Get Organized Before You Start

A lot of us make the same mistake: we dive into family history, collect a pile of records and photos, and only then try to get organized. By that point it takes ages to sort things out. And if you’re like most people, you’ll work on family history for a while, take a break, and come back to spend a whole afternoon figuring out where you left off and where everything is.

Let’s get organized from the start, shall we? It takes about half an hour.

Pick one home for everything

First, decide where your digital family history will live. A folder in a cloud service such as Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud Drive or Dropbox is ideal: it’s backed up automatically, you can reach it from your phone, and you can share folders with relatives. A folder on your computer works too, as long as you back it up (Lesson 3 covers how).

If you’re not comfortable with computers yet, that’s okay. You’ll need to know how to create a folder, rename it, and save a file into it. At one time you didn’t know how to do a lot of things, and you learned. You can do this too (even if your computer occasionally thinks otherwise).

Build a family tree out of folders

1. Create a folder called Family History.
2. Inside it, create a folder for yourself. Put the last name first, then the first name, then the birth year: Doe_John_1958. Last name first keeps families together when the folders are sorted; the birth year tells apart people with the same name (every family has three John Does).
3. Inside your folder, create folders for your parents, named the same way. Use maiden names for women.
4. Inside each parent’s folder, create folders for their parents, and keep going back as far as you know.
5. Inside each person’s folder, add three folders: Documents, Photos and Stories.

Here’s what it looks like:

• Family History
  • Doe_John_1958 (you)
    • Documents
    • Photos
    • Stories
    • Doe_Robert_1930 (father)
      • Documents
      • Photos
      • Stories
      • Doe_William_1902 (grandfather)
      • Kowalski_Helen_1905 (grandmother)
    • Smith_Mary_1933 (mother, maiden name)
      • Smith_Arthur_1899
      • Jensen_Rose_1904
  • Research log

Your folders now mirror your family tree. When you find a census record for your grandfather, you’ll know exactly where it goes.

Organize your papers and photos

Since you’ll be scanning your records in the next lesson, don’t spend days perfecting your paper filing. What matters is knowing where each item came from.

• Group papers by family, using the same people as your folders, and keep each group in a labeled binder or file folder.
• Write down the source of each group: “from Grandma Rose’s cedar chest, 2026.”
• Protect originals. Acid-free sheet protectors and folders keep old papers from yellowing. Don’t laminate anything or use tape.
• Set up a simple “to scan” and “scanned” system, like two trays or two boxes. Trust me: the last thing you want is to scan a hundred pages and realize you already did them four months ago.

Now that your folders are ready and your papers are sorted, let’s get them onto your computer.