Organize Your Digital Files: Tips from Genealogy Guy Drew Smith

[@kingsmen72]

After watching this, I’m still not clear on how browsing is different from searching on a computer. Can you give a practical example of the difference while working in a digital collection to find the gaps in grandfathers records.

[@chrismoule7242]

Browsing means looking AT something, even if it is only looking AT a list of files [which would show if your great-grandfather's 1990 census is missing, which was the example mentioned] rather than AT some file content; searching means looking FOR something. You may need to do the latter before doing the former. In terms how you organise your files, if you are going to want to browse your great-grandfather's records regularly it will be easiest if you have have them all in the one folder location, though you may have different sub folders within your great-grandfather's main folder - one for censuses, for instance, and another for BMD. But by extension this means you will need separate folders for everyone in your tree...I have over 20,000 people, so that approach is no good for me, so I organise by category. That means that I have a main folder for BMD, split into 3 sub-folders B, M & D, each with a subfolder for every letter of the alphabet. I have a folder for gravestones, split by the alphabet. I have a folder for UK censuses, split into sub-folders for each year, and a separate main folder for US censuses, split similarly. There are others for military, divorce etc. How is this browsable, you ask, and I am not surprised. *Every* individual file *starts* with the surname then the full set of Christian names, then if it is a birth it has "birth" in the name, or "death" if it's a death, or "marriage" if it's a marriage, or "census" & "1234" [for the year] if it's a census. I can then use Windows Explorer & search for all the files for MOULE Christopher Howard [or just the marriage files, or just the census files] & they will all appear in the Window. I can then browse that list or open the files within the list. Not perfect...

[@kingsmen72]

@@chrismoule7242 thank you Chris! Now this makes sense to me. I appreciate the detailed explanation.

[@shirleypena7134]

@@chrismoule7242 Great synopsis of the subject, and very understandable!

[@annesimonsen5409]

I liked the idea of how to name photos of "grandpa', but I would have loved an elaboration on how to deal with photos of more than one person in the family.

[@wp9860]

The answer to how to organize digital files is not, "It depends." This video is vague to the point of being useless.