In today's day and age, are newbies still starting binder systems? I am reading Unpuzzling Your Past, 4th edition by Emily Anne Croom and it is very good. She advocates binders that organize by generation and location.
Probably three times as many genealogical organizing systems exist as there are genealogists, for many change their systems along the way. There is no right or wrong way to organize, but there are better and worse ways. The worse ways include spiral notebooks and storage space on the dining room table. The better ways are numerous, usually involving three-ring binders, file folders, or a combination of the two. ...Some genealogists prefer a binder or file folder for each person, or each ancestral couple, with all the notes and documents pertaining to them stored in their binder or folder. I personally prefer binders that contain all my notes on the generations that lived in the same county or same state. I don't want (1) the expense of making three copies of documents that contain information on three brothers or (2) to spend time filing the copies in three folders when I return from research. When I study my notes, I want to see the interaction of family members and generations without having to pull a number of folders and then sort and refile papers.
As she mentions, many people change their systems along the way... I'd just like to start out right. I already have too much loose 'note' paper with scribbles on it; searches that have been completed (whether they found anything or not), hand drawn charts, etc. I know that I am re-doing searches that I have already done, because I seem to keep losing my place between research frenzies. And although I use the computer to input my 'proven' data... There are still lots of questionable details that I don't feel confident enough yet committing to the main tree. So even though I'm using genealogical software, inputting references, linking documents that I find... I still don't seem to be going without paper. Is it time to start a binder system? Or is that just old fashioned, repetitive and redundant?
UPDATE: I am not asking for a description of members' filing systems. I am asking a yes/no question whether people starting genealogy recording now (in the day of computers) still need to plan/anticipate having a hybrid system of computer+paper records? Or is that just duplication and redundancy?
