Friday, May 7, 2010

Clean Out

I spent a few hours this evening going through brochures and other information I have collected over the past year. Most of it I hadn't looked at since picking it up. I decided to throw out 75% of what I had and to actually file the stuff I am keeping.
It is good to go through and clean up what we have from time to time. This applies to genealogy files - but usually we don't throw those away. We still need to do some clean up and organize. I have random census files and certificates here and there on my hard drive. I need to put them in the correct files so when someone asks me for my documentation, I can find it.
As you collect information, make sure you label it so you know what it is quickly. If you don't put it where it belongs, you will have a label on it so when you do need it, you can use the search function on your computer to find it. You can have long file names: 1841 British Census Joseph and Sarah Waterfield and daughters

The documents and information you have is only good if you are able to find it when you need it.