welcome back to the ancestral findings podcast making sure your genealogy is properly organized
is important to keeping everything clear and in order so you can put
your family tree together accurately and keep important documents and family heirlooms safe
these are some of the best ways you can do this with your genealogy
in addition to your digital genealogical information there will also be physical
genealogy items you will need to organize physical items in genealogy can be anything from
hard copies of documents and photographs to heirlooms made or owned by your ancestors
obviously these will not be able to go on your computer the good news is that there are excellent
and wonderfully simple ways of organizing these things as well these are some tips on doing it
so you and future generations of your family will be able to locate use and enjoy them to the
maximum possible extent three create genealogy binders for surnames and individuals just like
what you did with the electronic folders on your computer you can create a similar way of
organizing your genealogy with three-ring binders this is an excellent way of organizing physical
copies of documents such as birth certificates death certificates marriage certificates
military records such as enlistment service or discharge papers etc newspaper clippings and
articles deeds to houses that your ancestors once owned property surveys and even individual pages
from guestbooks for anniversary parties funerals and weddings and individual pages from baby books
basically pretty much any physical paper or paper product item like cardboard that you can collect
that is connected to your genealogy research can be organized this way this is what you do
get as many three-ring binders as you need for all the documents you want to organize
you will be organizing by family surname and by individual people if any one person has enough
physical documentation to warrant their own individual binder ideally these will be white
binders with plastic pockets on the front and side print up a sheet of paper for the front pocket
and the side pocket you will have to trim it to size to fit with the surname of the family or the
individual name of the person once you've inserted the paper on the front and side you will easily be
able to find the correct binder on a bookshelf purchase archival safe plastic sheet protectors
that are hole punched for three ring binders you will be putting your documents in these purchase
archival safe linen paper and double stick tape center documents on the archival safe linen paper
and secure them with tape if you can find the archival safe tape all the better use a sharpie or
regular ink pen to write a description of the document either above or below it on the paper
if you can create the spacing to do it you can put the paper through your printer and print out the
label above or below the document using a fancy font if you like put the paper with the document
on it in the plastic sheet protector organize the documents by document type within each document
type organize alphabetically by date from earliest to latest so if you have several marriage records
make a marriage record category in the binder and put the sheet protectors in alphabetically by name
starting with the earliest ones to the latest ones if you are doing a surname binder instead of an
individual person binder make a separate section in your binder for each individual person within
that surname and organize the sheet protectors as you otherwise would you may write or print sheets
to include in the binder to name the individuals and categories if you like it's a nice touch and
definitely helps with the organization arrange binders alphabetically by surname on a bookshelf
with individuals with their own binders within a surname put the general surname binder on
the shelf first with individual binders coming after arranged alphabetically by the first name
4. organizing the heirlooms you may collect some large objects associated with your ancestors along
the way in your genealogical journey when people find out there is a genealogist in the family
they tend to want to give you things that they no longer have room for in their homes
or that they no longer want to be responsible for they will usually ask you to take these
things with words to the effect of they know you will keep them safe and in good condition
for future generations or that you will keep them just like their original owner would want you to
you may have already experienced this phenomenon and have a few family heirlooms in your house
heirlooms are any physical object associated with your ancestor that does not fit into the category
of documentation anything from old wedding rings or other jewelry to antique china or silverware
sets to actual antique furniture may be sent your way by well-meaning relatives who know you are the
family historian what do you do with them all when it comes to smaller objects you can find a variety
of creative ways to display them such as in a bookcase or china cabinets you can make little
cards or labels to be placed on beside or in front of them that say who these objects belong to and
what the approximate date of manufacture is for the object or the approximate date it came into
the family if you don't know the manufacture date you can also pack them away for future generations
with similar labeling but it is more fun for most genealogists to display them in some way the same
thing goes for furniture display it or store it with proper labeling on it or nearby you will want
to make plans for it in the future naturally these are objects that are important to your family
history and may be valuable and even if not they will have sentimental value you will want to make
sure they stay safe the best way to do this is to either make sure these heirlooms are handed down
via official documentation to trusted family members of the younger generation or to make
plans for them to one day be donated to a local or national museum or archives
thanks for listening and subscribing to the ancestral findings podcast
check out ancestralfindings.com and download a free genealogy ebook and sign up for the
weekly historical postcard giveaway i hope you have a wonderful day and happy searching