Since we are seeing so many "Tips"on organizing, thought I might throw in my two cents worth. To keep from having to "drag" all those notebooks with me, I bought an expandable file folder. I labeled each file separately: Births, Marriages, Deaths, Cemetery, Census and "Other lookups" (The other for those times that I can do lookups for other people or have "swapped" lookups for them in my area for those in their area...believe me...it helps alot!) Next, using a microsoft excel program (or any with a spreadsheet type of format), I made a file for each family surname (and those directly connected to it. I labeled the columns for the Births this way: Name, DOB, Place, Father, Mother, Source, Copy Then in each column, I put the pertinent information for each one that I KNEW and in ( ), I would put what I "thought" I knew. For Deaths: Name, DOB, DOD, Place, Cemetery, Obituary, Source, copy Etc.... This way, I could bring that expandable folder with me to the archives etc and can look at a glance what records I need records on. By keeping a disc of this, you can always update it or just write in the blanks as you find the information. For someone just starting out, this has worked well for me (been doing this about 3 years, but did this type of organization about a year ago.) Hope this helps, Lisa