storage etc

[spoonybroony]

I have been collecting information/photos/documents for a while now and need to get them into some sort of order. This is where none of the books seem to help! What is my right way to keep everything. I was thinking of having small storage boxes for each family name (my grandparents names only) then put photos/documents into them. then have an expanding file for my reasearch ( i am going to start filling out the forms from ancestry website). does this sound like the right thing to do. I am usually quite methodical but can't think what best way to do it and its driving round the bend having everything all over the place!! Any advice much appreciated.

[Russell]

Hi there
I think you are in the same dilemma that all of us have fallen into
There is no 'right' way to do it and it can reach a stage where even the good system you started out with is no longer meeting your needs.
My wife has all her paper certificates organised by family in plastic pockets in large lever arch folders all of the same colour. Mine are kept this way but the folders are a different colour. Each folder has the principal family name on the spine and front.Each family group has an outline family tree at the front with the certificates for each individual arranged chronologically behind it. Where a family was too large to all fit together each sibling's family was identified by a letter on the main family tree page and subgrouped behind its own family tree.
All original certificates have been copied then stored in acid free pockets in document boxes along with original photos of that family, each with a pencilled identification on the back (for future generations who will not always have known the people.
We each have 7 or 8 lever arch folders. Modern photos of memorial stones etc are kept at the back of each family file.
My wife has built up pages of addresses, occupations, causes of death as she is interested in aspects of inherited factors and she finds this a laborious but beneficial extra record.
On the family group tree a simple code can identify those certificates we already hold as a quick guide for future searches.
In a separate lever arch folder we keep maps of relevant graveyards; dates for each census; newspaper clippings and so on.
In another folder we have copies of previous searches which might relate to our ancestors but we still have not made the connection.
The method suits us but it might not suit you and it means that should the computer crash with all the data in the genealogy programme lost we can easily re-create it from the paper copies. Takes up a lot of room but lets us sleep soundly at night.

Russell