Monday 9 January 2012

21 Resources for Organizing the Family Archive


Continuing the weekly thread organised by Michelle at The Turning of Generations

Here is my list of 21 resources - 

  1. Printer Scanner Copier - my faithful machine is a Hewlett Packard
  2. Laptop - Mine is a Toshiba.
  3. iPad - This was a purchase I really didn't know if I would enjoy it and make the most of - I definitely do!
  4. iPhone - This was the start of my affair with Apple - I love it!
  5. External hard drive - mine is an Omega 250 GB which is used for all back ups. I also have a smaller one for when travelling.
  6. Microfiche Reader - yes, I still have some fiche!
  7. Camera - Ours is a Panasonic Lumix TZ20
  8. 4 Drawer filing cabinet - we actually have 2 -hubby gets 2 drawers out of a possible 9! The plan is to always reduce the paper mountain to a manageable heap!
  9. MS Office on my laptop - especially Word and Excel
  10. Family Origins 10 - I know it has been superseded by other software. A potential replacement during 2012.
  11. Flickr - Here I host ALL my photographs. The beauty with Flickr is that you can share with Twitter and Face book. There is also a Flickr iPhone Application.  You can also make photographs private as a private, personal archive. You can create sets and collections. A Collection could be Genealogy then a set for each family name. Shame I don't follow my own advice! I have a Pro account well worth the £16 a year.
  12. Dropbox - To access files on the move
  13. Evernote - Need to explore a lot more and I suspect that I am under using
  14. MS One Note - Need to explore a lot more.
  15. The Genealogist Internet by Peter Christian - My favourite book as it helps very often when I am organising my thought process, where to look next - to assist is organised and structured research via the internet.
  16. Scrapbook Storytelling by Joanna Campbell Slan - A great book helping the reader to be creative.
  17. Crafting your own Heritage Album by Bev Kirschner Braun
  18. Journals - Since I started researching in the late 1980s,  I have always had a note book recording what information I have found, what I need to look at next, perhaps a note simply to act as a prompt for further thought. Over the years my journals have expanded. I carry one with me for everything - recipes, books to read, research, my to do list and much, much more. The only thing not covered is my work  - that has a separate book. I probably use on average one book every 8 or 9 months. Each book is numbered and each has on the inside the dates of starting and finishing. I am currently on journal 36 and my work journal is 6W. The organisational aspect of the journal is not just to record information it prevents that mass of post it notes across your desk, well in theory it does. Every now and again I have a post it note clear up!
  19. Billion Graves - iPhone Application - This looks to be a great application in order to record photos of gravestones. I need to experiment more with this. 
  20. Grave Encounters - This is my own blog; created to help me gain control of the endless supply of photographs of Grave and memorials. In addition to getting organised it enables me to share with the wider genealogical population.
  21. Genealogy Gem Podcasts - Endless podcasts available via iTunes to assist in organising your research.

4 comments:

  1. Interesting list Julie, that demonstrates that, wherever you are in the world the tools genealogists use are similar.

    When I had one of the first tablet computers around 6 years ago I used MS one-note heavily and loved it. I,too, have an A4 notebook into which I record all notes about everything: no sticky notes for me either.

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  2. A great list Julie! The Genealogists Internet by Peter Christian was one of my first genealogy books (an earlier edition) and I found it immensely useful.

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  3. I like your list. Can't believe I left Dropbox off mine! Good inclusion on your part.

    I use journals for everything as well. It has cut down on the sticky notes and scraps of paper. The problem is when switching to a new journal I inevitably need a note in an old journal when I am somewhere. So I'm trying to use Evernote more and more.

    Since I'm not familiar with The Genealogist's Internet, I'm going to check it out. Thanks for mentioning it!

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  4. My edition of Peter Christian is I think number 4. Full of post it notes as web addresses change and markers of specific pages. It is a true work horse!

    What I like about Dropbox is that I can be downstairs (3 flights) and access something from my iPad if my laptop is upstairs. Not to mention when out and about!

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