Spring has arrived and it has been welcomed with open arms! The annual spring cleaning list is in the process of being created, and this year, I am adding genealogy as a priority. Cleaning and organizing your workspace allows you to better focus on important tasks such as creating goals, digitizing files and photos, as well as filing paper documents to help you achieve success in saving your genealogy records for future generations.
This time of year always brings to mind the memories of helping my grandmother freshen the house from the winter hibernation. Windows would be opened to allow the fresh breeze inside to “air out” each room. Polishing dustboards was my favorite task. I loved seeing the natural shine of the moulding appear and the scent of the lemon oil permeate each room. As I worked, my grandmother would be singing “Little Brown Church in the Wildwood, Little Brown Church in the Vale” or humming some other sweet tune. The mornings were wonderful.
On other spring days, we would tackle one of my least favorite jobs -- window washing. Cleaning the winter grime was not easy. Old newspapers were torn in half and used to dry the damp windows to a sparkling shine, and be sure not to leave a smudge, because Grandma was going to tap that spot with her finger and guide you to where one needed to scrub a bit harder. Fun times! While the work was hard, those days taught me the importance of a clean and organized home. Don’t get me wrong, my house certainly isn’t up to Grandma’s standards, but I’m working to get there! And that includes “spring cleaning” my genealogy files to remove the clutter.
Where to begin when working to control those heaps of papers? Decide which documents and stories are important to you, then create a filing system. You may file in alphabetical order by family, thus keeping track of each lineage, or use a color-coded system. The method is your choice, but be sure to make a note so that the next family researcher will understand the system.
Ask yourself which papers can be scanned, saved as PDFs, then backup and store using an external hard drive or a thumb drive. Make multiple copies and distribute to other family members in case of lost or damaged files. Photos can also be saved using the same process. File original photos and negatives in acid free boxes which have been labeled by year.
Once documents and photos are digitized, you might consider sharing a few on a genealogy website such as Ancestry or FamilySearch. These sites are accessible to many and one day in the far future, a descendant may come across your hard work to find an ancestor’s picture and they will thank you for your time and foresight to save the family history.
I’m currently working to convert my VHS family home movies to digital files. The process is fairly simple, and converting files doesn’t take as long as I thought it might. The converter that I am using has a preview screen and audio to monitor the process. While the conversion is in progress, I can continue working on other tasks. I know that one day my VHS movies would either become brittle or I would no longer have the outdated technology to watch, so I made this job a priority for my family. I love the fact that I can email a digitized home movie to my kiddos of their Paw Paw or Great-Grandma, but watch out, the memories will flood back and they will want you to share more, so be ready! My plan is for the videos to all be stored in digital format and shared Google Drive for everyone to enjoy.
Yes, spring cleaning is a chore, but one you can enjoy as you see progress being made in storing and sharing family records. As genealogists, our paperwork will always be sorted in piles, destined to become a digitized file. Whatever way you choose to organize your files will allow you to continue keeping track of each family member's life and stories so that they will continue to be remembered. And maybe even put a little lemon oil scent into the air to remember Grandma and it will be a wonderful day.