How do you organise?

[maryphil]

Mary
I had a look under tree settings and it says it can take up to a month for any changes to show up.
I've written to Ancestry asking how I can delete the old trees, especially as I can't remember what password I used in 2002.
Now I've completely spoilt this thread which was originally about organising our research.
Regards
Mary

[Jill]

My main tree is on my laptop (backed up), one folder of BMD certs, box file of wills, family photos & docs in folders and scanned (on and external hard drive and memory sticks)...but there's a pile of paper under the coffee table and another shameful heap elsewhere, plus a hat box full of oddments which at least is prettier to look at.

My two local history hobby trees are only online so have not generated any paper, (though I am a great fan of scribbling on backs of envelopes in other areas of my life)

[Lindsay]

My system's much the same as others have described.

Everything's on the tree program (including copies of documents etc).

I also have a family history folder on my computer with copies of documents in folders by family name (in case I have a mad moment one day and accidently delete my FTM files)

Then I have paper copies of everything in thin plastic folders, including printed family group sheets, one folder per family unit (so that if any of my family ever show an interest in family history I can pull out a paper file for them to flick through once I recover from the shock).

The paper records are getting a little out of control - the files are much too full, but moving them to a filing cabinet seems like overkill.

At least I no longer scribble 'useful' notes on scraps of paper - everything goes on FTM or in the folder on my computer.

[Asa]

I have too many folders. I have folders for each of my grandparents' ancestors, one for all Scottish ancestors, one for a family on which there's a lot of info, one for Oxfordshire ancestors and one for East London families. I have a stack of notebooks for when I go to libraries and ROs which are supposed to be generally each for one family/ area but it doesn't always work out.

All my work is then supposed to go on my Ancestry trees (I really love the format) and this is where I'm always trying to catch up because there will be an explosion of online records just where I'm deeply involved in research on something totally different.

Any photos, certificates or documents are generally scanned into folders on my pc and I am continually adding them to my online trees as well.

It can be a bit tiring can't it

My system's name is chaos ... under many different formats.
I enter most things on family tree maker, I have lots of Word documents, lots of handwritten notes, files compiled over 30 years which include lots of kind rellies photocopies of their handwritten records, photos, certs etc etc etc ..
Trouble is .. to sort it will take forever.
So I'll wait until I can't do all the things I want to do now .. hopefully I will still understand what it is all about when I'm physically not capable of working, gardening, travelling etc etc ... or it will be someone else's nightmare .. ..
Cheers everyone. Julie

[Nell]

Organise? Not sure what that means!