Genealogy Chat

Dash and darn, I have just ordered a cert that I already have. Can anyone give me a sensible way to record cert info....for example........By surname.....type of cert..........alphabetically by surname etc etc. Kathlyn

Hello!! I have them all in lever arch folders- in plastic wallets. Births in alphabetical order. Marriages in date order (otherwise I can't figure out whether to index by bride or groom), and deaths in alphabetical order. So far it seems to be working. Any ideas for filing of census images?? - currently filed in a messy pile on my desk!! Michelle

Been there and done that Kathlyn..... Just the once and the most annoying thing was it was my maternal Grandmother's birth cert that I knew I had :( I put it down to old age or a couple of glasses of wine, probably the latter! :))) I now have all my certs copied onto my Family Tree Maker programme.....That way I can see at a glance exactly what certs I have for a particular person when I am researching them. I have trained myself to scan certs as soon as they are received to my picture file and then copy them to FTM. The original cert I place into the individual's section of my paper filing system....Photocopying marriage certs so a copy goes to both the bride and groom's file. Works for me :) Chris

You can share your certificate information with others here: http://www.bmdshare(.)com/ i find it quite useful for keeping tabs on what I have as well. You can also offer duplicate/not relevant certificates to others via pages on this site

Hi Kathryn, I do the same as Chris, as soon as they arrive, and I also now add (after 3 yrs) the GRO reference No. to the Family Tree Maker programme, just in case and I also keep a copy of the on line order (in seperate folder). Census images: I keep a paper copy in plastic sleeve in the family file, keep a copy in my FT Maker programme, again keep the image No. and file page etc. I lost all the info I kept on the computer when it crashed, I now back up regularily and keep paper copies of everything. Hope it helps, Lou

Regarding census images, I have paper copies of every relevant ones. I also print off blank census forms (from ancestry) and transcribe the info onto them. I then put each census form and transcription into a poly-pocket into a file. I have them organised into family groups using dividers. this may seem a bit anal but it works. I can go straight to the census record i need and if I can't read it clearly I always have the transcription to rely on. When I'm sorting them all out, I call it 'playing'!!! Carole x

Hi I am nudging this for later as you all have some good tips I could use. Many thanks Diana

You used to able to print off from this site, a very useful list of all the people in your tree, in alaphabetical order. I would then highlight my direct line and also add cert info - in my case I used to write 'I have the ....cert' (birth/marriage/death). You can no longer print such a list from here, but I have successfully photocopied the last one (which got tatty) and update it with both people and certs, and census as I get them. (For census, I write 41,51, etc, which means I have a copy of that census). I now use Tribal Pages for my tree and it is very easy to indicate which census, certs etc you have on there. OC