Idiot Proof Filing System Needed

[Pam101]

I've been mooching around all sorts of sites and byways for the last week or so, and have accumulated all sorts of information to add to my existing paper mountains. Once I've entered everything into my Family Treemaker 7, does anyone have suggestions for the best way to keep the paperwork under control? File downwards from ancestor names with marriages under separate names? Keep certificates separately or with the individuals? Census sheets?
Is there anything better than FT7 for keeping control of stuff? Would a website be sensible? Please!!

[v.wells]

Every one has their own way of doing things so make it so "it works for you". I have 4 different colours of folders for each of my family lines. Certificates are kept separately with births, marriages and deaths behind all in date order. I also use coloured dots on the files to show heads of families.

Ancestry is the only site I know of that allows you to attach census, bmd's and other source information to individuals and for me is the best bang for my $. I have a website but I don't attach any of these items to individuals, just the source information. I only print out the ones that are most important to me to save paper.

The 1911 census is in a folder of its own as I didn't need to have separate folders for the different lines (keeps it altogether).

I have Legends and FTM and don't like either but I need at least one on the pc in order to download GEDCOM's and transfer to other programs.

Hope some of that helps you sort it out

[GenealogyPitney]

The further you get into your research, the more you'll find there's no such thing as an idiot proof system - the organization of some public records is terrible!

I know that's not a lot of help, but it's important to keep smiling while you're researching

[Sue Mackay]

We have an office type metal filing cabinet in the study and one drawer is devoted to family history. Each family has a file in that drawer. Certificates, print-outs of important web based info, letters etc etc all get dumped in there indiscriminately. Every so often a file gets so full the metal tabs bend or the cardboard folder breaks. I then replace the outer file and have a good old sort out at the same time. It's amazing what obvious courses of action occur to you when you go through old research!

[Browneyes]

A tip:

If someone asked you to sort out their documents how would you do it? The simpler the system is the better. Ring binders are great as you can always buy another one. I use those plastic inserts with small sticky labels on the top corner and slip things inside them so they're easy to move if necessary and don't get so dog-eared. Things I haven't filed go in a very large shoebox so they're in one place (apart from the bits that always seem to end up on my desk because I'm working on several things at once! ).

I sort mine into families, ie Chapmans, Faulkners etc. Individuals have their details all together, census pages are at the back of the file in front of information about villages, occupations and so on. I use coloured dividers to separate the 'topics'. I don't have marriage certificates yet but intend putting them with the husband. I'm also trying to gather maps so I can mark where they lived.

[pottoka]

I used to keep everything in one cupboard, slinging in pieces of paper when I'd received or downloaded them and promising myself that one day I'd sort it all out properly. Things came to a head not that long ago when the cupboard door threatened to give way, and I am now in the same position as you, Pam101.

I have a tree on Ancestry like Vanessa, with censuses and so on attached, but I have a somewhat paranoid finger of dread between my shoulder blades about what is actually happens to the people information I put on there. Especially since I read the small print.

But I definitely need a system because I've lost - out of the only cupboard they have ever been kept in - certificates that I paid good money for!! (And I know that if I shell out £7 each again even for the really important ones, they'll turn up).

Every one has their own way of doing things so make it so "it works for you". I have 4 different colours of folders for each of my family lines. Certificates are kept separately with births, marriages and deaths behind all in date order. I also use coloured dots on the files to show heads of families.

Call me thick if you will, but I'm afraid I don't follow your four-folder system, Vanessa. I presume (probably too much ...) that your four lines are your grandfathers and grandmothers. So where do you put your grandmother's mother, who has a different name, and her parents, and so on?

I tried a gy-normous file (one maternal, one paternal) with coloured separators but, although I started with my parents and grandparents, I was soon lost in how to file the branches ...

A filing cabinet sounds like a good idea, Sue. Ooh, and I've just remembered ... I haven't had a birthday present yet!!

[pottoka]

I don't have marriage certificates yet but intend putting them with the husband.

Browneyes, how can you? The wedding certificate was much more important to the wife, especially the further you go back, as it made her what she was. Before she was married, she belonged to her father who then gave her away at her wedding, whereupon she became the chattel of her husband.

I put the original certificate with the wife, and a copy with the husband.

(and that's something I learned on here, but don't tell)

[Browneyes]

Browneyes, how can you? The wedding certificate was much more important to the wife, especially the further you go back, as it made her what she was. Before she was married, she belonged to her father who then gave her away at her wedding, whereupon she became the chattel of her husband.

I put the original certificate with the wife, and a copy with the husband.

(and that's something I learned on here, but don't tell)

Perhaps it's something to do with the feminist in me

[Astoria]

Am I wrong - to this day I believe a marriage certificate is the property of the wife, to prove her children are legitimate.

[Browneyes]

Uh oh. I'm shrinking by the minute Ok ok I'll think about it alright?