Organized - Really and Truly

Dear Uncle,

While pondering what to do next with my Irish folks I realized I needed to gather all the facts that I have on hand.  Which, much to my dismay were NOT all together.  So what to do?  I have been following Michelle Goodman’s blog – The Turning of Generations – and she just happens to be doing a series of workshops regarding getting organized.

I have been pretty good about having files for families, and putting information into those files.  I have been pretty good about citing sources.  I visit Ancestry.com daily checking for more info as new collections crop up and I check in with Family Search on a weekly basis just in case.

The other day I came across – in one of my many folders- an article that I had in my  “At some point in time” folder .  It was from Family Tree magazine, May 2010. The title of which was “Organizing Your Hard Drive”.  Why I had not done this , I mean Really done this before, is beyond me.

I read the article and at 11:00 the other night I decided that right then and there was the perfect time to do it.   In the quiet of the evening, just me and my computer I began.  Somewhere around 1:15 AM I was done.

Such relief and pride I had! I can now, in a moment, gather the information that I need. Amazing!  No more scrolling up and down in “Documents” looking for something that I knew I had if only I could remember just how I named it. No more jumping into folders searching for that one picture that I had scanned and put where?  The military histories of my boys in the Civil War are now in their respective folders.  Wow!

Now if I want to send information about one of my folks I can just send a folder to whoever needs the info! Astounding!

Uncle, it was just a wonderful feeling.  Genealogy File Management……who’d a thunk it.

I think that I can now say with pride that I am a 21^st Century Organized Historian! And I am even more sure that my next generation historians, my niece and nephew, will thank me for it.

Personally, I thank Michelle for passing along the information and incentive for getting me started. I will go back to her blog and start at the beginning and follow her suggestions.

Wow!  Organized!

Until the next,

Fondly, Your Devoted Niece