Opinions required please

[Kiltpin]

Hello All,

It seems that I joined RootsChat many, many years ago, but promptly forgot all about it. I was doing some housekeeping on the PC yesterday and found the link in "Model Railway".

Oh, what have I been missing‽

So leaping straight in -

I have my tree on Ancestry and linked to Family Tree Maker on my PC. So far so good, but I have quite an extended family. Even linking my screen to a large TV means that only a restricted number of people could see it at any one time. And even then, it is only of any value if someone wants to see "the big picture", that is to say, where everybody fits in the tree.

At this point, I am going to give you some background. I have 881 people in my tree, which has been culled down from 1200+.  The 400 that I got rid of were so far distant that not only were they not in my tree, they weren't even in the same forest! Siblings of spouses and the spouses of those siblings and so on and so on.

Even with this reduced number, I cannot remember them all. So this is my idea and I would like your opinions please.

I will buy a 4 drawer filing cabinet and have a physical, printed file, for each person. All the information, pictures, certificates and importantly a To Do List will be included in each file.
All thoughts, ideas, dead ends and all the other stuff that doesn't fit nicely into Ancestry, notes made at gravesides, sketches - in fact everything will be in that master folder. Important stuff then gets transferred to Ancestry and FTM.

This will allow me to work on one person at a time and allow someone else to work on another person.

I know it will involve expense of both time and money.

So, is anybody doing it that way? Am I going to be wasting my time? Are there any other pitfalls that I have not seen.

So, there we have it - tell me what you think please.

Regards

Chas

[lizdb]

Sounds good to me.   
It is all those cuttings, notes, records, documents etc that make it interesting, and tell you all about the person. And also remind you how you arrived at the conclusion that they fitted into your tree in a particular way (ie who parents were etc) if there is ever a reason to go back over it.

[davidft]

I will buy a 4 drawer filing cabinet and have a physical, printed file, for each person. All the information, pictures, certificates and importantly a To Do List will be included in each file.
All thoughts, ideas, dead ends and all the other stuff that doesn't fit nicely into Ancestry, notes made at gravesides, sketches - in fact everything will be in that master folder. Important stuff then gets transferred to Ancestry and FTM.

Years ago I went down the route of having printed sheets for all the people in my tree. Unfortunately once I had made it I never updated it so now it is years out of date 

One suggestion I would make is some genealogical software now enables you to print reports. I don't know if FTM allow you to do this but worth investigating and especially if it allows you to print a report on just one person at a time as then that will stop you having to do an awful lot of typing.

Another thing is that the trees on Ancestry allow you to write notes and comments onto individual people on your tree. This could be an ideal place to put your thoughts, ideas, dead ends and all the other stuff that doesn't fit nicely into Ancestry, notes made at gravesides, sketches . You will need to play around with Ancestry to see if you can print this off for individual people but worth a try and if you don't get the result you are hoping for ask the experts there as they may know a way to do it. (The Ancestry tree can do a lot more than most people initially think).

Good luck

[jim1]

Wouldn't it be easier & cheaper to scan what you want & put it in individual folders & print it off when required. Much easier to update that way.

[Kiltpin]

Wouldn't it be easier & cheaper to scan what you want & put it in individual folders & print it off when required. Much easier to update that way.

Hi Jim, I probably haven't explained myself properly.

Last year we had a family get-together. I had the whole tree printed out, which was a hit with everybody. But when it came to them wanting to see their own individual record and information, it all turned into a bit of a scrum. I could not do all the tasks at the same time.

But if it was printed out separately, they could check, or make notes, or additions, while I was dealing with others. All the printing would already be done.

Long dead people, or family groups could be all in one file and probably never altered.

As a rule of thumb, I don't think that I would reprint for every alteration or amendment. I would make the alteration on Ancestry and FTM and make a note of it in the master file. And then just re-print the individual pages.

That's how I envisage it.

Regards

Chas

[aghadowey]

I'm wondering if you are perhaps making more paperwork and causing more confusion for yourself.

I have far, far, far more material than you on my family- the result of over 40 years of my own research combined with original material gathered by older relatives who generously shared the  their research, etc. What I've done is divide it into 4 sections (one for each grandparent which works well as each were from totally different areas and families don't overlap.

After experimenting with quite a few family history software programmes I now stick to keeping family notes in a Word document. Usually each surname has their own document where I start with earliest known ancestor and trace descendants forward (often to present day). I can easily add photos and maps but more importantly make changes- mother's cousin dies, obituary found online, copy and paste into document, etc. I can also send a document to other relations (most people are able to view Word documents unlike all family history programmes). Sometimes just a portion of the document is all I need to send but it's easy to copy and paste bits.
Word also allows my to type in unrelated people/family groups that might later turn out to be connected, notes on research, etc. For a 'family tree' I use a free programme called GenoPro (but only for small, 1 page trees).
The printed Word documents are put into clear pockets inside files which sit on numerous bookshelves. Filing cabinet holds letters (filed by surname or person's name depending on how numerous) and documents (filed by surname).Shelves also hold local histories and other printed material concerning families or area. A few file boxes also sit on the shelves with bulkier items such as scrapbooks, autograph books, etc. Eventually photos will be put into albums (labelled of course) but I haven't done that yet- in the meantime loose photos are in manila envelopes by families.

The important thing about whatever system you use is that you keep it up to date!

[KGarrad]

I think we Family Historians divide into 2 camps?

Those who are comfortable with computers and databases.
And those who are more comfortable with paper filing!

I have worked in IT for more than 40 years - so, to me, the computer-based approach is better.
It's portable! I can take my lap-top with me.
This Christmas, I will be doing just that with my son-in-law's family.
All the relevant documents are in a folder on my PC (and cloud storage!), so I can show them what I have done with their family tree.

But I realise others would find that idea abhorrent!
And would prefer the approach taken by Kiltpin and Aghadowey.

I think the secret to success is being able to locate a particular piece of information in your filing system, or computer, quickly and easily.

[clairec666]

For sharing information at family gatherings, having everything printed out for everyone to see is a great idea (and if you've got it all there ready, it'll save a lot of printing at the last minute before a get-together). But as for using paper-based files for your main research.... I'd personally keep this on computer. It depends how much you like working on computers.

Most family tree software has a "notes" section for each person, where you could put any extra information, e.g. which leads you've followed up or need to follow up, whether you have any photos of them, etc. That would save you a lot of paper and printing time. Then you could keep a "to-do" list on paper so you know which people need following up.

Maybe you could keep a paper file for all direct ancestors, but their siblings/cousins etc. might not be worth a file of their own?

[SmallTownGirl]

If there are parents and six children on, say, a census, you'd have to print off eight copies of that one page, so for that reason alone, I wouldn't go down the paper-based route.   

STG