Sorting Saturday - Sharon Haas

My sorting through all my images that I have downloaded from various sites is progressing nicely. In my Michigan Marriages I have them put all in folders by counties, then I added folders by years. So far I have 61 counties that I have marriage records in. I am working on Kent County records right now. Some of the folders may only have 1 image in them but I did it this way for easy adding of additional images later. I only have 28 more to do and I will have them all linked back up.

When I save the images I try to put the year, county, volume, page, the Digital Folder Number. and the collection it is from. This has really helped me out relinking them back to the right family marriages.

I have to say I wish I would have done this from the very beginning. I like make others that I have read their blogs have been in the process of reorganizing our data, images, etc. In the beginning, when I first started doing my research, I downloaded gedcoms from other peoples family trees that had same names and possible relatives in them. I didn't understand how to write sources. To that I still am not real good at but am improving thanks to Geoff Rasmussen through the Webinars, and others as I read the their blogs.


I try to catch as many Webinars as I can from different ones that put them on and usually have to go back and rewatch them. Thank Goodness for the ones that are put in Legacy's archives for a little while. So slowly but steadily I'm getting my reorganizing done.

When I get through my marriages I may have to go back and do a little more organizing in Births, Census, and Deaths folders. I'm not sure yet. I'm trying to think of the future when I have added so many new images so that I don't have to go back and redo again.

Last night I listened to Thomas and gang on Geneabloggers Blog Radio program. I try to catch all of them and am trying to download as many as I can to listen to again. I even chatted alittle bit on the chat screen. It took me a few minutes to get there but finally made it and didn't lose my internet connection this time. They were having way to much fun at Jamboree.

I have added a lot of new friends to my facebook and a lot of new blogs. I so enjoy reading them. I'm a bit behind in reading some of them, but am able to catch a few that gets posted thru facebook.

I added my geni.com family tree on my blog but don't know if I did it right and tried to add it to my facebook but the app doesn't work when I click on it. I still don't know how to use Geni.com family tree very well. I can only use the free features because I cannot afford to buy the membership.

I also have a Wiki Tree on my blog. Haven't added to it in a while and haven't put it in a page yet. I have been mostly concentrating on my Legacy Family Tree. Someday when I get everything fixed up on it I may publish it.

I have been keeping up with Randy Seaver and his blog posts. I enjoy his reviews and his posts among others. Keep those blogs and Webinars coming, so I can continue learning and smiling. I wanted to do a post on Surname Saturday but can't figure out who I want to write about so I will leave that for another time. Maybe next Saturday.

I'm getting anxious for my visit to my Mom's in July. I talked to her this morning and told her I planned to bring my camera and take her to the cemeteries and get pictures of the headstones of our families. My brother-in-law made a flower holder for my Step-dad's grave and she hasn't seen it yet so I hope the flowers my Sis put in it are still looking nice when I take Mom there. I told her depending on how well she has done on her sorting and getting all her pictures, newspaper clippings and everything done, we maybe able to do some visiting with Walt's Sisters. His one Sister Evelyn doesn't live all that far from Flint Memorial Cemetery and that maybe his Sister Bonnie could meet us at Eve's and we would be able to visit both of them.

Back to my Marriage Folders. Happy Blogging Everyone. Can't wait to read all the Blogs about the Jamboree.

Sorting Saturday

I have been very busy this week cleaning up my C: hard drive. I have so many duplicate pictures. I have been moving pictures to flashstick for now just in case I mess up in my reorganizing. I'm hoping somewhere along the way I will run across my 1930 Census records that I am very sure I downloaded.

I have been moving birthrecords that are in book form from FamilySearch.org into Births Folder and then by state. But as I have been moving them I have looked at the image, found the person it was downloaded for and after moving it to Birth Folder I have linked it to that person. Sometimes I have found other family members on the same image so I have been able to link them up also instead of having another copy of the image in their folder. It's slow work but will be so worth it when I am done.

I called my Mom yesterday for several reasons. She is going to be 83 in July so I try to call her at least every week or at least every couple of weeks to make sure she is doing OK. Plus it was Good Friday and I wished her Happy Easter just in case I don't talk to her Easter Day. Plus I gave her a HUGE JOB!!!

I told her I plan on coming down around her birthday and staying a week or two. I will be bringing my computer and scanner with me so I can scan all the pictures, obituaries, newspaper clippings, letters and any other things she has on our families and I will be putting it into my Legacy Family Tree program as I go along with all the information she has on everything. It is going to be a big job but will really fill in my family pictures and information. And with me having my computer with me and putting it in as I go along with her help, it will be done and maybe she will put them in her photo albums, etc. as we go along.

Her HUGE JOB going thru all her drawers, boxes, closets, (she has everything everywhere), and sorting everything out. I told her put away your books, puzzles and crafts because I will only be able to stay a week or two not years, so I need to have you put all your pictures in one area, get all the obituaries, newspaper clippings, etc. all in one area. Don't worry about trying to put them in your photo albums or scrap books just get them all together. As she is doing this she will hopefully anyways, put all her recipes in one place and get rid of all of her old junk mail, and have everything else all sorted in each of there respective spots.

I'll bet she will find things she has been looking for years for and it will give us a chance to spend some time together and work on our genealogy together. I'm pretty sure she has several copies of the same recipes. Maybe we will get them organized for her while we're at it. Who knows.

I gave her strict orders not to go down in the basement though. She has a tendency to lose her balance and I don't want her falling. Especially since she lives alone.

I am so looking forward to this trip. I hate the drive it's only 3 and 1/2 hrs. But I hate driving anymore and I will be by myself. So radio will be turned on listening to my country music.

Well I got to get busy getting organized and making room for all this new info I will be adding. EXCITED!!!! EXCITED!!! SO EXCITED!!!

Happy Sorting Saturday Everyone. Happy Easter in case I don't post tomorrow.

Sorting Saturday

Slowly but steadily I'm getting my computer organized. I have sorted thru all the Marriage records that I have on one flash stick and organized the records by surnames and today I will be putting them into my Legacy Family Tree program. I probably won't get them all linked back up today. In fact I know I won't. I think I have all my birth, death, census records already in there by surname.

I kept thinking I know I have more Census Records somewhere. Well I think I have them on other flash sticks. Pretty sure I do cause I seem to remember 1 flash stick wouldn't hold any more data it was full. That's probably where some were that I couldn't find the links. Goofy Me!!! I had done them before the larger flash sticks came out. My goal is to delete my passport drive (which scares me a little bit, because that's where my computer does backups to at the moment) and then put all the info I have onto it.

A little scared to erase the passport drive (or empty it or whatever you want to call it) because I'm not sure about where to do my computer system backups. I have way to much stuff. I have probably duplicated some of a few times. But Dropbox only let's me do 2gb so I have to be careful what I send there. Can't afford to buy more space. So right now I use it mainly for my blogging backups.

I so look forward to reading all you folks blogs. I pick up new ideas on how others have their blogs set up, how they organize, find new resources and other information. I really enjoy reading the stories and looking at the pictures. Who knows I may find some of my relatives yet.

Well I'm off to organizing. You all have a great day. 

Sorting Saturday

I have been busy sorting things on my hard drive and in my Legacy Family Tree Program. I did get most of my pictures in Legacy sorted by Surnames. Some I left with the family I had them with at least for now.

I added Folders in the surname folders for Birth Records, Death Records, Census Records, Marriage Records. Now I plan to look in my original folders I have for Birth Records, Death Records, Census Records, Marriage Records, etc. and copy them to the corresponding folder for that surname. It will make it a lot easier to locate the record to link them up I think (or at least I hope).

I still need to do the linking of pictures. But I think I might try organizing them by numbering the ones for each person that I have more than a few photos so they will be in order.

I did get on Ancestory.com site and looked up a few things.

I definitely have a lot of work ahead of me, but I think it will be well worth it in the long run, especially when it comes to linking them to the individuals.

I think though when I am searching on the internet for birth, death, marriage etc. I will still save it first in my folders I have on hard drive and then copy them to my Legacy folders. I know it may sound strange but I'm so afraid of losing stuff. Miss Forgetful here.

The other day I copied all my favorites to my hard drive. But then I added some new ones and I think I forgot to add them to my hard drive file. Wish I could figure out how to have it go directly to my computer file. I tried copy and paste the link but when I went to my computer file it wasn't able to paste. That's why I put them in my favorites. The send to didn't come up in menu when I was trying to do it either. Sometimes computer is not my friend!!!

Well I better go get busy sorting. Hope you all have a really great day!!! The sun is out here in Fountain. Later tonight we have some nasty weather continuing thru tomorrow.

Spring is here and so is the spring weather

Well Spring is here finally!!! So is the thunder and lightning. Yesterday we had Thunder Snow and Lightning. Put a damper on my organizing.

Whenever it thunder and lightnings out we unplug the router, the computers and the printer. Can't afford to take a chance of getting struck by lightning. Even with surge protectors I read lightning can still get through.

So yesterday I got no sorting done. Did get my posts out I wanted to do. But I did get more photos in album so at least I didn't waste time and did get something accomplished.

Did watch the Academy of Country Music Awards last night. They were great. I especially loved Darius Rucker's performance "Music from the Heart" with a group of talented musicians with developmental disabilities. Tears were flowing from everywhere. Thank you Darius and all the ones that performed with him. You Guys ROCKED!!!!!

Sometime this morning after 5 we lost power because all the clocks were flashing and had to reset them after my eyes woke up some so I could see. Had to reset TV to converter cause I just a white screen. No Satellite, Dish or Cable TV here. We get our local CBS 9&10, Fox 32, and 3 PBS stations which 2 are the same and one has Create on it. Can't pick up ABC or NBC stations.

Won't be long and we can quit having to have the woodstove going.

Spring break is over for Poor Walt. But he said only 5 weeks left and summer break begins.

Well I think I might just go work on trying to reorganize my Legacy Family Tree.

Thanks you all for reading!!!!

Sorting Saturday is here: What a Job I have!!!!!!

Well the other day I by accidental coughing while trying to put things in Dropbox managed to put my whole Legacy program in Dropbox. Not at all what I wanted to do. I had to delete it out of there because it put me way over my 2GB limit and I can't afford to pay anything for extra storage. Along with the fact that my Legacy Family Tree program no longer worked that was on my hard drive. I was devastated. Well I got it all fixed back up on my hard drive and made a copy of it on a new 16 GB flash stick. It used 12.7GB on my flash stick.

I have been reading DearMyrtle's blog on organizing and Linda McCauley blog on organizing her system. Also looking at Thomas MacEntee's backing up your data.

I sure do have alot of sorting to do.

When I first set my Legacy Family Tree up I just starting putting in my info I had on family members and downloaded GEDCOM's then I started adding pictures. Unfortunately I had not put them in any specific order and was having Legacy get them from my C drive's Pictures. At that time I had an old desktop. Believe you me I am not a computer geek. I don't understand alot of the technical terms and how to use alot of features. Give me a good detailed set of instructions with pictures that show me what to do explained out in plain English and I'm good to go.

Then I bought a used IBM Thinkpad Laptop. I finally got it to hookup to internet (of which it now doesn't and doesn't have enough room on it because all the microsoft windows programs and IBM Thinkpad programs gobbled it up and I apparently removed the wrong program). I was using it to do my genealogy and alot more. But I had my Legacy program on a flash stick which I installed on the flashstick and my desktop shortcut for Legacy would take me right to my flash stick. So I got the brilliant idea of putting all my pictures of family that I had scanned or was on our camera disc in my Legacy program. So I first went one way doing it but then another way. Got everything linking up finally. But I didn't have much in there and I found myself copying the same image to another person that was say on the same Census Page Image. So now I had the same image in maybe 7 or 8 different members of my families photos in my Legacy program. Then I have Marriage records, birth records, death records which are mostly in book form pages which sometimes have 2 or 3 members of the same family on the same page.

So I thought instead of having the picture in that person's photo file I would make a folder for Birth Records, Death Records, Marriage Records, etc. and then I subfoldered them by State. The Census Records I have US Census>1850>State for instance. I literally have tons of images that I downloaded and put in folders in this fashion. But I still have a lot that I haven't gotten linked back up properly.

After studying the way the aforementioned people's way of doing things, (Which is kinda the way I started doing things at one point, but then couldn't remember who belonged to what family), I have been mulling over how is the best way for me. I'm still trying to figure that out.

I can't afford to make hardcopies of all the images and put in binders per family surname (which I really like Myrt's idea but space and funds limit me) but I mainly have photos of family not original documents anyway.

All of my searching on the internet has to be from free sites. So that limits me on alot on obtaining copies of originals.

Ok here is my one thought, I will use my Pember family as an example remember most is in photo format (jpg):
Legacy Program
    Photos
      Clampitt
      Haas
      Pember
          Birth Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Census Records
          Death Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Family Bible
          Land Records, Deeds etc
          Marriage Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Newspaper Records  
          Pember Adelbert E                   This is possibly James M's brother
          Pember Arnold M 1907-1989
          Pember Christine L 1928-       This is Arnold M's Daughter
          Pember James M 1878-1928   This is Arnold M's Father
          Pember James R                       This is possibly Adelbert E's son
    Sewell
          Birth Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Census Records
          Death Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Family Bible
          Land Records, Deeds etc
          Marriage Records (if more than 1 member of family on same page)
          Newspaper Records
          Sewell Joseph
          Sewell Ira J
          Sewell Alfred
          Sewell Isley
          Sewell Lucinda J 1901-1982 ( I have 2 original copies of her birth certificate one with her soc sec no on )  
    

If I keep all birth records, census records, etc for each surname in folder pertaining to record type for that surname instead of putting them in the individual persons folder I only need to look in that folder to see if I have something in there that pertains to person I am looking for.

You see my problem arises when a female marries. Should I make another surname folder with Birth, Census, Death, Marriages, etc. under that surname to follow this female. Example: My Grandma is Lucinda J Sewell. She first married Frank Reid, they divorced but she had 3 or 4 kids by him, then she married Arnold M. Pember my Grandpa, they divorced she had 1 child my mother Christine L Pember by him, then she married LeRoy Gibbs whom died before her and she never remarried. She's an easy one since I am quite familiar with her but some of the other families I'm not that familiar with and I'm afraid I might miss them when I am documenting and looking for say a census.

I have alot of females with only a first name to go by and alot of unknown as mother. I have them as Mrs. So and So instead of just first name or unknown. But Legacy says I shouldn't put Mrs. in.

Guess I'll have to work on that as I come to them. Maybe someday I'll find a marriage record that gives the female's last name.

My conclusion at least for now is to go thru and do as I have outlined above. Going to be very time consuming but I think it will be the best way. But the best way I can figure to do this is to Move all the Census files, Birth Record Files, Marriage Record Files, etc out of Legacy and onto C: Hard Drive. Look at each record and put them into appropriate Census Record  folder or birth record etc for say my Pember Family as I look at each record, etc until I get them back to appropriate family. It may not be freeing up room in Legacy but maybe make it alot easier if I oops again to relink them, especially since I have alot of them already missing links.

Any suggestions, thoughts would be greatly appreciated. If you happen to see a picture someone has posted of me with hair sticking up in the air like I got electrocuted, pulling my hair out or bald think nothing of it. Or if you don't see my mug on facebook it's because I am staring aimlessly at the computer screen wondering where that just went and searching for it.

Oh maybe I should make a list of what I have decided to do, otherwise I might forget.

Oh by the way I am much more organized than my dear mother. She is not at all organized, she has had almost 83 years (well knock off a few years for when she was a toddler) to collect, and stuff wherever and whatever EVERY WHERE!!!! I spent almost all of December 2009 with her and emptied out drawers in just one room and some tops of furniture in another and reorganized somewhat. Putting all of cards (ones to send to people) in 1 drawer, put all her genealogy like things in 1 cabinet sorting out obituaries, news clippings etc. She has pictures in drawers everywhere and cards and letters from people some family everywhere. Got alot of them together in one or 2 places. I have no idea how many bags of junk mail I burned. Anyways I set her up with boxes for her to sort stuff into from 6 more big boxes of stuff I had taken out of drawers (pictures, recipes, junk mail, newspaper clippings, jewelry, you name it) that I found in them. They are still there still ungone thru and resorted into the smaller boxes that she needed to go thru herself. She spends hours, days and months looking for something because she just stuck it someplace instead of where it belongs.

I have tried since I was a kid to keep things somewhat organized now I need to get that somewhat, ORGANIZED!!!!

Happy Sorting Saturday Everybody.