How to Organize Your Family History

General Resource Sites

• Get it Together
  Articles by Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS.

• Ancestry.com - Organizing Data

• Beginner's Guide to Family History Research - Organizing Your Family Records
  By Desmond Walls Allen and Carolyn Earle Billingsley.

• FamilySearch - Research Guidance

• Organizing Your Genealogy Using Computers
• Organizing Your Paper Files
• Organizing Your Paper Files Using Binders (Notebooks)
• Organizing Your Paper Files Using File Folders

• Genealogy Bulletin - Descendancy Numbering Systems
  By William Dollarhide.

• Genealogy Bulletin - The Henry System: Assigning ID Numbers to Descendants
  By William Dollarhide.

• Genealogy Bulletin - Ahnentafels and Collaterals by the Numbers and More on ID Numbers for Collaterals
  By William Dollarhide.

• Genealogy.com: Discrepancy Charts - Organizing the Inconclusive
  By Michael John Neill.

• Genealogy in a Pile or a File
  A guide to organizing genealogical research and records.

• How Do I Keep All This Stuff Straight?
  From "Along Those Lines..." by George Morgan.

• Making the Most of Your Research Time
  Online article by Donn Devine.

• Producing Quality Research Notes
  From the Board for Certification of Genealogists - Skill Building - January 1997.

Numbering Systems

• Ancestry.com - Deciphering the Register Numbering System
  By Terry and Jim Willard.

• Ancestry.com - Getting Started - Numbering Systems

• Genealogy Bulletin - Descendancy Numbering Systems
  By William Dollarhide.

• Numbering Systems In Genealogy - Richard Pence

Online Charts & Forms to Print or Download

• Ancestor Detective Freebies
  Free downloadable Research Calendar Template for Wordperfect 7.0 and 8.0 and Research Calendar Template for Word 97.

• Ancestry.com - Correspondence Record

• Ancestry.com - Research Calendar

• Ancestry.com - Research Extract

• Ancestry.com - Source Summary

• Family Tree Magazine - Download Forms
  A variety of research forms available in self-extracting files. Forms can be opened and used with Word Perfect and Microsoft Word97 or 2000.

• Lineages' First Steps - Get Organized
  Download a free tool kit of genealogical forms.

• Research Log

• Research Log
  From the LDS church.

Publications, Software & Supplies

• Bygones Home Page: Genealogical Research Note-Keeping System ~ Windows and Macintosh
  A freeware software program designed primarily to keep genealogical research notes on a laptop computer. However, it also has databases that genealogists without laptops may find useful.

• Clooz
  An electronic filing cabinet and database for systematically storing all of the clues to your ancestry that you have been collecting. Requires Microsoft Windows 95. Clooz contains templates for all U.S. federal censuses, 1841-1891 U.K. censuses, 1852-1901 Canadian censuses, and 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses, as well as generic templates for censuses not included, such as state censuses.

• Custodian II for Family Historians
  Custodian is a series of databases with pre-defined forms, specially designed to store genealogical information. Includes more than 80 data entry forms for most UK sources.

• Genealogy Research Organizer
  Program to store your genealogy data using a drop-line style chart. Holds source citations, too.

• Treepad: Personal Information Manager, Organizer, Word Processor, PIM, Search Engine, Database, Notes Manager and Much More
  Windows shareware utility to organize all your research data and files. Useful for a wide variety of notes.