OK, that may not sound like much of an accomplishment to those not bitten by the genealogy bug. But those of you who share my woes of piled-up papers, teetering mounds of photocopies and “I know that will transcription is in here somewhere” are no doubt standing and applauding my initiative by this point. (Sure, there are a few of you out there who are avid family historians and scrupulously well-organized. We've seen you with your six colors of file folders, each fronted with a family group sheet, with your label gun and paper clips — also color-coded — and your maddening ability to locate every fact you've found about every ancestor. Go ahead and flip the page, both of you.)

I was inspired to this heroic act of organizational eptitude (if there's such as thing as ineptitude, there must be eptitude, right?) by this issue's cover story. I confess to being in awe of the article's author, contributing editor Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, who wrote a whole book on getting your genealogical act together, Organizing Your Family History Search (Betterway Books). Sharon has every ancestor in his or her place, every family fact documented to a degree that would stand up to cross-examination by Perry Mason.