Sunday Search: Digital Digging And Rediscovering

Toward the beginning of the year I was finally able to start sorting through many of the items that I tossed in my desk in an initial effort to get everything put away shortly after we moved into our new home. While there were countless pens that needed to be organized and old power cords and technology that needed to be tossed, there were also a number of digital storage devices that piqued my attention as I rescued them from the grips of the office clutter.

Once I consolidated everything into a couple of plastic sealable bags (one for SD cards and the other for flash drives), I shoved them into a pocket in my work bag with the plan of scanning the contents later in the week. A few days and then a week passed without even a single look. Then, having accidentally pulled one of the bags out by the corner while retrieving my laptop, I unsealed both bags and slid the first of about a dozen SD cards into my computer.

I was actually quite surprised when I found absolutely nothing. However, that was the only empty card as each of the others contained the photos from all of our summer trips from the past several years. Great items to hold on to for the current twigs of the family tree but nothing much more than that. Thankfully when I plugged in the first, and the oldest, flash drive into my computer, there were a multitude of documents that I hadn’t seen in at least a decade (not really a surprise given that I remember this 256kb card being the first I ever used). And as I loaded more and more into my computer, I was able to pull older photos, documents, and the entire digitized genealogy binder that my great aunt put together.

Not satisfied with these rediscoveries I tried to think of all the other means of digital storage that I have utilized over the years… this lead me to pulling out my wife’s old external hard drive as we both used this 1TB monster for many years and it primarily served as our joint computer backup in the past. Well, on this I found even more photos and documents that I had long since forgotten about including the random pieces that I had come across years ago… items that I still don’t know if they are relevant to our family tree.

The digging was almost done as there was still a group of pictures that I had yet to find. Well, actually, I had found them some time ago stored on Shutterfly but only in low resolution. I wanted the originals, I wanted to see the memories from our wedding and honeymoon the way that I remember them… as clear as the moment they happened. A few boxes and CDs later and these too where added to our story, our small leaves in our ever-growing tree. It’s nice to have most of the pieces together for at least one generation.

Sunday Search: Rediscovering What Was Already Discovered

The early days... it was easy to keep organize with few files. 

My wife and I decided to dedicate this weekend to cleaning and our son finally let us get the much needed work done around the house. With the washing machine humming, sloshing, and twirling in the background, we went from room to room cleaning, organizing, sorting, and packing. It took the entire weekend to get most of the house done and by the time my wife went to bed on Sunday night the only two rooms remaining were our offices. This is a wholly different task altogether as we both have more paperwork than storage space and more books than shelves. It is going to be interesting but hugely satisfying when it is done.

With my wife and son asleep, I ventured down into the basement and began sifting through the rows upon rows of shelves. I went down there with the goal of filling one box of books that had little value to me at this moment. As someone who enjoys information and having resources readily available, this is not a very easy process… many of the books that I have collected over the years are those that contain information that has yet to be digitized. Contrary to what some people say, not everything can be found on the internet. After about 30 minutes, I actually was able to fill a box and clear a shelf for the binders of new research that was going to be added. It came down to a small sampling of books that I know I can find again when I have the space.

Once this part was done, I began flipping through the binders on the shelves and files stored in boxes. It really is amazing what you can find when you it down and sift through the boxes in your office… this is especially true when it comes to genealogy. While slowly flipping through the pages and pages of notes and photocopies, I rediscovered small details that I had written on a pieces of paper while pouring through volumes and volumes of material. They are the small details (like the fact that my great grandparents were brought together by their love of horses) that I had forgotten almost as quickly as I was able to record them.

It is the dilemma of disorganization. While many of the documents and facts have been sorted and organized for later, many of these details seem to get lost in the pages. At the same time, rediscovering these details was just as interesting as when I first read them. It was nice to feel that same way about finding ‘new’ information and it makes me wonder what other documents I have buried (most likely from a scanning / photocopying marathon). With the rest of the house in order, I am glad that I am now in a position to take on this task… at least until the files get moved again.