Organizing 38 Years of Paper

For a couple of months I have been organizing all the genealogy paperwork that I have collected over the past 38 years. It is a slow process. I thought that I had better get this done before I start taking my genealogy class.

It has all been sorted by family group and each surname has its own color of folder. I have scanned most of the documents on my mother's side and the digital copies go into file folders grouped by family name and then by individuals.

The first of Mom's family groups that I have filed the paper copies on is the Tuckers - I went through and for those directly related or those that I want to do more research on I have filled out the research log below from CensusTools.com.

Then I went on to Ancestry.com and started proofing the family tree my son filled out using records he found online and my paper files. I then decided that while it was still fresh in my mind I would add citations to what I brought over from my cousin Carole's data in my genealogy program which is The Master Genealogist. It took me awhile to figure out the nuances between citations, sources, and repositories - probably way too long. I have almost all the sources set up for John Tucker - just a couple more to do - and a number of them I can use for his children. The next step will be doing the citations and correcting some of the importing errors with the data. Once I get old John done - the rest of his family should fall into line and go much faster. It would probably be going faster if I didn't stop and research my son-in-law's Bryant family tree.

If I had but one wish it would be family from New England - but I don't. The family on his father's side is from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts - and it looks like several branches may have come over on the Mayflower (which is what he was told.) I am beginning to think that most of the early settlers from the Mayflower and other ships must have been civil servants in England. They have been registering a lot of the births, marriages, and deaths in those states since 1657!! We are lucky in Washington State to find a birth registered before 1907 - 250 years later! I also have a lot of family from the south and a lot of those courthouses were burned during the Civil War.

I can tell you now that it won't be done before September, but it is going to be in a lot better condition. I should have all the paper sorted and in the individual person files by September, but I won't have Ancestry.com and The Master Genealogist done by then. I have told myself no more Bryants etc until I am done with the Tuckers.