I’ve decided to keep my spreadsheet of references I’ve located to various family members in the Warsaw, Illinois, newspapers that have been digitized on the site sponsored by the Warsaw Public Library.
I’ve about got the spreadsheet the way I like it, but I may refine it as time goes on. I have decided to simply put all the images I obtain from the newspaper in one large digital file, along with this spreadsheet. Filing them separately is problematic since there are numerous references to a large number of my families and there are articles that contain references to multiple families. The name of the newspaper is included because there are several different newspapers that are a part of this database.
The spreadsheet’s purpose is to let me know when I’ve already located something and briefly what it is. It’s not meant to be a complete transcription or even really a complete abstract. I don’t want to download the same thing more than once. My file names all follow the structure:
year_month_day_newspaper_page
Including the families mentioned in the item is not practical for most of the items. In some cases, I have appended the name of the item after the page, but I want to easily go through a listing of the file names and know what I have. Consistency helps me to do that.
I will need to be consistent in the “type of article” that I use. As the sheet grows, I’m keeping a list of what I used for type of article so that I use the same thing every time. Otherwise sorting will be a problem. I may change this slightly as I continue to use it. The intent is that the spreadsheet be short and simple–that way I will be more inclined to use it as I locate images.
| year | month | day | page | newspaper | type of article | section | main names mentioned | specific person | comments | file name |
| 1941 | Sept | 25 | 8 | Bulletin | Reunion-Trautvetter | Trautvetter | blank to save space | blank to save space | ||
| 1942 | Sept | 23 | 1 | Bulletin | Reunion-Trautvetter | Trautvetter | ||||
| 1938 | April | 7 | 4 | Bulletin | Party-Birthday | Trautvetter | Miller, Ida | |||
| 1963 | Dec | 5 | 2 | Bulletin | Gossip-Ill | West Point News | Neill | Neill, Fannie |
This chart is meant to be suggestive and is not an edict. Personal preferences may vary. When creating charts of this type think about how you will use the chart and be consistent in data entry.
2 Responses
If you want to sort on the date, you might want the month to be a digit, so it’ll sort better. It worked better for me anyway.
True. I did that just to see who was paying attention and would notice 🙂
That’s a good point because it is about sorting and being able to use the information.