Sorting Saturday

Today I'd like to address something quite simply fixed, but which for a time completely baffled me!

My paternal lineage is quite large. My grandfather one of eight children, his father one of eleven.

While I have spent many years researching these lines, I have accumulated a great number of family photographs. For years, these photos were simply filed under "BEAN", our family name. By the time it reached several hundred [if not thousands] I would have to search through numerous "John Bean" photographs to find the correct one!

What was a girl to do?

It was then that I learned about sub-folders.

When I began this genealogical journey, I had never touched a computer before. And I am completely self taught. My DH, who is well versed in IT, told me at the start that he could do it for me... but if I wanted to learn how to do anything on the computer, I'd be better off finding the answers for myself.

And so... as I wanted to learn something, I would consult a search engine, or order a book, research until I found the answer. So I was a little later than some in learning certain aspects of the technology! But I did learn!

Sometimes I learned the hard way. Like filing all photos under one name to start with!

So... today, my "BEAN" folder has many sub-folders.

There are folders for each of William and Rachel's eleven cildren. Beneath each of those are sub-folders with each of their children, and in some files there are even more sub-folders!

I can easily access the files and am able to draw up photos and portraits in mere seconds.

This method works much like my binders with hard copies of documents.

You don't have to make everything complicated! Sometimes... the simplest methods are the best!