As I shared in my last post, I am starting over, from the beginning, on my personal family research (and that of my husband) after 23 years of working on it. It needs some serious cleaning up and clearing out. I need to delete some of the garbage that I input into my family tree software back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I was less educated on the importance of documentation then, just excited to come across a familiar name on a website or message board.
I do have 20 years worth of primary source material (and some reliable secondary source material) that sorely needs organizing. So, that’s where I’m starting. The old banker’s boxes with manila folders and print-outs from Netscape is up first. Next up, paper materials I’ve gathered over the past 10 years from my grandparents before and after they passed, scanning where I can. Then, I’ll reorganize my Dropbox folders which contain my more recent digital research. Finally, I’ll review, organize, scan, and purge any handwritten notes.
This is the absolute opposite approach I’ve always taken in the past. My previous research efforts have been sporadic, scattered, and driven by the desire to add more people, more generations to my research and family history. After 23 years, it’s time to do this the right way.
