Do you still print on Paper?

[Bob Spiers]

I thought it appropriate to post under this 'Do you still print on paper' heading to say I have spent the best part of an afternoon, going through two boxes of Family History Memorabilia looking for some map print outs of 19th Century Worcester (the city not the county). I knew I had them somewhere, but they were not in my indexed files. They were kindly sent to me by a lady (herself a very knowledgeable Worcester historian and at the time a Cathedral guide) in 2013/2014 when I was researching my Witts family line. She also shared a part of my Tree with her Reeves/Witts connection.

After a disappointing online search using Google I could not replicate the detail I knew I once had - painstakingly photocopied from Worcester archives - so I decided to bite the bullet and go back into my "assorted" paperwork which I had never got round to digitising. Yes you've guess what I am about to say, before discovering the maps with great delight, I spent three quarters of my allotted time examining miscellaneous paperwork entirely unconnected to me search criterion. But what bliss, finding stuff long forgotten, (and soon no doubt will be again). But meanwhile I retained paperwork to go over again at my leisure. I also promised myself - please do not laugh - that I would take time out to put it in better order, reduce it down (?) or add to indexed files. So that work is now on my bucket list and whoopee for print outs.

 

[VMS]

I've been having similar fun, and a great sense of achievement that something in my life is at last in order! I've arranged my certificates and some other documents in date order within family groups. I didn't go to the bother of printing out what I had digitally but arranged the paper ones. Some interesting revelations appeared with the timelines that emerged, and forgotten snippets, like witnesses. Leftover papers were filed under 'correspondence' where I felt they were still useful but all those IGI printouts (remember them?) and other irrelevancies were thrown away. Order!

 

[Britjan]

Always amusing to see an this old thread revived, and reread some of my own comments. My family tree evolved in such a hit and miss fashion it seems a bit dishonest to impose a rigid system at this late date. I've promised myself however that I'll take advantage of our main public library's state of the art digital equipment to copy some old home movies, cassette message tapes and a VHS tape recorded on one of my travels. They're records of some of the people, events and places associated with my family tree and I might even be able to add a "voice over" as well. I still have some pieces of paper, odd notes etc re family research that I'll keep because they'll remind me of my first faltering steps in researching my family tree. I'm a big fan of Google docs as well, such an easy way to set up a spreadsheet , a word doc , slide show etc particularly to share so I'll eventually archive my WWI research which just today brought me back to a distant relative I hadn't previously identified.

 

[Puddles]

My Mum does not have a computer (she is almost 90) so I always print out things I need her opinion about.

I also have problems seeing how pages will look when printed out - and spotting errors - on a computer screen. I like to be able to scrawl notes across a page with different coloured pens when I am correcting my text and my layout. I've also found that relatives who are interested do prefer a printed book they can refer to and add sticky notes in. The first book following my Mum's paternal family was completed during lock down and the second (same family but further back in time) has been 1/5 researched and written but I have lost the impetus at the moment. This also happened with the first book at about the same stage.

I've just designed a big "dirty tree" (names, no dates or places) of all the descendants from an ancestral couple, down 5 generations and with "roots" showing the names of the couple's parents. If it looks okay when printed on A1 size paper I will have it printed onto good paper and have it framed for her. It's art rather than a precise research document.

I'm sure there are lots of programs which will make fancy charts but I used Coggle, downloaded my work as an image (png) and then used an image manipulation program to clean it up, resize and add a border so the image will go into an A1 frame.

 

[Gillian]

Thank you, Puddles (great name!), Coggle looks really interesting.

 

[VMS]

Your mention of art and paper prompted me to mention something I've done this lockdown, which is to draw and colour a diagram of my childhood home (easy as it was a bungalow) and the surrounding garden and acreage. I've used it to mark incidents which prompt family tales, what the view was in a certain direction, where my pet cat was buried etc. Then I've copied a version to post to my sister.
Yes, I know I should be throwing stuff away at my age, but seems I've just created more. Bother! But then I've impressed others that I remember so much.

 

[Gillian]

Congratulations! Sounds fun, VMS. You were lucky to have only one childhood home. We moved so often (army life) that I'd fill an album if I were to start drawing all the different places I lived in, that is, if I could even remember much about many of them!

 

[At home in NZ]

Yes, I know I should be throwing stuff away at my age, but seems I've just created more. Bother! But then I've impressed others that I remember so much.

Well done, I hoard stuff too!