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    Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

    Is there a video out there showing how to organzine your genealogical data?

    Thank you.

    Bill

    #2
    Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

    Originally posted by Avbill View Post
    Is there a video out there showing how to organzine your genealogical data?

    Thank you.

    Bill
    Hi Bill,

    I highly recommend Ben Sayer's website for his 9-part video tutorials on how to organize genealogy on your Mac computer. I started using his system years ago and am very satisfied. Like anything else, throughout the years I've tweaked it to satisfy my desires. I keep the MY FAMILY HISTORY folder in the Finder "Favorites" sidebar which makes it very handy.

    To get to these videos, go to http://genealogytools.com/toolbox/ and scroll down to "Setup Folders on Your Computer". You'll see links to the 9 parts.

    One suggestion...do not watch all the videos at once! Watch a video and then do the set up before going on to the next video. Otherwise, you will be overwhelmed!

    Have you done a search on "organizing" or something similar? Others will make suggestions or point you to other threads that have covered this. Take time to follow-up. You will find many helpful suggestions, hints, etc.

    Hope this is helpful!
    Last edited by kmgenealogy; 03 October 2014, 06:42 AM. Reason: There are 9 parts.
    Kaye Mushalik
    -Muschalik (Poland), Stroop, Small (Ireland), Fitzsimons/Fitzsimmons (Ireland) Pessara/Pesaora/Pesarro/Pizarro (from Germany)
    -Dorrance, Eberstein, Bell
    -Late2015iMac27"Retina5K, MacOS10.14, iOS12.1, R12, Safari12.0

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

      I also agree with Kaye.

      I followed Ben Sayer's method and am very satisfied on how my documents are stored on the hard drive. I also tweaked on some of his methods.

      After entering about 500 source citations I just didn't like the way my documents were stored. It took some time for me to convert to the new method and I'm glad I did !

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

        To Gcase:

        What did you do different with your sources?

        thanks bill

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

          Originally posted by Avbill View Post
          Is there a video out there showing how to organzine your genealogical data? ..... Thank you.......Bill
          Each of us is a little different in the way our brains work when it comes organizing and then finding what we organized at a later date. I suggest that you look at how you have organized other things and remember what works well and what doesn't.

          Ben has a good system and so do several other authors. Look at them all but devise something that works for you. Also, my experience is that the filing system does not need to be perfect. Why? Because the great majority of items I have either in my Mac or on paper rarely get a second look.
          Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
          Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
          iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

            Bill

            For example - my grand father Wilhelm David Weber would be stored as this on my hard drive:

            Weber, Wilhelm David 1875-1927

            Under this directory I would have the following documents: Census, birth, death, burial etc ...

            A census entry would look like this:

            < Name > < Event > < Place > <Source Id >
            Weber, David - 1920 US Census - Columbus, Franklin Co., Ohio - S1

            < Name > - The name field is recorded as is in the document
            < Event > - 1920 US Census
            < Place > - City, County and State where the event took place:
            < Source Id > - This matches the source Id that is stored in Reunion.

            What happened after 20 some documents, the directory listing was sorted by < Name >. I found that that my Grandfather's last name was also spelled like WEBBER and WEAVER.

            All I did was change my documents to this pattern:
            < Year > < Name > < Event > < Place > <Source Id >
            1920 Weber, David - US Census - Columbus, Franklin Co., Ohio - S1

            Now my documents are listed by the <Year> and than <Name> and now I can quickly see what is missing.

            It may seem like a lot of typing for the document name but this suites me.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

              I'd like to suggest a Facebook page, The Organized Genealogist. Lots of great ideas! I am still working on how I want to organize my genealogy.... Getting there. It's slow. But I am making progress! Judy
              2020 M1 MBP, iPhoneXS, iPad Air 3

              My Ancestry ID is: mrstucci1972

              My GEDmatch is A353507. I am also on 23andMe, FTDNA and MyHeritage.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                For whatever it's worth, here's what I do:
                Attached Files

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                  A picture is worth many words.... I organize by family names...
                  Attached Files
                  Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
                  Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
                  iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                    And mine... (I have lost directory structure when I have moved from one computer to another sometimes in the past, so I don't rely on using a lot of directories - I encode everything in the file names and count on either the sort of the filenames or Spotlight to find things quickly)
                    Attached Files
                    Last edited by donworth; 08 October 2014, 02:33 PM.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                      Mine looks very much like Bob White's, see image. One difference is that I have four main sub-groups labeled by the surname of each grandparent, as I think it helps keep it all more manageable. My paper-filing system is the color-coded-by-four-grandparents system (red, yellow, blue, or green for their lines) so this is parallel with that, and I always know whose line someone is in. Some things to note:

                      -- to force direct-line ancestor surnames (Bailey to Wolf) to the top, I insert one blank space in front of the folder name. Notice that Goverts, etc. down to Zeitler toward the bottom are not alphabetized with the rest. The lower ones are spouse records, i.e. not related by blood.

                      -- I create sub-folders under each surname so there's a specific place to toss stuff that I have to do but haven't done yet. This particular Freas folder has way more subfolders than the rest of my lines because it's my maiden name, but for many surnames I have at least a "[surname] research" subfolder, so I have a place I can put SnagIt image clips and documents somewhere until I get around to focusing on that surname.

                      -- birth years are included immediately after the Last/First name if there are duplicate names. I do like Bob's style of not putting a space between Last and First names.

                      -- FWIW, the "-inR" at the end of a filename used to mean "this file is linked to the person in Reunion," but I gave up on that quite awhile back. Not sure why I stopped, it did help me track what I had linked and what I had not linked yet.
                      Attached Files

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                        Here's what mine looks like. The color-dots are tags for my main family lines. Still need to update older entries.
                        Attached Files
                        Kaye Mushalik
                        -Muschalik (Poland), Stroop, Small (Ireland), Fitzsimons/Fitzsimmons (Ireland) Pessara/Pesaora/Pesarro/Pizarro (from Germany)
                        -Dorrance, Eberstein, Bell
                        -Late2015iMac27"Retina5K, MacOS10.14, iOS12.1, R12, Safari12.0

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                          I've been viewing the Ben Sayer videos and find them to be most interesting. I am curious about how the filing system dovetails with REUNION. How does one address the files in Reunion - a separate entry for Places, then one for people and then the documents that pertain to a number of folks? I'm trying to figure if I would benefit from re-visiting all my 2000 sources and 5000+ photos for the 29K people in my Reunion file. To re-arrange all those files appears to be pretty intensive. Pointers and suggestions?
                          Last edited by Frank; 27 October 2014, 11:58 AM.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                            My numbers are way smaller than yours. However, I have converted filing systems several times over maybe 25 years of doing genealogy. The answer is do a few existing items everyday and put all new items in the new filing system. A few months sail by in no time and you find that you are all done.
                            Bob White, Mac Nut Since 1985, Reunion Nut Since 1991
                            Jenanyan, Barnes, White, Duncan, Dunning, Luce, Hedge and more
                            iMac/MacBookAir M1 - iPhonePro/iPadPro - Reunion13 & RT

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Organizing your genealogical data on your Mac

                              So - do you then enter each file folder in the Multimedia Files Preference? This could be a large number of files if I understand Ben Sayre's methodology.

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