After years of avoiding it, I finally sorted through the papers I’d collected. Here’s how I organized everything, scanned the documents, and used AI to help me understand what I had.
I have found giving the AI the correct names and spellings in advance cuts down on the annoying errors in names that inevitably happens, especially when a document is harder to read.
That’s a great idea! was really surprised it pulled in names from previous documents. I now know to empty the memory, but it’s frustrating that it gets confused so much.
I have everything already sorted, but I need to downsize and do the scanning. But the question is: what should I keep on paper? I am always nervous about only keeping everything only digitally in case something happens...
I’ve been stuck in the same thought loop. One of distinctions now is - is this document/record created for this person? That would have me keeping anything that’s on its original paper (I don’t have much of that) or a copy of an original document. I was keeping census pages and I can probably stop doing that.
It's the inital sort that's the intimidating part really and having papers in several different places. I think splitting it into chunks would work better for me. A few months ago I sorted all the recent paper notes in a file and used paperclips and post it notes to label them. Scanning each of these would be a good way to start. I then have some other smaller files plus boxes by family line. Thanks for the tips about using AI to analyse them.
I have so many binders and loose papers to go thru and digitize. It’s overwhelming. This came at a perfect time. Love the accountability group idea.
I know that feeling. I try to express what it’s like in the video too. There’s lots of us in this situation and it’s possible to change.
Thank you for posting this! I'm at the beginning of untaggling and properly documenting all the sources me and my family have pieced together
Glad it could be of help!
I have found giving the AI the correct names and spellings in advance cuts down on the annoying errors in names that inevitably happens, especially when a document is harder to read.
That’s a great idea! was really surprised it pulled in names from previous documents. I now know to empty the memory, but it’s frustrating that it gets confused so much.
I have everything already sorted, but I need to downsize and do the scanning. But the question is: what should I keep on paper? I am always nervous about only keeping everything only digitally in case something happens...
I’ve been stuck in the same thought loop. One of distinctions now is - is this document/record created for this person? That would have me keeping anything that’s on its original paper (I don’t have much of that) or a copy of an original document. I was keeping census pages and I can probably stop doing that.
It's the inital sort that's the intimidating part really and having papers in several different places. I think splitting it into chunks would work better for me. A few months ago I sorted all the recent paper notes in a file and used paperclips and post it notes to label them. Scanning each of these would be a good way to start. I then have some other smaller files plus boxes by family line. Thanks for the tips about using AI to analyse them.
We just moved and I have 50 years of papers to sort. I’m hoping to get the time to start sorting. Thank you for the suggestions!