FINALLY Get Organized! Jan 10th-16th 2016 Checklist Progress

I'm behind, of course, but I am going to try to catch up this weekend. So, here we go with week 2!

1. First, back up your data.

I am pretty good at this. I will give full credit to Dick Eastman's monthly reminders in his blog, Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter. I use a portable drive to back up my genealogy database and related digital files. I have another portable drive at our year-round lake home and backup the same data there before we return home. The portable drive at the lake home provides me with my off-site storage.

I'm still working on digitizing my 30 years worth of research but I think I am about half-way there. It helps that for the most part, I've been keeping only digital copies of my sources for the last 6 or 7 years. At last count (found in the Consumable Status area of my ScanSnap scanner) I have scanned over 12,000 pages.

 2. Decide on a genealogy management program.   

This one is going to take a little longer although I've been reviewing them for quite a while. I use The Master Genealogist (TMG) and was saddened to learn that Bob Velke was retiring for health reasons and was unable to support it. So I have been looking at other programs on both the Mac and PC side to determine where to go next. I have a MacBook Pro running Parallels so I am keeping my options open. 

I have full working versions with a sample of my database loaded in several programs: Legacy, RootsMagic 7, Heredis 2015, MacFamilyTree, FamilyTreeBuilder, and RootsTrust . Of course, I also had FamilyTreeMaker 2014 and the Mac version but those are no longer under consideration. So far, I am leaning toward Legacy or RootsMagic. Beyond testing and playing with the program, I am watching videos to see what features "grab" me.

I don't think I am in a great hurry here as TMG will continue to work and serve as my main genealogy management program for some time. I plan to switch when I am ready to start my "Do-Over" and then will carefully hand-enter my data taking care with sources, citations and proofs.

 3. As soon as you've scanned them, place all important "must save" photos and documents in top-loading page protectors for those first 3-4 generations in your surname binder. 

Yikes! I've come to realize that "paperless" does not necessarily mean "organized."

This one was tough even though I already had my items digitized. It really made me re-think my digitizing plan. Instead of printing out the family group sheets, I printed them to PDF files and put one in each of four folders labeled with the last name and first name. Then I copied my digital files of photos, certificates and other information to the appropriate folder.

I needed to take a step back and determine how, exactly, I wanted to organize my paperless surname binders. At this point, I'm trying a document that starts with the family group report, then puts the other documents and photos in chronological order. This allows me update and to insert other items later. This could later be printed out or printed to a PDF for a "coffee table" version, if needed. 

But, I still have the original digital versions in my general surname folder on my desktop so now there are two copies. I watched Denise Levenick this week on a Legacy webinar talk about naming conventions and have determined that I need to rename most of my digital copies. This will also have to wait until my "Do-Over" as I don't want to break any connections in my current program.

4. Create an introduction for those that follow. 

My introductions were rather short as I anticipate many changes and those will have to be accounted for as I go. Also, I'm a little over-protective of my passwords. That probably comes from years of being in the IT department. I uses a password keeper program that does a nice job, is fairly intuitive, and syncs across platforms. This means only one password is needed to get access to all others. That one password is shared with a trusted person.

 5. Add a "genealogy codicil" to your will by making an appointment with your attorney. 

I love this one but this item will take a bit of time to complete. I have filled out the genealogical codicil and will keep a paper copy (because it's critical!) and a digital copy of the codicil. There are too many other considerations in regards to the will to do this item in a hurry.