Organizing Your Research
Even a small amount of genealogy research can generate a significant amount of information. One of the main challenges in genealogy is to stay organized and have a methodical approach to storing and displaying your family history research. Here are some ideas to help you stay organized:
• Take careful notes, preferably on standardized forms, or in a standardized manner. You may not refer back to these notes for several months (or even years), so it is important that your notes be clear and complete. Careful note taking will also save you the aggravation of having to retrace your own research if you find that your notes are incomplete, illegible or disorganized. Fortunately, Genealogy In Time™ has prepared a standard (pdf) form to assist you in collecting information on each family member .
• Make photocopies of as many source documents as possible and carefully file them away for future reference. It is easy to misinterpret information contained in old documents, particularly documents that were written by hand, where it can be difficult to distinguish names, numbers and dates.
