My Photo Organization on disk
I currently have about 1500 images and about three times that many to scan.My grand father was a professional photographer so I have adequate sources to draw upon for his and my parents generation of photos.I have always been of the opinion that taking 3 to 5 photos of a particular event is better than one.I currently have fifteen plastic storage boxes full of photos that I have taken over forty years.I won’t go into the boxes of photos willed to me by relatives on both sides of our family.Some I have yet to open but I know there is a gold mine out there somewhere.
So how do I store these images I scan.I have tried many things including various software packages on the market.Although many of these packages have interesting features they don’t serve my purpose.I want something that is fast, easy to maintain, and findable.
So here is what I do.I created major file classification folders inside a folder labeled Genealogy Photos.Each of these file folders is labeled for a branch of our family.I have one for my mother’s family, my father’s family, my wife’s mother’s family, and her father’s family, etc.I also have folders for churches, homes, farms, graveyards, headstones, scanned documents, maps, and various other categories.
Inside each of the major file classification folders I have sub-folders based loosely on a family tree.I would have one for both great-grand parents on my father’s side, like wise for my mother.(Folder names reflect their Family and Given names).Under each of these folders I then created folders for each of my grandparents on my fathers side, then the same for my grandparents on my mother’s side.As you might suspect there is a folder for my father, his brother and sister.Under his folder I have a folder for my brother, my sister, and myself.And finally under my folder would be my three children and their children’s folders.
Now where do I put the photos?In most cases I think it is obvious.My photos would go into my folder.I try and label them with enough information so by looking at the file name I can see at a glance what they are.Long file names really help in a case such as this.
Photos of two or more of my children I put into my folder.My wife has her own folder under her family line.If there was a photo of her and one of the kids it would go to her folder.One with both of us, or both of us with the kids would go to my folder.Group shots I tend to place based on the purpose of the shot.If there was a group shot covering my birthday this would go into my folder.A reunion photo would be a toss up but since I usually take the more recent photos it would probably not end up in my folder.
In most cases the system works quite well.The thumbnail capability provided under Windows is a nice feature.Nothing is perfect but it works for me.
If you are one of those people who wants a hard copy printout of what you have stored there are various programs that can provide you with a list of what is in a particular folder.In fact I think Windows may even have that capability.I use a free package STG Folderprint. The program along with many examples may be found at http://www.stgsys.com/folderprint.asphttp://www.stgsys.com/folderprint.asp.I only run a printout after a major addition of photos.I tend to add photos in spurts.I work on adding persons to my dataset and when I get tired of that I may scan in a hundred or more photos.