Evidentia categories are how Evidentia 3+ keeps your research files organized — in the app, on disk, and across cloud storage — all from a single field.
One of the first things I notice when genealogists share their research databases is the file pile. Hundreds of scans, photographs, and downloads — often named whatever the camera or FamilySearch decided to call them. IMG_4821.jpg. Record-download-1.pdf. scan001.png. Finding the right file later becomes a test of memory, not research skill.
Here’s how it works — and how to build a category tree that works for years to come.
What’s Changed (for Evidentia 3 Users)
If you’re migrating from Evidentia 3, you’ll notice that Source Type and Photo Class are gone. They’ve been replaced by a single Category field where you type your own label. Instead of choosing from a fixed list, you define the categories yourself.
And here’s something that makes the transition easier than you might expect: Evidentia 3+ handles the conversion for you.
Importing an older backup?
When you restore a backup from Evidentia 3, Evidentia 3+ automatically converts your existing file paths into categories — so your files land in the right place in the Record Library tree and on disk. No manual sorting required.
For brand-new users, none of that applies. There’s no old system to unlearn.
How to Build a Category
A category is made up of words separated by dots — and the key idea is that you start with the broad record type, then add more specific detail as you go.
Take a photograph from the 1880 US census. You could categorize it simply as census. That works. But if your collection grows to include census records from multiple countries and multiple decades, census alone won’t help you find anything quickly. Add .us and now you have census.us. Add .1880 and now you have census.us.1880 — every image from that year in one place.
The dots are just separators. Each word you add narrows the category one level further. Here are some examples:
| Category | Reading it out loud |
|---|---|
census.us.1880 | Census records → us → 1880 |
vital.birth.ma | Vital records → births → Massachusetts |
military.wwii | Military records → World War II |
land.deed.nh | Land records → deeds → New Hampshire |
photo.family | Photos → family |
You decide how many levels to use. Two or three is typical. There’s no required depth.
How Evidentia Categories Work: Two Jobs, One Field
Here’s what makes Evidentia categories worth thinking through carefully: each one does two things at once.
Job 1: It Shapes the Record Library Tree
The Record Library is Evidentia 3+’s dedicated space for browsing all your attached files. Switch to Tree view and your categories become the branches. A database with files categorized census.us.1880, census.us.1900, and vital.birth.ma produces a tree like this:
Census
us
1880 (3 files)
1900 (7 files)
Vital
Birth
Ma (2 files)
Click any node to see only those files. File counts include everything beneath — so “Census → us” shows all 10 census files at once.
Job 2: It Organizes Your Files on Disk
When Evidentia manages a copy of your file (the default), the category determines the folder it lands in on disk: EvidentiaSoftware/Records/{database}/{category-path}/. A file categorized census.us.1880 ends up at EvidentiaSoftware/Records/thompson/census/us/1880/.
Open that folder in Finder or File Explorer, and it reads like a research library. Which, technically, it is.
A Few Practical Tips
Use the same spelling every time. Evidentia treats census and Census and census-records as different categories — each will create its own separate branch in the tree and its own folder on disk. Pick a spelling for each word and keep it consistent. All lowercase is a sensible default.
You can change a category later without losing the file. If a category isn’t quite right, update it. Evidentia automatically moves the physical file to the new matching folder. You don’t have to hunt it down manually.
Don’t try to plan every category before you start. Begin with a handful for the records you actually have right now. Add more as your collection grows. The Record Library’s category filter searches by partial match — typing census will find census, census.us, and census.us.1880 alike — so even a broad category will help you find things.
A Starting Point for Most Researchers
If you want a ready-made framework, this covers the majority of records most genealogists work with:
census.{country}.{year}— e.g.,census.us.1880,census.uk.1871vital.{event}.{place}— e.g.,vital.birth.ma,vital.death.ohiomilitary.{era}— e.g.,military.wwii,military.civil-warland.{type}— e.g.,land.deed,land.probate,land.willchurch.{type}— e.g.,church.baptism,church.marriagephoto.{subject}— e.g.,photo.family,photo.headstone
Treat it as a starting point, not a prescription. Evidentia categories are a tool for your research — build them around the records you actually have.
As always, if you have questions about how you’ve organized your own categories, I’d love to hear from you.
