As another year has ended, I thought I would update everyone on my computer file organization project. I have made considerable progress. I’m nowhere near done, though.
I can’t find an exact number, but I believe I started in 2011 with over 150 folders to go through. Today, that sits at 105 folders. As I resorted and made big folders smaller along the way, my accomplishment is probably larger than those numbers show.
My efforts were thwarted by clever digitization projects that put French records and the 1940 US Census online. I’ve come accept the fact that I’m not going to “not” research. I just have to keep working at it and some day the folders will be cleared out.
One of my main accomplishments was that I had two sort folders. I began to find that I had duplicated my research efforts. I would find an obituary in the 2011 sort folder and then in the earlier research I had done in 2006. This was counterproductive. Over the Spring, I combined all the individual sort folders for the same families. This made it much easier for me to get through documents. Since I worked on one family at a time, I could find the duplicates easily.
So, I’m not finished by any stroke of genius. But, I’ve made progress. I believe all my Jones/Jackson work is input. I tackled the Kelly/Dolans. I did a ton of work on the de Mello Castanho’s of Fall River, MA.
This is one of those things that if I do a little each day I’ll get through it. Sometimes I look at the folder in despair. But, there is no way around it. I must get this stuff input if I’m ever going to figure out what the heck I’ve done.
