I'm in the process of upgrading my system for organizing paper files. I have a bunch of binders and everything is in there, with the exception of some photocopied book pages.
My old system clustered records by last name, in a manner only understood by me. A surname with a lot of records would be paired with a smaller surname so I could get more names to fit in one notebook. As my tree grows, this system no longer works.
Now I'm going straight alphabetical. It's the only option. Woman are sorted by maiden name. People with the same last name are alphabetized by first name and divided by tabs.
Finally, I have a place for the Irven Coffey death certificate, the Christopher Fulton death certificate and all those other papers that didn't quite fit in the notebooks before this time.
This new system should make is easier to keep track of documents I've already scanned and those that still need to be done.
The whole process of moving documents should take about three afternoons. There are papers all over my kitchen table. It looks like a tornado, but it's for a good cause.
Sounds like a good time :). I have one binder with paper copies, (and not everything at that). I keep everything on a computer, scanned, downloaded ect, with a back up say weekly to my external hard drive, and also (hopefully) weekly to my thumbdrive that I carry everywhere I go. I use a great program to sync everything its called always sync. Its probally the best software for data backup that I have seen. (I work in the IT industry). But back to Upgrades.
ReplyDeleteI have needed to expand my paper copies, but it just to much, so its all computer.