Take a Look at My OneNote Notebooks

In my last post, Using OneNote as Temporary Storage for My Genealogy Research, I told of my change from permanent family notebooks in OneNote to using OneNote as temporary storage for much of my research. In this post, I will describe the OneNote notebooks I use for genealogy. Samples you can copy to your OneNote notebooks can be found at the bottom of this post. 

I currently have five working OneNote notebooks. That is a considerable reduction of over 25 notebooks since the summer of 2020, when I decided to stop storing information in family notebooks.

                OneNote Notebooks used for Genealogy                     

I use only two notebooks for genealogy. Surprisingly, my most used notebook for genealogy is my Work from Home notebook. This notebook came to pass in March 2020 when everything closed due to the pandemic. I was working from my home office and wanted everything work-related within easy reach on my second monitor. Gradually my personal tasks were added to the notebook, and genealogy soon followed. Upon retirement, that notebook is now a combination of sections related to personal / family needs and genealogy. It is almost always found on my vertical screen.

OneNote Notebook: Work From Home 

Beginning on the left, I will briefly explain how I use the genealogy-related sections of my Work from Home notebook seen below. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me.  

Presentation handouts from webinars, conferences, and other genealogical activities are placed in this notebook's Education - Webinars section. I take notes on the handout in OneNote from my iPad or computer.  As I review my notes and the handout, I look for any suggested links or tasks that I might have noted and add them to one of my to-do lists. Most handouts are eventually discarded. Only a few make it to my digital files. 

Blog - Website contains how-tos, plans for blog posts, and rough drafts. 

The section, Citations, contains citation examples and those I have written. This is where I write and save my citations. 

I am digging deep into my Giddens family and researching all children and many grandchildren of John Giddens (1755-1802) of Wayne County, NC. The Section Group Giddens is where I add maps, location guides, available county and state records, and some family information. This helps me avoid repetitive searches as I look at each family member. When this Giddens family search comes to an end, I will delete the Section Group and move any needed pages to my document files. 

My Daily-Weekly Notes is the most-used section of my Work From Home notebook. The Weekly List page helps me keep track of personal and genealogical tasks. See my Genealogy Samples OneNote notebook at the bottom of the page to learn how I use other pages in this section. 

                                                                                

Find my active research in Research Logs. Completed research logs are added to Processed Research. Additionally, each of these completed research logs will be saved as a PDF, and that PDF will be placed in the appropriate digital family file. Watch for my next OneNote post, Creating My All-Encompassing Genealogy Research Log in OneNote.  

OneNote Notebook: Genealogy Miscellany 

My second OneNote notebook, Genealogy Miscellany, contains information about DNA and genealogy accounts, past and future genealogy trips, genealogy society memberships, and completed genealogy education. Almost everything in this notebook is permanent and will not be moved or copied to other digital files. 

My OneNote Genealogy Samples Notebook

The Genealogy Samples OneNote notebook contains sample pages from some of my notebooks as well as illustrated tutorials. Click on the notebook below to see these sample pages. Look at the section OneNote Skills to learn how to add a page, add a section, create a new notebook, make a section group, make subpages, find the OneNote setting options, copy pages from my notebook to yours, and set a page as a default template. 

OneNote for Genealogy: Resources

Note that I showed you MY OneNote notebooks. Although this system works best for me, your OneNote notebooks need to fit your needs and organization style. Look at the sites below to see how others use OneNote for genealogy. Please know that most of these sites use older versions of OneNote in their examples but most methods can be copied or created in any version of OneNote. 

Spend time on Erin Williamson Klein's How I Use Microsoft OneNote for My Genealogy Research. Take a tour through her surname notebooks and see her great ideas.  

Get Organized with OneNote from Caroline M. Pointer shows the many ways she organizes her family history with OneNote. Free templates are available to download. Note that a few of the oldest templates will not load with the current version of OneNote for Windows 10. 

Lisa S. Gorrell organizes her resources in Using OneNote to Create a Genealogy Toolbox. 

At Tech Tuesday - OneNote For Genealogy ~ Research Bookmarks, Jana Last shows you how to keep track of where you've searched by creating Research Bookmarks in OneNote. 

Join OneNote for Genealogy a Facebook group for helpful advice and ideas from members as well as over 100 documents created for using OneNote for genealogy.

Take a Look at My Research Log

Creating My All-In-One Genealogy Research Log in OneNote

If you want to know more about the families I research, click here to like my Facebook page where you will see each post and other genealogical finds. 

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Diana

© 2022 

Sources

Erin Williamson Klein, "How I Use Microsoft OneNote for My Genealogy Research," blog entry, no date, My Family History Files (http://myfamilyhistoryfiles.com/onenote-a-to-z/: accessed 4 January 2022).

Caroline M. Pointer, "Get Organized with OneNote," 4 Your Family Story.com (https://www.4yourfamilystory.com/organize-your-genealogy-with-onenote.html: accessed 4 January 2022).

Lisa S. Gorrell, "Using OneNote to Create a Genealogy Toolbox," blog entry, 3 August 2015, My Trails into the Past (http://mytrailsintothepast.blogspot.com/2015/08/using-onenote-to-create-genealogy.html: accessed 4 January 2022).

Jana Last, "Tech Tuesday - OneNote For Genealogy ~ Research Bookmarks," blog entry, 22 January 2013, Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog (https://janasgenealogyandfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/tech-tuesday-onenote-for-genealogy.html: accessed 4 January 2022).

OneNote for Genealogy, private group, Facebook.com 

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/OneNoteGenealogy/ : accessed 25 January 2022).