Storage suggestions

Hermy

I'm just wondering what do people use for storing the various papers, charts and notebooks that accumulate when compiling a family history.
I'm considering a briefcase or something similar for when I go to Dublin for research and maybe a small filing cabinet for at home.

Anyone else?

P. Breathnach

I have a heap on the floor beside my desk (there are too many other heaps on my desk to allow space for the genealogy file). I suspect that my system is not unusual.

pinkypinky

I have two lever arch ring binders with dividers - one for maternal/paternal lines and then broken down by the main families. Certs and correspondence for each family goes into the relevant section. I do similar for digital filing and try to scan every cert I get for back-up. Photos are in a P.Breathnach style jumbled up mess in a box.

Hermy

You two are no help at all. I'm trying to get the papers up off the floor before they cause an accident.:P

shanew

Ringbinders for certs, copies of registers, newspaper articles, census returns etc - filed by date but also indexed in excel by names and location.

Some of the other notes and details are just in boxes ...

Sources all scanned to TNG so I can check out details online while researching away from home.


Shane

Waitsian

shanew wrote: »

Sources all scanned to TNG so I can check out details online while researching away from home.

http://www.tngsitebuilding.com/

This? Would you recommend it Shane?


What other software does anyone else use?

shanew

that's the one - I've used the previous version for a while, but last weekend upgraded to the new one - version 9.

There's a bit of fine tuning to get it setup the way I liked, but I wanted something online, so I could view and update from anywhere. I tried the two main PC based applications (FTM and another I dont remember the name of) - but they didn't suit me. Seemed to make it very complicated to include the actual certs and images in a neat way.


Shane

zagmund

For physical paper storage I use a rake of those desktop in & out tray yokes, with one for each of my major family lines. This at least gives me somewhere vaguely organised to throw all the stuff I get before I get around to actually processing & filing it correctly.

In theory I also have a ring binder with a load of clear plastic envelopes which are used for official filing of things, but it's not used much.

z

Hermy

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm having a look at TNG now.

Jellybaby1

I've got piles of stuff all over the place. I bought one of those archival ring binders at one of the RDS shows but I daresay it will overflow soon even though I purchased (at more cost) extra inserts for it. So I will soon be off to get some arch files (not for original certs, mind) and then a ginormous plastic storage box on wheels so I can move it easily myself. I'm re-thinking that archival ring binder at the minute though.

dido2

At the moment I have 4 plastic folder things with plastic holders inside, I've one for each family at the moment, plus a note book that I got in Tescos thats divided but also has a storage area at the start of each section aswell.. I keep all certs in that...

I've got some genealogy software on the laptop but it doesn't work on my new computer, and i've got the family tree on Ancestry too, I scan in anything I get and attach it to the ancestry family tree...

Jellybaby1

dido2 wrote: »

I've got some genealogy software on the laptop but it doesn't work on my new computer, and i've got the family tree on Ancestry too, I scan in anything I get and attach it to the ancestry family tree...

Dido2, do you keep your family tree private, or public on ancestry? I was thinking about that but changed my mind after hearing warnings against publicising it.

ZombieBride

I have ring binders for each of the 4 main branches (grandparents families) and have two photo albums for both sides, maternal grand mothers family at the front and grandfathers family at the back, same for the paternal.

I try and add as much detail to my familytree program as I can too, it's a lot easier to find the facts there than scouring the binders.

dido2

Jellybaby

I've it set to private, it's really for sharing with family members who'd like to be able to see it..
What warnings were there about sharing it on Ancestry?

Jellybaby1

dido2 wrote: »

Jellybaby

I've it set to private, it's really for sharing with family members who'd like to be able to see it..
What warnings were there about sharing it on Ancestry?

Well, if you make it public on any website then you are open to fraudsters who deal in identity theft.

Coolnabacky1873

Definitely not a good idea to put up any information in a public tree of people who are currently alive.

The warnings are mostly for the US where there is a big debate between the genealogical community and those enacting legislation to close access to public records due to some highly publicized identity theft cases.

But they apply pretty much anywhere today I guess.

christmas2010

I have my ancestry.co.uk info public.
Through it I've connected with several cousins around the world that I'd never heard of and found lots of extra information that would have been impossible to get other ways.


Even if you enter the information of living people only you can see them, to everyone else they show up as Private.

shanew

the other problem that sometimes happens with a public tree are the Name Collectors, who just gather up names and attach to their own Tree without any real checking any of the details. Before you know it the details can be re-copied to multiple trees and you'll find your gt-granny dying in Connecticut or somewhere instead of Crumlin... often impossible to get this fixed as they usually ignore suggestions for corrections


Shane

Wyldwood

+1 on what Shanew said, I've had a lot of info poached from my Ancestry tree that couldn't have been correct for the poacher so that I have now made it private. It's a pity that these name harvesters spoil the spirit of sharing info as I had made contact with several unknown relatives abroad through my tree.

shanew

The Ancestry Tree search does allow you to check private trees for possible matches - but just shows basic details (name, year and place of birth) and a message. They have to contact you to find out the details, so you can check if their clues actually connect or not before sharing all your details.

This is the message you see...




Shane

pedroeibar1

shanew wrote: »

the other problem that sometimes happens with a public tree are the Name Collectors, .........
Shane

I contend that it is not sometimes but always.

I've given part of my .FTM file to a distant relative who incorrectly merged two same-name individuals, then put it on the web. It has been copied numerous times and I continue to get emails from people who swear by its accuracy. I refuse to put mine up, public or private.

annieoburns

Good question! my tree has grown from couple of ringbinders full of plastic pockets that got split as they grew. I have a large collection of other material such as rough notes, cemetery guidebooks, photos, maps etc that do not fit easily into this system. They were all on floor at one stage but had to tidy up once and found they fitted well into two plastic lidded crates ( from Homebase about 5 euro, see through plastic handy to see what is in it). I think they are size 35 litre - any larger would be too heavy to move about.

Of late I have started putting a lot of info into the notes section of Ancestry FTM but have had trouble transferred data to new laptop so bit wary of it now. I think I might follow up Shane's idea of a tree stored in the ether but private. Can you form a gedfile from Ancestry to send to the one you recommended Shane?

shanew

TNG has a GEDCom import - I think most genealogy programs do. It will get the basic details transferred - but not images of certs etc.

I use similar sealable plastic crates for original documents, certs, maps, booklets, photos etc - gives you protection against minor spills, possible damage by pets etc


Shane

Mumha

I've developed a big interest in my family history over the last 10 years. I'm gutted that it wasn't until a lot of the older members of the family had died, as a lot of the reasons for doing things, died with them.

Anyway, I am so fortunate that my mother's cousin, and her brothers, did a massive amount of research over the years. She is 82 and lives in Australia. None of her sons are interested in keeping & passing this on, so she is delighted that I am and is in the process of sending over the rest of the documents, letters, photos that she has kept over the years.

I feel a great sense of responsibility to not only link all this together, but also to store and preserve this information. I am at the stage of trying to figure out how I might go about that. I have a basic family tree on Tribalpages but I need to do far more than that.

Can I ask how other people here are going about this ? Not only for now, but what happens when you aren't about ?

I know tribalpages allows me to download the data entered so far, but is that transferable to other places like Genopro and FamilyTreeMaker etc ? i.e. how flexible are this sites/packages ?

pinkypinky

Mumha wrote: »

I've developed a big interest in my family history over the last 10 years. I'm gutted that it wasn't until a lot of the older members of the family had died, as a lot of the reasons for doing things, died with them.

Anyway, I am so fortunate that my mother's cousin, and her brothers, did a massive amount of research over the years. She is 82 and lives in Australia. None of her sons are interested in keeping & passing this on, so she is delighted that I am and is in the process of sending over the rest of the documents, letters, photos that she has kept over the years.

I feel a great sense of responsibility to not only link all this together, but also to store and preserve this information. I am at the stage of trying to figure out how I might go about that. I have a basic family tree on Tribalpages but I need to do far more than that.

Can I ask how other people here are going about this ? Not only for now, but what happens when you aren't about ?

I know tribalpages allows me to download the data entered so far, but is that transferable to other places like Genopro and FamilyTreeMaker etc ? i.e. how flexible are this sites/packages ?

The answer is sort of.
Most programs allow you to create gedcom file, which you can then import into other programs. However, in practice it only takes the main details and not necessarily notes or photos.

Must warn again about the dangers of keeping trees online and identity theft.

Mumha

pinkypinky wrote: »

The answer is sort of.
Most programs allow you to create gedcom file, which you can then import into other programs. However, in practice it only takes the main details and not necessarily notes or photos.

Must warn again about the dangers of keeping trees online and identity theft.

Thanks for that. Yeah I'll modify the details of the living members of the tree, just in case.

If I can ask a question re familysearch.org, I've found a number of births and marriages on the site, so what can I do with that information now ?

pinkypinky

You can read the sticky!
You'll find details of how to order certs, etc there.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056388162

Mumha

pinkypinky wrote: »

You can read the sticky!
You'll find details of how to order certs, etc there.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056388162

ta very much !