Hi All, This may seem like a silly question, but.... How do you keep track of and store all your information outside of FH? I currently have a lot (& I mean a LOT) of paperwork related to my family tree researching. Most, but not all of what I have in paper form is now available electronically. Some of it I already have in electronic form, but just stored on the computer in folders for that type of information (census years, BMD, MI's etc). I have everything I'm confident of entered in FH with sources. I don't have any media connected directly, nor have I finished inputting what I have (census returns etc) for some of the distant branches. That's a work in progress. Has anyone any advice on the best way forward to reduce the amount of paper without risking losing the information. I'm quite keen to retain the digital records in some sort of sensible electronic form without resorting to printing everything off and filing it in family groups. Would it be sensible to replicate what I have in the hard copy files electronically? I find it quite easy to locate information in the files, as I have each family group under the same tab in chronological order. The divide between groups comes on the marriage of a child. Everything after that for that child is under a new tab. I have family group sheets with various margin markings indicating which branch that group links to & it works quite well. I was thinking I could replicate the structure of my paper filing system electronically and put the images in the corresponding 'folders'. I would of course back everything up. Do you think that would be a logical way to proceed? That way, I can get rid of much of my paperwork & just keep original documents & paid for hard copies. i would lso keep all my scribbled notes in hard copy. Any ideas greatly welcome! Regards Lesley

Hi Lesley, This topic comes up quite regularly in the FHUG Forums http://www.fhug.org.uk/ I would recommend that you DO connect your document images as Media linked to your Sources in FH. That would provide an easy way to search and locate them. For new data, use Ancestral Sources to capture Census & BMD documents. You could keep all FH generated Reports in a sub-folder of the Project 'Public' folder, and organised into Family Group sub-folders. It should be obvious which Family Group sub-folder to investigate for any Individual. Regards, Mike Tate -----Original Message----- Subject: [FHU] Information storage/retention Hi All, This may seem like a silly question, but.... How do you keep track of and store all your information outside of FH? I currently have a lot (& I mean a LOT) of paperwork related to my family tree researching. Most, but not all of what I have in paper form is now available electronically. Some of it I already have in electronic form, but just stored on the computer in folders for that type of information (census years, BMD, MI's etc). I have everything I'm confident of entered in FH with sources. I don't have any media connected directly, nor have I finished inputting what I have (census returns etc) for some of the distant branches. That's a work in progress. Has anyone any advice on the best way forward to reduce the amount of paper without risking losing the information. I'm quite keen to retain the digital records in some sort of sensible electronic form without resorting to printing everything off and filing it in family groups. Would it be sensible to replicate what I have in the hard copy files electronically? I find it quite easy to locate information in the files, as I have each family group under the same tab in chronological order. The divide between groups comes on the marriage of a child. Everything after that for that child is under a new tab. I have family group sheets with various margin markings indicating which branch that group links to & it works quite well. I was thinking I could replicate the structure of my paper filing system electronically and put the images in the corresponding 'folders'. I would of course back everything up. Do you think that would be a logical way to proceed? That way, I can get rid of much of my paperwork & just keep original documents & paid for hard copies. i would lso keep all my scribbled notes in hard copy. Any ideas greatly welcome! Regards Lesley

Many thanks Mike, I'll have a look at the forum. I'm so used to e-mailing for everything, I tend to forget about forums. I already have loads of digital images of photos, wills, census returns and BMD register entries, which at the moment are in either year or general family directories and usually appropriately named. It's those I need to sort out and put in more specific directories before linking to FH. I did start sorting out my hard copy files & putting everything for one family group together. I've never used Ancestral Sources, so I'll investigate that - it might save me a lot of filing! As for using digital media, I back-up to an external hard drive and the cloud regularly. I also have a second hard drive back-up which is kept in my car (just in case) and a set of DVD's at my daughter's house with written instructions on what's on there (again, just in case). I think the main problems arise when people don't keep transferring their data to the latest storage media before theirs becomes obsolete. It also helps to use archive grade media so that they will last a bit longer. Long term, digital records are far more likely to be retained. I can't see any of my family wanting to store dozens of lever arch files once I'm gone! Thanks again, Lesley On 14/10/2015 11:15, Beryl & Mike Tate via wrote: > Hi Lesley, > This topic comes up quite regularly in the FHUG Forums http://www.fhug.org.uk/ > > I would recommend that you DO connect your document images as Media linked to your Sources in FH. > That would provide an easy way to search and locate them. > > For new data, use Ancestral Sources to capture Census & BMD documents. > > You could keep all FH generated Reports in a sub-folder of the Project 'Public' folder, and organised into Family Group sub-folders. > It should be obvious which Family Group sub-folder to investigate for any Individual. > > Regards, Mike Tate > > -----Original Message----- > Subject: [FHU] Information storage/retention > > Hi All, > > This may seem like a silly question, but.... > > How do you keep track of and store all your information outside of FH? > > I currently have a lot (& I mean a LOT) of paperwork related to my family tree researching. Most, but not all of what I have in > paper form is now available electronically. Some of it I already have in electronic form, but just stored on the computer in > folders for that type of information (census years, BMD, MI's etc). > > I have everything I'm confident of entered in FH with sources. I don't have any media connected directly, nor have I finished > inputting what I have (census returns etc) for some of the distant branches. That's a work in progress. > > Has anyone any advice on the best way forward to reduce the amount of paper without risking losing the information. > > I'm quite keen to retain the digital records in some sort of sensible electronic form without resorting to printing everything off > and filing it in family groups. Would it be sensible to replicate what I have in the hard copy files electronically? I find it > quite easy to locate information in the files, as I have each family group under the same tab in chronological order. The divide > between groups comes on the marriage of a child. Everything after that for that child is under a new tab. I have family group > sheets with various margin markings indicating which branch that group links to & it works quite well. > > I was thinking I could replicate the structure of my paper filing system electronically and put the images in the corresponding > 'folders'. I would of course back everything up. Do you think that would be a logical way to proceed? That way, I can get rid of > much of my paperwork & just keep original documents & paid for hard copies. i would lso keep all my scribbled notes in hard copy. > > Any ideas greatly welcome! > > Regards > > Lesley > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FAMILY-HISTORIAN-USERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > . >

Don't worry about organizing into directories as FH will help you with that. Just decide what general groups you want, and as you add the images to FH, choose the directory you want them saved into. FH has a Project directory named Media, and all the images are saved therein, but they can be in any sub-directory of Media. It is important to use this internal Media directory rather than elsewhere on disk. Also FH allows Keywords to be associated with each Media record linked to each Media image file, and they can be used to group & search your images. Document images should be linked to the Media tab of Source records. Photos of people should be linked to the Media tab of Individual or Family records. Regards, Mike Tate -----Original Message----- Subject: Re: [FHU] Information storage/retention Many thanks Mike, I'll have a look at the forum. I'm so used to e-mailing for everything, I tend to forget about forums. I already have loads of digital images of photos, wills, census returns and BMD register entries, which at the moment are in either year or general family directories and usually appropriately named. It's those I need to sort out and put in more specific directories before linking to FH. I did start sorting out my hard copy files & putting everything for one family group together. I've never used Ancestral Sources, so I'll investigate that - it might save me a lot of filing! As for using digital media, I back-up to an external hard drive and the cloud regularly. I also have a second hard drive back-up which is kept in my car (just in case) and a set of DVD's at my daughter's house with written instructions on what's on there (again, just in case). I think the main problems arise when people don't keep transferring their data to the latest storage media before theirs becomes obsolete. It also helps to use archive grade media so that they will last a bit longer. Long term, digital records are far more likely to be retained. I can't see any of my family wanting to store dozens of lever arch files once I'm gone! Thanks again, Lesley --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Thanks again Mike, It's all these tips that you just don't realise when you're new to something. That should save a lot of sorting. Lesley On 14/10/2015 17:32, Beryl and Mike Tate via wrote: > Don't worry about organizing into directories as FH will help you with that. > > Just decide what general groups you want, and as you add the images to FH, > choose the directory you want them saved into. FH has a Project directory > named Media, and all the images are saved therein, but they can be in any > sub-directory of Media. It is important to use this internal Media directory > rather than elsewhere on disk. > > Also FH allows Keywords to be associated with each Media record linked to > each Media image file, and they can be used to group & search your images. > > Document images should be linked to the Media tab of Source records. > > Photos of people should be linked to the Media tab of Individual or Family > records. > > Regards, Mike Tate > > -----Original Message----- > Subject: Re: [FHU] Information storage/retention > > Many thanks Mike, > > I'll have a look at the forum. I'm so used to e-mailing for everything, > I tend to forget about forums. > > I already have loads of digital images of photos, wills, census returns > and BMD register entries, which at the moment are in either year or > general family directories and usually appropriately named. It's those > I need to sort out and put in more specific directories before linking > to FH. I did start sorting out my hard copy files & putting everything > for one family group together. I've never used Ancestral Sources, so > I'll investigate that - it might save me a lot of filing! > > As for using digital media, I back-up to an external hard drive and the > cloud regularly. I also have a second hard drive back-up which is kept > in my car (just in case) and a set of DVD's at my daughter's house with > written instructions on what's on there (again, just in case). I think > the main problems arise when people don't keep transferring their data > to the latest storage media before theirs becomes obsolete. It also > helps to use archive grade media so that they will last a bit longer. > > Long term, digital records are far more likely to be retained. I can't > see any of my family wanting to store dozens of lever arch files once > I'm gone! > > Thanks again, > > Lesley > > > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FAMILY-HISTORIAN-USERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >