File Naming Conventions for Genealogists
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So I guess I have been slacking a little in the blogging department, but getting back into it is a lot like starting to workout again after taking a long break so bear with me. I could sit here and write a list of excuses why I have been so absent the past week, but what's the point of that? One thing I have been doing in that time though was organizing my downloaded records and sharing some of them with family members.
Often times when we think of organizing our research we think of a bunch of binders or files in a filing cabinet. The reality is that the modern genealogist is a product of the digital age and thus replaced paper with digital files. It is so easy to download a file, yet so few genealogists take the next logical step of changing the file name. Not only does renaming the file make it easier for us to find it later on, but it also makes it easier for somebody else to understand its contents when you share it with them. One of the first things that I did when organizing my digital records was establish a standard naming convention, then altered it slightly depending on the record type. The standard convention that I chose was:
File Type - Name(s) - Date
If I ever have more than one record that shares the same name I either specify the collection (ie. Drouin Collection BMD versus Provincial BMD records), or place a bracketed number at the end of the file names.
Below are the conventions that I use for specific types of records:
BMD Records – Provincial Collections
Birth – First Name Last Name – Year
Marriage – Name1Name2 – Year
Death – First Name Last Name – Year
Obituary – First Name Last Name – Newspaper
– Date – Page #
Census Records
Year Country Census – Last Name
Immigration Records
The convention that I use for this type of record is dependent on if it's for one ancestor or a family.
Immigration – First Name Last Name – Vessel – Year
OR
Immigration – Last Name Family – Vessel – Year
Military
Military – War – Record Type – First Name Last Name – Year
Government and Legal
Criminal – Record Type – First Name Last
Name – Year
Government – School Discharge –First Name Last Name
– School Name – Year
Government – Board of Guardians – Record Type –Last
Name Family – Board – Year
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