Wisdom Wednesday – Sort Your Story Folders

Did you know all the puzzle piece icons that come with Sort Your Story are not just pretty icons? They are not just there for show but serve a very important purpose.

They are file folders.

These file folders are where you store your full-size documents for each person you profile in Sort Your Story. What kind of folders are available? Let’s take a look at just a few.

 

This is the file folder for Birth records. In Sort Your Story you can give the folder a name to identify the person to whom it belongs. For example, you could call the folder Birth – Kapke, Lorel. Inside this folder you can store a birth certificate, birth announcement, newspaper announcement and any other records relating to your birth.

 

 

Do you have military files for your ancestor? Store them in the military folder! Again, you can name this folder whatever you want. Then transfer pension files, discharge papers, World War I or II Draft Registration cards, photos of the ship on which your ancestor sailed during his time in the Navy.  Store a photo of your ancestor in uniform. The possibilities are endless.

 

 

This folder is for immigration. Name the folder and store ship manifests, photos of the immigrant prior to and after their arrival in the U.S., and passport documents to name just a few things you could have in this folder.

 

Keep in mind that when you store your documents and photos in each folder, those files should be named so you know exactly what they are. This makes the documents and photos easy to locate. And finally, do not forget to backup your files on to an external drive!

 

 

© 2011 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413

Wisdom Wednesday – Let’s Get Organized Part II

Last week we discussed getting started with Sort Your Story and organizing. The focus was on scanning and organizing your documents. This week I want to talk about the importance of backing up the data on your computer.

When was the last time you backed up your computer files? These could be music files, work files, photographs, or genealogy files. Have you done it recently? If not, consider backing your files up today and then join the Geneabloggers community the first day of every month which is Data Backup Day! If you subscribe to the Geneabloggers blog, you will be reminded the first of every month to do this important task.

Backing up your files ensures that in the event of a computer crash or virus, fire or flood, that you have another copy of your files. Creating two copies and keeping one off-site, meaning at someone else’s home or your safety deposit box, is also a good idea.

Not only can backing up your files create a safety net in case of an emergency, but it also allows you to go to a previous version of a file in the event you change something and did not intend to save the file that way. It is also a safety net in case you delete a file from your computer and cannot retrieve it because you already emptied your trash.

So remember to schedule a time daily, weekly, or monthly to backup your data. Once you begin to create all the Sort Your Story Profiles, you will not want to lose them.

Wisdom Wednesday – Let’s Get Organized Part I

I think we can all agree that as genealogists, we keep piles paper records, photographs, and massive amounts of electronic records and images. But here are some questions to ask yourself regarding all of these records.

• What format are your records in? Only paper? Both paper and digital?
• Are your paper records and photographs scanned and saved digitally also?
• Are they organized regardless of format?
• Are you attaching all your records to the individuals in your genealogy software program or are they floating around on your computer?
• Can you locate a document for someone within a few minutes?

Whether your records are in paper or digital format, Sort Your Story can help you get organized.

Let’s talk about how to get started.

• Create a folder on your desktop called “Genealogy Images.”
• Pull out your documents and photographs to scan.
• Create a plan to scan all the documents and photographs. This project does not have to be completed in one day. Just make it a priority to complete.
• Scan your documents and photographs.
• Add metadata to the file as you save it so it is searchable.
• Save these files as TIFFs with a label you will recognize in the “Genealogy Images” folder you created.
• Now “Save As” these files into the folder in the size of a thumbnail.
• File the original document or photograph so you could retrieve it later if necessary.

Want more tips on getting organized and using Sort Your Story? Stop by next Wednesday to learn more.

© 2011 Lorel Kapke, 19201 Sonoma Hwy. #341, Sonoma, CA 95476-5413