Census images - what do you do?

[Kit]

Just wondering what people do with their census images?

Do you print them out or save them to your computer, or both?

If you print them how do you organise the papers?

In the last year I've bought FTM and can attach the image to the person or persons it belongs to.

I used to have a spreadsheet that had a link to the image on my computer but was not happy with how I'd set it out.

I'm trying to organise myself but I'm not sure what is the best way.

[JulesSmith]

I save them to my tree on Ancestory, and also save the important ones to my hard drive. If I have one I need to work with, then I print it off and when I'm finished with it, I file with the docs for the family. I've only been doing this about a year, so I don't have heaps of paperwork yet.

[MarionH]

I save them to the computer under the head of the family concerned in a sep folder for Census, after tidying them up and taking all the black off and adding a header with the details of name. RIN no, census year, then print it out and file under Head of family name. I don't do them for the sidelines though - would need to move house!

[WendyPusey]

I save mine to my PC and then transfer them to a CD in folders for each surname.

I clean up the image (remove excess black border) and print them out. Then they all put into a folder in Surname then date order.

[margaretmarch]

I print and save. Haven't attached any to my FTM tree.
The ones I print I put in a plastic sleeve for the family concerned which has a screen print of the FTM 2006 family view at the front.
I have organised the sleeves into ring binders in the order of the hierarchy of the tree.
Margaret

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Mine are saved to my hard drive (1,100 of them!) and are attached to my family tree program. I only have a handful printed out. Everything is backed up in several different ways.

[JBee]

I print them off together with the transcription sheet (ancestry) of head of family plus page (s) of others on the same page.

Have a separate census folder and file them alphabetically behind a tab for each census starting with 1901, 1891 etc going backwards.

Haven't made a 1911 tab yet as most of what I need are Scottish so not available for a few years yet.

[janben]

I save them to the computer under the head of the family concerned in a sep folder for Census, after tidying them up and taking all the black off and adding a header with the details of name. RIN no, census year, then print it out and file under Head of family name. I don't do them for the sidelines though - would need to move house!

Hi Marion
How do you take the black off the census returns, please? This would save me a lot of printer ink and time but I didn't know it was possible.

Jan

[MarionH]

Hi Jan,

I use Photoshop and the eraser to clear all of the black - I would think you could probably do the same with Paint but haven't tried it. With Photoshop you can also add text to it to make it easier to reference.

Marion

[borobabs]

I save mine to computer desktop in sep folders for family names with name and year also to FTM and tree on ancestry then print out the important ones with the census and transcription in the front of each sep part of the tree under there names ;;

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Hi Jan,

I use Photoshop and the eraser to clear all of the black

And I use the same program, but straighten the image if it's crooked and then use the crop tool to remove the black borders.

[janben]

Thanks for that, Marion, I will have a play.

Jan

[janben]

And I use the same program, but straighten the image if it's crooked and then use the crop tool to remove the black borders.

Thanks also, Merry.
Jan

[borobabs]

I use windows editor and just use the crop program on that so you dont need no special program to do it ;;

[Janet]

I save Census to the computer and often print out copies for OH. I can also attach to Generations FH programme but notice with FMP that the image is not coming up in the file when I try to attach FMP cesus images. Ancestry images were OK to transfer to to Generations so I do not know at present how to overcome that:(

Have cleaned up in the past with Paint Shop.

Janet

[ChocolateLover]

.....
How do you take the black off the census returns, please? This would save me a lot of printer ink and time but I didn't know it was possible.

Jan

I use Picasa's crop tool, it's really easy

[Margaret in Burton]

I don't save them at all I just note the census ref.

[maggie_4_7]

I save, copy, scan or download every piece of information I get to my hard drive including census', birth and death ref's etc

Each Family surname have a folder and that's broken down into BMD's, Photos, Index Refs, Census.

All certficates ordered are immediately scanned in to the PC on arrrival *coughs* well nearly on arrival and also put into the BMD's folder for each family.

All documents and photos are sourced to my tree on my PC and the Ancestry one just has census attached for mine and for OH's everything is just on my PC he doesn't have an Ancestry or online tree at all its all on my computer.

All original documents are put in the non acid clear pockets and filed into my very physical filing system for each family.

I don't print census unless I need to show something tangible which strangely enough I am just about to do with OH's to his mother and so I have cropped and printed most of the census mmmm I can't even count possibly 200 certs and about 400 census and that doesn't go back far enough but a woman of 90 needs to see it in context and something she can look at and read and work out and she's got better eyesight than me

Everything is backed up onto USB sticks constantly.

I must admit I don't have much paper, however if you want to present 'it' to someone you've got to have something tangible.

My next step is for my aunty who is 80 for our/my tree another big task...

Edit to say: all my documents I've got from the LMA I've scanned in too I scan everything into my computer all my personal stuff, just everything in hi res and keep backups on a USB stick the family tree too but then I assumed everyone did that to keep it all safe anyway re a disaster.

[Kit]

One thing you all have in common is that you are very organised. Something I'm not.

Maggie that is a lot of paperwork for your MIL. Just as well she has good eyesight.

[guybrush]

I do pretty much the same as all the others. I save them to my laptop and backup regularly. I have a folder structure which seems to work for me.

Main family group (in direct bloodline), then nested subfolders within titled with the oldest blood relative in the household

Top Level - Smith Family

Thomas
1841 census
1851 census
1861 census
1871 census

Thomas
1861 census
1871 census
1881 census

Eliza
1881 census
1891 census
1901 census

George
1901 census

Catherine
1901 census

William
1881 census
1891 census
1901 census

Mary
1841 census
1851 census
1861 census
1871 census

John
1841 census
1851 census
1861 census
1871 census