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How I organize my Genealogy Research
files, folders & sub-folders - For information about
Family Tree Maker
I create first a main folder Genealogy-Doc
(identifies my lineage) as I have research folders for over 500 other people.
From my Main folder Genealogy-Doc
I create sub-folders, one for each of
my grand parents sur\maiden name.
And the reason the following 5 main
Surname folders have _ underscore
in front, is so those folders will sort to the top inside of the directory
Genealogy-Doc - and the path would be (using Windows 7)
C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Genealogy-Doc
_Begnal-Young
_Blaschko
_Cardozo-Perry
_Shaughnessy-Begnal
_Wilson
The above folders would contain sub-folders of each ancestor by year born and
their name as shown below
Note: Path\Folder Location & Name
And if I open the 1924-Richard Newton
Begnal folder would be organized as follows
And the above path would be (using Windows 7)
C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Begnal-Young\1924-Richard
Newton Begnal
Within this sub-folder 1924-Richard Newton Begnal would
contain his birth, marriage, school records, military, social security and death
records
If I wanted to View the Census
Records, City Directories, Immigration\Passenger Lists, Naturalization, Obit,
etc...I would return to the Main Directory -
C:\Users\Owner\Documents\Genealogy-Doc
Select the Folder\Record I want to View i.e. Census
Upon opening
that folder, again Surnames would be in Chronological order, the Document\Record
I want to View for Census for that Richard Newton Begnal located path
would be \Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Begnal-Young\Richard
Newton Begnal\ and the record name 1930-Richard
Begnal-Los Angeles-CA-line15.jpg
\Census\
\Churches\
\City Directories\
\Country\
\Forms\
\Gedcoms\
\Immigration\
\Military\
\Naturalization\
\Newspaper Clippings\
\Obits-Cemeteries\
\Passenger Lists\
\Photographs\
\State\
\State-Country for information about each
of the states\countries I research, information where my ancestors were living, will
contain the following sub-folders related to my research
\CA
\CT
\MA
\NY
\Azores
\Ireland
\Hungary-Slovakia
\England-Scotland
And now for the confusing part....so not all documents relating to
Census, Military, Passenger List, Naturalization,
Obit-Cemeteries, etc. are thrown into one folder of all
Census of all my ancestors any surname, each of the
above historical events\documentation sub-folders
have within them the surname folders once again.
C:\Users\Doc\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Begnal-Young
C:\Users\Doc\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Blaschko
C:\Users\Doc\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Cardozo-Perry
C:\Users\Doc\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Shaughnessy-Begnal
C:\Users\Doc\Documents\Genealogy-Doc\Census\_Wilson
And substituting the Census for
Naturalization, would have the same
surname sub-folders in each folder i.e.
Census, Military, Passenger List, Naturalization,
Obit-Cemeteries, etc.
That way in thinking to myself, asking I want to look at the 1880 census of Charles
Henry Wilson, I know to go to Census, then
_Wilson-Young with additional sub-folders, by
birth year and their name i.e. Charles Henry Wilson, which
the Census will sort
chronologically from how I name my files by Year first. So I know his name is Charles Henry
Wilson, and there should be within his Census folder the 1880 census of
him and family. The 1926-June Elsie Wilson is
my mother, and the only census that should be in there is 1930, until the 1940
census comes available in April 2012
1843-Charles Henry Wilson
1868-Charles Garfield Wilson
1898-Earle Kenneth Wilson
1926-June Elsie Wilson
1793-Antonio Pereira Cardozo I
1821-Antonio Pereira Cardozo II
1859-Antonio Pereira Cardozo III
1882-Anthony Dexter Perry
1906-Thelma Ferne Perry
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