Introducing The 21st Century Organized Family Historian

Compliments of freeclipartnow

In 2012 you can look right here, at The Turning of Generations, every Sunday, for my new series The 21st Century Organized Family Historian.

I'm finding myself in an interesting position in the aftermath of clearing out The Family Home, as the curator of my family's archives. But this family's archives cover a span of over 130 years from the earlier years of photography, a time when letters were handwritten or typed and copies were made with carbon paper, through the digital age of today. Somehow I've got to get this mess mass of information organized so that it will be useful not only for myself but future generations. It needs to be preserved but also presented in a way that will appeal to my children's generation; a generation that was born in the digital age.

(OK, read between the lines here - my house is a freaking mess now and I want to get it cleaned up and get on with life and family history. There. I said it!)

Since I know I'm not alone in this position, I'm working on a weekly series with small projects so we can take baby steps toward getting our family's materials organized in a useful and appealing way.

Each week I will post a "project" that can be completed in one week. These will be based on the many projects from my family archives. Then in a separate post, I'll explain the specific task I chose and how I completed it. I hope you Wonderful Readers will participate by posting comments or in your own separate post with:

1. Suggestions for how we might go about completing our projects, or
2. A project of your own based upon the posted "assignment."

I hope many of you will be moved to participate regularly or when the topic moves you. In the process we will get control of this mess err, mass of material and information in a way that will allow us and those who come after to use it effectively in this 21st century digital age.

I'm working on a badge for participants to display on their blogs or web pages so stay tuned...

Related posts in reverse chronological order:

Develop a Digital Organizational Scheme - Week 2
Resources for Organizing the Family Archive
Badge
Week1 - Holiday Greeting Cards

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum