This is to help me keep track of individuals with the same or similar names, and keep track of generations, as well as birth orders. I referenced above, and in my post about Research Logs, that I use a Dollarhide-inspired ancestor coding system. Mentioned in my post about Research Logs and Note Links, “Part of why I find Note Links so valuable is that they generate a permanent hyperlink that remains intact even when you edit the Title of a Note.” Coding System Usually I work on these as I focus my research efforts on a particular ancestor or relative…so there are a lot of missing Logs. The hyperlinks go to the Research Log file. Appending each Index note title with an underscore forces the Genealogy Index note to appear at the top of the list when viewing all of the notes inside of a notebook and sorting on the Title. This system is rough, ugly, meant to be quick (I’d rather spend my time doing research), and is constantly being modified. Remember… this is not supposed to be a pretty polished list or database of ancestors and relatives, like what I try to display on our family history website or in my Family Tree Maker program. This should also give you an idea of how I apply the Dollarhide ancestor coding system. Filed into the research notebook for his side of the family. The Genealogy Index for my husband’s side of the family. Keeping these Indexes in two separate notes also allows me to better organize each under the appropriate notebook: my side, or Hubby’s side ( see this post for an explanation).Īppending each Index with an underscore forces the Index note to appear at the top of the list when I am inside a research notebook and sort alphabetically by note title. Hubby’s side “_Jeff’s Genealogy Index”.But that list soon started getting too unwieldy, so I split these into two separate notes: Initially I tried using just a single note for both sides of the family, separating each side’s index list with a large heading (i.e., “Colleen’s Genealogy Index” and “Jeff’s Genealogy Index”), and identifying each ancestor/relative listed with my Dollarhide-inspired ancestor coding system. I actually maintain two separate Genealogy Index notes: one for my side of the family, and one for my husband Jeff’s side. If you recall from my post about Research Logs, the main reason for my Evernote system is that I wanted the simplest, easiest, most accessible workflow possible across all of my devices regardless of internet connection. In the note title, you can see an example of my Dollarhide-inspired ancestor coding system. One of my ancestor Research Log notes, showing the note link to my Genealogy Index note. Not pretty or fancy, but it does the job quite well for me. My Research Log notes for each ancestor or relative each link back to this Index note, with that Index link placed at the very top of each Log note so that I can quickly move between each note. I use Evernote to maintain a master Genealogy Index listing everyone I am researching for our family history.
As long as you can deal with an occasional pop-up reminding you to purchase the full version, you can use Sublime Text for free indefinitely.Some recent comments by fellow genealogists on my prior Evernote for Genealogy posts brought to my attention that I have not yet discussed the hyperlinked Genealogy Index note that I mentioned in my post from earlier this year about research logs and note links. Sublime Text is pretty costly, but the free evaluation period never ends. MarkdownEditing is nifty if you want to take your notes in Markdown. PlainTasks incorporates a task-style to-do list right into the editor. It adds many improvements to the sidebar, mostly in the menu when you right-click files. SideBarEnhancements is a must-install for every Sublime Text user. For note-taking and organization, it gets even better with just a few free plugins. Sublime Text's native features are excellent for increasing productivity, and the ability to split it into multiple editor panes is indispensable.
Each note is a text file, and every code snippet exists in a separate, language-appropriate file. However, it is still perfectly suitable for programming notes. It's actually a text editor, not a note-taking app. If you're a programmer, you probably already know about Sublime Text.