Imagine their surprise when they discovered the Earth is round.I
think this is what set the problem in motion. For a long, long time
genealogists were accustomed to paper filing. When computers became the
thing, people assumed they could just transfer their paper systems to
their computers. More or less. Maybe by numbers, maybe by locations,
maybe alphabetically, maybe by surnames, maybe by dates. But generally flat like paper.
What
I keep seeing is people trying to reinvent the wheel year after year
and what keeps showing up looks, to me, like only slightly different
variations of the same wheel. You're working on a computer now. It's not paper.
You
can't, for instance, tell your paper filing system, "I want to see all
the census records for Erie County, Ohio in 1880" and expect the pages
to magically rise out of the boxes. On the other hand, you can ask a
computer to do that and it will do it instantly.
Well-meaning
people say, "Just do what works for you." And people are left to jump
anywhere into the pool and filing becomes a massive make-work project,
changing regularly as new limitations occur.
Filing is not just
about putting files IN; that's called file-storage. It's also about
getting files OUT. That's a filing-system.
Endless focus on the minutiae of file-naming conventions and folder hierarchy is not getting you one inch closer to a system.
#1 Biggest mistake. Not using metadata. If you're not using metadata, you're missing 95% of what a filing system can do for you.
Subset of #1.
Thinking that Windows File Properties is metadata. It only applies to
Windows and Windows lives on a metadata planet all its own. W10 isn't
any better that way than W7 was.
With metadata, theoretically but
not quite, you can put 100,000 genealogy files with no particular
names into one folder in no particular order and still find what you're
looking for in seconds; single records or specific groups by location,
source, type or all records for a particular person or persons.
What
I mean by "not quite" is that metadata generally applies to images
only, leaving out text, PDFs and other types of non-image files. And,
yes, I know it's possible to put metadata into PDFs if you have
PDF-specific software that can do it, and then you can search it using
that software. Whole other subject.
Filing flat looks pretty. And it's not doing any harm. But, just so you know:
#2 It is unnecessary to separate your files by surnames.
#3
It is unnecessary to nest record-types under surname folders. Don't you
get tired and confused when you want to grab all the records for one
person and have to race around through different folders to pick them
out one by one?
#4 It is unnecessary to separate your files by record-types.
#5 It is unnecessary to separate your files by locations.
#6
It is unnecessary to add shortcuts to make sure everyone in a census
record is accounted for. You're setting yourself up for misery when you
move or rename files or decide in some other way to change your storage
arrangement. Ditto for linking files to software.
#7 It is
unnecessary to get yourself all balled up with Ahnentafel numbers and
other hieroglyphics. It makes you look highly technical and intelligent
but ... have you written an encyclopedia explaining this to your
descendants or other inheritors?
#8 For everyone else, it is unnecessary to file in a way that only you can understand.
#9
It is unnecesary to keep spreadsheet logs to tell you where a file is
on your computer with description, names, physical locations, etc. If
you're that lost so would everyone else be.
#10 Scanning
photographs as JPG's instead of TIFF's to save space. It's been many
years since I had to try to cram everything I had onto a 30GB
hard-drive.
Yes, there's a way to find non-image files. Yes, there's a way to deal with duplicate names. No, you don't have to use MRINs and no, you don't have to nest your folders like I do but it's a classy touch with added benefits.
MRIN Filing System+
