I'm just about to try and reorganise the family history files I have on my computer before they get too unwieldy. I was just wondering how other people have decided to do theirs & if anyone can offer any advice of things to do, or things to avoid. I tried searching on the forum for a similar thread, but couldn't find anything.
I currently just have a root folder "Family" with sub-folders such as "Census", "Births", "Marriages" etc. Even though this only contains documents for one branch of my family at the moment, starting with one of my great grandfathers, some of the folders are starting to get quite large. I want to add in all of the other unsorted information I have for the other parts of my tree and want to decide on the most suitable structure before I start.
I quite like the idea of starting with separate folders for each of my great grandparents and then subdividing these into folders like "Census", "Births" etc. This then makes it easy for me to gather together and pass on any information I have about certain branches of my tree e.g. if a relative or someone I've contacted on GenesReunited is interested in a branch of the tree I can just copy the whole folder instead of going into each of the "Census", "Births" folders & trying to find the right files. I could also keep the "Census" & "Births" just under the root and then subdivide these folders for each of my great grandparents. I don't know which would be best!
Obviously something like this is down to personal choice, but any comments would be much appreciated.
I have a structure similar to the one you currently have for all my data.
If I need to send media to other people I use my little FHC program after splitting my tree to "package" up all the relevent media into one folder.
I have a fair number of files, in the folders. The only thing I do is have subdirectories for each census year/place and a subdirectory for each certificate type.
Jane (admin)
"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
We have an Ancestry folder containing sub-folders named for each of 8 (joint) grandparents, and these are subdivided again by name for any branch that gets big. Certificates, scans of other peoples trees, censuses, etc are then all filed together. It seems to work for us, but you takes your pick I guess
I have a directory called "images". In there I have a directory called "Census returns", and in there a directory for each census year. All of the census pages I have images of then go in there.
As for images of certificates, and photographs, I have a directory in the "Images" directory for each person who is a blood relation that I have images for. This does lead to a large number of directories, but makes searching easy.
The only problem comes when I have a photo with several people in it (wedding group shot for example). In this case I tend to file the photo with the 'main' person. However this is starting to get messy so I may well reorganise how I do this in the near future.
At the risk of sounding naive, when people speak of "directories", do they mean another folder. So that what happens is there exists a folder within a folder within a folder etc. Which is actually what I do at presdent. Just curious as any housekeeping advice could be useful.
What Windows now calls Folders used to be known as Directories in some systems.
There's no problem having folders within folders these days, it's just a matter of whether you want one long list or a number of shorter lists (but more levels) to find when you're trying to get at something.
I file by family using my four grandparents as roots - a folder for the main family and when I get quite a lot of information on an individual I make a sub folder - certs etc get filed with the person or for marriage with the head of the family (so mirroring the male dominated FH programmes)or if (as my gr gr grandmother did) the relative married a number of times then the marriages and antecedants/connections are sub folders as they are not my direct relations.
The exception to this is photographs or sketches that I have digitised - which I keep in a completely separate pictures folder - with copies of the ones I want for FH purposes in a sub folder of my F-Hn Gedcom file [which will travel with any copies I make of the GED file].
For a couple of individuals where I have a lot of info I have split their sub folder all over again: for example for my grandfather I have quite a few sub folders to do with stuff I have found in the Times, the firm he worked for, the house he lived in, his second wife and her fanily, etc.
And each root family has a general folder for things that don't quite fit the pattern. As my family repeats names all over the place the sub folders not only have the individual's name but also dates (or some other identifier) as part of their title.
and that probably sounds much more complicated than it really is.....
SL Searching in Australia, Scotland, England and Wales: Lord ;Williams ;Isaac ; Greenwood ;Knox ; Syme ; Rowan/Rowen aka Hope/Galgey : McMurtrie Limont/Lamont ; Forsythe : Harford ; Blair (no not that one); Broughton Black; Palk aka Hope : Thornber
I've decided to try out a structure based more on what source the file came from rather than who it's for e.g. Census/Location/1841-Surnamexxx.jpg rather than Surname/Census/1841xxx.jpg and using folders like "General Records Office/Marriage Certificates/". I'm hoping that this will tie in quite nicely with the way sources are dealt with in Family Historian. There's only one way to find out, give it a try!
Next time I want to split the file to send to someone, I think I'll give Jane's Family Historian Converter a try and see how I get on with that.
Maybe a bit late in contributing to this thread, but it may prove useful to someone so here goes.
I use a combination of directories and filenames to organise my files. I have three directories named BmdIndex, Certificates and Census. The Census directory contains sub-directories for each census year, ie 1841, 1851 etc, whilst within both the BmdIndex and Certificates directories I have three sub-directories named Birth, Death and Marriage.
In naming my files I use a structure of <surname><forname><year of birth> followed by <document date><document type>. In the case of census returns, I use the head of household for surname, forename and year of birth details, and also include <source code>.
To illustrate this, here is a listing of the files for my ancestor George Izzard, born c 1816:
I've found this advantageous for finding files quickly using the Windows XP Search option. Firstly, I can search for a particular census return using the source code.
I can also search for all the files relating to a particular person. For example I can get Windows to search for all files that include "IzzardGeorge1816" in their name. By including the document's date immediately after the person's details, I can get Windows to list the files in date order as the search result lists the filenames separately from the directory names (see below):
This does break down when I want census returns for someone who is not the household head; I have to search for census returns for the appropriate household head, then ensure the person in question is listed on those census returns I found. (I couldn't see how this could be avoided other than holding mutliple copies of the same census page.)
Researching: Izzard (Essex, Middlesex and Australia); Richards (Somerset and Middlesex); Curtis (Middlesex); Purdon (Yorkshire); Gardner (Essex and Middlesex); Baker (Dorset, Middlesex and Australia); Lander (Middlesex); Ellen (Dorset and Somerset)
To respond to Lindsey's method, I use Gedcom Census for my census records (obviously!) and I make use of the facility to link the census image to my census sources and I also allow it to rename the image to match the source. The default naming scheme for sources in Gedcom Census means that a typical name of Image is:
Census 1881 Crook, Durham RG11_4928_4 (Elizabeth Holdsworth Harrison).jpg
As the image is linked into Family Historian I have no particular need to search for images using Windows Explorer, I can use the facilities of Family Historian to view the image.
Nick
Nick Walker Ancestral Sources & Gedcom Census Developer
Nick, thanks for your response, I hadn't appreciated Gedcom Census could do all that; I shall be reviewing my filing system. In my defence, I'm new to Family Historian and Gedcom Census.
BTW despite only realising part of its benefits I'm finding Gedcom Census an excellent application for speeding up data entry .
Researching: Izzard (Essex, Middlesex and Australia); Richards (Somerset and Middlesex); Curtis (Middlesex); Purdon (Yorkshire); Gardner (Essex and Middlesex); Baker (Dorset, Middlesex and Australia); Lander (Middlesex); Ellen (Dorset and Somerset)
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How do you organise your files?
