TS1314 I have lots of organized photos on my PC and I want to keep them organized to sync to ipad.... how is the best way to do this?

Question

I have spent a lot of time saving, organizing and arranging photos (for the last 7 years) on my PC, and would like to know the best way to transfer these, AND MAINTAIN THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FOLDERS, to my new ipad (and later, my iphone). I have a really good system, and I do not want to have to do it all over again, on the ipad. I DO NOT want to subscribe to another monthly service fee (i.e. the iCloud) but DO have iTunes on my PC.
What is the simplest method to do this ?  I have tried synching, but, each time have lost photos (on my ipad) OR have had NO ORGANIZATION AT ALL to the photos once synced.  I have all these photos (5.6gb) in the My Pictures folder, then subdivided into years, then subdivided into events and months within the years.  So, my transfer of the My Picures folder, completely transfers all of them, but with NO further organization.  Again, I have spent years doing this, and don't want to have to re-invent the wheel. 
Can someone advise (or even better, lead me to a youtube video) that accurately shows the best way to do this ?
Thank you, in advance, for your help.
p.s.  I particularly enjoy Dan Nations very informative articles on how to get the best from my products.  And, wish Apple would explain "how it works" regarding the syncing methods on the Operating System.  It is the only thing I "don't get" about using my iPad..... meanwhile I LOVE my new mini ! ! ! ! ! ! ! thanks Apple, for keeping things simple.... Please don't change that !

Answer 1

Correct, it will only be one-level, the Photos app doesn't support sub-albums - the sub-folders photos will be included in the parent's album.
If you select My Pictures at the top of the Photos tab when syncing, then you should get an album for each folder that is directly under it - so if I understand correctly what you described then that would mean an album for 2013, one for 2012 etc. And each of those should include all the photos in the subfolders under it - so 2013 would include the photos from the events and months subfolders under it.
You can't sync them separately, only the contents of the last sync remains on the iPad, by not including a folder in the next photo sync you are effectively telling iTunes that you no longer want that folder/album on the iPad so it will be removed and be replaced by the contents of the new sync (you can't delete synced photos directly on the iPad, instead they are deleted by not including them in the next sync).
The app that I use, Photo Manager Pro, allows you to select and copy a folder (via FTP), but you would need to select each subfolder individually, which if you have a lot would be time-consuming (I think that if you select '2013' it would ignore the folders beneath it).