Family history storage.

[HarrysMum]

I’ve got two big boxes of paperwork. Lots of certs, wills, notes, letters, etc.
One box is my family and one is Lawrie’s.

While I have a lot of things in manilla envelopes, the families are mixed throughout.

Does anyone have ideas on separating the surnames? I get muddled once a daughter gets married if I add her to her husband’s name. If I keep her in her maiden name I also get muddled.
I probably have at least thirty surnames in a direct line just for Lawrie.
I’m losing the will to do any more research.
Although I do have a tree on Legacy, a lot of the ‘story’ is not recorded there, mainly due to my fingers and typing. They don’t seem to go together.

[Olde Crone]

I have started (ha ha!) trying to write a page about each ancestor which I keep in a binder. I use ahnentafel numbers to keep things in order. It works for me, more or less.

OC

[Merry]

I have a drawer in a filing cabinet with about 30 (a guess) hanging files in it. There are a few general ones - birth certs, marriage certs, death certs, wills - each sorted into alphabetical order. The rest are family surnames. I don't add a new file every time there is a new surname. The surnames I use are the 'main' names I have researched. If I know Mary Miles married John Mitchell and there is a Mitchell file but no Miles file then I know anything to do with her line going back will be in the Mitchell folder. I would only give her a Miles folder if I started to find the amount of stuff in the folder was becoming unmanageable.

Having said that, the vast majority of the stuff in these hanging files is from more than five years ago - maybe mostly from more than ten years ago, other than some of the certs and some of the wills and a tiny smattering of other documents I've sent for in hard copy. I don't remember the last time I looked for something in the cabinet - that's because almost everything in it is scanned and attached to me tree.

I've just had a look to see how many scanned documents I have attached to my tree. They are stored in folders on my computer, so if I had everything in hard copy this is how many folders and documents (files) I would have:

4,954 Files, 162 Folders

Rather a lot! :D The reason there's 'only' 162 folders is because I still don't separate off every surname because that would be over complicating things!

[Lindsay]

I store my paper records in family groups of mum, dad and children.

Each folder (I must have well over 100 :D) has an outline tree showing how they relate to me/my OH, a printout of the family details from my family history software, and copies of any records I have for them - baptisms, census, certs etc.

I've tried to arrange each folder chronologically so you can pick up it up and see the 'story' of each family. That's the theory, though it doesn't always work!

My original plan was that any family members who were interested could pick up a family's folder and easily understand it. Problem is, so far no one's shown any interest!

[HarrysMum]

Thanks. Some good ideas there.

[Nell]

I did have ring binders for each branch of the family, subdivided by surname with family sheets, individual sheets etc. But it got too unwieldy when I moved into my small flat. So I photographed all the photos, letters and certs and downloaded them onto my tree on Ancestry and took back up copies on memory sticks.
I got rid of all the paper.
i've just done the same with ex's side of the tree, and am glad to say our younger son has shown a lot of interest, so will keep it going. All the original certs, letters etc are in acid-free poly pockets in a folder in a cupboard.