Family Historian User Group

Hello,
I’m looking for suggestions on organizing photos.
I have a number of old photos with no date or place, photos on CD’s and flash drives sent to me by relatives, photos downloaded from web sites Facebook etc. and a box of photos yet to be scanned.
I also have a few group photos. Do I have to add the photo to each individual record or is there a way of adding the photo once and linking it to each individual records?
Thanks Jessie.

Have a look at the video on this page:

how_to:v4:adding_multimedia|> Adding Photographs and Other Multimedia

Jessie, I have moved this to the FH General Usage Forum that is more appropriate.

Could you please update the Family Historian Version against your posting, where it currently says None on right.
Right-click on your username Jessie711 top right and choose User Control Panel.
There on the Profile tab, select your FH version, then scroll down and click Submit.
Thank you.

Thanks Jane, what I'm looking for is a system for naming and organizing the photos before importing them into the tree.

Eventually most genealogists add not just photos but also images of documents such as Birth Certificates and Census records. See how_to:organise_your_files|> Organise Your Files for some ideas.

Bear in mind that within FH the actual filename rarely makes an appearance.
It only exists within the Media record to identify where the file exists on disk.
It is the Title and Date and other details in the Media record that are shown within FH in various displays, reports, etc.

Hi Jesse, I don't usually post a help message as it is usually me who is asking for help but this is what I do (hopefully I can explain it concisely).
For both my images and sources I have a category system which is alphabetical. For Sources for example: parish registers are in category A, so PR births would be Ab, baptisms Ac, marriages Am and so on. Certificates would be category C, births Cb etc.
Censuses 1841 - 1891 start x4, x5, x6 etc and 1901 and 1911 start y.
There are nearly enough categories for the alphabet.
My photographs I preface with F and then the main line family name so my paternal photos are FMayer, maternal FParr, husband's paternal FSimcock and maternal FBeech. (My tree is based on our son so I have both my and my husband's families) All related families go into each file. Census images have the same code as sources ie x4, x5 etc. when giving a file name to the census I put x4 Mayer census 1841 Cain. This makes it very easy to locate a particular census entry from the very long list because you just put x4 mayer in the search box and all the Mayers for 1841 appear and you can link to the particular entry. Even if you only put x4 you can locate an entry as FH lists them in alphabetical order.
There are other categories for images like M for headstones and memorial inscriptions, W for wills.
In Family Historian the images have the same category headings (the forum pointed me in the right direction on how to do this) and so my paper files and Family Historian both agree. The same with sources.
I hope this doesn't seem over complex but once written down it is so simple to add links in the program.
I hope Jane and Mike don't think I am giving inappropriate help but it works for me. Good luck
Ann Simcock
researching Mayer, Parr, Simcock, Beech.

Ann, are you talking about the Windows image Filenames or the FH Media record Titles, or do you keep them both the same?

Hi Mike, I have photographs in windows in My Pictures with each of the 4 main names with it's own file. There are then files for different categories such as photos of places.
The media files in FH are then given the same categories and letters.
The census images are in My Documents. There is a file for censuses subdivided into years. There are then files for other categories, wills, army etc. The individual images have a file name beginning with the allocated letter, censuses have x and y so that the many census images are at the end. As they have the surname after the x4 (for example) they are also in alphabetical order within the year. The same file name is given in FH. For the keyword in the image property box I state, picture or census image or document. The sources such as Freebmd have their own category.
There is a little program called Marker Folder which colours the files in My Documents which helps locate the files easily.
Reading it, it seems complex, but once the original format is drawn up things just slot in. For all the years I have had FH I have struggled locating images and sources but now I am able to link things easily.
I hope I haven't confused people but you and others have been so helpful to me I thought this might be a possibility for someone else.
Ann

Two questions:

1) Do you give the FH Media record Title the same name as its linked filename?

2) Do you realise, with all those image files located outside the Project's own Media folder, that when (not if) you move to a new PC, relinking all those files will be a chore?

FH V6 does make the chore easier than before, but initially all the Media will have broken File links.
Whereas, if all those Media files are within the Project then everything will migrate seamlessly.

Jessie,
My solution relies on giving every one in my tree their own custom ID. Mine is based on the ahnetafel numbering system, prefixed with a J, using my grandsons as the root ( ie no J1). Direct ancestors would have a straight number like J256, J314 etc. Their children would have a suffix added like J256a, J256b etc, and their children J256aa, J256ab. The title of each photo/image then starts with this custom ID, with added text to explain the image.

This results in a list of image with titles such as follows:
J256ab Christening entry of Joe Bloggs
J256ab Marriage entry of Joe Bloggs and Sarah Smith
J256ab Attestation papers of Joe Bloggs
J256ab Wedding photo of Joe Bloggs and Sarah Smith

Hopefully this will give you some food for thought.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention that for images like census, that reference many people, I use their piece/folio/page reference as part of the title, such as 1841 1234 F04-16 P21 or 1901 1234 F109 P22' or 1911 12346 SN123 Where the number following the year is Piece Number, F=Folio, P=Page and SN=Schedule Number. As this information forms part of the source reference, it is a simple matter to find the image from the source information, when one needs to check out something.
I then store the images in appropriately named sub-folders like 1911 Census, Christenings, Marriages, Military, Photos etc, with everything, including these sub-folders stored under the main folder Genealogy. As new categories of data appear, I just create an appropriately named sub-folder within Genealogy folder. It is very convenient having all my research stored in the one folder Genealogy as it makes backing up much simpler. I just need to backup Genealogyand all its sub-folders.
( nb: folder is another name for directory )

Mike, I thought when I first had FH it was recommended not to store images in FH as it made it too big. I will be having a new computer very soon. Won't my files in My Documents and My Pictures be the same when transferred to the new computer?
Ann

Ann, I suspect that earlier advice has been taken out of context.
The GEDCOM file allows image files to be embedded within that one file. That will make the GEDCOM file very large, and is NOT recommended.
Keeping the image files in the Media folder within the Project folder alongside the GEDCOM file is recommended.

When you transfer to a new PC it is unlikely that My Documents and My Pictures will have exactly the same full path name.
For example on my PC for My Pictures it is C:\Users\Mike\Pictures where Mike is my Account login username.
If you check in the FH Media records or in Tools > External File Links you will see the full Linked File path.
If you setup your new PC with exactly the same username as on your current PC then all will be OK, but that is often not feasible.
Anyway, it means you will have to transfer the appropriate files from My Documents and My Pictures as separate Copy operations.

There are two solutions.

1. After transferring to new PC, use the Tools > External File Links features to Edit or Auto Repair Links.
2. Move the images into the Media folder now and use the Tools > External File Links features to Re-Map or Auto Repair Links. Then you only need to Copy the FH Project folders as advised in how_to:family_historian_migration_guide|> Family Historian V5 & V6 Migration Guide which you must also follow to get your customisations transferred.

Hi Mike, thank you so much for taking the trouble to explain things. I think I have some work to do! I never have really understood where files go. Regards Ann

Aye Jessie and Ann,

I had/have similar problems getting my head around "Where?" and "How?" to structure my files and folders and it was sufficiently bad for me to consider "giving up" on using FH to organise them. The old "Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)" acronym is best applied!

I too have my own system for organising images and documents and simply 'Copy and Paste' this entire group of folders into "the 'Media' folder in the relavent 'Project' folder alongside the 'Gedcom' file", as per Mikes posting of 02/12/2016; after I have added any new files (My apologies Mike, I realise this might be heretical to a data manager). By doing this you retain the imitation of the 'card' filing systems, we may be familiar with and at the same time allow FH to do what it does best with files and folders, once they are linked to individual records in the FH 'Project'. Just putting files into the FH 'Project', 'Media' folder and letting FH sort things out, is too scary for me if I need to find a specific file.

For clarity in my head, I also use the 'Folder Marker' utility (noting its effect upon displaying 'Large icons' when applied to a folder), mimicking the coloured, alpha/numeric system advocated by Mary E. V. Hill in this Blog: Genealogy_File_Folder_Colour_Code_Organiser
I use the same folder colours, with a different symbol for my wifes family. I apply the same system to all my paper documents.

This works for me and I realise that it is a very personal system. However, the colours/symbols help others to understand the order of the items, rather than complex alpha numerical codes and shorthand that are unintteligable once you have passed on and the 'Index' page has been lost!

Also don't forget to 'back-up' your files and folders after every session and onto another hard drive at least once a week. I use three (3) in a cycle for the whole hard drive and probably your sick to the back teeth with hearing these things.

I hope this helps or comforts, my regards, Bill

Hi Bill, I use a colour system for my general organization. A different colour for the main 4 families (I do both mine and my husband's tree). I also use a colour system for the generations, so across all families the generations are the same. Mike managed to sort out for me that I was in effect linking my media correctly, it was just that actually I didn't realize that what I was doing was correct. Regards Ann

Aye Ann,
Thank you for your reply. Where would we be without Mike?
My regards, Bill

I don't know!