How to Organise 100 Years of Research?

[Deer243]

I'm very lucky in that the history one of my family lines has been researched by my ancestors since around 1910. First by my Great Grandfather, then by my Grandmother (who was his daughter), then by my Mother and Aunt (my Grandmother's Children) and now by me.

What this has left me with is upwards of 1000 family photos, some labelled, many not, countless letters and BMD certificates, census returns and research notebooks along with endless scraps of paper with notes written on them along with lots of other assorted items such as part of my Gt Grandfather's diary.

Most useful are 20 pages of typewritten notes detailing the lives of by Gt Grandfather's Grandparents along with about another 60 pages of memories and other family history writeups.

I'm completely overwhelmed with the information, it's all stuffed in a box and I still have't managed to go through it all and once you put something back in the box it's a nightmare trying to find it again.

I'm always paranoid that there could be a house fire and all of this could go up in flames. I've scanned some photos and a few documents but scanning everything would be a full time job. At the moment it is all left as it was: photos and documents usually stuffed in envelopes as old as the photos with all of this crammed into a box with more odds and ends piled on top.

Can anyone offer any advice as to organising and preserving all of this?

[mike175]

What a great resource 

If funds are not seriously limited I would get some archive photo/document storage from somewhere like http://www.my-history.co.uk/ to make sure things do not deteriorate. That way you can create an index as you go. At the very least some acid-free storage boxes and tissue to place between docs/photos to prevent deterioration.

Sounds like a project for the long winter evenings, sorting and indexing everything. I had a much smaller collection in a box which I managed to borrow from my mother for a while. I scanned all the documents and most of the photos. I'm still transcribing some of the documents from the scans, but the originals were returned to mum long ago.

You definitely need a 'system' for such a large collection, but I still haven't perfected my own so I hesitate to offer further advice 

Mike.

[sami]

I bet most of us on here wish we had such a resource 

For a start - Make an Inventory of everything in the box.

sami

[C_W]

It's quite a quick process to photograph certificates, typed documents and old photos with an ordinary digital  camera.. In fact old photos can be edited and restored easier from new copies.
I do it on a table with a white cloth or sheet.I now use this method instead of a scanner.

I copied our village school records which covered almost 100 years, so that a copy could be kept before they went to county record office. They are very easy to read as you can zoom in on them.

If you get an empty box, you could start photographing them (I take two or three of each and check I am happy with image), then put them in the new box so you know which you have done. It maybe a good idea to sort them into names or families first, then that way the images will be easier to find once they are on your computer, where you can put them into individual folders.

The photo images can then be copied onto a usb flash drive or "in the cloud" somewhere. That way you would know
 they are safe from fire, flood etc.

It's certainly a big job, but you are very lucky to have so much history.

[pinefamily]

Well done on inheriting such a treasure trove. Now as you have realized, you have a mammoth task in front of you.
As others have already said, you need to make a catalogue or inventory of everything. To save time, perhaps get the acid-free sleeves and boxes mentioned by Mike, and as you catalogue things, you can sort them as well as putting them into protective sleeves etc. that will save them from any further damage/deterioration. Perhaps ring binders might be a better way of sorting things into some sort of order. How you divide things up is entirely up to you; you are the one that will be accessing the collection.
Good luck in this huge undertaking.

[Deer243]

Thanks everyone for such a quick lot of replies

I definitely like the idea of compiling a catalogue, that would certainly make just finding the stuff easier, it doesn't help much at the moment when I open an envelope labelled "grave receipts"  to find it's full of BMD certificates! I'll try making a sort of index/catalogue with Excel and see how that goes as I'm sorting through it all.

Thanks for the website link Mike, that looks like a really good source of supplies.

[Guy Etchells]

It's quite a quick process to photograph certificates, typed documents and old photos with an ordinary digital  camera.. In fact old photos can be edited and restored easier from new copies.
I do it on a table with a white cloth or sheet.I now use this method instead of a scanner.

I copied our village school records which covered almost 100 years, so that a copy could be kept before they went to county record office. They are very easy to read as you can zoom in on them.

If you get an empty box, you could start photographing them (I take two or three of each and check I am happy with image), then put them in the new box so you know which you have done. It maybe a good idea to sort them into names or families first, then that way the images will be easier to find once they are on your computer, where you can put them into individual folders.

The photo images can then be copied onto a usb flash drive or "in the cloud" somewhere. That way you would know
 they are safe from fire, flood etc.

It's certainly a big job, but you are very lucky to have so much history.

Please, Please, Please, never even think that a usb flash drive is safe to store anything.
It is not even a reliable method to transfer files as usb flash drives can be corrupted simply by inserting them or removing them from the usb port.

It is not a case they may fail is is guaranteed that ever usb flash drive will fail at some point or other.

Always ensure that you have a copy of anything put on a usb flash drive.

Cheers
Guy

[jaybelnz]

I currently have 4 paper files, 2 are for my maternal family, and two for my paternal family!

I now take documents with my iPad camera. It gives a better image than my dodgy old scanner can scan and a better photo than my digital camera.

I also copy them to CD's.

[KGarrad]

I try to ensure I have digital copies of certificates and pohotos, where I can.
Otherwise I scan them.

I have things stored on my PC, on an external Hard-Drive, some on Ancestry (probably not a great idea?!), and on cloud storage (my email provider, GMX, has cloud storage facilities).

I also use a USB stick - but only for portability. It means I can take a copy of important stuff to the library, my local museum library, and record offices.
But I would never consider USB storage for permanent use!

My family tree spans nearly 600 years!