Category: Tips

Old Photos: Research, Return & Repeat

8/19/2015

Old Photos: Research, Return, and Repeat

This past week, I was re-scanning some of my grandmother's old photos from her service in the U.S. Coast Guard SPARS during WWII. (I wrote a short blog post about it here.) In many of these photos, my grandmother is pictured with fellow SPAR women, and a few military men as well. The great thing about her photo album is that, for nearly every photo, she wrote down each person's name and where they were from.

So, as I was scanning, I came across several photos of an Army man by the name of Bart Noland from Iowa. I was curious. I Googled 'Bart Noland Iowa army,' but didn't really come up with anything. I went to Ancestry and searched for him. In a public tree on Ancestry, I found a Bartley W. Noland from Iowa who was born in 1918, so I decided to message the owner and hope for the best.

The next day, the owner of that tree wrote me back and told me a little bit about their family's Bart Noland. (The tree owner turned out to be a cousin of Bart's wife.) He sent me his email address, I sent him scans of the photos, and he sent those scans to one of Bart's living children, who confirmed that this was indeed her father, who had passed away in 2001. (Lesson: Keep a family tree PUBLIC on Ancestry, even if it is just the basics. I would not have found Bart's family if this gentleman's tree had been private.)

Even though she now has all of the photos in digital form, I will be sending Bart's daughter the physical photos of her father, as well as a photo of his barracks he stayed in while in Florida, and some scenic snapshots he sent my grandmother during his time in Hawaii. They belong to her and her family. I can always have the photos of him reprinted if I want to fill in the empty holes in my grandmother's scrapbook.

Are you in possession of any old photos of non-family members? If you have names attached to those photos, I urge you to use your research skills to try to find living descendants of those pictured, and, if possible, return those photos (or at least email the scans) to living family members. Bart's daughter was SO grateful to me for reaching out and finding their family - She found out about these photos on her 35th wedding anniversary and said she felt like this was her Dad "remembering" this special day for her.

My mission now is to try to find some of these women pictured in the photos. Most of them married after the war and, of course, changed their names, so it may be much harder to find any of their children or grandchildren with whom to share these photos. But I will still try. :-)

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Minster Obituary File and Funeral Card File

7/11/2015

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I haven't posted on this blog recently, but that doesn't mean I've haven't been busy in other genealogy-related ways. If you read my blog frequently, you know that my husband's family, past and present, hail from western Ohio. Last month, I took a trip to the village of Minster, Ohio, which is located in the southwestern part of Auglaize County. I visited the Minster Historical Society and Museum, and wanted to share a couple of the resources available to researchers who have ancestors from this portion of western Ohio.

Minster Obituary File: The historical society has collected, translated, and organized obituaries for area residents, and, in some cases, non-residents who have family ties to the area. The important information has been extracted from newspaper obituaries, places on index cards, and organized alphabetically in a card catalog. It was easy to find the names on my list, and then I simply used my phone to snap a photo of the cards. Each card referenced the original source of the obituary, which is usually (but not always) the town newspaper, The Minster Post. Anyone can access past issues of The Minster Post at this site for FREE, so you would easily able to track down the original, as-published, obit. Truth be told, I had already tracked down most the obituaries I needed just by using the newspaper database from home, but there were a couple of names for whom I had no idea when they passed away, so searching through issue after issue of the newspaper was not practical. Found them in this file, and - voila - obituary found! Here is an example of one of the obituary file cards:

Obituary from Minster Obituary File

Minster Funeral Card Collection: The Minster Historical Society and Museum boasts a collection of over 20,000 funeral cards, and they are adding more all the time. This collection was again housed in simple card catalog draws and arranged alphabetically and with the deceased's birthday at the top. The important information from the cards was photocopied and then pasted right onto the index card itself. Again, I just used my phone and snapped pictures of the cards pertaining to my husband's family. (Of course, they aren't all in German - these are some of my favorites, though!)

I should mention that ANYONE can send in copies of funeral cards to add to their collection. I recently received my grandmother-in-law's collection of funeral cards and I'm in the process of scanning them right now. From what I saw on my trip, I know that they already have a lot of the cards I have, but they also DIDN'T have some, so I will make sure I send them copies of those.

If your family or clients have any ancestors that may have had ties to western Ohio (even as far north as Toledo or as far south as Cincinnati), I highly recommend you check out these sources. The obituaries can be searched through the Rutherford B. Hayes Obituary Index, but the funeral cards must be searched on-site. (I've been told by a reliable source that they are working on getting the funeral cards online at some point as well.)

©2015, Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Check Adjacent Counties

10/13/2014

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A couple of weeks ago, FamilySearch posted on their site the images within their Ohio, County Death Records, 1840-2001 record set. Previously, I had to check to see if an ancestor's death record had been indexed, and, if so, I had to order a copy of the image from their photoduplication service. This release of images was a big deal for me, because just about all of my and my husband's ancestors lived in and died in Ohio. I was somewhat disappointed, though, to see that death records for Darke County in western Ohio were NOT included in the record set. My husband's French Catholic ancestors settled in the northeastern part of that county, and I was looking forward to finding some of their death records.

Not one to dwell upon disappointment when there were so many OTHER county records to comb through, I decided to search through Mercer County's images for ancestors from my mother-in-law's side who settled there in the 19th century. I was searching through the entire set page-by-page, and I found a lot of ancestors whose records had not previously been indexed and whose names were indexed or transcribed so poorly that there proper names didn't show up in the search engine results.

Suddenly, I came across the name 'Crist Magato,' who was my husband's FRENCH 4th great-grandfather through his paternal grandmother's line. Christopher never lived in Mercer County, and, according to this death record, he didn't die there either. (Click below for larger view.) The death record states that he passed away in Osgood, which is a small town located in Patterson Twp, Darke County, about a mile south of the Mercer-Darke county line. In the 1880 U.S. Census, Christopher is living in Wayne Twp, Darke County, which is directly south of Patterson Twp. He is also buried in Frenchtown, Wayne Twp, so I assume he remained there until his 1892 death.

Mercer County Death Record for Christopher Magoto, 1892

I am glad that I stumbled upon a death record for him, but now, I have more questions. Why did his death occur in Osgood, and not closer to where I assumed he was living. Maybe he was staying with a family member in his old age? I have not yet located his obituary, but that might provide some additional clues.

And why was his death recorded in Mercer County? As I mentioned above, I searched the entire Mercer County set for our family tree surnames, and this is the only Darke County relative I have found in Mercer County records. This experiences has taught me, though, to check record sets for adjacent counties, just in case an assessor or recorder decided to jot down a death that may have happened near, but not technically within, county lines.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Live Tweet Your Conference Notes

8/4/2014

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This past weekend, I attended the 2014 Midwestern Roots conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was a great experience and I learned so much about practical tools and methods that will surely help me in my family history research.

When I have attended other seminars and small conferences in the past, I usually just kept a copy of the handouts/syllabus in front of me while jotting down extra notes here and there. During one conference, I had an PDF of the syllabus on my iPad and typed out and saved notes electronically.

But THIS time, I didn't take any notes other than the small blurbs that I posted on Twitter as the presentations were happening. I didn't have any extra or pens papers in front of me. Like every other larger conference, the organizers encouraged us to tweet using a unique hashtag, which I did include in every one of my tweets.

Let me tell you the benefits of this method of note-taking. First of all, I had no extra folders, papers, or pens in front of me; my space felt uncluttered, which was a nice feeling. Because I wasn't worried about copying down every single little thing, I LISTENED better to each presenter, and I'm pretty sure I retained MORE of their information. Twitter limits you to 140 total characters, and since part of every tweet was the hashtag and presenter's name, sometimes I only had around 120 characters to work with. I had to craft each "note" in the most succinct way possible, and that forced me to pull out only the most important elements of each point the presenter was trying to make. If I wanted to remember a particular source, website, or book that the presenter was talking about, I tweeted that, too.

I tweeted a LOT. I'm not sure how most of my followers felt about that, but I had quite a few retweets, and at least one of my followers (who was not at the conference) said she was enjoying reading through the tweets. I liked the fact that I was sharing what I was learning with others, AND I was enjoying reading through other attendees' tweets who were in other sessions. (Don't you wish you could attend ALL the sessions?? I do.)

After the conference ended, I went to my twitter account, searched the conference hashtag (#MWR2014), and ALL the tweets with that hashtag showed up (even from people who I did not follow or who did not follow me).

Screenshot of Twitter account after searching #MWR2014

Even better? You can SAVE the Twitter search in your Evernote, and have a complete record of everyone's tweets and photos from the conference in one easily-accessible location! Even if you don't think that this method of note-taking at conferences is right for you, you should still get a Twitter account (it's free), search the conference hashtag, and take advantage of the information that fellow colleagues are posting.

#MWR2014 Twitter feed imported into Evernote account.

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Tuesday's Tip: Visiting the Family History Library

5/26/2014

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Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah

Last week, I made my first ever trip to Salt Lake City, with one of my goals being a couple of good research days at the Family History Library. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my general preparations and goals: focusing on only a few family lines and only looking for indexed records or records for which I already knew where and when certain ancestors were born. With only two days, I did not have time to sit down with a gazetteer and try to search the microfilms for every village in which Great-Grandpa Kowalski may have been born.

Originally, I was going to use an online form to contact the library beforehand and let them know what films I would like to search. I messaged them a few times through Facebook, and they assured me that, because none of the films in which I were interested were solely kept in the Vault, I should have no problems finding them when I arrived.

Well, with my (bad) luck, wouldn't you know it, but the first film I search for was not in its proper place in the microfilm drawers. One of the volunteers kindly helped me search the overflow drawers and even looked around at other patrons to see if they were using it, but we couldn't find it. He ordered it from the Vault and it was thankfully there the next morning! Phew!

In the past, I've also had notoriously bad luck with getting the hang of different types of microfilm machines, so I was a little worried about that on the first day. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about; the machines were well-maintained, easy-to-use, and instructions were printed on each one. Not to mention the fact that there were many library volunteers eager to assist anyone who needed it.

This is the machine at used for 2 1/4 days. I sat at the same one each day; it was next to a wall outlet, so I was able to charge my phone when it ran low on battery.

"My" microfilm reader

Before I arrived at the library, I knew that if I wanted to save any images digitally, I would need to transfer the microfilm reel to one of the special scanner computers that had USB drives. I fully intended to do this, and even bought myself a new USB drive. However, I quickly realized that, with the number of records I wanted to save, and considering that the scanner computers had time limits of only 30 minutes, this process would severely cut into my available research time. So, instead I experimented with taking photos of the records directly off the microfilm reader with my iPad 4 and iPhone 5. After carefully reviewing a few images - zooming in, looking at clarity and details - I determined that these photo images were more than adequate digital records of what I was looking at on the microfilm reader. Of course, the photos were saved in JPEG format, but I could easily convert them to TIFF format when I save them to my permanent hard drive and cloud.

Each time I located a record of interest - one that I photographed - I wrote down the name(s), date, location and film number in a steno notebook. I was very careful to maintain my notes in the exact order of the photos I took, so that when I do go to organize the record photos into their proper "family" folders, I will know exactly what record I am looking at and who it 'belongs' to.

One of many pages of notes

Thanks to my planning, I was able to find at least some records for all but one of the families I had prepared to research. For those of you who follow the families I research, these are the ones on which I focused my research this time:

- The family of my great-grandfather, Michael Bodziony in southern Poland
- The family of my great-grandfather, Sophia Krupa in southern Poland
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Ferdinand Waterkotte in Ostbevern, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestors, Gottfried and Maria Eva Wimmers in Garzweiler, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Johann Michael Drees in Cloppenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
- The family of my husband's ancestor, Maria Catharine Wellerding in Steinfeld, Oldenburg, Germany

It was a great first trip to THE library, and I'm looking forward to going back someday. I spent all of my time on the International Floor. It was so great to look around and see people researching so many different countries of the world, and hearing other patrons and volunteers speak in languages other than English. Even though I didn't really talk with the other patrons, I did feel as if there was a camaraderie between us, and I realized that there really are quite a few of us who are more than a little obsessed with learning about our ancestors. :-)

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Bloggers, Get A Business Card

4/28/2014

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Business cards aren't just for business people anymore. Yes, conventional working professionals still carry around business cards with their titles, companies, and contact information printed on them, but nowadays it has become common for other members of society to make and hand out 'business' cards. At the beginning of the school year my son's teacher handed out her 'card' in the form of a magnet - we keep it on our fridge and it has proved to be very handy. Teenagers looking for babysitting or lawn maintenance jobs have business cards just in case they happen to cross paths with a potential client/employer. Stay-at-home moms carry around 'mom cards' that they can hand to other moms who they meet at playgroups or at the park. And, if you are a genealogy blogger (or any type of blogger, for that matter), you should have some business cards, too.

Last year, I had some of my own cards made. My brother was getting married, and I knew I would be seeing some of my Dad's cousins who I really never see at any other time. I wanted an easy way to give them my genealogy website URL and email address, without them having to fiddle with their phone or find a pencil and paper to write it on. Sure enough, I handed out a few at his wedding, so that mission was accomplished.

My networking card, as made through Vistaprint.com.

Fast forward to just a couple of months ago. I was attending a seminar at the Indiana Historical Society. During one of our breaks, I introduced myself to one of the programming and education employees, gave her one of my cards, and simply let her know that if she or other members of the programming staff were interested in putting together a seminar on genealogy blogging, I could probably help out with that. She thanked me, the seminar started back up, and I went back home not really expecting much of it. A few days later, she emailed me and asked me to come in and speak with her about putting together some children's genealogy programs for them, based on my new blog, Growing Little Leaves.

Even if you only blog as a hobby (as I do), you never know when or where you may want to share your blog and/or contact information with someone. You could be doing research at a library and bump into someone researching the same areas and/or families as you, or you could be at a seminar or conference and meet someone who could even be a potential relative. Most bloggers focus on using digital social networks, such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter to expand their readership, but it is important to keep utilizing this more traditional method of networking.

I ordered my cards through Vistaprint, but there are a handful of other websites on which you can design your own cards, usually at very economical prices. Office supply stores, like Staples and Office Depot, can also help you design and print cards. You are completely in charge of what you want on your card - I put my name, email address, phone number, and home address, along with my website URLs and the major surnames I research.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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A Seminar With Cyndi Ingle

3/22/2014

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Today, at the Indiana Historical Society in Indianapolis, Indiana, I attended an all-day seminar given by Cyndi Ingle. For those who aren't familiar with Cyndi, she is the creator of Cyndi's List, which is a website containing the MOST comprehensive listing of ALL genealogy-related websites - research sites, database sites, methods and organization sites, history sites, blogs - everything. She is quite famous within the genealogy community, so I was glad that she came to Indy and that I had the opportunity to hear her speak. The seminar was entitled, "Genealogy Online: Productive, Organized and Successful."

Each attendee was given a nice booklet containing all of Cyndi's presentation notes, which I really appreciated, because it meant I could relax and pay more attention to exactly what she was saying, instead of worrying about taking notes to try to remember it all. (I was also able to do some live tweeting, too, which I enjoyed!)

Seminar Booklet

Of course, Cyndi took us through her website, explained HOW it was organized and highlighted some of the main categories of links found there. She gave us some great tips about how to develop a research plan, and she was even kind enough to provide us with links to templates to help us make a research plan of our own. She talked a lot about using Evernote in genealogy research, which I wasn't necessarily expecting, but I'm glad she did. I do have an Evernote account; however, I do not use it regularly in my research and my Evernote notes and notebooks are not as organized as I would like them to be. Cyndi showed us Evernote's full capabilities as far as aiding in genealogy research and organization. And there's an entire section on her website listing links that are helpful in learning and using Evernote for family history research.

Here are a few main points of her talk that really stuck with me:

- Even when you go through an entire database and find NOTHING helpful in learning about a particular ancestor, it is still a step forward as far as your research process goes. (So many of us get discouraged when this happens, but now we are free to "check off" that record set and move onto the next potential source of information.)

- Take research notes along every step of the way. Cyndi referred to it as 'having an ongoing dialogue with yourself.' This is so important when you have to leave your research alone for a period of time. We need to know exactly what we were working on and where we left off in the search, especially so we don't backtrack and search the same database or record set AGAIN to no avail.

- Genealogy research is a circular process; there is no end. She showed us this GREAT graphic from the FamilySearch.org Research Process Wiki, which really helped me better visualize what a successful research process looks like.

- Speaking of visualization, she reminded us to try to visualize our research as much as possible. Using timelines and maps of migration and immigration patterns can all be extremely helpful when we are trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.

If you ever get the chance to hear Cyndi speak live, please be sure that you do! She is an engaging speaker and you can tell that she really loves what she does. After her seminar today, I am so much more motivated to put more of my research in Evernote, and to be more meticulous in making research plans and keeping better research notes.

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Census Sunday: Street Name Changes and Enumerator Errors

3/15/2014

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In 1940, my great-grandparents, Louis and Adele Licciardi, lived with their two adult daughters, Dina and Yola, on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. (Click on image for larger view.) On this form, their surname looks as if it is spelled 'Silccirdi,' which is probably just a mistake of the enumertor (not the only one, either, as we will see.)

The Licciardi Family, 1940 U.S. Census

My great-grandfather's occupation is listed as 'Sewing' and 'Men's Clothing'. He owned and operated a business known as 'Paris Art Embroidery' in downtown Cleveland, and here it is listed in the business section of the 1940 Cleveland City Directory:

1940 Cleveland, Ohio City Directory, Business Section

My grandmother, Dina, who is listed as 'Diana' on the census form, and her younger sister, Yola, are working as a 'Saleslady' and 'Cashier', respectively. In the residential section of the 1940 Cleveland Directory, we actually see that they are working at The May Company, which was one of the major department stores in the city at the time. (Dina is listed as 'Dine' and Yola is listed as 'Viola.'

1940 Cleveland, Ohio City Directory, Residential Section

The census form lists their address as 3521 East Blvd, and the city directory lists it as 3591 East Blvd. I searched for both addresses on Google Maps and Google Street View and came up with nothing; there are not even any addresses on the current extent of East Blvd that are close to the 3500s. My initial thought was that this part of the street had changed names between 1940 and the present day. To solve this mystery, I decided to consult the 1940 census enumeration district (ED) maps, which, fortunately, are found online.

In my humble opinion, the easiest way to get to the right map is to use this search link at stevemorse.org. You simply select the state, county, and city in which you are interested and you will get a list of links to the available 1940 enumeration maps:

How do you know which map is the area you are interested in, especially if you are searching a larger city? Go back to your census form and find the city Ward number, which is in the upper part of the sheet. In this case, we are interested in Ward 28. I had to search each map individually until I found the big number 28. Once I did, I went back to this link (large-city street finder) on stevemorse.org, chose the correct state, city, and ED number, and the page will then list all of the streets covered by THAT enumeration district. (The ED number is in the upper-right corner of the census form - in this case, it is 92-683.) This process is essentially a way of finding my great-grandparents' most immediate neighborhood, which I outlined in the red box below (click on image for larger view.)

1940 ED Map, Cleveland, Ohio

Stevemorse.org; Results of Large-City Street Finder

Indeed, if you look closely on the old ED map, there is East Blvd, right between Glenboro and Clarebird. I searched for 'Glenboro Dr, Cleveland, Ohio' on Google Maps, and here is what I got:

Oh look, that street between Clarebird and Glenboro is no longer called East Blvd, but instead has been renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. (By the way, there is still a road known as East Blvd in this part of Cleveland, which simply added to my confusion.)

Turns out, the census enumerator wrote the wrong house number for the Licciardi family's address on the 1940 form. He wrote '3521,' which, if you look carefully, doesn't even fit the sequence of the other addresses on the page. And, upon further searching, I discovered that there isn't even a lot at 3521 MLK Jr. Blvd. Thank goodness for the city directory, which DID have the family's correct address (3591).

I HAVE located the home via Google Street View and will be talking about it in a separate post later this week, so stay tuned!

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Local Library Periodicals

3/10/2014

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All family historians know the value of libraries and their vital roles in genealogy research. Local history books, church book transcriptions, microfilms, tax records, probate records, maps, subscriptions to online databases - all of which can be found at local libraries and all of which are useful in discovering who are ancestors were. But how many of us regularly use our local library's periodical holdings in our genealogy education and research?

I am usually at our local town library at least once a week for children's programs, but, honestly, I rarely have the chance to browse the shelves for myself. My daughter and I walked past the magazine stands the other day and there I saw Family Tree Magazine. A light bulb went off in my head - why didn't I ever think to look here in the magazine section for titles that may help me with my genealogy research?

I also noticed that there were several general history titles among the racks: WWII History, Civil War Times Illustrated, and American History. And, as I look through the online catalog, I see that even our smaller town library holds several local and state-specific periodicals that could be very useful to Indiana family historians: Indiana Magazine of History, Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, and Hoosier Genealogist. (Unfortunately, nearly all of my U.S. genealogy research consists of Ohio ancestors, so these titles probably wouldn't be that useful to me personally.)

So, it's all right to rush to the probate record books, microfilms, and online databases when you are doing genealogy research at the big city/states libraries, but don't forget that some great resources might just be found in your local library's periodical department. And of course, the best part is they are FREE!

©2014, copyright Emily Kowalski Schroeder

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Tuesday's Tip: Binder Organization

1/13/2014

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A little while back, a friend of mine asked me HOW I organize all of my genealogy-related findings. I thought about it and realized that this might make a good blog post, especially for those new to family history research, or for those whose current system of organization is just not working for his/her research style.

If you ARE new to genealogy, it is important to realize that there is no right or wrong way in order to organize your digital and paper genealogy files. Everyone does so a little (or a lot) differently and it really comes down to a matter of preferences, as long as your style is functional to you.

Between my and my husband's families, I have around 20 different binders in which I store paper copies of most of the documents I find. They are organized by surname; some of my binders contain information only on one surname, others contain more than one surname. I label all of the binders on the front with a simple cover page.

Genealogy Binder Organization // The Spiraling Chains by Emily Kowalski Schroeder

At the beginning of each binder, I try to include a basic family tree for quick reference. For binders with more than one surname, I use plastic dividers with tabs, so I can easily find the family I am looking for.

My binders are organized in chronological order, with the oldest records at the front and the newest at the back. Each document gets one clear plastic binder sheet - a photocopy of the document itself goes on one side and any source information goes on the other side. Using the clear plastic holders for every document does obviously add to the cost of my organization system, BUT it makes searching through the binders SO much faster, and I dare say it has eliminated many paper cuts I would have otherwise suffered from.

Side 1: Copy of original document

Side 2: Source information

At the bottom of every copy of every original document, I write by hand the date and person of interest in the document. This simple step helps me immensely when I am paging through the binder looking for one specific document.

I label every 'original' document by hand for quick reference.

For documents that may consist of more than one or two sheets of paper (immigrant ship lists, wills), I use these handy plastic binder pockets. It would be fine if I simply put all the pages within a plain clear plastic binder sheet, but these pockets make it so much easier to take the sheets in and out.

Immigrant Ship List in Plastic Binder Pocket.

So, what types of documents do I keep in my binders? ANYTHING related to my or my husband direct ancestors AND their siblings, sometimes referred to as collateral ancestors. I have done a little research on, say, nieces and nephews of direct ancestors, but, for now, most of those files I only keep digitally on my computer hard drive and cloud drive. I have a system of separating direct ancestor documents from sibling documents in my binders:

Separating Siblings from Direct Ancestors

I use big (sometimes really BIG) binder clips to "section-off" the documents/sources related to siblings of direct ancestors. I stick a Post-It note on the front of each section that states HOW these people are related to the direct ancestors. I always, always, always write a woman's maiden name on all documents/sources pertaining to female ancestors. Also, on each document/source, I write, by hand, how this person is related to the direct ancestor:

I write the relationship between sibling and direct ancestor on bottom of each document/source page.

Other resources that I have been gradually adding to my binders are reference map printouts. Several of my husband's ancestral families stayed in the same counties for many generations, but maybe moved to a different township here and there. So, I've printed out simple county maps with the townships delineated and put them in my binders, so that I don't have to keep Googling the maps on the computer.