Keeping your Leaves in Order... File Naming 2

So I am been using this new file naming scheme, well new to me, for all my genealogy records. I use Family Tree Maker so that I have a offline version of my Ancestry.com Tree. I love how I can make changes at either location and my trees are synced and updated. I am only about a quarter of the way through my files but I'm making progress.

The reason I am writing about this again is its just so cool. Now that my files are all properly named, you almost don't even need the software, its so nicely organized from birth certificate to death certificate and every document in between. It's so easy to look at now to find each person, the only pitfall and why you need the software, is to be able to link files to multiple people unless you wanted to attach a file to each individual, in a census that could really take up some space. I know some of my census images are 2MBs and if you got sometimes 10 people living together on the same census that's a lot of images.

I will admit when I started I wasn't the best genealogist, shoot I wouldn't even say I was good but, I have learned from my mistakes and trying to make up for it. Now that I'm getting organized I have been able to find some new records and relatives with ease.

Hopefully I can get all my files renamed in the next few weeks and then I am really going to sit down and start tackling these genetic cousin hints I have got from my DNA kits. Then maybe I can find and discover some cool family mysteries and stories to share with everyone.

If you are wondering what I am talking about in reguards to file naming you can check out my previous blog post called, Keeping your leaves in order... File Naming

Keeping Your Leaves in Order... File Naming

I guess you can say I am like everyone else, where I create New Year Resolution. My Resolution for Genealogy this year is organizing my files.  I like to think of myself as a Digital Genealogist. I do almost all my research from home and even if I do run to a courthouse or the library, I always convert my findings into a digital format.  However I never figured out a good file naming scheme, which makes looking at my files difficult, especially trying to sort out duplicates.  I asked and searched but couldn't find something that made sense to me. Finally I found a system that Natalie Cottrill from ProGenealogist shared in her blog Computer Tricks 3 – Naming Electronic Files, and so far it has been great.

This is Natalie's system:

 "[surname (or) maiden surname][first name][middle name][birthyear]

[date of event or date document created][event or document name]"  

It's really nice, after you put the name in, the birth year takes care of multiple generations using the same, so you shouldn't have a problem with all those John Smith's in your tree.  I use the Head of the Household to name the census which has really cleared up my census pages.

After that the computer takes care of the organizing for you.

"...they will end up automatically sorted by the operating system alphabetically by name 

and then chronologically by date of birth and then chronologically again by date of event."

It doesn't get better then that, now I just have to go and rename all my files, which is going to take some time. When its all said and done its going to be so easy to find all my files. Even now you can see the story of someones life just from the thumbnails.