Organizing Your Archive, Start With the Photographs and Documents

The way you organize your items is a personal choice. If you are just starting out, take time to find a system that works best for you.

For photographs, I found it helpful to organize by eras — specifically, based on the different homes my family lived in. In the Vang Family Archive, documents were organized the same way: before the refugee camp, during the refugee camp and the period of preparing to move to the US, early life and resettlement in the US, official certificates, and any additional subcategories that were needed.

Your system should be flexible enough to evolve with you — something you can continue to return to and refine over time.