Revised File Name Scheme

Thanks to the people on the Facebook Genealogy Do-over group, I have revised my scheme for naming my digitized photos.

On FB I posted a link to my 1/24/2015 blog that asked for feedback; and got very good response that made me reconsider both my document file name scheme and the one for photos.

Documents

After much thought, I am not revising my document naming plan. I believe it will work for me. Here it is as posted on Jan 24:

Document Files = Date_Who_What

Date	YYYY_MM_DD  A lower case x will substitute for unknown entries: 195x_xx_xx
Who	Surname-first name; or just family name
What	Type of record: Birth, Baptism, Marriage, Census, Deed, etc.

Here’s an example:  A copy of the church record of baptism from an LDS microfilm.

The file name is: 1841_11_14_Dachtera-Andreas_Baptism.jpg

The LDS film number is in the file metadata

Photos

Several people pointed out problems with my photo naming scheme. For one thing it was too complex. Even worse, it would be difficult to sort in a logical way. 

Old plan:

Date_Who_What-Description(description optional)_ Generation

Date	YYYY_MM_DD  A lower case x will substitute for unknown entries: 195x_xx_xx
Who	Surname-First name; or just Family name plus additional information where appropriate
What	Type of photo i.e. snapshot or portrait Optional description can include the event
Generation	Gx where x = the generation number.

Generation is one of the things I’ve wrestled with.  Here’s what I came up with.

Generation

Zero (Z) = me and my siblings, first cousins, etc.

1 = my parents and their siblings, etc,

2 = grandparents

3 = great grandparents

Z1 = my children

Z2 = my grandchildren

Z3 = my great grandchildren

M  = a photo with more than two generations.

A couple of examples:

File name:  191x_xx_xx_Dachtera-Stanley-kids_snap_g2-1.jpg

This tells me that it is a snapshot of my grandfather with kids, and that the primary person is generation 2 but it also includes generation 1 people.

Identifying the photo with Stanley’s name is my choice for my reasons. It could well have been “Dachtera-Johanna-sibs-dad”

File name: 1920_05_04_Dachtera-Supinski_port-wed_g1.jpg

New and Improved Photo naming scheme!!

Who_Type_Event_Generation

Who	Surname-First name; or just Family name plus additional information where appropriate
Type	Type of photo i.e. snapshot or portrait
Event	Wedding, birthday, reunion, etc. Lower case x if there’s no specific event to be noted
Generation	Gx where x = the generation number.

Generation

Zero (Z) = me and my siblings, first cousins, etc.

1 = my parents and their siblings, etc,

2 = grandparents

3 = great grandparents

Z1 = my children

Z2 = my grandchildren

Z3 = my great grandchildren

M  = a photo with more than two generations.

Again, using the photos above as examples the file names would be

Dachtera-Stanley-kids_snap_x_g2-1

Dachtera-Johanna-Supinski_port_wed_g1

Not only is this simpler, it will sort well by name. The generation designation is unchanged.  In a family with several common first names, I want the file name to tell me which Joseph, for example, is the main subject of the photo.

Women’s names

There was much discussion in the FB group about how best to identify women. Should one use the maiden name or the married name? Here’s what I’m thinking:

Use the surname that is appropriate for the photo. A photo of my mother as a teenager would identify her as Ganas-Emily; while a photo of her after marriage would identify her as Dachtera-Emily-Ganas.

It seems that no matter how you approach this issue, there will be plenty of room for confusion. I'm hopeful that the supporting information will keep confusion at a minimum

Supporting information

I will also have an Excel file – one for documents and one for photos - that will keep track of the files as I create them.   Before I get too far along, I’ll try sorting these in various ways to make sure I have the info I need.

I hope my schemes will work for me, but it is still a work in progress