Evernote for Genealogists

Jordan Jones / F-315NGS 2015 – St. Charles, Missouri

What is Evernote?A free storage and organization tool for notes and files

A way to organize, store, archive, and find your data

A way to OCR images (make them searchable using Optical Character Recognition)

The leading digital memory application (MS OneNote, Google Keep being key competitors)

Key Evernote FeaturesCapture Everything—Text notes, web pages, audio, photos, any kind of digital file.

Keep Everything in Sync—notes, web clips, files and images available on every device and computer you use.

Research—Collect information from anywhere into a single place. Everything is always at your fingertips.

Remember Everything—Since it’s easy to capture & find.

Web Clipper

Organization and Search

Evernote is designed to makes it easy to organize and find your data, either by:

search, or

navigation

Search

You can search for any text

in the note itself

in images

in tags, titles, or notebook names

Search — Premium Feature

Search within documents

PDFs

Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

Apple Productivity Suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)

Navigation

Navigate by Notebook

Navigate by Tag

Navigate by Shortcut

Evernote Platforms

Web

Desktop (Native apps & web clippers)

Mac OS

Windows (Desktop and Touch)

Mobile

Windows Phone

iOS

Android

Getting StartedCreating an Account and Installing Evernote

Signing Up for Evernote

Signing Up for Evernote

Signing Up for Evernote

Installing Evernote: Desktop

Installing Evernote: Desktop

Installing Evernote: Mobile

Standard Installation, just like any App Store, Google Play, or Windows Store application.

Search for “Evernote” in your mobile store of choice.

Installing Evernote Web Clippers

To get the best of Evernote for web capture, you should install browser plug-ins for your favorite browser(s).

Go to https://evernote.com/webclipper/. The website will automatically detect your browser and provide the relevant web clipper.

Follow the instructions on the page.

Why Should Genealogists Use

Evernote?Concepts & Strategies for

Digital Memory

Why Should Genealogists Use Evernote?

To create research plans 

To create research logs 

To gather and catalog digital assets

To write — notes, draft proof summaries, family narratives

To store more formal documents—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, InDesign

To share the results of research

Evernote Orientation

Quick Overview

The Evernote Web Interface

1. New Note

2. Search

3. Share

4. Navigation

5. Note

1

2

3

4

5

The Evernote Desktop Interface

1. Shortcuts

2. Recent Notes

3. Navigation

4. Notes List

5. Note

What is a Note?

Notebook

Tags (optional)

Title

Text (optional)

Files (100/200 MB max)

Card View

Organization for Search

Organization Methods: Understanding Tags &

NotebooksA notebook is like a folder on your computer.

A note can be in only one notebook.

Tags may be applied to each note.

A note can have many tags.

Notebook and Tag

Tag Basics

Applied outside any files or note text, tags provide an external organizing principle. 

You can search for tags directly or indirectly:

“tag:Jones” finds all notes tagged “Jones” 

“Jones” finds all notes that have the text Jones anywhere, either inside the note, or in a tag

Understanding Tags

While you can search using any text anywhere in a note, tags can provide a more exact search.

There’s no reason not to use a lot of tags.

You can search for any tag using the syntax “tag:[tag name]”

Understanding Tags

Tags can be organized into hierarchies, which aids in tag management

Tag hierarchies do not “auto-tag” notes

A Tag Hierarchy

Genealogy

Surname

[Various Surnames]

The Tag Organizer

The Tag Organizer

Record Type Tags

Record Types

Cemetery

Court

Criminal

DNA

Immigration

Record Type Tags

Record Types

Cemetery

Court

Criminal

DNA

Immigration

Surname Tags

Surname

Lubuibratich

Lutz

Magann

Milkvoch

etc.

Individuals Tags

Individuals

Albert M. Hinman

Alfred Leslie Hill

Alice Golden Scott

Alice Jane Horner

etc.

Individuals Tags

Locales Tags

Locales

AL

AZ

Bosnia-Hercegovina

CA

Alameda Co. CA, etc.

Locales

Notebooks

Notebooks can be in stacks, with a top level notebook grouping together many other notebooks.

They can be nested no deeper than two deep (parent / child).

An account can contain a maximum of 250 notebooks, so notebooks are your most precious resource.

Notebook Features

Notebooks have some capabilities that are specific to them, and the notes they contain: 

Local Notebooks 

You can keep notes just on a specific computer, if you don’t want to sync them to the cloud

Great as a staging area if you are doing a lot of uploads, and are reaching your limit

Notebook Features

Shared Notebooks

Both free and premium users can create shared notebooks

Offline Notebooks (Premium feature)

Notebook Features

Third-Party Product Integrations  

Some third-party products rely on notes in specially set up notebooks

Postach.io — an Evernote-based blogging platform.

Notebook Organizer View

Organization Methods

The dominant methods of organization for Evernote users are

Tag Oriented (some use of notebooks)

Notebook Oriented (some use of tags)

Tags Only (no use of Notebooks).

I prefer to use a tag oriented method, so I can use both tags and notebooks.

My Recommended Method

Folder organization by Record Type

Tagging by Record Type, Surname, Individual Name, County, State

Quick TipsContext Menu & Search Syntax

Create Shortcuts

Use the Context Menu

Select “Add Note to Shortcuts”

Now you have a shortcut in your left panel

Create Note Links

Use the Content Menu

Select “Copy Classic Note Link”

Now you have a link that will open Evernote on the Desktop

Create a Table of Contents

Select the notes to be in the Table of Contents

Select Create Table of Contents Note

Search Syntax Operators

+ — Include an item

- — Exclude an item

: — Include one of the preceding things (tag, notebook)

* — Wildcard

Common Search Syntaxtag:[tag name] has a tag-tag:[tag name] does not have a tagnotebook:[notebook name] is in a notebook-notebook:[notebook name] is not in a notebook intitle:[word or phrase] word or phrase is in title

Search terms can be used together, such as

intitle:[word] -notebook:[name]

A Workflow for Research

Putting it All Together

1. Research Plan

Create research plan notes (what are you trying to find, confirm, or rule out). 

I list as much information as necessary, including links to other research notes, or record notes, and information about the repository. If there in an online search tool for a repository, I might look up and note microfilm numbers.

I store this plan note in a folder I call “0 - Research Plans.” I tag the note with the repository or database where I will be conducting the search, as well as surnames, personal names, and record types that may help me find the note later.

2. Update Research Plan

I update the research plan note as I am actually conducting the search, noting anything about the research itself.

This will be my research note, but not the record note.

3. Create Record Notes

If I discover a record that relates to this research, I save it as a record note in Evernote. 

I write the citation immediately, then create Evernote links between the research note and the record note. (For an example of this, see:  Research - Borica Likic - Birth Certificate.)

3. Create Record Notes

I tag the record note as appropriate with:

surname, 

individual name (if I am focused on this individual)

historical location, 

record type, and other relevant tags

3. Create Record NotesThen title the note with the format 

“date - person - record type - place - identifier” 

such as 

“1968-02-05 - Hill, Mary Jane - Death Certificate - Nebraska - 69-02358” 

I file the record note into a folder for the record type. 

4. File Research Plan with Research Logs

I make any final notes on the research note, then move it from the “0 - Research Plans”  to the “1 - Research Log” folder. 

I do this even if I have a negative search, to remind myself that I did conduct such a search, and the circumstances of the search.

Reminders and To Dos

A Digital String Around Your Finger

Reminders

In Evernote, you can create reminders.

Click the clock above the note.

You can select a specific time or date, or just keep it as a reminder.

Reminders show up in various views in the interface, such as above the cards in the card view.

Reminders / To Dos

To Do Lists

Evernote allows you to create To-Do lists with checkboxes.

To Dos

Unless the To-Do list note also has a reminder, you will will not be reminded, but you can search for To-Do list notes using the syntax: 

     todo:false     [has uncompleted to do list items]     todo:true      [has completed to do list items]

TemplatesWhy Type It All Again?

Templates

Evernote has not really done the best job here

I create templates for vital records, census records, and other record types, then use them as templates with the Context Menu > Copy to Notebook command.

Other AppsWhy Type It All Again?

Evernote Mobile App

Mobile access to everything you’ve put in Evernote

Ability to capture notes on the fly

Ability to capture special kinds of notes 

Business Cards 

Page Scans

Image Quality

Limited by the camera on the device

Built-in deskew and flatten software

The following is an un-retouched photo from an iPhone 4S

Other Evernote Apps – Skitch

Platforms: Mac OS, Windows, Android and iOS

Price: Free. 

Features:

Screen Capture

Image and PDF Annotate

Automatically syncs with Evernote

Other Evernote Apps – Skitch

Other Evernote Apps – Penultimate

Platform: iOS for iPad only

Price: Free (offers in-app purchases of “paper”

Features:

Allows you to handwrite notes

Automatically syncs with Evernote

Scannable

Platform: iOS (iPhone / iPad)

Price: Free

Features:

Automatic page edge detection

Saves in JPG or PDF format

Automatically syncs to Evernote

Bonus: Text ExpansionOne way to use these templates even quicker, is to use a text replacement app: 

Mac - TextExpander ($35) - http://smilesoftware.com/ - the leader in the field, but  a bit pricey

Mac - aText ($5) - http://www.trankynam.com/ - does most of what TextExpander does, for a fraction of the price - imports from TextExpander

Windows - PhraseExpress (free) - http://www.phraseexpress.com/ - Can import TextExpander snippets

How Text Expansion Works

Create snippets

Create a unique code

Type the code anywhere

SSDI Example

gssd i

gce n

Next Steps

Take a quick tutorial from Evernote:

https://evernote.com/evernote/guide/mac/

https://evernote.com/evernote/guide/windows/