Research Records Organizing Accessing Sharing Preserving

Traditional Records  Mostly paper Census Vital records (birth death marriage) Ancestor / descendant charts Stories Wills Bible records Newspaper clippings (obituaries, etc) Pictures

Traditional Records (cont’d)  Organization Usually only one copy of each record Kept loose in file folders or notebook  Accessing Usually accessed by browsing folder  Sharing Make copies of documents, send by mail  Preserving Individual pieces of paper can hold up over time Harder to make backup copies

Digital Records  Online records are all digital Images, indexes, documents Gedcom  Convert traditional records to digital Scanners and digital cameras  Pictures  Audio  Video

Digital Records (cont’d)  Organization Kept on computer in folder(s)  Accessing Can be accessed by browsing folder Can create indexes, documents that automatically reference individual records  Sharing Make CD of all records, mail CD small number of records  Preserving Easy to make and store backup copies

Making Records Accessible  Create record index  Create reports that link to records  Using hyperlinkshyperlinks

Document Hyperlinks  Link to (files on your computer) Other documents  Pedigree, descendent reports, charts… Images (census, marriage, newspaper…) Pictures Audio clip Video clip Web address  Not recommended – addresses change GEDCOM file

Creating the Document  Create a folder called “Records”  Put copies of the record files in the folder  Open word processing program (Word, etc) Start with a new file, or open existing document Highlight the word or phrase you want to link from, select the hyperlink icon (usually the world with two links of chain) and follow directions to select the file to link to Rinse and repeat Save the file to the Records folder as.doc,.htm, or.pdf Open the file to make sure the links work

Sharing the Document and Records  Burn a CD with the Records folder on it  Make sure you tell which file to open

Hyperlink  a word, phrase, picture, icon, etc, in a computer document on which a user may click to move to another part of the document or to another document