organising research

[hunterterri58]

I have been researching the Blackburns in London.  I covered 1750 back to 1550. I have put them into families the best I can, but I was unsuccessful in linking most of them to my family at this time.  What I need to know is how best to keep that information or even if I should keep it. It's just in notebooks.  I have made a spread sheet of sorts of many of those families, but I have other  information, like random marriages that because of so little information, I cant identify exactly which person it is.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

[Pheno]

I know that my local family history society has a project called 'My Tree' which collates all donations of family tree info (drawn out trees & documents) and then scans all such material.

An index is created of all the main names and the 'My Tree' project then has a searchable database of all such info, which can be copied out to members supplying enough info to tie them into one of these trees.  Some are only drawn on scraps of paper and some are more or less printed books so the info varies but what we have is available to those with a possible connection.

You could see if your local family history group/or the group that covers the area of most of your research has a similar project and donate your info to them.

Donations most often come from house clearances after death but more and more are being donated during lifetimes now.

Pheno

[David Nicoll]

Hi,

  Personally I find the putting all the information in a one name tree useful. In one of the various bits of available software. It helps organise the information and assists with those lightbulb moments when you realise, oh, they are all related.

So something like.

…Blackburn.
.. County
.Parish
Families

Then the families

[Biggles50]

My method is multi facetted.

The intention is that once I have completed my collating and writing the stories all the information, family trees, images, pdf files, video media files, a Gedcom file etc will be placed on a USB Memory Stick in a series of applicable foldera.

The USB Memory Stick will be duplicated many times and each Family Member and First Cousin will be given one of the devices.

On each is a Read_Me document which details how everything is organised.

On each of the USB Memory Sticks a copy of Roots Magic to Go has been installed together with all the media associated with the Family Tree.

Now just in case there is an issue playing the Roots Magic to Go programme all the relevant files are in folders, and in each folder there is its own folder Read Me file which details the content of said folder.
 
The Miscellaneous folder is where the add hoc unallocated files are stored.

In the Root together with the main Read Me file is a spreadsheet labelled Index, this has everything listed and where each of the items can be found together with its details.

Hope this helps.

[aghadowey]

I use Microsoft Word to record most details. For example, one document for a particular surname might be my own family tree, then later in the document if not too long I add all the misc bits into mini trees where possible (or in a separate document). If at a later date I found they are my relatives I can put them where they belong in my tree. Sometimes I'm able to later connect several mini trees and just add to them as new details come to light. The details in the mini trees are roughly sorted by townland/place/area. In most cases I am dealing with hundreds if not thousands of individuals.

[coombs]

Microsoft Excel could be good for a ONS on a certain surname, starting with the earliest record you have found to the latest.

I often write up on my findings and add all the info I have found onto a Microsoft Word document.