As we research our roots we occasionally come across the rare gem of a biography or written family history. Usually there is so much information, data and facts that we feel compelled to take it all in. Even though we were only looking for that one marriage date, we know all the other information will help us in future research. So what do we do with it?
- Is it a paper copy or electronic copy? If it is electronic, copying, searching and sharing is much easier. So even the paper copies we want to see if we can get into an electronic format. Photocopying is usually the only method we have, but it should be a last resort if possible. Photocopies are easily damaged and the quality is not great. Especially if you want to share the information, you then make a copy of a copy and the quality is even worse.
- Check copyright issues. Most information in the family history world is meant to be shared, but especially if your family member was a more prominent person, you may find information in copyrighted books and materials. Copyright literally means the 'Right to Copy" so please make sure you have the right, or permission, before scanning or photocopying any material. The rest of this information will assume you have obtained the required permissions to copy and share this information.
- So now you have the information and you want an electronic format. There are two formats you can choose: Picture and Text. (obviously the picture format is the only format if you are getting pictures:-)
- Picture: This is the easiest. I've obtained electronic copies by scanning in the document(s) as well as using the macro setting on my digital camera and taking pictures of the document. The latter method takes practice, but can yield great results.
- Text: There are two ways you can get an electronic text version of a document; you can type it all in, or the more complicated method is using the computer, a scanner and some special software called OCR (Optical Character Recognition). Text is a great way to store information like this because it can be saved in the Notes section of PAF under the individual. It can also be searched. So if you have 30 pages of history you can easily search the file for a specific word.
- OCR is a wonderful technique but usually not worth the trouble unless you are trying to get a lot of information. Most scanners now come with a program and instructions on how to use OCR. If anyone is interested in using this method, please ask me and I can give you tips and help to make it go a little faster.
So now you have your file(s), what do you do with them? First and foremost, make a backup! If you were at the library and could only make photocopies, at a minimum make two copies and put the second in a safe place. As you look through the main copy over and over, eventually some of the ink will wear off and you'll be grateful to have a nice one to go back to. Even better, scan in the photocopies when you get home and save those files in a safe place.
More than likely you want to include this information into PAF.
- The first step is to create a source entry documenting how and where you found the information and qualifying its credibility.
- For attaching pictures in PAF we're going to go into detail about that in a later class...
- The easiest place to put the text information is in the Notes section.
- For information about the family in general, you can put this in the Notes section under the marriage. If the information pertains to an individual, put it under that person. Don't hesitate to put the same information under several people if it makes sense to you.
- Open the Notes window. In the Edit Individual or Edit Marriage window it is the button that looks like a pencil with a spiral notepad.
- Copy the text (ctrl + C) from the original document and then Paste (ctrl + V) the text into the Notes window. It will look pretty and formatted at first, but when you open it again the formatting is lost. There’s nothing you can do about this.
- If you are going to hand type the information, I recommend typing it in another program like word, word perfect, etc. and saving that file, and then copying from that to PAF. I wouldn't just type directly into PAF. This allows you to format it a little better as well.
That's it. The last step is Backup, Backup, Backup! And most importantly, if you find these histories and biographies so valuable, are you taking the time to document your life for those who follow?
