File Organization - Filenameing Convention - Individuals

Among the Genealogy Blogging community, there have been a number of Bloggers talking about 'Getting Organized". There have also been a couple of PodCasts talking about the same topic.

Please see my earlier Blog on this topic: http://ftmuser.blogspot.com/search/label/Organization. This link will bring up any blog entries that I have posted on Organization.

In my first post on this topic, I talked about what file naming convention I used in a specifc file. I have given this some serious thought, but in a more generic, not file specific file naming.

In the Family Tree Maker program, all Images are, by default, are stored in a Media Folder based on the File Name of the family file.

For example: The family file is located in:

My Documents\Family Tree Maker\MasterFile.FTM

The Media Items are in:

My Documents\Family Tree Maker\MasterFile Media

Here is what the filenames look like using Windows Explorer:

Figure 220

This JPG files are a results of a Web Merge.

There is no meaningful information in the names of these files. For example, the second filename on that list is:

08061202192718.JPG

Figure 221

It is a Registration Report. Looking at the Image with any photo editor doesn't really say what time of Registration Report it is. Of interest, for entry into Family Tree Maker is his Occupation.

So, looking at the Files, external to the Family Tree Maker is of little help.

The view within the Family Tree Maker is a little clearer:

Figure 222

From the People Workspace, Person tab, selecting the Occupation FACT, Farmer in 1918 (signature line on 2nd page) there is a Source Citation Image of this World War I Registration Report.

Figure 222 shows the Source-Citation information, the Filename and the Location of the file. That agrees with what is seen in Figure 220.

The task here is to have the ability to look externally to Family Tree Maker and Internally to Family Tree Maker to know what image is.

The format of Filenames that is under consideration is:

Surname_FirstnameMiddlename-year-Event

The Surname followed by an Underscore, followed by the Firstname, followed by the Middlename (if appropriate), followed by a Dash and Year, followed by a Dash and the Event.

In this case:

Worrell_JosephWilson-1918-WWI-Registration

In the External view, all images for Joseph Wilson Worrell will be sorted together with Windows Explorer, then sotret by Year, followed by the Event. For sorting purposes, the plan is to keep an individuals images together, then by years. The Event sorting isn't that important for this user at this time.

Will have another blog post on other types of Records.