At 12:00 PM 3/7/01, you wrote: >Hi, I'm new to this list and wonder if you might have some advise for me >prior to my use of TMG and Clooz. I've got TMG gold and am waiting for Clooz >to arrive. I thought that I might as well start using both at the same time >as I've never entered all my research into any genealogy program. I >vacillated on a filing system until I read about Clooz and hope it was a good >decision on my part to use it. > >Do you have any suggestions as to how to use Clooz's filing system and a >genealogy program? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. > >Thanks, >Ann Hi Ann, I also use TMG and Clooz. I actually bought Clooz just before I bought TMG, but really didn't start using Clooz until just recently. It kind of just sat there while I made up my mind about a filing system. I wasn't set in what type of filing system, (I had all documents sorted by surname) so I decided to go with Liz's suggestions that are in the Manual. I decided to go with just simple file numbers of BIR00001 for Births, DEA00001 for Deaths, OBIT00001 for obituaries, MAR00001 for marriages, etc. I use binders with archival top loading sheet protectors. All birth records are in one group, deaths in another, obits in another, etc. For my Census records, they are just split up by state, so those file numbers would be, IL00001, KY00001, etc. I don't split them by county or by year. I took all of my records and sorted them down by type. Then I took one type of record, say birth records, and entered all of them into Clooz. As I enter them into Clooz, I check in TMG to make sure that I put in my source and that I had recorded all the information I could get from that record. When I'm done with that group of records, I print off an index and put that into the front of the binder. This way if I need to go back to refer to a record, I can tell what record that person is in and which of those records that person is marked primary. When I have to add more records to a group I print off a new index and replace it. By doing it this way, I'm going back and making sure I've included all of my sources, and they are getting filed the way they should be. And like I said, when I print off an index for each group, I can tell by looking at the front of my binder, where a record is for that person. One thing I do with my census records that has helped me is this, I put them into Clooz first, I will then print out the report for that census record and use that to enter my information into TMG. The reason I do this is, I only have to decipher the writing on the census pages once. And since all of the information I need to enter in my source into TMG is right there on that printout, I'm making sure I haven't missed anything. To some this might seem like a waste of paper, but I just put that paper with my actual census copy. I have now completed all of my birth records and my death records. I am now (for variety) working between my obits, marriages, and census records. Once those are done, I'll move on to my correspondence (boy are those a HUGE stack, mostly email). As Liz stated in the manual, Keep it Simple. And I have found for me, that her way is the simplest. And since I'm taking it one group at a time, I don't feel overwhelmed. I also hadn't realized how many records I actually had until this. So Thank you Liz for a great product! Debbie

Debbie, Thank you for your simple explanation. I hope this helps a lot of the people on this list. It clarifies so much. And yes, the idea is: Keep It Simple. Vivian in TX