Organizing with “Dear Myrtle”: February

Continuing to play catch-up with Dear Myrtle’s Organizing Checklists, I am now working through February’s.  Also, an update for January, today I bought 6 more binders and 10 more sets of tab dividers because I got a $10 coupon bringing my total investment for supplies to $250.46.  Creating those binders will be added to the list of things to do.

Here’s the breakdown for February:

1. Decide on a genealogy management program: I already use Legacy Family Tree Software.
2. Volunteer at FamilySearchIndexing.org: I’m registered to volunteer for this, but my genealogy volunteer efforts at present are towards my local society.
3. Check that surnames in binders A-F are in the database:  Well, I had to modify this one a bit.  I printed the family group sheets for the binders I’ve already made from my database, so I know they are all in there.  Plus, I can’t work alphabetically as I said before, because not all the binders are made yet.
4. Make sure individuals mentioned in papers are cited in database: This is precisely what I’ll be working on for February’s list!
5. Sort photos: Already done.
6. Rename digital photos: A work in progress.
7. Subscribe to blogs in Google Reader: I should unsubscribe to some because I can never keep my list empty – always trying to play catch-up with this!  I love my reader!
8. Join a genealogy-related mailing list: I have joined a couple and never have time to read the emails which frustrates me.  I try to eliminate and self-created must-do’s so I don’t punish myself by feeling badly that I can’t get it done.
9. Scanfest:  I use this time to scan.  I am volunteering currently to digitize our societies quarterlies so we can add them to the member’s only section of our website.

These are the four containers in my office of sorted photos I started in my Archiving Project.  They have been then and the process has been halted.  Long story short.  I order my archival supplies from Light Impressions Direct.  I placed an order for more photo sleeves in October 2010. When I didn’t get them just before Christmas I called and they said they were back-ordered.  I’ve called many times where there was no answer, a chronic busy signal and today’s call left me on hold for 6 minutes with no answer.  I am so bummed!  Grrrr!  I may have to switch to another supplier, but I already have supplies from them from my first order and I really want it all to match!  You know?

So, still playing catch-up…on to March! or march onward… or something like that.

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Organizing with “Dear Myrtle”: January

I know it’s March, but I’ve just started in March, therefore I’m still in “January”! {Rolling eyes }!
I told you how I’m switching back to binders here.  I've decided it’s a good time to make this change for myself and had heard about Dear Myrtle’s Organizing Checklists at about the same time, so why not play along?  It’s not too late and you can certainly start now if you want to follow along.  Just go to the link and begin!
Here’s how I’m doing so far for January":

• Back-up genealogy data:   I already have a Dropbox account, but I noticed this would not work for me.  I use Legacy Family Tree software and pointing my genealogy database file to Dropbox in the past caused “Error 91”.  I contacted technical support and got this reply:

“There isn't a bug in Legacy. The problem is that everytime you add or edit information in Legacy you click Save, Dropbox instantly wants to upload your file because it has detected a change. The work-around is don't use Dropbox as your regular Data folder. Only add your family file to Dropbox after you are done working in it and have closed Legacy.”

This resolved the problem for me and I’ve been doing it this way ever since. Especially because I share files between my desktop where I do data entry and my netbook.  In addition, I only have 2GB of space on Dropbox and my photos and documents folders combined are already too big.  This will not be a long-term solution unless I pay for more space, which I won’t do.  I'm looking into a free work-around solution to using Dropbox and will keep you informed.

• Clear off computer desk: This is an ongoing challenge for me the way my office is set-up, but I am finding solutions for the way I work.  Consider this a work in progress.  Btw, I did take before pictures all around my office.  I had already begun a photo archiving project, so the part about sorting photos is handled.
• Check office supplies: Oh my, my, my!  This one was a surprise because I had to buy new binders and extra-wide tab dividers a little at a time.  I already had boxes of sheet protectors and a label-maker.  I also splurged on a ream of lavender colored paper, cream colored paper for the Family Group Sheets and  sticky-tabs .  Total spent was $181.94 not including tax. 
• Set up the computer desk the way you really want it:  It’s already set up the way I want it.
• “Golden Clipboard”: Isn’t necessary, I just impatiently yell for nicely call my husband to come rescue me!
• Make Surname binders: I’ve made some, and will purchase more as we progress through the next phases of entering data from the binders.  Mine won’t be alphabetically entered, as I’ve created the binders for the names with the most information first.
• Create family group sheets for DIRECT LINE, COLLATERAL LINES, place all important docs in sheet protectors, file NOT PROVEN docs:  All done for the binders I’ve made.
• Prepare Scanner: Already had that set up.
• Attend Scanfest: I attended this once in the past and could not chat and focus on page numbers I was scanning in chronological order.  I enjoyed the chat, but had to decide to do one or the other and not both to be most productive at scanning.

That has me caught up…to February!
Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Started Re-Organizing…

Being a part of my society’s Beginner’s Course 2011, I sat through many classes which were inspiring to me.  One was the Organizing class.  Though I have “a place” for all of my genealogy, it doesn’t seem to be “working” for me.  The system is wrong.  I can’t make the best use of what I have.  I can retrieve what I want when I want it which is a key element for ME, but I can’t get the big picture by easily looking at one surname at the same time.  I started as a binder-girl as I mentioned here, then because binders wouldn’t fit in my two walls of built-in bookshelves (scaled for BOOKS) in my office, I switched to hanging file folders like this:



This followed an index for the contents of the folders I kept on my computer and printed for the first folder you see in the bottom right corner of the photo: the Index File, incase my computer was not running.
So, I’m switching back to binders after I emptied my office closet, including the rod for hanging clothes (this was a bedroom).  I put in an el cheapo bookshelf and sized it just for binders. 

This was before the transformation:

The new bookcase in  - oh yes I forgot to mention, I had this brainy idea when I was home alone and being stubborn and impatient I hauled it up the stairs from the basement by myself!

And here it is today with  several binders already made:

I,m very proud of my new surname binders which I'll talk about in detail in another post!

I have many more binders to make, but this is where I am right now.  It’s been a lot of work! 


Until next time,

©2010 Joanne Schleier - All Rights Reserved.

Changing My System… Again

The ProGen study group is helping me learn to write research plans, reports and analysis which I currently do in a notebook. Now, I am much better at these.  Also, my papers, though organized, do not flow for me when in process and trying to analyze.  I lose track of where a record is in the flow of: transcribe, make back-up copy, add to computer folder, print hardcopy for folder (or not as I was trying to “go digital”) and then having it all together when I wanted to analyze was a problem. 

I used to be a “binder” girl, but my current office has two full walls of built in bookshelves.  They are only tall enough for BOOKS except for the top shelf which is near the 8’ ceiling!  I’ve been waiting for the room redo, but I just can’t function in a messy office so I will wait no more!

It’s back to binders!

So, I found Dear Myrtle is at it again for 2011 with her Monthly Organizing Checklist’s.  I decided it couldn’t hurt to follow along someone who has already tested this specifically for genealogists…and she uses binders.  I may modify some of it, because I’ve learned some of what works for me along the way. 

I know it’s February already, but I’ve almost caught up since I just began January’s checklist mid-month.  Except for the binder assembly, which I plan to do piecemeal.  There are too many surnames and I want to scrutinize what I have and make a few reports in preparation for my trip back to Virginia in April and the Virginia class I’ll be taking at IGHR, Stamford University, Alabama, in June.  (Woot-woot! Yes, I got in and I am already planning my trip, since it’s my first time there.)

To say the least, I am very excited to be aiming towards what I know works for me.  The hard part is knowing that it will take a lot of time to get it all how I want it.  But I’m thrilled that I’m close to a solution.  I also can look back at the reasons why I shifted from what “worked”.  I was piling the binders onto the flat surfaces in my office until it drove my nuts.  The solution was putting a pre-made bookcase into the closet.  Concealed storage solution.  Love that!

Some of My Early Virginia Ancestors

I’m here in Colonial Williamsburg because DH has a woodworkers conference he’s attending for the week.  With all of the holiday planning and unplanned weather in GA, I did not do very well getting my research plan ready for our stay.  Fortunately, we came to the same conference last year and I did have a plan then.  Only I found that once I got home, my research notes from one book I studied were hard to interpret and I knew some of it was transcribed while other parts were abstracted… and I didn’t notate which was which.  So, today, I spent 5 hours in the John D. Rockefeller library with that same book cleaning up my notes and adding more details from it. 

But I’m happy now!

So, tonight I spent some time making a report from my database of all of the direct-line surnames from Colonial Virginia.  It’s very basic, but I have other details with me so this is just for reference.  Here’s what I came up with – a total of twenty.

# of Greats:	Surname:	Given Name:	Details:
9th	Banks	Katherine	d. 1686 Henrico Co.
9th	Biggs	Johanna	1642-1693
9th	Boddie	William	d. 1717 Isle of Wight Co.
9th	Brown(e)	John	Isle of Wight Co.
8th	Burton	Ann	d. 1746 Mulberry Island, Warwick Co.
9th	Chambers	William	1630-1677 Surry Co.
9th	Durant	Elizabeth	Widow of Richard Durant, m. Col. Thomas Pettus
6th	Ford	Christopher	b. 1730 d. 1788 Amelia Co.
9th	Hassell	Edward	m. 1675 Lower Norfolk
8th	Haynes	Christopher	d. Mulberry Island, Warwick Co.
8th	Humphrey	John Sr.	b. 1690 Surry Co. d. 1738 Brunswick Co.
8th	King	Dorothy	b. 1675 VA d. Spotsylvania Co.
7th	Lewis	John Zachary	b. 1702 Spotsylvania Co. d. 1765 Spotsylvania Co.
7th	Maule	Christian (female)	1706 moved from Chowan Co. to NC
8th	Overton	William	m. 1670 Yorktown
9th	Prime	Elizabeth	b. 1648 Isle of Wight Co. d. 1714 Surry Co.
10th	Ruffin	William	d. bef 1674 Isle of Wight Co.
7th	Stuart	Archibald	d. 1761 Augusta Co.
8th	Waller	Col. John	d. 1754 Newport, Spotsylvania Co.
8th	Waters	Elizabeth	m. Yorktown

I do this every time I travel to a state for a visit to an archives or repository for research (usually in a spreadsheet).  It keeps everything in perspective and gives me an overview of surnames from the area.  Now, this is NOT my research plan, as those are very specific goals.  Try adding this to your research plans and reports when you plan your next trip!  It really helps me!

©2010 Joanne Schleier - All Rights Reserved.

Have You Cleaned Out Your Shoebox on Ancestry.com?

Be honest with yourself.  When is that last time you logged in to your Ancestry.com account for the sole purpose of working on those records you’ve saved to your shoebox?

Your shoebox is a holding bin for those items you find, but don’t have the time at that moment to scrutinize or figure out where to put it.  A nice touch, I think, because I use it A LOT.  But, if you’re not self-disciplined enough to come back to them regularly for clean-up, you’ll find your shoebox may be overwhelming!  Not to mention, you may be missing a key piece of information which could help you with your research.

Here’s a page from my shoebox:

Generally, these are not my direct-line ancestors or I would tackle them right away and not save them here for later because I like to stay on task and not be distracted by another find, though there are some exceptions. 

Once in a while, I set aside time to go to my shoebox and work exclusively for a specific period of time.  I usually set a timer for an hour, for example.  Otherwise, it’s never getting done.  After an hour, the timer goes off, and I can come back another day.  But at least I’ve given an hours time to working on something that I would otherwise put off entirely because I don’t think about it! 

Practice self-discipline to tackle those things that you don’t want to have to do – some people call it “eat your frog”.  I keep a list of long term or ongoing projects like this called “Current Initiatives”, inspired by the book by Mark Forster called Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management.   I address these projects a little at a time knowing that I am making progress on all of them.  That gives me the satisfaction of knowing that I am not neglecting them or forgetting to work on them at all.

Did you know you can also go here to find items you’ve downloaded or printed? Look at the image above  at the tab behind the “saved records” tab.  I really like this feature for going back to a history of what I was working on last.

So, have you worked on your shoebox items lately?  How do remember to go back to it?  Maybe this post was just the reminder you needed!

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Updates… LOTS of Them!!!

Forewarned: Long Post Ahead...

 

In continuing with updating my blog theme, I spent some time today looking at other improvements.  I’ve changed all of my labels to cluster them together into categories by hyphenating them.  I wish there was a way that Blogger would create a hierarchy for them.  Then a reader could go to Surnames and then see all of the names under that.  Instead, I changed them, one-at-a-time no less, to Surname – Name.  I also thought this would help designate these names as such.  For example, my Royal surname could be mistaken for Royal as in imperial or sovereign.  I also did that for Places and eliminated counties and towns, keeping just the state.

Also, because the new theme is wider in the posts section, I went back and enlarged many of the pictures and fonts.  That way, viewers may not have to click on them to see them large enough.

Then I started to go through old posts and see if there were any “dangling” items I said I would bring up in a later post and never addressed.  Or updates to posts.  Here goes…

1. In 2010 Has Arrived! I mention that I’d like to start a hand-written diary.  Didn’t happen.  Other priorities.  My around-the-house improvements are in full swing!  I am pulling things out of storage, clearing out, cleaning up and de-cluttering continuously and with fervor!  {It helps that hubby and I became empty-nester’s in July… and no one has moved back home yet:-)  I’m plugging away at that cross-stitch and, after attending a Sampler’s Guild meeting by happenstance (you know I believe there are no accidents) I picked up some tips, a better frame, and magnification clip-on glasses, which all help immensely.  I go on to say that writing down my goals for that post helped to put it all in perspective.  My latest ProGen assignment was to write an education plan, in which I included some other goals and unfinished items “to-do list” style.  Once again, I emphasize how that helped me keep my goals on the forefront of my mind and keep them there until they’re addressed.  MAKE A LIST OF YOUR GOALS!!!  In: life in general, related to your research, or anything else!  It really does help.
2. In My Genealogical Superpower I talked about how I like to help others and teach.  Since then, I have signed up to be a contributor at Find-A-Grave, done look-ups for two people at the GA Archives for friends across the country on GenealogyWise and agreed to repeat my “Internet Tools for Genealogy” at my county society’s upcoming Beginner’s Course 2011 in addition to another one about logging your research and citing sources (details have not been discussed further).
3. In the Land Records for Female Ancestor? post I talked about how I’m cleaning up records in my Ancestry.com family tree to show actual records instead of text.  I am STILL doing this as I work on any family line.  What a pain!  Can’t we get the Software people to work with Ancestry so that GedCom files can be synchronized instead of merely uploaded or downloaded?  (I think Family Tree Maker does this, but I don’t use that one). Also, I’ve learned a whole lot more about researching land records since then and it makes me smile at my naiveté’ back then! ;-) 
4. I have not worked on my pockets mentioned in Threads of Time.  I put that away to focus on my unfinished cross-stitch project mentioned above.  However, I did make a unembroidered pair of pockets for their practical use out of plain linen and an 18th century women’s wool cloak with the hood lined in silk.  I finished a new polonaise style dress and coordinating petticoat.
5. More of Tee's Crewel: I have continued to work on cleaning out my storage room and found yet another of Tee’s pieces of crewel work!  But you’ll have to wait to see that in another post!  I still need to hang it and take a photo.
6. Keeping up with my goals, see Progress for Goals in 2010, I am still archiving photos and VHS tapes at home – a long-term project.  I’ve pulled another of my grandfather’s trophy’s from a yacht race and polished it (silver), I’ve printed a couple of retouched photos to frame, and decided I don’t like all the clocks together on one wall and plan to move them around the house into places where I’d like them better and separate from each other.
7. Organizing Photos: Manage Folders on Your Computer: I finished making a new folder structure.  However, I have many subfolders in my Dump_From_Camera folder that need to be named, tagged, edited and moved.  Will it ever end?
8. From FGS Conference 2010: Recovering Back Home: I still have not gone through my FGS materials.  They are on my desk in one of  my To-Do project pockets.  Oh, and those same friends that “hate me for winning all the time” were at our genealogy meeting the other night when our speaker announced that she had 2 door prizes.  Her lecture was on the Georgia Land Lotteries.  She asked us to identify the date of a particular year’s land lottery when they started issuing grants (referring to her handout). I was the first to see the dates from July 22 to August something. Then the speaker clarified asking “what was the starting date?”  “July 22nd”, someone else answered.  We all thought the person with the answer would be the winner when she said,  “Who has a birthday around July 22nd”?  My hand went up… “July 28th”.  Followed by someone else.  Speaker asks “is is less than 6 days from the date”?  “Nope”.  I felt daggers in my back from my friends eyes and glanced over my shoulder to see them looking at me with “that look” and big smirks on their faces!  They told me later that they “were going to make me buy the chicken wings at dinner because of this”!  Geez, I can’t help when I was born!!!… and, oh, by the way, we all thought it was the first to answer who got the prize, not a birthday thing!  Maybe I just should keep my mouth shut!  HAHA!  But I won a CD entitled “Georgia Colonial and Headright Plat Index, 1735-1866” by Mary H. Abbe published by the R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation and Georgia Archives in 2005.  I can use this for my McVicker/Royal/Brown ancestors of Henry and Dooly Counties, Georgia!  How exciting!!! 

(They love to tease me, but they still love me too).

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier
Photo credit: called REBOOT! by  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-magnusson/.

Insomnia Does an Archivist Good!

OK so first, I do not recommend this to all of you genealogists working on your archiving projects (little disclaimer there), but I can’t tell you how happy I am that I was able to plow through a ton of negatives last night this morning!  

{Doing happy dance… oh yeah}!

Every once in a while I get these bouts of insomnia.  For me, that means that I can’t sleep and don’t feel tired until sometime way after midnight.  Going to bed would just mean tossing and turning, so I stay up and do something relaxing until I feel sleepy (while my husband is catching up on some major zzz’s and REM sleep including the occasional snore… {jealous}).  I don’t think that this happens often enough to interfere with my daily life and I don’t like allopathic doctors or medications.  So, I just deal with it take advantage of it when it happens.  My mom and grandmother were night owls too.  We get our creative bursts of energy after the sun goes down.  “No I’m not a witch, I am you.”  (Sorry, I just had to).

Well, last night I went to bed at 3:30am!  I tossed and turned until 4:00am which was the last time I looked at the clock.  WHAT!?!?  WOW, that was HIGHLY unusual.  The thought occurred to me that I might not sleep at all!  Which would be fine with me until it catches up with me later!

Fortunately, I have several projects in the works and the one I chose to work on allowed me to sit on the couch with the TV on.  I had already compiled all of my negatives, sorting them by type, 35mm, 110 and disc camera films.  My focus was on the 110 size negatives stashed in an old can opener box.  (For Shame!)  WELL!!!  At least I saved them all!  The biggest mistake I made was separating them from the prints in the first place and not noting the date, subject, location or anything! ~I can’t tell you how much I’m learning!

I set up my little area, brought in the films and supplies and got to work.  I went through each image on each film and found the corresponding print which wasn’t to hard ‘cuz I already” sorted” in the previous phase of the project.  On the back of the each print in the corner I wrote (using my archival safe pen) “110” for the type of negative and then “N#”, “N” for “negative” and the number on the strip that correlates to the image. 

To see the itty-bitty image, I used both my floor lamp and desktop Ott-Lites.  I wore some reading glasses (I don’t wear  prescription glasses) and added some clip on Magna-Clips magnifiers in a +3.00 for when I couldn’t see anything without them.  I love these things for my hand sewing because they flip up and down.  Figured they’d work for this too – BOY HOWDY – they sure helped a lot! 

Some of the prints were collected already by subject in folders and I made a spreadsheet to help me locate each set.  I better save how I set that up for another post.  Just know that this is NOT  the initial stage of my project, or the last.  Still other prints were in an album – not chronological, but all mixed together (what was I thinking?).  And best of all (just because I like sarcasm) they were in one of those albums with the sticky glue behind the images – I think they call it a magnetic album.  YIKES!  I only have one of that kind of album and now it’s half empty {grin}.  Mostly “Germany” and “Spain” are out of it.  

I put each set of negatives in it’s own archival sheet protector, temporarily, with the prints I could find and a note with how many prints on the strip, the size of the prints (this helps to find missing ones because I can look at the size of the  prints) and subject or anything that might suggest a possible match for one missing like “Kera (my daughter) wearing yellow sunglasses”.  

I put all the sheet protectors in a 3” binder, temporarily again, and labeled the binder “WIP Germany” for “Work in Progress”.  That sets it apart from sets where all the prints are found and ready to put into archival page protectors for the particular print size.  Which is the next phase…

For now, all the 110 negatives are accounted for!  Thanks to a sleepless night (I think?)!!!  Now the negatives for the disc film is going to be worse because they’re even smaller!  Fortunately, their aren’t a whole lot of those – because those cameras were crap, cheap, worthless poor quality.  But good, I guess, if you’re in the sandy desert fighting in a war…

I hope I’ve given you some help if you’re struggling with what to do with all of your images and negatives.  I’m no expert, but I have learned a lot and want to do the best I can to have it all make sense to the poor soul lucky person who inherits all my neatly organized, indexed and labeled photos!   

NOW GO TO BED!  {Just kidding}.

*I have no affiliation and I am not being compensated for or by any of the products or companies I’ve linked to.  I just wanted to answer the questions before they were asked.

FGS Conference 2010: Recovering Back Home

My husband, Chris, and I just returned from the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Knoxville Tennessee. It ended yesterday and our drive home was only three hours. This is only the second genealogical conference I’ve ever attended, but I know from other conferences, including FGS last year in Little Rock, Arkansas, that there is a lot to absorb in a small amount of time. So I push myself to the limits, eat on the run, make sure my mornings include a cup of Java, and maximize every minute of each day.

Even though it’s only been a few days, there are sacrifices which we all have to make. When we arrived home my bird feeder was empty, my mailbox was full, my plant looks like this,

and my bananas look like this!

Oh and silly me... 
Ancestry.com had offered free scanning of old photos and documents. Since I’m already working on my own scanning project I thought I could take advantage of this big company's scanning capabilities. All you had to do was sign up ahead of time for a session, bring your items to scan, and they would do it for you and digitize them giving you a free thumb drive! Well, I thought they had those high-speed scanners that would scan your printed photographs at high speeds - like 100 per second. So I brought this:

Boy, was I wrong! 

The scanners they brought were for large or oversized photos and documents which were manually (meaning one at a time, by a human being) laid on the flatbed and a button was pressed which triggered the cameras button. They must’ve thought “this woman is crazy”! But they were kind enough to scan probably a couple hundred loose photos onto two thumb drives. I’m very grateful because it’s less work for me, but I sure learned my lesson not to do that again!

I couldn’t possibly tell you all of the neat tips and tricks that I learned at the conference. That’s why they have a conference after all. But I can give you at least one. When you travel anywhere for researching and your using your thumb drive, make sure you put an address label on it with your identifying information in the event you lose it.

I will usually attend a conference with a list of items I wish to purchase from the vendors in the exhibit hall. The only thing I had on my list was the Professional Genealogy book because I just signed up for the ProGen course and it begins September 1st. I spied another book which I had been told about and wanted, not for genealogy but for the Living History work that my husband and I do, called Woman’s Life in Colonial Days.

Most people know I love my Legacy Family Tree Software and in Little Rock I had purchased AniMap. I played around with it a little but I haven’t been utilizing it because I don’t know the software very well. I found this AniMap tutorial CD at the Legacy vendor. And my one and only impulsive buys was also a Legacy product Map My Family Tree - because I would love to start using more maps in my research.

Everyone who registered for the conference was given 30 tickets to drop into the boxes for drawings at the vendor tables. This year significant prizes were given away including an iPad, a cruise, a trip to Salt Lake for seven days and so many other goodies I can’t list them all here.

I don’t want y’all to hate me, but the truth is - I always win prizes from drawings - ALWAYS. Last year I won a year subscription to OneGreatFamily.com. My friends tease me about winning all the time and it’s a big joke! I had my eye on the iPad this year. Friday night they announced the big giveaways and one of my friends from our local society one the trip to Salt Lake! The names were all announced and I didn’t win a thing.

However, I never checked the bulletin board at the end of the conference which announced other drawings not part of the slew of grandiose announcements Friday night. While driving home my husband says to me rather nonchalantly “oh by the way, I checked the list on the bulletin board and you won a premium account with MyHeritage.com for a year!” Well I’ll be!!! I had picked up a free copy of their software on disk, but this!?!?

I’m not sure whether or not to tell my friends or they might un-befriend me!

As we get back into the swing of things, prepare grocery lists, answer e-mails, follow up on phone calls, nose-to-the-grindstone and all that kind of thing, here’s one last tip. Take all of your conference materials, handouts, CD’s, vendor materials, contact’s business cards, - the whole banana, and consolidate them so you can sort through it after the return-home rush of tasks. I have very little that I’ve kept, as I try to weed out things along the way, but everything I have has found its place in an expandable pocket which I’ll keep in my office by my computer to work on in small bites.

My next big event is the Atlanta family history Expo 2010,November 12 & 13th in Atlanta. My goal is to sort through all these conference materials before then. Wish me luck!

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Progress: Archiving Photos and VHS Tapes

Well, I am still progressing, ever so slowly, with my archiving project. I am rather proud of myself because I am very much a "starter". I have loads of enthusiasm and motivation when I begin a project and generally find that I don't like to finish up what I've started because the "newness" of it has worn off! To date I have endured watching a total of 17 tapes! Mind you that some of these are probably 8 hour tapes! Here's the breakdown:

5 - Christopher Lowell
2 - Room by Room
2 - History Channel
4 - HGTV
1 - Football
1 - Blank tape
1 - Cheerleading competitions
1 - Sci-Fi Channel

So far, I haven't found any of the home movies or televised video of my family to actually capture from the tapes. In other words, I am not recording all of these shows to DVD. I'm only playing all of them to search for those key pieces I wish to record. Also, I learned of a neighbor's elderly mother who still records her TV shows on VHS and I was happy to donate my old ones after I viewed them! LOVE THAT! ReCyClInG at it's best!

My stepdaughter's mother also gave her a box of VHS home movies and I started converting those to DVD for her. So far, I've converted four.

Not bad, I'd say, as my pile is getting noticeably smaller! The downside to this, which turned out to be a good thing in the end, is that I find myself anchored to my desktop computer. I did manage to get quite a few tasks caught up at the beginning and then ran out of things to do. So, also part of my archiving project (which is why it turned out to be good), I started scanning photos to digital. I have a bookshelf of many photo albums which I attempted to archive many years ago.  These are those chunky mini albums about 4" x 6" in size but thick.

After educating myself on the "proper" way to do this since then, I realized my first attempt was ALL WRONG! The books themselves were not archival quality. Although they are labeled, there is no index to speak of for quick retrieval. And I really would like a uniform look to all my photo books so they don't appear to have been bought at different periods of time.

The solution? Start scanning photos to digital! After learning I could "gang scan" photos, which I'll cover in another post, I started whizzing through the pictures. I already have one and a half albums completed! I also purchased archival page protectors and books from Light Impressions.

I'll try to write more about my process and hopefully that will inspire you to get started archiving your own photos and videos. Also if you have any questions I might be able to answer, just leave me a comment.

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Organizing Photos: Manage Folders on Your Computer

One of the biggest frustrations people have is trying to retrieve something quickly at the time they actually need it. Including myself! Last year, I thought I had a brilliant idea to restructure all my photos in a parent folder for the year (i.e 2003). That way everything would remain in chronological order and I could see all of the photos in order no matter what the subject was. That turned out to be a really bad idea! 


 Partway through the process I realized that when I went to retrieve something in particular, but couldn't remember what year it was, I was at a loss to locate it quickly. Then I wasted time seeking where it actually was and became agitated in the process! Here's my new structure, partly based on my old structure, only more definitive. 


1. Start by creating folders within the "My Pictures" folder in File Explorer. Find this by right clicking on the start menu. Select the My Pictures folder then click File-New-Folder. Do not get too specific. Name your folders with broad "categories". Think in terms of it being a general keyword. If you already have a folder structure in place, then you may wish to just revise what's there based on the photos you have. I call these my "parent" folders. 2. The next step is to add more descriptive folders under each of the folders you created in step one - if you need them. I call these my "subfolders". The plus signs to the left of the photos in the picture above indicate that there are subfolders underneath. I may create one additional set of subfolders under these (a third folder from My Pictures), but remember that each time you go to retrieve one photo, you'll need to click through several layers of folders to get there so minimize this effort if at all possible. Think in terms of grouping your folders based upon the subject or event where you took the pictures. For example, if it was a birthday party and you took 40 photos than those 40 photos should be grouped together in their own folder. Try not to separate a grouping that was shot together into separate folders. It's a misconception that you can have too many file folders on your computer (the ones I call "Parent Folders"). You can create as many folders as is necessary in order to retrieve something quickly. Think of all the folders and subfolders you have in a file drawer within a filing cabinet. It's the same concept. You generally would not have a folder within a folder within a folder - three folders. You would have a folder within a folder - only two folders. 


 I also prefer to begin the subfolder name with the year followed by a descriptive name, which could just be a string of descriptive keywords, to help trigger my memory of the event,occasion, or subject. Here's an example: in February 2002 I swam with the dolphins at a park called Xcaret in Mexico. Instantly I know that this is under my "Travel" parent folder. Because, logically for me, that's how I set it up. The subfolder is "2002 Feb_Mexico_Xcaret _Dolphins". I just used a string of keywords or tags that make sense to me. When I think of the event, what comes to mind is "Joanne-swimming with the dolphins" but that doesn't make a very concise folder name. Instead I've chosen keywords that will trigger my memory. Remember, it's all about retrieval. 


One more thing. I've found it helpful to have a parent folder named "Dump_From_Camera". Each time I connect my camera, I don't always have time to go through photos right then and there and "file" them. I just create a subfolder there with the date i.e "2009 07 28". Then when I have time to sit at my computer, I can go to Dump_From_Camera and sort the photos into the parent folders where they belong and create the subfolder. It saves time and keeps them in order. When your done, go ahead and create the same structure under "My Videos". I'm still working on tweaking the hierarchy of folders in my system and narrowing down what's there. Then I'll work on the actual file names for each individual photo. I'll write again once I get there! 


Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

Progress for Goals in 2010

It's already March 2010! Can you believe it? I've been diligently working towards getting my goals accomplished. You can read about them here: 2010 Has Arrived!

These are the things I've been working on recently:

1. Research: My local genealogical society finished up their Beginners Course with two field trips. The first one was to the Georgia State Archives. I am an officer and took the tour the last two years in a row so I opted to spend this time doing research on my McVicker/Brown Georgia ancestors.
2. Education: The week following, our field trip was to the National Archives Southeast Region. The Georgia Genealogical Society hosted an all-day lecture there which I attended instead of their tour.
3. Education: I watched parts 1 & 2 of Research Logs:The Most Important Tool for Organizing Your Genealogy.
4. Organizing: Inspired by #3 above, I created a new research log template.
5. Organizing: As part of an ongoing project to manage all of my photos, I have restructured the file folders within My Pictures on my computer. I'll share my method in another post.
6. Organizing: I have finally compiled all of my genealogy books, binders and other reference materials into one spot designated exclusively for them.
7. Heirlooms:
   
1. I brought three of my mother's oil paintings to show to an antique dealer for some advice.
2. I polished my grandmother's silver tray and also showed it to the antique dealer who advised me not to have it re-plated.
3. I polished one of the two silver tea pitchers.
4. I cleaned and hung three of my mother's antique clocks and one barometer and my cuckoo clock from when I lived in Germany. (I can't afford to have her clocks serviced and working yet though). Excuse the treadmill in the photo, but I wasn't about to move it!
5. I polished one of my Grandfather's Trophy's. My husband is going to apply a finish to the mahogany and we will reattach it with brass tacks. (It was a yacht race and he was a crew member - still searching for more information about this race).

I still need to register for the 2010 FGS Conference and next week I am attending a week-long genealogy course at the John C. Campbell Folk School in NC. I'm also presenting to our Beginner's Course on Saturday - "Internet Tools for Genealogy".

That's quite a bit of progress. I guess I didn't realize it until writing this post! How are you progressing with your genealogy/archiving goals? I hope this post was at least motivating for you! Keep going a little piece at a time.

Copyright © 2010 Joanne Schleier

2010 Has Arrived!

Vintage New Years Postcard
Originally uploaded by riptheskull

I have the flu... since December 27th to be exact and this down time has allowed me to reflect about the past and how I want 2010 to change for me. Genealogically speaking, 2008 was a year of organizing my files, entering more accumulated data into my database and filing it all and bringing things up to date - like correspondence. I felt organized! Everything was "getting done" and my to-enter-and-file pile was next to nil.

2009, on the other hand, proved to be a disaster! Things fell apart. Literally. I had my desktop computer die during the first quarter and spent a long time during its slow demise having files back up again (because the duration of how long it would run before shutting itself down was so unpredictable). Then, I was able to have a new one built by summer, and needed time to restore my data and install software to get things up to speed.

In the meantime, I continued to do research, travel to repositories and take hundreds of photos - all to be entered. So, there was definitely an imbalance of what I gathered and what was entered and filed away. Come December, my laptop died. Oh, bother! For 2010, I'm planning to get all of this accumulated data entered and filed - a monumental task considering all the papers, correspondence, photos, & books I'll need to sort through.

I also plan to write more - in my blog as well as starting a diary. I love to write with a fountain pen and inkwell, so this requires a little more planning than just carrying a book and pen. I believe I'll have to set up an area where I can address this task daily and when I travel, I'll just use my favorite fountain pen with the ink inside. Even if I only enter a few lines...I feel compelled.

 I also have a huge laundry list of things I want to do around the house, from hanging more art, to repairs and sewing more for the home. It's time to tackle those ugly tasks once and for all. Then there are those ugly unfinished projects that loom around in the back of my mind and haunt me. Won't tolerate that anymore - they will get finished. I plan to write them down and address them one at a time.

For example, unable to get around much while sick, I pulled out a cross-stitch which is so tedious I had put it away for over a year. Every stitch is another color! I changed my mind about it by thinking in terms of each square-inch being an accomplishment, working about an inch at a time, and found I can do this while watching TV and get a sense of satisfaction when I finish a whole inch. Much better than thinking in terms of the entire canvas - "I'll never finish this" idea.

I also have to keep up with my duties as VP of the genealogy society and continue to come up with content and produce videos for my other site. That is on top of the household chores and regular tasks needing to be done. Just the act of writing this post has helped. I feel better having focused my attention on goals I wish to accomplish, writing them down and challenging myself to "change my mind" about them, or how I can change my thoughts to inspire achievement as opposed to feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

Wish me luck and I encourage everyone to do the same. Write down your goals and ask yourself what you wish to achieve and what keeps you from doing it? What needs to change in your thoughts about those goals to get you motivated? Maybe just breaking down a monumental tasks into small pieces will do the trick.

Happy 2010 ya'll!