Sorting Saturday - Notes and Handouts

Blogging theme suggested by Geneabloggers


I am reading Unpuzzling your Past by Emily Anne Croom.  I also have her work book, The Unpuzzling Your Past Workbook, Essential Forms and Letters for Genealogist.   While reading these books she suggested in the Workbook to make an Index of workshop notes and handouts.  Now for the seasoned Genealogist that might be an Herculean task but for a new Genealogist it is a big but doable task. 

I have been going to conferences, genealogy meets and workshop for about a year now, so I am starting to collect quiet a few handouts.  I had many of them in a loose leaf binder with no way of finding the notes again until I had looked through all the notes.  Not a very effective use of time.  I want more time for research, studying or quilting.  So I decided to follow the suggestion of Emily Anne Croom.  I could have used her tear out copy of the index from her workbook but I made an excel spreadsheet and I added a third column. 


Index of Handouts and Notes

 The spreadsheet has four pages with the Topics from A -Z divided four ways.  The Lecturer/Author in the middle column.  I added the third column to let me know if it is on paper or on my computer.  Somethings that I received electronically I might print for easy of reading when not at my desk.  Somethings I do not print but still want to be able to find them.

In my bottom desk drawer I used hanging folders, each folder is named with 3 letters of the alphabet.  I had a limited supply of folders in my house that I wanted to use before buying more.  The handout is them placed in the folder and added to the spreadsheet. 

The advantage to using the spreadsheet over the already created form is I can add new notes alphabetically when I receive them instead of just adding them to the bottom of the page. So if I am looking for an article I can look for it on my index then know exactly which folder to find it in.  

Now I guess I will go file a few more handouts.

Happy Researching!