Tackling Box Number 1

I am a pack rat.

There, I admitted it.

One of my new year's resolutions was to go beyond the admission and actually do something about it.

So, today, I tackled "Box Number 1."

You see, I don't like to throw ANYTHING away, particularly all the genealogy and history related notes and articles I've encountered over the years.

After the immediate thrill wears off, I've gotten in the habit of tossing this material into a box. And, there it sits for years and years and years, or until I get a notion to go digging thru it. You know, auld lang syne and all that.

Anyway, one of my resolutions this year was to go thru the box and decide what was absolute crap and throw it out. Then the stuff that's left over, I am going to digitize so it can be saved electronically rather than in paper form.

Of course, the trashing part was the easy/fun half of this task. The hard part, for this pack rat anyway, is not wasting time with the stuff to be digitized. I mean, it's fascinating stuff, right?! Otherwise, I wouldn't have saved it to begin with . . .

Bottom line, the first thing I'm digitizing is the 1860 Census of Orange County, Florida. Actually, I'm doing one better than simply digitizing it. I'm entering all the info into a database to be cross-referenced with other stuff from the now-infamous box. I hope by the end of this process to have one huge database on 19th Century records from this neck o' the woods.

Sound boring?!

Well, I suppose genealogy isn't everyone's vice out there.

But, at least there will be one less unsightly box in my garage . . .