March 2020 Education Corner

By Linda Bergren Polich

As genealogists, we all attend classes, programs, conferences – each providing handouts for attendees.

I have been researching my family history for 25 years, and I know many of you reading this article have been researching much longer than me.

But what do we do with all of those handouts?

And it doesn’t stop with events that we attend … there are magazine articles and website articles on various genealogy topics that we want to save for future reference.

How do you keep all of this material in a way that you can easily find a particular article on a specific genealogy subject?

I’ve tried several methods. First, I filed them by event, like NGS Conference 2007. But that folder contained handouts on many different topics. Next, I put each handout in an individual file folder, appropriately labeled with the handout title. That would be fine, IF I always remembered the title of the program!

So, I finally decided on my current method where I file all handouts by topic, regardless of whether it was a conference, class, or program. I created a digital notebook using Microsoft OneNote, but you could easily do this same thing with a simple three-ring binder. Make divider tabs for each genealogy topic – such as Census, Vital Records, Military Research, Land Records. Then every time you receive a handout on one of these topics, place it in your Genealogy Topics notebook! If you decide to use a digital notebook, just scan your paper handouts, and use a PDF version to file in your notebook. Less paper, too!

Now I have a place for website articles I find, even “tips and tricks” learned from other researchers. Everything is all together, and information is easily retrieved as necessary.

I hope this idea is helpful to you in keeping your genealogy information organized.

Happy Researching!