1st, it has been a while since I posted – work hours changed and well I’ve been tired. I also went out town for the funeral of a beloved aunt, and well life.
So, to my point and the title: I have a folder next to my desk labeled “To Enter or Follow Up” these are papers that I’ve transcribed and they need to be filed, printed out pages from various sites, lots of census images to sort out family groups and ages, also a few emails. You know, the things that you need to make notes on or you just aren’t sure who or what this information pertains to but you’ve got a feeling you’ll need it (ok, maybe just me).
Well, I picked the folder up to sort through it and I dropped it. Papers all over the floor and not all of them in the proper order any more – fun I tell ya.
Part of the spilled folder after I scooted everything into a pile
This of course happened right before I left town for the funeral so I pushed everything into a pile and closed the office door.
During my first glance at all the papers I came across an enlarged copy of a deed (enlarged so I could read it) that I printed in Salt Lake City at the Family Search Library. I double checked my online files and yes, I’d transcribed the deed – minus the citation! I searched and searched through the papers and could not find the citation, not only for this deed but for several others.
I sat down and searched Family Search and found the deed books listed but had no idea which books I’d used. Could I sit and scan line after line in the index book, well, yes I could but I knew if I’d found these deeds I’d already gone over the index book.
What to do what to do????
Then I remembered my old purple travel genealogy notebook. I’d use it to take on research trips (yes, before the internet was everywhere, back in the days of old). This notebook has family group sheets, maps, lists of FANs, towns and counties of interest. Just lots of lists so I’m not trying to remember where everyone was all the time.
So, I went searching for my purple notebook, not hard, it lives in the back of my file cabinet and what do I find in the front pocket… A printed out sheet of sources to look up in Salt Lake, along with Deed Book numbers along with the names I’d be looking for.
Sources to look up at Fam Search Library 
Notes and listings found in Deed Books
Have I needed to go through my papers and toss out many of them, yes I have. Am I super excited that I had not done it yet: YES!
Moral of the story: don’t throw it out if you don’t want to, or make sure the things you toss aren’t your source citations and deed book info.
Now, to maybe update some of the pages in my trusty purple notebook so it’s ready to go the next time I venture out for on site research.
And as a teaser for my next post: I was able to get photos of photos that were hanging in my aunts house. Photos of ancestors I’d never seen before and a beautiful photo of my great grandmother Nell Mason Butt.
