Image file names:what's your naming method?.....

JayPee · Post by **JayPee** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:35 am

Over the last little while I've collected several tens (dozens? hundreds? not quite thousands...) from various sources, of images of BMDs and censuses. (Censi? ;-)

Since the time I began to save these images, the naming scheme I've used has been fairly fluid, and because of this I'm finding it exceedingly difficult to locate an image for which I'm searching. I would like to re-organize things such that there's a common logical naming scheme, possibly like
{year}_birth_surname_forenames.{jpg,tiff,gif,whatever}
{year}_death_surname_forenames.{jpg,tiff,gif,whatever}
{year}_marriage_surname1_surname2.{jpg,tiff,gif,whatever}
{year}_census_country_surnameOfHead_comma-separated-forenames.{jpg,tiff,gif,whatever}

I'm interested in "what works for you" ... any suggestions/comments ?
What do you like about your method? What don't you like about it? How would you improve your file naming method?

TIA,
- JayPee

Linda Malpass · Post by **Linda Malpass** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:00 am

Hi Jaypee

I recently downloaded all my images from SP onto my hard drive, I think David Webster recommended we all do this, just in case something goes wrong at SP's end and we lose all our images. What I did was very simple, i.e
James McCracken Birth 1852
James McCracken Death 1907
James McCracken & Elizabeth Ritchie Marriage 1872
Elizabeth McCracken (Ritchie) Death 1921
James McCracken & Elizabeth Ritchie Census 1881

and so forth .......... I haven't had a problem finding anyone, and I have lots of Johns, James, Williams etc all with different surnames......... it works for me, every first name is lined up alphabetically in My Documents. I like using the forename first and then the surname followed by event and then year and also using maiden names when necessary.

Hope this helps Jaypee, and I too would be interested in hearing what others do

CatrionaL · Post by **CatrionaL** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 8:49 am

A very useful question , Jaypee. I struggled with this for ages. Should have thought of asking others for ideas.

Perhaps because I'm in France and people always give their name backwords, my system is based on that. Yes, you ask a school kid what his name is he'll answer DUPONT Pierre.

However I also like having all the BLAIRS or the MACLEODS together. I also include the RIN number to distiguish the BLAIR cousins of whom there are probably half a dozen Johns., not to mention the MACLEOD Murdos.

BLAIR John (159) Birth 1848
BLAIR John (159) Death 1881
BLAIR John (1000) Census 1881
BLAIR John (1115) Birth 1903

The RIN number permits me to go immediately to the right John BLAIR. The computer sees to it that the names are in alphabetical order.
Birth, Death and Census at the end means that each individual's files will be grouped together.

I'm happy with this system, but ready to take on board ideas to better it.

All the best
Catriona

HeatherV · Post by **HeatherV** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:42 am

Knowing no other method when I started collecting images, begin with Birth, Death, Marriage or Census (census I've included the place )followed by the year and name.

C1871 William Lynch St Quivox

B1899 Peter McLean

So all my files are grouped and listed chronologically.

Heatherv

WilmaM · Post by **WilmaM** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:53 am

Mine are all a bit muddled as to individual file name.

I do have my Genealogy folder split into Birth, Death, Marriage, Census and Miscellaneous. And Census further split into year.

I also print out each certificate as I get it, and file it in chronological order within each family group, with the year written boldly in one corner

Next - I really must highlight the individual concerned on each one.

JayPee · Post by **JayPee** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:35 pm

To add another dimension to this discussion, I upload my family history to a (private) website so I can access from anywhere the information normally kept on my home PC. The web server is running Unix, and any manipulations on files where the names include "blank"/"space" characters can cause problems. (Unix systems are most-commonly accessed via a command-line interface, and blanks/spaces separate parts of any command, so blanks/spaces within a filename need to be handled as a special case.) That's why I indicated underscores in my original post...
- JayPee

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 4:13 am

JayPee

My method is similar to the one you first posted except I use the individuals full name in the file name.
eg:

1869 Death John Smith

and then similar entries for marriages and births and censuses.

JayPee · Post by **JayPee** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 9:25 pm

Hi all ... thanks for all of your comments. It sounds like many methods are in use, and each person has a personal preference for sorting order. I think I'll go with my first instinct (for now -- that's the way my mind works when I'm just browsing old images, kind of a built-in time-line) and see how that works when I re-organize.

Cheers,
- JayPee