Sort these documents into paper folders for future reference, scan them in and store them on your computer in folders and subfolders in an organised way so that you can easily find and locate documents when required.

This may include old letters family letters, Birth and Marriage certificates, and Wills etc.

Gather together all the family documents you can find (exclude documents on living people for security and privacy reasons), and as with photos ask around family members for documents they may have that they would be happy to copy to you.

If you wish to modify (edit) a photo create a subfolder the next level down clearly identifying by the subfolder's name that it for modified images see example below. These should be your master scanned images and should never be modified (version control).

Store your scanned photos into the appropriate subfolders so when particular photos are needed you can easily navigate to them.

the main folder may be named Family Research with a sub folder called family photos and within the family photos subfolder further subfolders may be created, each one for a different family branch.

Create a hierarchy of folders and sub-folders on your computer e.g.

Scan the photos into your computer at the highest quality as you can, give each photo a full descriptive name so that you can easily cross reference it with other relevant information you may add on your computer e.g.

Organise this information into photo albums as a primary resource.

Identity as much information as you can for each photo e.g.

Ask around the family and see if other family members have old photos that they are willing to lend you (or scan and email to you). Gather together all old family photos into one place, photos of all past family members that you can find starting with your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles etc.

Getting Yourself Organised Back to Basicsīefore you start you need to get yourself organised, and stay organised.īelow, for guidance only, is a checklist of steps you can take to get yourself started the list is not exhaustive and you may wish to add to it:.

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