Paper/File/Box Organization/Sorting

Ex. You have boxes of papers, notebooks, or folders that you know have genealogy information in them.  But its so overwhelming you don’t know where to start or have the time or desire to do it.

At ForGenerations we tackle this problem.

1. We start by going through the boxes, notebooks and folders and clearing out information that is not genealogy or family history. Other papers that may have been in the box, notebook or folders.

Ex. Receipts, trip itineraries, maps, directions, addresses, phone numbers, phone books, yearbooks, wrappers, Manuals, Flyers, announcements of events, programs, product information, warranties, guides, instructions, class notes, school papers, books, etc. Papers with Book names or call numbers but not attached to anything.  Much of which may have no genealogy or family history in it.

2. Next we sort the papers by surname. Notes, Documents, Pictures, Family Group Sheets, Pedigree Charts, etc.

3. Next we sort the papers by surname but then by family.

Ex. A client had 6 large oversized legal boxes with 4,000 to 6,000 pages probably in each.

By sifting and sorting the above we narrowed things down to 3 boxes that actually had information that could then be entered into computer or checked against computer entries and updated or entered as necessary.

Ex. A client had promised to give family members copies of genealogy but needed to go through boxes and clean things up. He kept promising for years but never getting things done.  After 10 years a family member finally offered to pay and have the work done.  ForGenerations did the job in 6 months. The client admitted that it probably would have been another 10 years if they had done it.

Upon completion of sorting you are now ready to computerize the information or check against existing computer files.

This process is called sifting and data entry.

This provides for taking all information on paper and computerizing it.

Conflicting information is put into notes. Items for research are put into notes.

Sources are created and entered based on documents sorted and sifted.

Budgets are created and worked up to by grouping piles already sorted.

It should be noted that budgeting must be done prior to this process for standardizing and cleaning up existing genealogy computer files.  Surnames, Given Names, Notes, Locations, Sources, completed temple work, problems in marriage dates or childrens dates or child or spouse order should all be corrected first.  Duplicates merged and cleaned up.

ForGenerations has experience working on such projects that help you determine the best approach to take.  Call us at 801-947-1897 to get started today.