Title: Organize Your Genealogy: Strategies and Solutions for Every Researcher
Author: Smith, Drew
Publishing Information: Family Tree Books, 2016, 236 pgs
General Statement: From the back cover blurb: “Organize Your Genealogy will show you how to use tried-and-true methods and the latest tech tools...to organize your genealogy.”
Basic Review: As popular a topic as organization is for genealogists, I was surprised to note that this book (which is in brand-new condition) was received from the Aurora Genealogical Society Library downsize and I don’t think it had ever been read. However, it does cover a wide variety of organizational topics and each section might be better read as needed. It does include checklists and worksheets. I found it interesting.
Chapters:
Introduction
Organizing Yourself and Your Space:
Short chapters on basic organization.
Organizing Your Goals:
This chapter is a different type of ‘Research Plan’. He includes topics such as Breaking Down the Project, Setting Deadlines, Creating To-Do Lists, Using Calendar, and Monitoring Progress. For genealogists who have never quite figured out the best use for a traditional ‘Research Plan’ this chapter can give you a different process.
Organizing Your Notes and Ideas:
This author is a fan of Evernote and this chapter goes into more detail on using the app for organization. Mind Maps are also briefly discussed.
Organizing Your Files:
No one-size-fits-all solution. Discussions on various organizational schemes such as Ahnentafel, File Folders, Binders, Electronic, and Cloud-based.
Organizing Your Research Process:
Excellent chapter for new genealogists and those of us who
have been researching for a long time, but have gotten sloppy
in our processes. Sections on Evernote, Evidentia, and several
other genealogical organizational software options. Includes a
genealogy software program comparison chart.
Organizing Your Communication:
This is a good chapter on organizing your e-mail
correspondence, starting with setting up a unique email(s) for
your genealogy research communication. It even goes into
account settings and features, sorting, automatic signatures,
etc. albeit related to ‘Gmail’.
Organizing Your Online Research:
Keeping track of all your online research can be a daunting
process; this chapter could help. Organizing your ‘bookmarks’ is
a very helpful section. The author is a fan of Evernote and explains
how to use the software with your online organization.
Evernote has been around for years and interestingly enough it
is still considered one of the top note-taking apps even in 2023.
Organizing Your Research Trips:
Long chapter on planning a research trip including ‘Before Your
Tip hints. The ‘Research Trip Packing List’ is a basic genealogy
trip checklist but it can be of interest to those who have not
planned research trips in the past.
Organizing Your Learning:
An interesting chapter on designing ‘learning goals’ along with
organizing your books and periodical articles, and blogs, and
planning for attending presentations, conferences, and
genealogical institutes.
Organizing Your Volunteering:
Interesting chapter that covers a variety of volunteer options:
Specific projects, committees, and society administration. Discusses
various organizational software such as Trello, Dropbox, Google
Calendar, Evernote, and Doodle.
Conclusion
Appendix
Index
MCGS Librarian

Some of the information in this book, gave some great information about some organizing websites and tools that I found to be useful on keeping my research organized. I am a beginner at research but didn't know how to keep my research on my PC organize. Some hints were helpful some was not. I would recommend this book to any beginner. ( )

I found this to be mostly a beginner level text, when I'd been hoping for an intermediate or advanced level look at how to organize the various aspects of my research. Almost every chapter can be reduced to: here's a thing the author does to keep organized, here's a very basic overview of that, and a standard "your mileage may vary" disclaimer. There's very little discussion of pro/cons of each item, what kinds of researcher/research/etc. will find the methods described useful. The advice often comes down to "try out a bunch of things until you find something that works." Which is something I already knew.

I found the section on organizing files to be particularly lacking. His section on naming files strongly encourages naming files according to the person researched (something like "Name-year-event") which is something that many genealogists do. But I've found that conflicts with something the author wrote in his introduction "it's often easier to adopt good habits when you are starting a relatively new activity than to change the way you've been doing things for years". I originally named files like he recommended, only to find that I had a very difficult time filing (and finding, once filed) documents that pertained to more than one person or more than one event. So I had conventions that things got named after the head of household, or the most important event referenced, etc. And then I had to split things into directories because I had thousands of files, and how to organize the directories became another headache. There is no discussion that you will eventually run into these kinds of issues when you use this system. People can and do make the system work, but I wish I'd had this knowledge before I spent 3 years dropping several thousand files into this system. I wish the author discussed these kinds of drawbacks, or even gave readers the idea that there are other ways to organize files.

I found the chapter on organizing goals to be the most useful personally, though it's still very surface level.

Overall, I think the book is good as an introduction, so long as the reader keeps in mind that what's covered is only introductory. ( )

Well written, and clearly Mr Smith knows his stuff about organising. A career as a librarian shows through with his (sometimes over the top) meticulous detail about every aspect. Even to the extent of telling you what should be in your office space.
Beginners and intermediates will find some really useful tips and a lot of the sections on goal setting, and breaking down areas of research into manageable projects will be invaluable to the novice genealogist. I imagine even experienced researchers may still find some parts of use. Personally I feel this is a real reference book and, as the author tells you himself, isn't suited to be read cover to cover. Look for the section you're interested in and go from there would be my advice.
Very little criticism but there are very strong leanings towards certain products which I don't personally like to see in reference materials. Obviously the author is well entitled to promote any resource that has worked for him, but in one section, nearly the whole chapter is dedicated to showing you how to navigate this one piece of software. And while it is very extensive, it's not the only product out there and you can quickly lose reader's interests that don't have a particular piece of software etc. That being said, he does also make reference to lots of other resources that have proved near invaluable in moving my research along. ( )

Very basic book on how to organize your genealogy. Intended for the beginner and low intermediate researcher. Although it is well presented, the book goes into excruciating detail on even the simplest and most basic tasks ... like how to label a file folder. Intermediate, and even advanced genealogists may pick up some hints here and there, the book probably is not worth the time it would take to read it. Beginners, on the other hand, who have had no experience in organizing their daily lives, may find the book worthwhile. ( )