Documenting Information

I have come to the conclusion, after transcribing two cemeteries to this date, for a total of one hundred seven gravestones, that I need a better documenting system then I currently have.

I compile names, birth and death dates, marker description and inscription in an Excel spreadsheet.

Spatial location and grave number is recorded in a Excel spreadsheet, graph paper, and on the form I originally used to copy the gravestone inscription.

But that does not allow for the information that I uncover from the districts local history books or other sources, like the names of parents, siblings, spouses, offspring and other family relations. Important dates from when they were married, to when they migrated to Canada or simply into the area, to their burial date.

I need to create a catalogue of index cards (or something similar), one side with the marker information, the other side with the other learned information and most importantly, where the information came from. I'm thinking connecting the cards to envelops to hold hard copies of the grave site photographs and the Optical Character Recognition (OCR) printouts of the original documentation would also be a good idea. Time consuming, but as I'm already planning to OCR the entries in the history books for the Tombstone Tuesday memes it wouldn't mean more work.

I think I'm also going to start cards (or forms) for the cemeteries themselves, information about establishment, marker types, condition of graveyard, last burial, etc.

I already have two forms for transcribing and cemetery information, copied from Sharon Debartolo Carmack's Your Guide to Cemetery Research with slight adjustments to the later for markers prevalent in my area. I just need to get more file folders for my filling cabinet and be consistent in the data I collect and enter.

So with those thoughts for now, I leave you with a question. What have been the trials and tribulations of other transcribers in the beginning of their endeavours?