Evernote for Genealogists: How to Plan, Gather, Store, and Organize Your Research - See the 2021 updated version of these slides at https://www.slideshare.net/genealogymedia/evernote-for-genealogists-249703492

1. Evernote for
Genealogists
Jordan Jones / F-315
NGS 2015 – St. Charles, Missouri

3. 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)

4. Key Evernote Features
Capture 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.

5. Web Clipper

6. Organization and Search
Evernote is designed to makes it easy to organize and
find your data, either by:
search, or
navigation

7. Search
You can search for any text
in the note itself
in images
in tags, titles, or notebook names

8. Search — Premium Feature
Search within documents
PDFs
Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
Apple Productivity Suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)

9. Navigation
Navigate by Notebook
Navigate by Tag
Navigate by Shortcut

10. Evernote Platforms
Web
Desktop
(Native apps & web clippers)
Mac OS
Windows (Desktop and
Touch)
Mobile
Windows Phone
iOS
Android

11. Getting Started
Creating an Account and Installing Evernote

12. Signing Up for Evernote

13. Signing Up for Evernote

14. Signing Up for Evernote

15. Installing Evernote: Desktop

16. Installing Evernote: Desktop

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. Why Should
Genealogists Use
Evernote?
Concepts & Strategies for
Digital Memory

20. 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

21. Evernote Orientation
Quick Overview

22. The Evernote Web Interface
1. New Note
2. Search
3. Share
4. Navigation
5. Note

23. 1
2
3
4
5

24. The Evernote Desktop Interface
1. Shortcuts
2. Recent Notes
3. Navigation
4. Notes List
5. Note

26. What is a Note?
Notebook
Tags (optional)
Title
Text (optional)
Files (100/200
MB max)

27. Card View

28. Organization for
Search

29. Organization Methods:
Understanding Tags & Notebooks
A 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.

30. Notebook and Tag

31. 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

32. 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]”

33. Understanding Tags
Tags can be organized into hierarchies, which aids in
tag management
Tag hierarchies do not “auto-tag” notes

34. A Tag Hierarchy
Genealogy
Surname
[Various Surnames]

35. The Tag Organizer

36. The Tag Organizer

38. Record Type Tags
Record Types
Cemetery
Court
Criminal
DNA
Immigration

39. Record Type Tags
Record Types
Cemetery
Court
Criminal
DNA
Immigration

40. Surname Tags
Surname
Lubuibratich
Lutz
Magann
Milkvoch
etc.

42. Individuals Tags
Individuals
Albert M. Hinman
Alfred Leslie Hill
Alice Golden Scott
Alice Jane Horner
etc.

43. Individuals Tags

44. Locales Tags
Locales
AL
AZ
Bosnia-Hercegovina
CA
Alameda Co. CA, etc.

45. Locales

46. 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.

47. 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

48. Notebook Features
Shared Notebooks
Both free and premium users can create shared
notebooks
Offline Notebooks (Premium feature)

49. 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.

50. Notebook Organizer View

52. 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.

53. My Recommended Method
Folder organization by Record Type
Tagging by Record Type, Surname, Individual Name,
County, State

54. Quick Tips
Context Menu & Search Syntax

55. Create Shortcuts
Use the Context Menu
Select “Add Note to Shortcuts”
Now you have a shortcut in your left panel

57. Create Note Links
Use the Content Menu
Select “Copy Classic Note Link”
Now you have a link that will open Evernote on the
Desktop

59. Create a Table of Contents
Select the notes to be in the Table of Contents
Select Create Table of Contents Note

62. Search Syntax Operators
+ — Include an item
- — Exclude an item
: — Include one of the preceding things (tag, notebook)
* — Wildcard

63. Common Search Syntax
tag:[tag name] has a tag
-tag:[tag name] does not have a tag
notebook:[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]

64. A Workflow for
Research
Putting it All Together

65. 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.

66. 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.

67. 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.)

68. 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

69. 3. Create Record Notes
Then 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.

70. 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.

71. Reminders and To
Dos
A Digital String Around Your Finger

72. 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.

73. Reminders / To Dos

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

75. 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]

76. Templates
Why Type It All Again?

77. 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.

80. Other Apps
Why Type It All Again?

81. 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

82. 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

84. Other Evernote Apps – Skitch
Platforms: Mac OS, Windows, Android and iOS
Price: Free.
Features:
Screen Capture
Image and PDF Annotate
Automatically syncs with Evernote

86. Other Evernote Apps – Skitch

87. 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

89. Scannable
Platform: iOS (iPhone / iPad)
Price: Free
Features:
Automatic page edge detection
Saves in JPG or PDF format
Automatically syncs to Evernote

91. Bonus: Text Expansion
One 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

92. How Text Expansion Works
Create snippets
Create a unique code
Type the code anywhere

93. SSDI Example
gssd i
gce n

94. Next Steps
Take a quick tutorial from Evernote:
https://evernote.com/evernote/guide/mac/
https://evernote.com/evernote/guide/windows/