch that I can't see at home I label as "HOT." Most of those show up quickly since I know exactly what and how to search so it comes up.
Second, I find I can keep pretty much everything on a USB 3 drive that is 128Gb in size. However, USB drives are small and can be lost so frequent backup is necessary. What's more, my own USB drive fell out of my pocket in a parking lot and a car ran over it. Luckily it didn't get broken, though it did get bent and pitted from the pavement. Since that day, I have paid more attention on ways to back up simply, quickly, and flexibly. That has influenced my top level filing system, which is summarized below - the names were chosen to sort out in the right order when viewed alphabetically. I expect that I will eventually put the backup in more than one place since recreating thousands of files would be burdensome.
- aaaa - Stable Averill 2018 and before Scans and Photos
- aaaa - Stable Averill stuff from Tresa - Jan 2019
- library downloads
- library to do
I don't back up any of these first four folders. The first two are "stable" and unlikely to ever change, and were backed up at that time. In addition, they are large files that take a lot of time to back up. In particular, the "Tresa" folder contains several gigabytes of backup files from the original Averill Family history book that was written by Clara Avery back before 1925. The second two are working folders that are where I put stuff from each library working session and keep aids to what and how I want to search while AT the library.
These folders are followed by the ones below that I back up by REPLACEMENT of all files each time before I take the USB drive away from the computer since I frequently change file names and subfolder locations as I make discoveries. I also leave the old ones at a separate location for a while in case I want to go back. Anyway these are:
- Nancy - Bodin and Tuft
- Nancy - Erickson and Erickson
- Nancy - Jacobs and Herman
- Nancy - Peterson
- Steve - Averill
- Steve - Ettinger and Glenn
- Steve - Rice and Ibbotson
- Steve - Whitworth and Hopkinson
These groupings represent the four great grandparent families of Nancy and Steve, respectively. The first two represent Nancy's maternal family and the second two represent her paternal family. In Steve's case, the first two are paternal and the second two are maternal. If I get a lot more Thorne or Johnson files, I'll change the name of the first Steve folder to "Averill and Thorne" and the name of the last Nancy folder to "Peterson and Johnson." The byword here is to stay flexible and organized.
The last two folders don't get backed up regularly, though I'll back them up occasionally. This is because most of the stuff either doesn't change often, wouldn't be seriously missed if it were lost, or would not be real difficult to recreate if necessary.
- Various General Stuff
- Various Unverified or Wrong Stuff
Finally, I have evolved in how I name the files that I come up with. some organizing and storing principles are still fully valid in the electronic age. The first of these is that too many files at one level of storage eventually get confusing. When we write, outliners tell us we should have two to five points at a level. Electronics expand that number dramatically, but once the number of files requires a fair amount of scrolling and you get a lot of similar names and dates, it is time to create lower level folders. The second is that it is easier to tell what you have already got and what you might want to get if you have an organization to the ever-valid "who what when where why and how" rule of information transmission.
One example is shown in the image below, which is the top part of the "Steve - Averill" folder. As you can see, There are folders that all relate to the main subject - that of Averill stuff - and which I have not become ready to put in the "General" or "Unverified or Wrong" folders.
Moving on to the files, some have an "aaa" prefix, meaning they don't change very often, but they go with the stuff in the folder and I don't want to have to jump around to find them. The aaa means they go right to the top in an alphabetic sort. I can also use them as shorthand for references in narratives that I periodically put together, such as some of the Averill history snippets I post on this blog.
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| Top Portion of "Steve - Averill" Folder |
Another example is shown in the image below, which is the top part of a subfolder in the "Nancy - Erickson and Erickson" folder. This example involves a whole bunch of similar sounding files that involve lots of different people in a foreign language. As you can see, long file names and a consistent naming approach make it easier to tell what I have, AND things that might be there that I just don't have yet. It may not be obvious, but "Jan Olsson" became the husband of "Anna Andersdotter" before they married, moved to Amerika, and became "John and Annie Olson" when they settled in Minnesota. Swedish children of theirs who moved later would have likely had american names something like "Oles Johnson" or "Bertha Johnson." You can IMAGINE how many Ericksons, Johnsons, Olsons and such there were in Minnesota when the lumber industry was going great guns there, immigration was easy, and times were hard back in Sweden.
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| Top Portion of Subfolder John Erickson Family in Sweden |
I find that as I learn more about the histories, that I wind up frequently renaming or adding items to existing names so that everything remains organized. My backup system is set up to support keeping backup files with the "latest and greatest" name while not keeping older names that could cause future confusion. This is true with American records as well as the Swedish ones. For example, I only recently learned the difference between "Wisner City" and "Wisner Township" which are both in Cuming County, Nebraska. Wisner City is IN Wisner Township, though that is not always the case that towns are in the same township name place. What's more, I also recently learned that if someone OWNED their farmland, I could find the farm in historic atlases. Likewise, city directories sometimes capture what people did and where they did it. This led me to be able to find the likely building in Bemidji, Minnesota where Nancy's Great Great Grandfather operated a grocery store back in the 1930's. That location is shown in the photo below that came from Google Streetview. I was thrilled to find that such places not only exist, but that you can find them. Anyone want to buy a derelict corner grocery store building in Minnesota?
Soon, I plan to better sytemetize my naming approach, so that, when sorted alphabetically, files will sort directly into a timeline of each person of interest. I may also start adding short "reference documents" of some sort so it is easy to see what is what for people that are almost entirely covered by documents with someone else's name. Stay tuned for further developments.
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| Google Maps Streetview of Possible John Erickson Grocery in Bemidji MN |
