New Year’s Goal: Organization

Wouldn’t it be nice to have all your genealogy files organized, stored in an easy to find fashion, and your office looking spotless? Imagine how much more productive you can be if everything had a place and was in its place. There are many different organization systems for genealogy that you can follow but one stands out, and that is Mary Hill’s color-coded organization system.

Many do not realize that when you look at your fan chart on FamilySearch, the different colors are not only there to make it look pretty but to help you in organizing your files. FamilySearch is using Mary Hill’s color-coding system to create the colors on the fan chart. There are genealogical software programs that use Mary’s coloring system too such as Legacy Family Tree.

Mary Hill’s system color-codes each family line making it easier to file and retrieve your information. Each of your grandparents is assigned a color so you can keep them straight. Your paternal lineage on your father’s side is blue. Your maternal lineage on your father’s side is green. Your paternal lineage on your mother’s side is red, and your maternal lineage on your mother’s side is yellow.

Mary’s system uses hanging file folders in the color assigned to that lineage. This system is easily adapted to use in notebooks, which I have done. I store all the information on my paternal father’s line in blue folders or blue notebooks. I also apply blue sticky dots on the corners of the papers filed in the folders or notebooks. I label each family folder with the surname, first name, and year of birth for husband and wife. The family folder has a family group record, documents about that family, to-do-list, research log, timeline, maps, and research notes. I then group the family folders by color and then by surnames. Genrootsorganizer.com has excellent step by step instructions on how to use this system.

I was excited when I first started genealogy to find this organizing system. A big rookie mistake I made was to make file folders for each surname in my family file instead of the names I am researching. Now I have moved my documents to notebooks with page dividers to separate the different surnames and families. This method keeps papers from falling out and getting lost. I have found this organizational method advantageous, and I hope you do too!