Hello,

I see where you're getting a genealogy software program and Tyrone mentioned the GEDCOM feature as a must.

Another great feature (under-utilized)
of most packages is that of producing "custom reports". Be sure and use this feature to organize and reduce the amount of paper work collected during your research endeavors.

For example, I've created a report that lists every indivdual in my database and their spouse (18,000) along with their dates of their birth, marriage & death as applicable. This file can be separated out by Name (alpha) within County, within State, so when I go to a Library or Archive that houses multiple records for multiple areas I have in one (1) folder all current and/or missing 'vitals' for each person. I use the blank back side of relavent pages to annotate new found data.... relationships, names, dates, locations, events, and sources for computer updates when I return from the research trip.

As Tyrone stated, learn your software package and take advantage of all of the features. Not a perfect solution for organizing all of your data, but a good start.

Another organizing trick I use is to label and place photos into file folders within MyPictures on the computer. Folders can be by event, family surname, location, etc. All of these 'goodies' can be loaded and updated on a flash drive for carrying convenience.

Good Luck,
Art Thomas