Genealogy Chat

Hi all,

Can anyone recommend a system/systems for keeping your Family History records?

Over the last few months I have been bitten by the Genealogy bug (coincided with being side-lined after an operation (needed a hobby whilst recovering from knee surgery).

I started out by finding my wife's relationship to a 'famous' ancestor and went from there. In the first few weeks I found over 200 ancestors (of course keeping no records :-() and then hit upon the idea of archiving all of the family photos (what a job that has been!).

I am now ready to start over, and do it properly. My question is...How/What is properly?

How do you keep your records? Digitally and a hard copy? Digitally using a couple of memory sticks, just in case? Do you hand write Ancestor profiles?

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated (it appears I have found the hobby for the rest of my life ;-), so I want to do it right).

Thanks in advance

Graeme

I think you'll find that everyone does it differently!!

It depends on what suits you. I have the people all on Family Tree Maker, with notes transcribed from dozens of bits of paper. Certificates are all in one file, census returns in another, in date order and then alphabetical. Then I have box files with photos, newspaper cuttings and anything else that looked interesting at the time! :-) :-)

Other folk will have completely different systems, but one thing I would emphasise - don't have everything on Genes. If something goes wrong, and it has happened, you could lose the lot. Have it all off-line as well.

i printed all the census off just in case they were lost

I use Family Tree Maker for my main family tree on the computer with a back up on disc. I then have plastic A4 wallets that I have with each family surname and I keep birth, marriage and death certificates in them along with other wallets for any other records that I find (army records, census records, photographs of houses that ancestors lived in, wills etc. etc.)

I also have a large family tree rolled up in a tube that my son had printed out for me - however that is quite out of date now as I have added lots more people to my tree since he had it printed. I only have a couple of hundred names on my tree on Genes (just my direct line ancestors really) but many more on Family Tree Maker (it's an old version but it does all I need it to).

Kath. x

Thanks for the replies everyone, food for thought.

Another couple of questions if I may?

Does everyone have Genealogy Software? Is Family Tree Maker the standard? At the moment I have Genes and my Gedcom backed up, would I benefit from purchasing software as well?

Sorry to ask so many questions....but as we say in the North East (England) "Shy bairns get nowt" ;-)

Thanks for you help.

Graeme

Most people have genealogy software. FTM is popular, but has to be bought separately and is loaded from a disk. Ours is then backed up on a memory stick and can be put on any other computer we choose.

Other people prefer other makes, many of which can be downloaded and often have free trials first. Google Family Tree Software and see what's available.

This is my personal opinion, but keeping everything on line and nowhere else is very risky - you could lose years of hard work if something goes wrong.

Thanks Andysmum,

I didn't know you could back up the software to a memory stick...great idea for family visits.

As an aside...your post brought a smile to my face for an entirely childish reason...I'm surrounded by Sunderland & Newcastle United fans and 'FTM' has a very particular meaning here ;-)

Thanks for your help.

Graeme

I think you have misunderstood me, Graeme. It is the information entered on the FTM software that is backed up. It can then be transferred to update our other family computers, but they all have FTM installed on them.

I'm sorry if I misled you. As we also have our tree on OH's tablet, we use that on family visits. :-)

Ahh, my bad.

Thanks for the info Andysmum.

For my tree I use Personal Ancestry File from familysearch.org, it's free and does what I want.