As we prepared to sell my childhood home, we cleaned out the refrigerator, divvied up the furniture, and called the realtor. We thought we were ready for anything--until we ventured into Mom's genealogy room.

We knew Mom had spent 35 years researching family history, but we were unprepared for the sheer volume of records that awaited us. A lateral file and two standard file cabinets were stuffed to overflowing with the results of countless hours of searching through microfilm, books, and cemeteries. A bookshelf sagged under the weight of published family history volumes. Baskets were filled with maps of townships long swallowed up into cities. The very sight took our breath away.

You may be in the same situation. Perhaps your Great Aunt Grace spent a lifetime compiling records, and, now that she's gone, you've inherited her research. It's massive, it's amazing, it's overwhelming. And it's incomprehensible.

So now what? How do you figure out what she's discovered? How do you decipher her organizational methods? How do you make sure her life work remains valued? How can you share the results of her research?

It's a multi-part question with a multi-part answer: evaluate, organize, and computerize. And four experienced genealogists give their advice on where to start.

Evaluate
The first step in dealing with that mountain of research is to evaluate what you have.

Raquel Lindaas has dealt with inherited records both professionally and personally. As a genealogist, she has helped clients sort through all types of inherited family records. Plus she inherited her own treasure trove of family research.

Raquel begins her evaluation process by searching through inherited records to get an idea of what records she has and how they are organized. She also looks for pedigree charts and family group records to guide her through the family lines.

The same ideas can apply to Aunt Grace's records. "Try to figure out what system was used," suggests Stan Lindaas, Raquel's husband and a fellow genealogist. "Are they dividing it up by family? Is there an organizational system there? There's no sense in reinventing the wheel."

Genealogist Debra Marsh says Aunt Grace may have left some simple clues for you to follow. "If she has any group sheets or pedigree charts to serve as your road map, the process becomes very simple," Debra says.

Salt Lake-based Jessica M. Taylor suggests looking for the beginning of the research--usually the record with the most recent event date. "You have to figure out where [the research] starts," she says. "I would get out the basic pedigree chart, find the most recent date, and work back from that."

Old research may look a little different than what you're used to. Long horizontal forms were the standard for decades. Research notations may be difficult to decipher; you may even need a family history librarian to help you decode a research reference like F.6 part 250.

"Look for any Bible references, letters, obituaries, references to churches, certificates, general announcements, and pictures--especially if they have an identifying mark on the back of where they were taken," Stan suggests. "Everything would be a treasure to me. It's kind of an adventure."

Also realize that Aunt Grace may have found information that was never recorded on family forms. "The old family group sheets didn't give any place to record the death place or the marriage place, so that information is sort of lost in the transfer," says Jessica. Event locations may be included on original certificates, and if Aunt Grace has recorded the dates on her forms, there's a good chance she has a copy of the certificate in her research file.

If Aunt Grace entered the computer age and has research results in a computer file, you are light years ahead. A good first step is to print out all of her genealogy information from her computer before you try a data transfer.

Data transfers present their own problems. Data may have been entered into a computer program that is now outdated, or information may have been stored on discs that are unreadable by computers today. For software problems, Stan recommends contacting the company that made the program. "A lot of times they'll have conversion software," he says, "but you may have to upgrade incrementally." Debra recommends trying a local Family History Center as well.

And before you accept the inherited research as fact, do some spot-checking. An overview of the research should help determine if it's accurate. "I would look for anything that doesn't make sense--maybe a woman getting married when she was twelve, or a child born before its mother, or people living in Utah in 1820," Jessica says. "Right off the bat that can tell you how accurate it is." Even if the records look good at first glance, you should still do some spot-checking.

Organize: The Paper Trail
Taking inherited records and making them your own means putting the giant stack of documents--photos, birth certificates, family Bibles, deeds--together in a fashion that makes sense to you. For Raquel, the process involved a bedroom floor littered with stacks of old papers sorted into piles by surname.

As she worked with each page, Raquel gained a feel for the way the families and the research fit together. She sub-sorted each of the surname piles by document type--census, vital, land, probate, military, Bible, and correspondence--organizing each of these categories by date.

Raquel then placed each surname stack in its own labeled, indexed binder that she can haul around with her if she needs to. "A binder keeps thing organized. Most people are very tactile and visual," she says. "Sometimes I want to have two documents side by side."

But Raquel admits that with all of this paper, there are bound to be problems. As a professional, she has seen more than her share of research clients shuffling through disorganized, loose papers, even as the meter is running. Plus, paper is fragile, and if something happens to a document, it's good to have a digital backup.

There's also a problem with bulk and the need for duplicate records. Say Smith married Jones--which surname does the marriage certificate get filed under? Or are copies made so it can be filed under both?

Debra solves this problem by assigning a numbering method to all of her files--inherited or not. She numbers every document, using stickers when necessary, keeping all of the documents together in a single, safe location. She notes document numbers on computerized pedigree charts and family group sheets. This way, Debra can reference a single document several times without making duplicates. She can also quickly determine exactly which piece of paper she wants to find as well as where she'll find it.

Paperless record storage has other advantages, as well. Instead of filling file cabinets with mountains of research, documents can be scanned and their electronic images can be stored on CDs or DVDs. A scanned birth certificate or family photo can be quickly e-mailed to other interested family members. At the same time, original documents can boxed up for off-site storage.

Scanned images can also be linked to records on a home computer or a Web page. A document management program, like Clooz or Paper Tiger, allows searching via keywords or personal filing codes, enabling quick retrieval of electronic files.

Debra now scans all of her personal history records as a safety precaution. "I scan them in. I back them up to an external hard drive separate from my computer. Then I back them up online," she says. The only paper documents she keeps now are originals--not copies.

Computerizing Results
Regardless of how you choose to maintain Aunt Grace's records, there's still the matter of what do with her results: family group sheets and pedigree charts. Chances are good that Aunt Grace relied solely on paper. But, if your goal is to actually use and share her information, today these findings need to be compiled on a computer.

Computer programs like Family Tree Maker 2006 or Personal Ancestral File (PAF) can help you organize Aunt Grace's work into an understandable and usable format. "You scan a document in once, then link it to as many people as you want," says Debra, who also notes that, depending on the software, you may be able to quickly upload a family tree to a website or create a personal Web page based on your research.

The best time to computerize may be while you're organizing inherited documents. First, enter the information from those hand-printed pedigree charts and family group sheets into your software program. Next, choose one of Aunt Grace's documents and find where it fits on the chart. Enter the document information into the appropriate "Notes" section of the chart and create new family group sheets as needed. Third, label or scan the document. Fourth, link the document to the pedigree charts or family group sheets using your chosen organizational method: a binder name, numbered document label, or a clickable link to the scanned image. Finally, file the document.

Whatever route you choose, once the information is compiled, don't just keep it to yourself. "Submit it to the LDS Church or Ancestry.com so other people can access it," Jessica says. "There are people out there who are searching for this genealogy. Make that information available."

- From Ancestry.com

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