21st Century Organised Family Historian - Week 5 - Take Inventory

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

A few years ago, my Grandfather's first cousin lent me a series of photographs, about 30 in all. My first plan was to arrange for a negative to be made and a copy. Having collected the negatives and copies we sat together over a pot of tea and Ivy went through all the details of who the individuals were. Each photo had a small sticker replaced on the reverse of the photo with the details of Ivy's initials and the number of the photograph - IS01 - IS31. I then created a spreadsheet with the details of the photographs taken from the notes I made of our conversation together. The photographs themselves are in a separate album. 


The photo here shows the reverse of photo IS12 and the front of IS13.

Now we are in a far superior digital age, I have had the photographs digitalised and they retain the same number. Over the last few years I have scanned all our family photos and given each a reference based upon who have the source is and a reference number. Thus, those with from my father in law have the reference of DG followed by a number.  I should add that in the spreadsheet there is a reference as to who DG and IS were, sadly both are now deceased. Photos that came through my own family - either Mum or Grandparents are simply numbers from 01 upwards.

I also do something similar for copies of documents sent to me by fellow genealogists or those documents and books I have purchased. The only exception is that instead of a sticker being added I insert a piece of paper into the front of the book and write in small archive pencil a reference. That reference is then transferred to my spreadsheet. For documents I small note in pencil on the reverse and then added to the spreadsheet.