So, what gets printed and filed? In my world, EVERYTHING. I print every record I find. I do this for three reasons.
- First, so I can show it to the person I'm researching for. It's one thing to see all the facts and dates on genealogical charts. It's a completely different experience to see your ancestor's name in writing.
- The second reason is so I can take or make notes on the record I'm reviewing. I have used Source Notes forms before, and like them, but if I can, I prefer to make my notes right on the record.
- Finally, as reliable as technology is today, you never know what might happen. So much can be lost - computer failure (mine, or theirs), fire (1890 census, anyone?), natural disaster. There are no guarantees.
So, I have my binders, and records are kept in family groups by their MRIN (Marriage Record Identification Number) from my Legacy software database. Any events in a person's life that happened before their marriage goes with their parents. So the earliest record in a family group is the marriage record.
I used to just accumulate records in order of discovery (listed & numbered on a Table of Contents for each marriage record). But I have found it easier to view a family's chronology by keeping the records in order of events. This way, I can see what I might be missing by just flipping through a Family Group.
I also save images and PDFs of everything I print. This way, I can easily reprint them if I want a clean copy. And the storage of the record is not entirely on the service where I found it. Also, when I'm given documents, I scan them in and save them in the same folder.
Hope that helps someone out there. I plan to go into more detail in future posts, but that's it for now. Take care, and journey on!
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