Quote from History_Hunter on October 18, 2020, 7:20 pm

Anne;

I can sympathize with you on that. AOL was a nasty piece of work. I remember getting tons of free 3 1/2" floppies that they used for advertising. I never did use them and am happy I didn't. So I can't help you with AOL transfers.

I can only suggest that you test storing your email in .eml files, which should work with the majority of email programs on the widest number of platforms. You ought to be able to drag and drop an email from Outlook and it should result in a .eml file. Note that they usually form a file called by the name of the email subject, so you may need to add a sequence number as you go. You can link those .eml files to Zotero records and they should open in your default email program when you click on them.

Well... You may already know the above, so I won't dwell on it further.

I'm working on my standards and workflow today. It's a tough slog since even universities don't agree on which characters are OK to use. I'll get there, yet...

Quote from Donna Cox Baker on October 19, 2020, 2:36 am

Gary, what is a fonds? I'm not familiar with it.

Quote from Ann C Gilchrest on October 19, 2020, 3:30 am

Donna,

Wikipedia Definition: "In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization."

From my blog post. " The two basic principles are provenance and original order. Together these principals are known as Respect des Fonds from the early archivists in France. The word fond in its singular represents one collection within an archive. NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) uses the term Record Group (RG) instead of fond. An archive typically contains many RG’s or Fonds. Each RG or Fond pertains to one institution, one branch of a government or one individual. "

Basic Hierarchical Arrangement for a RG/Fond

• Collection
  • Series
    • Sub-series/Folder Groupings (optional)
      • Folders
        • Items

“The most commonly seen arrangement within a collection is a Series containing folders.” ¹ The folders contain a single item or a group of items based on the title of the folder.

Ann

Quote from Donna Cox Baker on October 19, 2020, 5:01 pm

Thanks, Ann!

Quote from Ann C Gilchrest on October 19, 2020, 5:45 pm

Your welcome!

Quote from History_Hunter on October 20, 2020, 4:35 pm

Donna;

Sorry; I didn't have a chance to respond to you, but Anne has correctly defined the terms.

Thanks, Anne.

I should not that I'm considering using a "fonds"-based system, employing accession numbers for naming digital records. There are two key reasons for this:

• With many genealogy programs, they still impose a 256 character limit on the path+filename (Even though the operating system capable of handling much longer path+filename strings. If one puts too much descriptive information in the filename, it reduces the latitude one has to name and nest directories of the filing structure in an intuitive way. This has caused me such SEVERE issues in using RM7 that I seldom link images to records anymore.
• Sometimes; I don't yet have enough information to set up a descriptive filename but need to store the file anyway. Using an accession number would avoid the issue by decoupling filing from analysis/naming.

Quote from Donna Cox Baker on October 20, 2020, 4:56 pm

I had not heard about the RootsMagic problem with paths. Good to know. And accession numbers sounds like an excellent plan.

Quote from History_Hunter on October 20, 2020, 5:09 pm

Donna;

I should say that RootsMagic is likely to resolve this issue as a result of going to a native Mac version with RM8. The Mac operating system has had long path+filenames for a while now. The issue is, in my opinion, due to them using the CrossOver virtual machine to run a build of RootsMagic 7 for Windows on the Mac and CrossOver not having been built with Windows emulation libraries that reflect current Windows capabilities. The frustration level is exacerbated by the lack of transparency in what issues the new release will fix and when it will be available. In short; I can't plan my workflow in an optimal fashion without having some idea how my tools will behave in future.

Quote from Ann C Gilchrest on October 20, 2020, 5:14 pm

History Hunter,

Early on I tried to link images into my genealogy database.  What a mess.  Years ago I started numbering items as I acquired them. For example GilchrestSide Will No. 0001. Then I put them in a hanging binder labeled Wills in my filing cabinet. I would add the identification in my citation notes.  

I am changing this up somewhat now. Original items are going into archival document boxes. I decided to digitize all of the items and only keep the paper copies of originals I got from microfilm for my direct line. I am placing them in the hanging binders by type as before. This time I am using the Avery Ready Index Binder Dividers one for each document.  I had to do a couple of hacks to make it work but I really like how it turned out. 

Ann