Documenting Family Collections

I have been busy documenting my family collections. It is fun taking pictures that I can use in writing the book. Years ago I scanned over 1,000 pictures and items, but the quality is so much better now that I want to update at least some of the pictures. As I create books for all of my ancestral lines I will gradually upgrade the pictures and file them with more detailed citations. This time I am creating an inventory of what there is for each line and where it is kept in my office or in other parts of the house. In the process my office is much better organized.

Inventory Your Way to Organization

October 13, 2002 I finished inventorying my family history collection for the Tidd family. As part of the process the collection for each family is now kept together in my lateral files. Now back to sorting a few more digitized pages and on to the final writing. In sharing my progress it helps me to stay focused. The collection includes over 50 items, 150+ letters, 1870 to 1977, and 55 postcards with written messages 1902 to 1923. Only a select few will be published in the book.

Report of Materials at the Watts House and the Public Library in Scappoose, Oregon September 2017

After a year of sorting, organizing, reading, typing, putting into notebooks, making lists and taking lots of notes I am drawing to a close on the Watts House Collections Inventory for the Scappoose Historical Society. There are still a few odds and ends to finish now that the overall project is completed. There are several posts on my blog gophergenealogy.blogspot.com if you are interested in seeing what we found. Today I created two notebooks, one for the overall board information and the other for all of the collections. That is how I preserve the memories and compilations in a format that documents the many hours spent on this project. My thanks to Tricia Oberndorf, Karen Holmberg, Dorothy Gallagle, our board member Mardi's daughter, Mardi's high school students and anyone else I may have overlooked. It has been a great learning adventure which has enhanced my working skills immensely!