While researching my family tree, I have gathered a large collection of documentation and media files. I like to file them consistently to allow for easy access. The naming convention I have settled on is

  • Document Type
  • Document Year
  • Family Name
  • Given Names(s)
  • Notes

To automate the process, I created a Hazel Rule that prompts for the various information categories, then renames the file, moving it to a centralised folder and filing it into a Family Name-Document Type structure.

For future reference, I store the URL of the site the information was downloaded from as a Comment.

A video of the process can be viewed here.

A copy of the Hazel rule can be downloaded via this link.