Legacy File ID field - anyone experiences

[Helen Castle]

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Thought about using MRIN's but have far too many to fit in the numbers.

Has someone come up with an easy method of sorting and filing.

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld

[singhals]

Helen Castle wrote:

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Ummm -- what's a "drop file", Helen? And how does it differ from a file
drawer?

Cheryl

[Robert Heiling]

singhals wrote:

Helen Castle wrote:

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Ummm -- what's a "drop file", Helen? And how does it differ from a file
drawer?

It may be past her bedtime, so I'll answer that. Since the filing drawer
*contains* them, I intuitively had thought she meant what you probably call
"pendaflex". That turns out to be the case. Here's a picture:
<http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=24&langId=-32&catalogId=10101&productId=26240>

HTH
Bob

[Helen Castle]

Sorry on the front of them they are called Suspension Filing

so suspended file covers with metal brackets that slide on the metal runners
in the drawers - standard old fashioned filing cabinet

Helen
"singhals" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Helen Castle wrote:

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully
selected a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing
cabinet and lots of drop files.


Ummm -- what's a "drop file", Helen? And how does it differ from a file
drawer?

Cheryl

[Helen Castle]

hit the nail on the head - but they are a bit fancy - I have the old ones
that people at work no longer want and they are a bit cruddy sometimes but
they work as they are so solid nothing will kill them - green card with
metal brackets - only I wont use the ones without plastic bits that help
them slide better



Helen

"Robert Heiling" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

singhals wrote:

Helen Castle wrote:

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully
selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing
cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Ummm -- what's a "drop file", Helen? And how does it differ from a file
drawer?

It may be past her bedtime, so I'll answer that. Since the filing drawer
*contains* them, I intuitively had thought she meant what you probably
call
"pendaflex". That turns out to be the case. Here's a picture:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s ... ctId=26240

HTH
Bob

[singhals]

Robert Heiling wrote:

singhals wrote:


Helen Castle wrote:


I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Ummm -- what's a "drop file", Helen? And how does it differ from a file
drawer?


It may be past her bedtime, so I'll answer that. Since the filing drawer
*contains* them, I intuitively had thought she meant what you probably call
"pendaflex". That turns out to be the case. Here's a picture:
http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/s ... ctId=26240

HTH
Bob

OK, OK guys, gimme a break, huh? (g) I was visualizing something along
the lines of a Venetian blind with files ... you'd just ratchet 'em up
and get 'em off the floor, which frankly has !serious! appeal when the
cleaning lady comes!

Helen e-mailed and I answered her off-list.

Cheryl

[Helen Castle]

I have a 2 drawer filing cabinet with suspended files.

I am looking for ideas on how to sort the filing

I have piles of stuff sorted by family line and surname.

I have seen 2 methods:
sort by MRIN in a binder which is hard to adapt to file cabinet as hundreds
of options.
sort by 4 colour codes for family line then by family group sheets then by
type of article.

Would be interested to hear how others file stuff.

The reference to Legacy File ID field was that it tells the reader where to
find the bit of paper ie: what drawer? what folder?

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld
"Helen Castle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Thought about using MRIN's but have far too many to fit in the numbers.

Has someone come up with an easy method of sorting and filing.

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld

[Kerry Raymond]

I have a 2 drawer filing cabinet with suspended files.

I am looking for ideas on how to sort the filing

I have piles of stuff sorted by family line and surname.

I have seen 2 methods:
sort by MRIN in a binder which is hard to adapt to file cabinet as
hundreds of options.
sort by 4 colour codes for family line then by family group sheets then by
type of article.

How you organise your file should relate to how you want to access material.

Personally I use my filing cabinet to store material purely for the purposes
of retrieval of individual items "where is that death certificate for Fred
Nurk?", "I know I have a list of monumental inscriptions for Smalltown
Cemetery somewhere". I use Family Tree Maker as my primary repository, so
the material in the filing cabinet will generally be referenced from sources
or notes in FTM.

For every document, I have a key. For a document about
* one person, the key is their surname at the time of the event
* a family (possibly many generations with various urnames), the key is the
main surname involved (usually the male name of the oldest ancestor) or the
one in the title of the document
* a place, the key is the town, state, country (the one which is most
precise)

I write the key in pencil on the front of the document top-right (usually).
If the document is too precious to write on, I put the document in an
envelope and write the key on the envelope instead with a description of the
contents. Writing the key down with the document is important, because
having removed something from the filing cabinet, I want to put it back into
the same place.

In the filing cabinet, I have 26 basic folders, labelled A through Z. Using
the first letter of the key, the document is filed into the appropriate
folder. When a folder get very full (or I just feel like it), I may pull out
all the material pertaining to a particular surname (or place) and create a
new folder for that surname/place. That folder is then filed alphabetically,
A, Archer, B, C, etc.

So if I want Fred Nurk's death certificate, then I look in the Nurk folder
(if there is one), if not, then look in the N folder.

The advantages of this system are that if you know roughly what you are
looking for, it will generally be found fairly quickly and refiling is very
easy.

The disadvantages of this system is that material related to one family is
spread over many files. For most women who change their name on marriage,
their documents are split between the file for their maiden name and their
married name.

This is why I say that the way you file must reflect how you want to
retrieve material. If you want to get out all the information on Fred Nurk
and his descendants, my filing method is not helpful. If you want to find
specific documents, it works well.

When I first started out in family history, I had a folder for every surname
(women were still split across two files, maiden name and marriage name),
filed alphabetically. This worked OK until the family tree became large, and
I found myself with a lot of folders with only one piece of paper in them.
So, I merged the almost-empty folders into simple alphabetic folders A
through Z, and left only the family folders where I had a lot of material.

A method I occasionally consider moving to is based on ancestor couples. It
works on the theory that you tend to collect more information about people
closely related to you relative to those distantly related. You create a
folder for each ancestor couple (or marriages of ancestors if they married
multiple times).

You then file a document in the folder to which the subject person is most
closely descended from (or is related to for in-law relationships). So,
material about your siblings will go into your parent's file. Material about
your cousins will go into one of your grandparents files. It's hard to
explain. It makes more sense when you do it. The advantage is that it keeps
material on related people together. The disadvantage is that you really
have to know how people are related to you to find anyone. I have no idea
what order you would store the folders. I would probably do it in
generational order. Self, parents, grandparents, etc. I have yet to
seriously try this method for filing cabinets, but did organise photos for a
while that way (but like most of my organise-my-photo projects, I never
finished it).

Anyhow that's my experience.

Kerry

[cecilia]

"Kerry Raymond" wrote:

[...]
How you organise your file should relate to how you want to access material.
[...]
For every document, I have a key. [...]

If you go to record offices and other archives, you are likely to find
that documents are held in groups that often reflect source rather than
contents (eg correspondence to and from a land agent). Each document,
or small bundle, is given an identifier.

Retrieval then depends on the quality of the *index* - and one can put
many entries in the index for the same item.

The system depends on identifying each document so that it can be found,
and constantly improving the index.

[singhals]

cecilia wrote:

"Kerry Raymond" wrote:

[...]
How you organise your file should relate to how you want to access material.
[...]
For every document, I have a key. [...]


If you go to record offices and other archives, you are likely to find
that documents are held in groups that often reflect source rather than
contents (eg correspondence to and from a land agent). Each document,
or small bundle, is given an identifier.

Retrieval then depends on the quality of the *index* - and one can put
many entries in the index for the same item.

The system depends on identifying each document so that it can be found,
and constantly improving the index.

And from painful experience, keeping the index up-to-the-minute is
tedious and abnormally time-consuming. Several have commented that
their system requires more time than their research, and one lady of my
acquaintance actually compared it to changing diapers on a sick baby:
exercise in futility because you'd no sooner get done than it needed
doing again.

Cheryl

[Helen Castle]

I am beginning to think you are right - I am trying to think of an
infallible system... if my method changes then I need to update every field
again...

Helen

their system requires more time than their research, and one lady of my

acquaintance actually compared it to changing diapers on a sick baby:
exercise in futility because you'd no sooner get done than it needed doing
again.

Cheryl

[Susan]

Try this website. Gives some great how-tos, too.

http://www.fileyourpapers.com/supplies.html

Sue

"Helen Castle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

I have a 2 drawer filing cabinet with suspended files.

I am looking for ideas on how to sort the filing

I have piles of stuff sorted by family line and surname.

I have seen 2 methods:
sort by MRIN in a binder which is hard to adapt to file cabinet as
hundreds
of options.
sort by 4 colour codes for family line then by family group sheets then by
type of article.

Would be interested to hear how others file stuff.

The reference to Legacy File ID field was that it tells the reader where
to
find the bit of paper ie: what drawer? what folder?

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld
"Helen Castle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully
selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing
cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Thought about using MRIN's but have far too many to fit in the numbers.

Has someone come up with an easy method of sorting and filing.

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld

[Helen Castle]

Thats the one I had seen before - it looks like the most flexible and I
might just adopt it with some variations

Thanks
Helen
"Susan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Try this website. Gives some great how-tos, too.

http://www.fileyourpapers.com/supplies.html

Sue

"Helen Castle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I have a 2 drawer filing cabinet with suspended files.

I am looking for ideas on how to sort the filing

I have piles of stuff sorted by family line and surname.

I have seen 2 methods:
sort by MRIN in a binder which is hard to adapt to file cabinet as
hundreds
of options.
sort by 4 colour codes for family line then by family group sheets then
by
type of article.

Would be interested to hear how others file stuff.

The reference to Legacy File ID field was that it tells the reader where
to
find the bit of paper ie: what drawer? what folder?

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld
"Helen Castle" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I would be interested in hearing from people who have successfully
selected
a method of using Legacy File ID field.

I have hundreds of pieces of paper, certs, photos, etc

Need to have a method of filing - have available a 2 drawer filing
cabinet
and lots of drop files.

Thought about using MRIN's but have far too many to fit in the numbers.

Has someone come up with an easy method of sorting and filing.

Helen Castle
Narangba Qld

[Steve Hayes]

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 10:33:45 -0400, singhals <[email protected]> wrote:

And from painful experience, keeping the index up-to-the-minute is
tedious and abnormally time-consuming. Several have commented that
their system requires more time than their research, and one lady of my
acquaintance actually compared it to changing diapers on a sick baby:
exercise in futility because you'd no sooner get done than it needed
doing again.

I've mentioned it before, and I'll mention it again, I use the system that
came with early editions of PAF, the Research Data Filer.

You give every document a number, and file them numerically, and the RDF had a
DOC file that has a brief description of each document.

It also has a DAT file that indexes people found in the documents. That makes
it easy to find the particular document you found information in again. Great
uncle alfred's birthday? Oh, it's in Document 1276. Pull down the file with
documents 1201-1400, and there it is.




--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk