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  • Bits of paper

    I have lots of pieces of paper with doodles, scribbles and some useful information that I have found in various places. Once these are entered on my tree should I bin them?
    Click here to order your BMD certificates for England and Wales for only £9.25 General Register Office

    Do you have camera? Click here to see if you can help Places of Worship

    Jacob Sudders born in Prussia c.1775 married Alice Pidgeon in 1800 in Gorelston. Do you know where Jacob was born?

  • #2
    I destroyed all my pieces of paper once I was sure I entered all the details and not found I've needed them.
    GWEN

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    • #3
      I do Pippa. I see no reason to keep anything on paper that is entered into FTM - just make sure you have regular backups of whatever program you use.
      Also make sure you record the source -so you know where you found the info.
      Elaine







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      • #4
        What about census print outs?
        Click here to order your BMD certificates for England and Wales for only £9.25 General Register Office

        Do you have camera? Click here to see if you can help Places of Worship

        Jacob Sudders born in Prussia c.1775 married Alice Pidgeon in 1800 in Gorelston. Do you know where Jacob was born?

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        • #5
          Have you got them saved on your computer? If so why keep a duplicate paper record?
          Elaine







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          • #6
            I am starting to feel silly now as I haven't got them saved on the computer at all.
            Click here to order your BMD certificates for England and Wales for only £9.25 General Register Office

            Do you have camera? Click here to see if you can help Places of Worship

            Jacob Sudders born in Prussia c.1775 married Alice Pidgeon in 1800 in Gorelston. Do you know where Jacob was born?

            Comment


            • #7
              I've never thrown away any pieces of paper at all! What if the National Grid broke down and we couldn't use our computers! At least we will still have the bits of paper, lol.
              KiteRunner

              Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
              (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Pippa Doll View Post
                I am starting to feel silly now as I haven't got them saved on the computer at all.
                No reason to feel silly Pippa. If you haven't saved them then keep your paper copies.
                Although I have saved quite a few of the census images which refer to my direct line, for others I normally only keep details of the census reference because I cannot imagine there will ever be a time when I don't have an Ancestry sub! :(
                Elaine







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                • #9
                  I always write out my own transcription of the census entries because it saves me having to load them again and having to decipher them again! Plus of course, sometimes the computer is switched off or somebody else is using it, and I like to have access to my family tree info 24/7!
                  KiteRunner

                  Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                  (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Elaine ..Spain View Post
                    Have you got them saved on your computer? If so why keep a duplicate paper record?
                    How about a complete computer failure ?

                    PLUS there's nothing like holding an actual document in your hand (even though it's only a copy).

                    Originally posted by KiteRunner View Post
                    I've never thrown away any pieces of paper at all! What if the National Grid broke down and we couldn't use our computers! At least we will still have the bits of paper, lol.
                    I do most of my scribbles in a notebook, and often leaf through it to see what howling assumptions about my rellies I've made in the past :o
                    Alison

                    Researching:
                    CAVE, CUCKOW/COSHOW, DAKIN, GILBERT, GINN, HUXLEY, LEATT, LETTEN, PATTERSON, PERRY, PORTER, SOMMERVILLE, WEEDON, WHITING
                    http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=1025
                    http://www.authonomy.com/ViewBook.aspx?bookid=2650


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                    • #11
                      So glas someone brought up this post as im always wondering if i should keep my copies of paper info.

                      I like keeping it all on paper aswell as the computer as then i know i always have it all backed up.

                      Also it good to have it all to hand.

                      Danny
                      http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=528974734

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                      • #12
                        I have trained myself to write all my scribbles in a notebook and I save them all.

                        I have paper copies of everything. I like to throw my ancestors around on the floor from time to time and take a good look at them.

                        I lost EVERYTHING on my old computer and would never trust a machine again, even if I had backed it all up, which I hadn't, of course.

                        OC

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                        • #13
                          Whether I keep a piece of paper depends on its quality. ANYTHING in someone else's handwriting gets kept. Unintelligible jottings deserve the bin.

                          I would not dream of getting rid of my notebooks. They show what I was researching and when. They can often kick start new research because I can see the way my mind was working the last time I looked at a family. And often there will be a reference that didn't relate to anyone significant at the time, so couldn't really be fitted into a tree.
                          Phoenix - with charred feathers
                          Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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                          • #14
                            There's paper and there's bits of paper and then there's notebooks and I have all three! I am constantly making what if notes by the computer. The what ifs got out of hand recently and started to mount up to a most unnacceptable level so I had a massive clean up and all that is now on the computer, whether easily found or not is another matter and those pieces have now been binned. That leaves me with all my paper files which I will keep to include census returns. certificates, army docs and any other docs found at CRO's. They have been put on to the computer, but the technology keeps moving on at a faster rate than I can cope with these days and some things on the computer will be redundant shortly, so I would hate to have to rely on the computer entirely, just in case the whole lot went up the swanee. The notebooks are interesting as you look through to see what you have accomplished or not! No, I will not be getting rid of them as they do have a habit of turning up details that suddenly mean something. The computer is easy to look at for the whole picture, but I like the feel of the documents, even the e mail copies and like a book, I can browse through the paper files, turning the pages but I find reading from the computer in this way is hard on the eyes. I could never read a book on the computer, at least not until they advance the technology!

                            Janet

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                            • #15
                              I chuck out my doodles once the info is on the PC. I print off useful messages from GR (yes I do get them from time to time).

                              My main computer back-up is an external hard drive. "My documents" gets saved there regularly.
                              Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                              • #16
                                I don't waste any trees (of the wood variety!). I don't write anything down in the first place. All goes on the computer.

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                                • #17
                                  I make notes, but the minute its on the computer (and backed up), the notes are destroyed.

                                  The only paperwork I have are certificates.

                                  I used to print everything off, then ran out of places to put it :D No more!

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                                  • #18
                                    I keep my current notes on the computer, but I do have some correspondence / info from years ago which I can't bring myself to throw out and I do keep my notebooks.
                                    I back up everything on a regular basis (memory stick and email to myself).
                                    Jenny

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                                    • #19
                                      Back in the 1970's people said that computers would make the world a paperless and much easier environment.

                                      Many years later, with memory sticks, back up hard drives, computers with double drives, floppies, CD's, DVD's and now more Blue Ray Technology has it really made it easier?? I have to continually think about backing everything up on to this technology at a rate of knotts which make my head swim at times! Yes, I do have a back up hard drive which backs up daily and yes I do have memory sticks and yes I do have floppies and CD's and DVD's both R and RW because I understand that DVD RW will not last beyond 5 years without deterioration, and even then when I have spent all this time on the computer I am not at all sure aout any of its lasting content. I have a family history programme in Generations Grande Suite 8 which was a best seller back in 2001 but which has now been obsolete for more than 3 years but I would dread having to input all that lot again into another more up to date programme and so the technology goes on. I know that I am not alone in this thinking as most conservationists feel the same way. For this reason alone I will maintain my paper copies. Far from the computer making life easier, I actually think that it has more than trebbled my work.

                                      Janet

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                                      • #20
                                        Janet

                                        I agree with you! In the old days when I ONLY had paper stuff, it was easy (relatively) to keep track of it.

                                        Now I sometimes spend hours looking for something on the computer that I "know" I have, and failing to find it.

                                        That, of course, is more down to my lack of computer skills than a fault with the computer. But my hand-written flow charts and my roll of wallpaper never fail me and I can find most stuff very quickly.

                                        A generation thing, I suppose.

                                        OC

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