Get your Genealogy Organized

The focus of organizing your genealogy research should be to make it easy to find your information when you need it. Most people interpret this to mean you need a fantastic filing system for your papers. I have a different viewpoint and believe my system makes my research more efficient.

My system is based on compiling the information found on documents into summaries for individual direct ancestors which require one summary per direct ancestor. I generally try to download electronic copies of documents and scans of the paper documents that I find.  These electronic images are then embedded into my summaries in order to have them available if I need to double check the information at a later time.  This places all the information for each individual in one place and makes it faster to look up the information that I need for  the next search.

All of my information and images of documents are saved on my laptop. I only print copies for ring-binders when they are needed for family gatherings to allow family members to read. The ring binders are not part of my research efforts and their only purpose is to share my results with the family.

There are more details for my system but you will find that creating electronic summaries and saving electronic images of the documents will make your research more successful.  I strongly recommend that you create a summary for a few of your ancestors to see how simple and easy this system is.