Extracting data from the census records in the past was done with pencil and paper. I grew up with pencil and paper and it is natural to take notes in that manner. I'm working on going paperless with my research (what a struggle!) so I've worked on creating a spreadsheet for each census that can be saved in the family file. Each spreadsheet has a comment area so I can quickly see what struck me as I extracted the information.
I am also entering the data into a database. Not each detail but an abstract of the information with all names included tagged. This is tied to a citation table. It takes a little more time to document everything, but I think in the long haul it will be worth it. I can now get a display (I'm not printing, remember paperless!) of sources ready to be copied and pasted into my family narrative. I am also ready to create a story about my family using the database.
The database includes any document or information I find that I feel like helps tell the story or provides clues about my family.
I originally thought I would keep the database for my entire family of 64,000 people. I have changed my mind. Each family will have its own database. I may break my largest family into the original three brothers consisting of three databases, however, that particular family is so intertwined over the years I need to put some thought into it. The other difficulty is duplicate names. Each family has duplicate names, but the three brothers family is unreal. So far my solution is to put the birth year after the name to help distinguish all the Georges. However, I'm concerned that will not be enough.
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