Photos, Photos, and More Photos

 Alex Trebek is gone.

2020 just needs to be over. 

I have been working behind the scenes for a couple of months getting to all those things I have put off for years. I've just finished organizing and going through each and every one of my digital photos. It says I have 38,558 files. Those are only photo files. ONLY photos. I am a little surprised and alarmed because I still have several albums to scan, and I bet I will run onto another folder full at some point. I still have work to do inside each folder, as I want to make sure they are all tagged. Some are and some aren't at this point. Also, I may consider that I do not have to keep every photo. It's hard for me to throw them out, but I don't have to keep every photo. Right?  I don't have any problems arguing that I do need to keep them all, but the number of files is overwhelming. I'm spending some time thinking about what to do. 

I scanned each album as it was organized by the owner of the album. Each page had several photos on it that I would "cut" apart to make individual photos. I have the original album pages in a large folder listed as "Main Album". I'm thinking I could cull the main single files down to a nice overview of the years, and keep the "albums" together as they are. I have my grandmother's, my dad's, my mother's, and so on. Until recently they were only kept on external hard drives and DVDs. 

I want to get them pared down and maybe upload most to Google Photos. I just bought a book by Lisa Louise Cooke called "ULTIMATE Genealogist's GOOGLE Toolbox". I watched her video on YouTube about Google Photos and was impressed, not just with Google Photos but with the price for more space. I will certainly need more space than the free space that I have left. I had originally bought the book for all the rest of the information in it, but really got a bonus with the Photos part. I did not know what was offered in Photos.

When I need a break I type out an obituary. That is the next thing on the list to do. I have an enormous file of obits that need typed out and entered into my database. So that is the next chore. After that, articles and books. Plus research. 

It's going well. So far.

Working, My Way

Everyone finds their own way of doing things. Each one different. If you try to follow someone else's method to the letter, it usually does not work. I started Thomas MacEntee's "Genealogy Do Over" a couple of years ago. My goal was to find my own way of doing things while cleaning up the mess of 30 plus years of learning how and researching, mostly old school. People are going paperless now. I won't do that. I do keep everything on an external hard drive and in the cloud. I don't trust electronic anything enough to put all my work into it without a hard copy backup. I work better seeing things in print, holding it in my hands. I was never able to go Kindle for pleasure reading. I love books around me. I love their feel. So, I know me well enough to know what I need to work well. I knew before-hand that I would be mirroring my files off-computer with my files on computer. Everything in the folders would match. I also know if I type something, I will not remember it. If I write it down on paper I remember. Something about seeing it on paper does something to my brain. It's just me, or maybe magic.

I watch for blogs and stories online about organizing research and read it closely. Perhaps I will find a little tidbit that I can incorporate into my system that will make it work even better. In Drew Smith's book "Organize Your Genealogy", Chapter Five settled my question on whether I would use binders or file folders. I had been leaning toward binders until then. Binders might look nice and store nicely, but folders are mobile. I had not thought about it quite that way before. His file naming system is one I have decided to use. But I don't agree with him on everything. To me an empty desk is an empty mind. My desktop on the computer and off is a mess when I am working. It's a comforting mess (to me). Anyway, his book stays nearby. I pick it up when I need advice on how to organize something. It's been very helpful, even though I don't use all his ideas. There are still things in it I intend to do. Email set up, mind-mapping, and organizing goals, things that never occured to me. I definately recommend this book for anyone trying to get their genealogical materials and work habits organized. You don't have to follow all his ideas, only the ones you can work with.

I'm trying to log all my research. I have a couple of GenWeb sites that I coordinate and I keep careful log books to know when I put data online, what it was and the reaction to it. I check the counter to see what makes page loads uptick. Is it obituaries or cemeteries? I check my logs for my search engines to see if one name pops up over and over. I can manage what I need to try to get online now, by those factors. Now, I need to apply that kind of thing to my own research.  I should have been doing so all along, but was not. Now is the time!

I use RootsMagic for my main work. I really like to have a 2nd program, and I bought Heredis for that purpose. I updated it to the 2018 version recently and it would not import a gedcom file. Useless to me under that circumstance. I tried to get a fix and they did release one, but it did not make a difference. What a waste. I need to find a second program. I am not fond of Legacy, but I have already wasted money on Heredis, so a free option would be nice.

What to do, that is the question. I am pleased at the way things are going right now. The files are looking nicer, my tree is neater and sourced better. Still much to be done, but things are looking up.

Source:
Smith, Drew. Organize Your Genealogy; Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher. Family Tree Books, 2016.

MacEntee, Thomas: The Genealogy Do-Over Workbook Paperback 2015

A New Toolbox Need

(I've been away for a while.  Life interrupted me.  I am back.  I know it is April 1st, but this is no April Fool's gag!)

I've finally given up on Picasa.  It is the ornery-ist thing I've tried to work with.  So I threw it out.  I wish I could have wadded it up and tossed it, but I had to be happy just to empty my recycle bin.    I really needed to hear crunching or a bang. 

Now I am on the look out for a program that is simple and free.  I need to organize more than anything else.  I don't want it to hold all my many gigs of photos.  I like that I could uninstall Picasa without any worry about any loss of my photos.  I don't really need the program to do much of anything else.  I have PSP 8 and Photoshop Elements 9 to "work" on any that needs fixing.  But the basics like red-eye removal and straightening up a photo is nice to have handy. 

I have downloaded and have been looking at FastStone Image Viewer, but I don't think that it is quite what I had in mind.  Also have been reading about Zoner Photo Studio Free.  It has a free version, but is it worth it? 

I know PSE9 can organize your photos into albums.  What I don't know is if my photos are deleted with the program if it is uninstalled.  There are also photos that I have within folders that go with my RootsMagic that I don't want touched at all.  Can I stop that?  How hard is PSE9 to work with?  I just started working with this program a couple of months ago, so I am a big-time NEWBIE!

If anyone has any opinions they would share about this, I would appreciate hearing them.  What is the most used photo organizing program used by everyone?

Sheri