Secrets of The Green Box

Sharon, Vermont, 2010
This is one of the most beautiful, peaceful
places we have ever been.

Today I am sharing a lesson I learned this past week.  Jim has been gone for 6 days and I had a date with my genealogy.  It was amazing.  35 years ago when I started my family history work I had a green plastic box that accompanied me on trips to the Family History Library to do research.

 I would store all my family group sheets in that little box and the documents as I would order them would be filed in the few surname files I had made.  I had my research logs, my pedigree chart, and family group sheets. After the 4 generation request from the First Presidency I had my Book of Remembrance with all my typed pages which did not fit in my box, but I did have memorabilia stashed in there too.  Oh and letters, I have lots of correspondence from relatives and places that supplied vital records, etc.  I even had carbon paper, regular paper and whatever else I needed to do my research.  And there was a ton of extra space.

As the years went by I added more and more files.  It was a mess really.  Too many odd shaped pieces of paper, notes, etc.  That box is finally completely sorted through and is empty as of Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades.  Spending time with Elijah the whole week that Jim has been gone helping our kids has been profitable.  In fact it is been heavenly. When I came back to genealogy three years ago I was like a fish out of water.  I have had to relearn everything.  I also had to learn all of the electronic things as well.

I made a decision early when I returned to the work to do some electronic filling and get rid of a lot of paper.  So about three years ago I took most of the things from the first four generations out of the box and got those in new paper surname files after paring down a lot of the unnecessary stuff. Then I scanned and filed a bunch of things electronically.  That really seems to be better streamlined now and easier to find.  The scanning pile kept getting bigger and bigger..you know how that goes.  Then I'd put the memorabilia type things back in the box "for now."  The fact is that didn't work well.  It just gets away from you.  That is one of the most annoying things about all of this...too much stuff to keep track of, right?

Someday it will be just how I want it to be.  For now I have to just keep going in baby steps until it is right.  The most valuable lesson I learned from this Green Treasure Box is that the answers to some of the big things I had been working on and thinking about were right there in my possession...just forgotten after decades.  I under estimated how much information I had acquired the old much harder way.  It was phenomenal how many things I discovered I already had.  You have to keep the most articulate records, you simply will not ever remember where you have been, what you have found and where you put it without a fabulous system.  I am working on it.  The one upside to the whole thing is that I had a positively enlightening day going through the box.  It was my best research day I had had in a long time!  Who knew but Woohoo!  So maybe organizing what you have before you add more as you move forward is worth considering.  What do you think?