Filing Family History Aquisitions is Easy

Dec 2006 Issue

by LaRae Free Kerr

“Help!” a friend said, distressed. “I wasted a whole day trying to make sense of my genealogy. I got up early, pulled out my three boxes of family history materials, picked up one item after another and set them back down. It was so frustrating. What should I do?”

So I gave her the short answer: Pile the three boxes of family history materials to the left of your computer. Acquire a file cabinet or several cardboard file boxes and place them on the right of the computer. Add a few file folders to the right side, and you are ready to begin.

Pick up one item from the box on the left, give it a number, starting with 1. Then enter the data into your database and file the document by number, in the files on the right.

Light and hope came into my friend’s eyes. “I can do that,” she said. “It will be fun.” Since this friend is not the only one frustrated over what to do with their boxes of family history goodies, I’ll explain further.

The first part is just as easy as stated above. Stack all your family history acquisitions to the left. Turn on your computer and bring up your genealogical database. Any kind will do. I use the Personal Ancestral File (PAF) because it is available to all free or at a very low cost. Go to http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/Welcome/welcome.asp and scroll to the bottom of the page to download PAF free.

My friend already had many ancestors entered into her database. But if you don’t, just enter yourself, spouse and kids, your parents and grandparents as far back as you know. If all you have are a few generations, that’s ok. If you don’t know how to enter the information, visit your local Family History Center (you can locate the centers from that same FamilySearch address given above).

Ok, you are ready to roll: stacks of info on the left, database and you in the middle, empty file boxes and folders on the right. Following are examples of items you might have in your boxes and how to treat them:

Example 1 A legal-size pedigree chart from Aunt Marie with no sources (a very secondary document, so you will expect to make corrections as more primary documents appear). Put a number 1 in the top left-hand corner of the chart. Enter each piece of information and its source into your database.

In the PAF program, you will have to type the “1” in the “Source Title” box. So your title will be “1 Pedigree Chart.” On the next line, “Author,” put Aunt Marie Smith. You don’t know the publication information, so leave that line blank. But type the location of this legal-size pedigree chart as Box 1 Number 1 under “Comments” Only legal size materials go in Box 1. Forevermore, you will know the source of this information as well as exactly where it is in your files.

Databases with the numbers already built into them are available for purchase. I have not been able to find that feature on PAF which records sources alphabetically. It is easy to resolve, though, just add a number as the first part of every title.

Continue entering information from the documents on the left then filing on the right. Letter size items go in Box 2. (Read my columns about Primary and Secondary sources, for all documents do not have the same degree of correctness. When all the documents in the boxes on the left have been processed, the data from the most correct sources should be showing in the database.)

Example 2 Marriage record from Western States Marriages at http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/search.cfm. After entering the marriage information in the appropriate place, enter the source. The title is Western States Marriages with, in this case, a number 2 before it. The author is BYU-Idaho, Special Collections and Family History; the publication information is the URL given above. Enter its location, Box 2 Number 2, under “Comments.” Notice that each source gets its unique number whether it goes in the legal-size box (1) or the letter-size box (2).

Example 3 Actual marriage record. Because the marriage certificate itself is more correct than the index, enter the marriage certificate information in its entirety in the “Actual Text” section of the source. Enter the certificate into Box 2 as number 3. Continue entering all the documents in the same manner.

On the right of your computer, you will need file folders labeled Duplicates, Correspondence, Research To Do and Unknowns. The others are self-evident, but an explanation about unknowns may be helpful. As you go through the documents on the left, it is probable you will find items that do not yet match anyone in your database. Put them in the unknown file to look at again after all other data is inputted.

It really is easy– and so much fun to watch your database grow, as my friend discovered.

LaRae Free Kerr, M. ED. can be reached at
Itsallrelatives@sfcn.org and history@itsallrelatives.us.