Oh, Mike... why didn't you tell me to record sources 30 years ago when I started? Seriously: It is VERY good advice. To which I would add: Be organized... but in a way you can keep up. And: Don't trust a computer. (More than you have to!) Part of my system... not SO much for citing my data sources, but for finding the pieces of paper with data AND source citation. For "important" stuff... and stray scraps with "facts", not "to do" items... I have two files. They merely split my archives based on the physical size of the object I want to have under control, after it is folded to however I want to store it. One file is for what we in Europe call "A4"... pieces of paper about the size of US "Letter", c. 8" x 10". And one for A5... which is half of a piece of A4. In those files... and the photocopies of them which I distribute to a cousin, which provides off-site duplication in the event of a fire... I put A4 and A5 sized "stuff"... which covers most of my work. Of course, some of my work is on a computer. But if I find a useful census record image, I print out a copy for the file. For many things, on the hardcopy, I have a reference to what the file is called on the computer, in case I want the machine readable copy. But if it is no longer available, at least I have the material in SOME form. (I will often change the file's name on the computer to the FHS.... code which I will explain in a moment.) A single document in the file may be one page or many, stapled together in the latter instance. Whenever I get around to awarding something "filed" status, it gets an index code in its upper right hand corner... which allows me to refer to it concisely anywhere else in my work. The documents are in the file according to their index code, hence, if I have the code, I can always find the document, and filing isn't a chore of "finding the right place". With a little "wiggle room" for sanity, I try to adhere to a rule that says that once something is in this file, it is "set in stone"... I mainly use the file for primary source material... copies of wills, extracts from books, etc. Commentary and analysis is handled outside of this filing system, although it will from time to time get a document which is, say, my understanding at a certain moment of a particular branch of the family. The code on a document is something like FHS409c23a. I won't explain "why" every choice, but I will say that my "day job" was computer related, and I have some knowledge of what makes good coding and what doesn't. While the coding system just "pours everything" into a heap "helter skelter", there's no reason you can't create INDEXES to what is in the file. Here's how the hypothetical "FHS409c23e" got it's name FHS: A prefix, shared by all of these documents, to distinguish them from other collections of records. ("Family History Stuff") 4: Here we have a 4 or a 5, depending on the size of the document (A4 or A5) 09: Filed in 2009. Always use two digits for the year, although if you are starting now, that won't be a problem, will it! Yes... my system will have a "Y2K" crisis after 100 years. (In 2083, as I started filing things this way in 1983, and "just know" that anything with 83-99 in the 5th and 6th positions is from the 1900s) c: Filed in December. Trust me: Use 1,2 3.. 9 for Jan Feb, Mar... Sept, and a,b,c for October, November, December. It REALLY IS better that way... even if it feels strange at first. 23: Filed on the 23rd of December 2009. As with the year, always use two digits... so, for example, an A4 sized paper filed on 2 March 2010 would have a code starting FHS410302 Nearly there! You may, of course, want to file more than one paper on a given day. (Note that the date of the document itself is irrelevant to the code for the document). That's what the final character is for. Assign "a" to the first document of the day, "b" to the second, etc. So our exemplar was the 5th document filed on that day. Whew! Hope there were things of interest in that! http://sheepdogsoftware.co.uk TK Boyd's site with freeware and shareware for kids, parents, schools... and others.