Hi Eva, Your timeline will depend on just how much material there is and how organized you want it to be. The first thing you do is survey all the material and see what is actually there. What family groups are represented? Do it appear that anything is already organized in any way or is it all haphazardly stored in boxes? More importantly, are there any items that look to have mold, mildew or insect damage? If so, SEPARATE these from everything else immediately. Once you have an idea of what you have, you start the actual organizing (or in archives speak, arranging). You mentioned organizing everything by family group. The survey should have given you an idea of how specifically to break people/records into groups. Write down your plan of how to do that and follow it through the arranging (if you change or augment the plan, keep track of how). As you move records into the different groups, use a notebook or laptop to keep track of what records are going in what family group (this will be your index, or in archives speak, finding aid). Usually, like materials are physically kept together (e.g. paper documents, photographs, albums, material objects) within each family grouping. This part is what takes the longest amount of time. If you have less time, you can simply move everything into new boxes and write on each box what is inside. >From your description of how much material is there, I would not start by buying archival quality document cases and polypropylene sheets. Unless you have a huge budget, this will break the bank. Instead, get archival file folders (letter and/or legal size, depending on your needs) and paper photo envelopes in various sizes (you can write descriptions on the envelope and store one or more photos in each) from Demco, Gaylord, or Hollinger Metal Edge. Get bankers boxes from the local office supply store. The best thing you can do for archival storage is to store everything is a cool, dry place with no direct sunlight (NOT the basement, attic or non-temperature controlled storage unit). This will preserve everything so that as you are able to, you can buy document cases or records cartons (archival quality banker's boxes). You might want to invest in some drop-front boxes for each scrapbooks at some point. You do not need to cite each item separately. At the beginning of the index, state that everything came from storage at X place in X persons' possession as well as the date. If you know where specific items came from before they were in your grandparent's possession, then you can notate that later in the body of the index or at the end. You mentioned have photographs that cross multiple family groups. One way I have seen this dealt with is to organize the paper records and photographs in different ways. Do the paper by family group and the photos by whatever way makes sense - family group, couple, era, place, etc. Best, Jennifer Shaw (archivist) On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Eva Goodwin <edwgoodwin@gmail.com> wrote: > Does anyone here do professional work in the family/estate > archiving/organizing arena? > > My grandfather, 94, is dying of bone cancer and probably only has a few > weeks left to live and my grandmother has dementia and will likely not live > much longer than him. In their storage, they have over a dozen boxes of > original family papers (letters, records, scrapbooks, diaries, military > papers, official vital documents, you name it they have it) and photos > (both in albums and just loose) - but *all* of it is in utter chaos and > totally disorganized. It actually hurts me to open the boxes and look in > them because of both the lack of order and the lack of decent care for > these items - some of them date back to the early 1800s. > > (Why haven't these been sorted through and archived earlier? My grandmother > is fiercely, fiercely protective of them and does not like anyone looking > at them for fear of us taking them away from her or ruining them or losing > them, etc. Her failing mental capacities have meant that for the past > decade she's just been grasping at what she still has.) > > Now, though, suddenly everyone is in a panic about these photos and > documents and what we will do with them and how we will identify them if my > grandparents die. So they've enlisted me to help. > > This isn't the usual work that I do - normally I do research - but I would > like to approach this in a way I would approach a paying client. I would > like to give my family a proposal and a project plan. (They will be paying > me for this.) My question is, how have others approached this kind of > project? On what kind of timeline? With what kind of billing procedures? > > My plan right now, loosely, is to purchase a few dozen archival quality > document and photo boxes and a few hundred polypropylene archival quality > clear sheet protectors and start organizing everything, paper by paper, > into family group. But how do I do this without getting totally bogged > down? Do I start with the broad sorting triage and then go back to do > citations and descriptions of individual documents? Do I create an index > along the way? Difficulties I imagine encountering: unidentifiable > documents and photos; documents that cross different family groups; sheer > volume of material being too much to archive in individual sheet > protectors; and I'm sure other difficulties I'm not yet imagining. > > Any words of wisdom in terms of project planning? Also could use some > insight into billing for this - by the hour? How long should I imagine this > might take? Should I bill in stages? (I.e., "Phase I" will bill this much, > further phases billed separately?) > > Help! > > Thank you :) > > Eva > The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive > environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to > professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- Jennifer Shaw faeriejem@gmail.com

One of the new-age techniques that eliminates one of your issues is tagging. When you have a digitized version, you can tag a single photo to each of the different families depicted in the photo or document. A physical paper can only be filed in one spot, which is quite a different animal. Maybe someone with more experience than I could weigh in on scanning everything in an application like Picasa and organizing it that way. Then, perhaps just a reference in the app that the hard copy is stored in box "x." I only know one person (not an archivist) who has 14 cartons of photos and documents from her extended family (which is also my family). When I traveled 2000 miles to her home with the intention of reviewing all of her material, she had a separate box for each of the 7 children who were her father's siblings. I don't recall correspondence being separated from the passports, legal documents or photos. Still, I enjoyed several days cherry-picking the items of most interest to me, which I scanned and transported to my home on a flash drive. When I organize things on my computer, I have folders nested within folders. For example, Folder 1. Grandma K Folder 1.a. 1st child of Grandma K Folder 1.b. 2nd child of Grandma K and so on This is all keyed to my family tree, so with hundreds of people, I find them first on the tree, then go to the right "big" folder....open that, and then find the "small" folder within. I try to name the files with either the name first (so the computer automatically alphabetizes the files for me) or the year....whichever makes for sense for that grouping. Be forewarned: if you have an emotional attachment to any of the material you're archiving, this could take a long time. I feel like I could much more easily do this task with someone else's "stuff" than my own! Great question! Good luck! Billie Elias www.genealogygal.wordpress.com On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:58 PM, Jennifer Shaw <faeriejem@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Eva, > > Your timeline will depend on just how much material there is and how > organized you want it to be. The first thing you do is survey all the > material and see what is actually there. What family groups are > represented? Do it appear that anything is already organized in any way or > is it all haphazardly stored in boxes? More importantly, are there any > items that look to have mold, mildew or insect damage? If so, SEPARATE > these from everything else immediately. > > Once you have an idea of what you have, you start the actual organizing (or > in archives speak, arranging). You mentioned organizing everything by > family group. The survey should have given you an idea of how specifically > to break people/records into groups. Write down your plan of how to do that > and follow it through the arranging (if you change or augment the plan, > keep track of how). As you move records into the different groups, use a > notebook or laptop to keep track of what records are going in what family > group (this will be your index, or in archives speak, finding aid). > Usually, like materials are physically kept together (e.g. paper documents, > photographs, albums, material objects) within each family grouping. This > part is what takes the longest amount of time. If you have less time, you > can simply move everything into new boxes and write on each box what is > inside. > > >From your description of how much material is there, I would not start by > buying archival quality document cases and polypropylene sheets. Unless > you have a huge budget, this will break the bank. Instead, get archival > file folders (letter and/or legal size, depending on your needs) and paper > photo envelopes in various sizes (you can write descriptions on the > envelope and store one or more photos in each) from Demco, Gaylord, or > Hollinger Metal Edge. Get bankers boxes from the local office supply store. > The best thing you can do for archival storage is to store everything is a > cool, dry place with no direct sunlight (NOT the basement, attic or > non-temperature controlled storage unit). This will preserve everything so > that as you are able to, you can buy document cases or records cartons > (archival quality banker's boxes). You might want to invest in some > drop-front boxes for each scrapbooks at some point. > > You do not need to cite each item separately. At the beginning of the > index, state that everything came from storage at X place in X persons' > possession as well as the date. If you know where specific items came from > before they were in your grandparent's possession, then you can notate that > later in the body of the index or at the end. You mentioned have > photographs that cross multiple family groups. One way I have seen this > dealt with is to organize the paper records and photographs in different > ways. Do the paper by family group and the photos by whatever way makes > sense - family group, couple, era, place, etc. > > Best, > Jennifer Shaw > (archivist) > > > On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Eva Goodwin <edwgoodwin@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Does anyone here do professional work in the family/estate > > archiving/organizing arena? > > > > My grandfather, 94, is dying of bone cancer and probably only has a few > > weeks left to live and my grandmother has dementia and will likely not > live > > much longer than him. In their storage, they have over a dozen boxes of > > original family papers (letters, records, scrapbooks, diaries, military > > papers, official vital documents, you name it they have it) and photos > > (both in albums and just loose) - but *all* of it is in utter chaos and > > totally disorganized. It actually hurts me to open the boxes and look in > > them because of both the lack of order and the lack of decent care for > > these items - some of them date back to the early 1800s. > > > > (Why haven't these been sorted through and archived earlier? My > grandmother > > is fiercely, fiercely protective of them and does not like anyone looking > > at them for fear of us taking them away from her or ruining them or > losing > > them, etc. Her failing mental capacities have meant that for the past > > decade she's just been grasping at what she still has.) > > > > Now, though, suddenly everyone is in a panic about these photos and > > documents and what we will do with them and how we will identify them if > my > > grandparents die. So they've enlisted me to help. > > > > This isn't the usual work that I do - normally I do research - but I > would > > like to approach this in a way I would approach a paying client. I would > > like to give my family a proposal and a project plan. (They will be > paying > > me for this.) My question is, how have others approached this kind of > > project? On what kind of timeline? With what kind of billing procedures? > > > > My plan right now, loosely, is to purchase a few dozen archival quality > > document and photo boxes and a few hundred polypropylene archival quality > > clear sheet protectors and start organizing everything, paper by paper, > > into family group. But how do I do this without getting totally bogged > > down? Do I start with the broad sorting triage and then go back to do > > citations and descriptions of individual documents? Do I create an index > > along the way? Difficulties I imagine encountering: unidentifiable > > documents and photos; documents that cross different family groups; sheer > > volume of material being too much to archive in individual sheet > > protectors; and I'm sure other difficulties I'm not yet imagining. > > > > Any words of wisdom in terms of project planning? Also could use some > > insight into billing for this - by the hour? How long should I imagine > this > > might take? Should I bill in stages? (I.e., "Phase I" will bill this > much, > > further phases billed separately?) > > > > Help! > > > > Thank you :) > > > > Eva > > The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive > > environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition > to > > professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word > > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the > message > > > > > > -- > Jennifer Shaw > faeriejem@gmail.com > The Transitional Genealogists List was created to provide a supportive > environment for genealogists to learn best practices as they transition to > professional level work. Please respect the kind intentions of this list. > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > TRANSITIONAL-GENEALOGISTS-FORUM-request@rootsweb.com with the word > 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >