File Naming Structure Addendum - Maiden Names, etc.

As I mentioned in the last post, I've been renaming my digital files (both photos and documents) in an effort to reorganize and make sense of my Genealogy Files in my Dropbox account.

At the base level, the file name is SURNAME First Name Middle Name Date of Birth Description Place.  So for example: WHATEVER Samuel b 1840 1870 Census Madison County Indiana.

How to file the documents left by our female ancestors and relatives has always presented a conundrum.  In many records, women get "lost" in the identities of their husbands and those with multiple marriages makes it difficult to keep track of what item goes with whom.

Regarding the file structures, for example, do I file the death record of my grandmother under her married name at the the time of death (Wright) or under her maiden name (Lambertson)?   While I will always know whose record it was, someone coming behind me might not make the immediate connection.

The consensus in the field is to file documents for women under their maiden names in order to maintain consistency, so that is what I'm trying to do.  In the file naming structure it looks like : WHATEVER Fanny b 1840 m_1 JOHNSON Death Certificate 1900 Cook County Illinois.  

I'm using the m_1 SURNAME of spouse to add to the identifiers.  Multiple marriages look like m_1 JOHNSON m_2 SMITH.   This can lead to some rather long file names.

However, by adding the surnames of the spouses and naming the file under the maiden name I can harness the power of the computer to search for the file and find it whether or not I'm searching for records under the maiden or married name.

While I'm trying to utilize full names including maiden names on all of the files, for those that end up being a bit long, I've dropped the middle name down to an initial for identification purposes.  Some of my families really enjoyed using the same naming patterns over and over again.

File Naming Structure

 Ask any two genealogists how they structure the file names of their digital files, and you'll probably get three different answers.  I imagine that determining a proper file naming convention is what trips up most researchers and keeps them from becoming better organized.  I know that I've struggled off and on with how to name my files.

All of my Genealogy files, whether documents, photographs or other images, are stored in Dropbox so they can be accessed across multiple devices.  As I begin to get organized with this new attitude of making sure that my research is up-to-date to pass on to the next generation, I've had to settle on a file naming convention.

My first pass has been in using this file structure to rename the files that are currently in my Genealogy files with names such as "DSC12395.jpg" or whatever the camera or iPhone decided to name them.  Once renamed with a meaningful name, each of these files will be filed under their own Surname file in Dropbox.

After much deliberation and reading about how others name their files, I think I've settled on the following:  Surname First Name birth date Description Place. 

For example - WHATEVER John b 1865 1910 Census Madison County Indiana. 

This way I can differentiate between multiple people who have the same first name and surname.  If I don't know the birthdate, I'll use an estimate or perhaps the death date.  The point is to get like images with like images.

Many of my files had already been named, so I won't go back and rename them just yet - my focus will be on getting the unidentified and unnamed files named and sorted first. Then, once I begin to work systematically up my family tree, I can update the naming conventions on any of the other files.

In going through images stored in my Genealogy folder, I've not only gone down memory lane - I've also found items that had nothing to do with genealogy that were just lumped into the digital pile.  Those items have been either deleted or filed accordingly in another Dropbox folder.

Research Update - January 2021

Hard to believe that the first month of the new year is almost over.  The beginning of the year is usually the time where one makes resolutions or states research goals.

2020 was a crazy year with a lot of changes.  Working remote with the pandemic, I thought I'd have more time to dedicate to my genealogical research, but instead I had less. Making sure the job was getting done lead to some long hours and my energy level to write blog posts was non-existent. Shame on me for not keeping a journal of all of the thoughts and feelings we've dealt with during this time.

If you look at this blog, you'll notice I didn't post nearly as much as I had in the past.  That didn't mean I didn't do any research, I just couldn't muster the desire to write posts.

My morning routine through most of 2020 was to work on adding burial locations from Find-A-Grave in to my Rootsmagic database before work. This led to me adding a lot of individual facts, but not really any true research.  Part of the year I posted the journals of my maternal great-aunt Vera - a project that didn't get completed.

Though I'm not going to call it a resolution - I do have a goal in 2021 - and that is to get organized.  I've studied methods such as the Genealogy Do-Over or Research Like A Pro before but never taken the plunge.

With goals of passing the research on to the next generation and joining lineage societies, I've decided to spend my January getting orginized - starting with my digital files.  Though I have Dropbox folders to segment most of my files, so many recent Camera Uploads and miscellaneous files have no identification other than the file names created by the scanner or iPhone.

Each morning I've been slowly working to label the images and get them sorted into my main Genealogy files in Dropbox.  So far the progress has been good, but it's daunting.  Finding duplicate files, misnamed as well as the unnamed ones.  I'd better get them labelled before something happens to me and the information is lost.

Once I can get a handle on what I have, my next steps will be to systematically work through my lineage and make sure I have documentation to prove each generation.  Those lines that I already have enough documentation will be used to apply to lineage societies to preserve the work.  Additionally, I hope to share more photos and information via this blog and social media.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step...."