I began researching my family tree when printing everything was the norm, but it is time for me to review my files and purge the excess.
Today and for many days in the future I will be going through each of my genealogy files one at a time, assessing the information, digitizing, and hopefully throwing away a lot of paper. My digital files have so much room and don’t take up space in my house!
A screenshot of some of my digital files
I have been wanting to attack this for what seems like forever and I finally have the time to focus on this part of my genealogy life.
I have decided the best approach is to start with the first file in my file cabinet and depending on the content I may only get through one a day. To keep me on task I plan to start a tracker in my genealogy journal. I love journaling!
The goal I am setting for myself is to work through a file a day or depending on my schedule a minimum of seven files a week. It will be interesting to track how long this project will take!
I am hoping this project will clear up a lot of space in my file cabinet but I may also make some new discoveries as I review the paper I have collected.
I am quite excited to get started and look forward to sharing my progress!
My Genealogy Life 
Good decision Pat! Lot of ineresting reading too! Good luck!
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Thanks Nicole!
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My problem is that all my files are digital, but quite the mess! I too have to go through each folder and one by one check the documents and images (and folders within folders) and organize them better. Now it is on my list of things to do this winter. Thanks for inspiring me!
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It is such a huge project, it took me 2 hours to do one folder today but I managed to throw away about 10 pp and only kept 1 pp.
Breaking this into small tasks is the only way I can get through this!
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Looks like we have a similar digital set-up. I too have lots of paper that needs sorting and digitizing (or dumping)… Live your journal!
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It should keep me busy all winter!
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Most definitely!
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What program do you use to record your information ? I have so many files and folders and would like to know what to do.
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Are you asking what genealogy program I use?
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I use Evernote to do this. I have a great feeder scanner that is portable and ever so often I scan files worth of stuff, then spend time labeling it and putting it where I need it. I can also compare it with whats in my tree in my genealogy software and make sure I am going back over older research now that I have new info – which often leads to breakthroughs. You simply have to revisit things.
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