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If you were starting over again!?

If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 15 Aug 2014 7:53PM GMT
Classification: Query
Like many others, I started family research pre-internet. I put my tree in excel in the standard tree shape, using the comments feature to add notes. I have done the four (in my case three actually, my parents are cousins!), family names, in seperate files. I am now thinking of putting them all together somehow and wondered about a proper software program.

I have read through a lot of the boards and got some ideas of free trials to try, but wondered what top tips you would give your earlier self on record keeping, filing and computer programs?

Just a thought!

Andrea

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 8:54PM GMT
Classification: Query
Edited: 25 Aug 2014 9:09PM GMT
Oh what I would tell myself before starting the move to a software program. I have found family tree software to be wonderful and exceedingly frustrating all at the same time. Unfortunately I am to the point where I have had enough and I am returning to my paper files, binders and index reference box.

I thought long and hard about replying to your message. I thought perhaps I should not reply because of my frustration but now I think it would be good to share my experience. I found FTM to be the best software next to the PAF but I don't think PAF is offered any longer. I've become very frustrated with computer software because there are so many issues but that's the nature of that beast. They ALL have some bugs and while I understand this, it's really frustrating when you lose information or worse yet, not even know you've lost it. My current situation is that I upgraded to the FTM 2012 which offered the sync option. My first upgrade 2011 to 2012 did not go without it's glitches but it wasn't terrible. Besides, I thought how wonderful it would be to have my online Ancestry.com tree match with my Family Tree Maker tree without having to duplicate my efforts. Big mistake for me. My tree has had syncing issues from the beginning. I'll never have it fixed. Not only are there so many duplicate people, none of my media is connected and notes with valuable information have been lost. And that's just the stuff I know about. Making a back up didn't help. I don't know everything that went wrong and I didn't stop my research so I would have to remember every single change/update I've made since making the backup. So the hours that I lost working with this are gone and the frustration is insurmountable for me. So after years of trying to find the right software for me, I have given up. I'm not going to enter and renter information into any more new programs. I'm not going to transfer GED files anymore. I'm keeping the FTM 2012 file I currently have and will continue to try and fix it. Once that becomes obsolete and is no longer usable I am going back to the paper files, binders and index box that I began with. No matter what we do, computer programs will always have glitches so as far as software goes, ask yourself what are you willing to live with in terms of lost data or other potential issues that come with using a computer software program. So what would I tell myself? Keep hard copies of everything and continue to keep notes in the notebook. Don't count on the computer. Good luck and I hope this helps.

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 7:55PM GMT
Classification: Query
Dear Scott & Barb

Many thanks for your reply. I have tried two free trials of software and neither of them were completely right. They both had good parts and bad parts, as you said, but neither of them did everything, perhaps I expected too much!

I must admit that my stuff in excel has three backups and I haven't thrown a piece of paper or handwritten note away in 20 years, so I am pretty well covered, I hope! I am about to get my own office and have the time to get my stuff organised at last, instead of having to unpack it all then repack it everytime I want to do anything. You know how it is.

What I take from your message, and thanks for thinking long and hard before possibly putting me off(!), is be organised with the paperwork and use the software as a tool, almost a backup, not the primary information filing system. I think the fact that my trees are in excel in a certain format which suits me, means I should stick to that and put the bare bones on the tree and be organised with the supporting paperwork. Good. I am comfortable with that.

So, my follow-up question is, how to organise files? My instinct is by family, then by person, but am not sure how that works with women who married. I would also like to have a way of saying for example 'Where was everyone in 1881?', so do you then have a person broken down by BMD, then census, then probate and so on.

This may be a post for another board, but thanks for setting my thoughts straight,

Regards

Andrea

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 9:24PM GMT
Classification: Query
I was a computer software engineer and have a working background in Library Science, cataloguing and museum archiving. I have always believed that computer software is a tool that supports your business model, not the other way around. Most genealogy software supports a single over arching model that, in general, supports a generic system of gathering data, which forces you to do things their way. For most people this is great because they do not have any idea how to manage a family genealogy project.

Without knowing your specific needs and business model I would have no idea how to answer your initial question without telling you to try as many programs as possible then pick the one that you like the best. All of them are strong in some areas and week in other areas. But most lock you into doing your work using their model. This is not bad unless their model make little sense to you or does not support your required functions.

I use a hybrid system, because all of the programs I have seen either do not capture enough information, do not support library style cataloguing or their data can't be access by an outside application. My genealogy program is a well designed database driven program based on the complete GEDCOM v5.5.1 standard. This program also allows me to get at the internal database so I use a library cataloguing scheme to maintain my source material, photos, and backup stuff.

To answer you last question specifically. I would not catalogue directly by name. All individuals should be given an Accession Number used to identify that person uniquely, kind of like a book ISBN number. I do the same thing with all source material, photos, et. el. I have in my GEDCOM Database (described above) a reference to this number. An Accession Number in my system is based on a simple date added algorithm, with a sequence number to maintain uniqueness. This is what Museums and some specialty libraries do when they catalogue new artifacts that are added to the collection.

I then catalogue just like a library these documents with an index controlled by my Database. I can find any document or person file, by searching for the person in my Database and retrieving the number. Searching in the database can be either by listing out people by name (direct access) or using a tree diagram written into the software and navigating up/down from individual to individual, thus if I know a close relative I can find the person by following kinship lines.

Many of the commercially available programs allow you to enter a value like my Accession number into the individuals record. So you don't need to install the same Genealogy program I have.

Hope this helps

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 26 Nov 2014 2:45AM GMT
Classification: Query
I generally advise newbies to start with Ancestry.com (with a cheap offer), then get FTM for reporting and backup - FTM is usually effectively free considering the extension of ACOM membership which comes as a side benefit. ACOM rather than the competitors mainly because of its all-round search performance.

The second piece of advice is very, very important. After a month or two, think about how you're going to publish your results, because it will affect how you need to enter your information (using any tool). Regardless of what method you propose, eg book, website, pdf reports, etc., you'll find that there is a 'best' way to enter facts, media and stories so that they look good to you when you publish them. It's much better to get these things right early in the piece, rather than have to go back and change everything you've done.

For example, Comments in ACOM aren't copied to FTM and can't be used if you publish anything from FTM. I originally included my summary of each individual in a Comment, but eventually went back and copied them into the individual's Person Notes (even though this isn't visible to others in ACOM). You also find you need to be reasonably disciplined in how you use the Location and Description field for different types of Facts, and how you document sources and citations.

When you start - unless you're being mentored - you haven't got a clue of what's good and what's not, so you need to get some experience before working out your own protocols. Note also that publishing tools have their own quirks, and you'll need to cater for these quirks in your family tree data (or change tools).

Andrew

Re: If you were starting over again!?

Posted: 5 Apr 2015 3:38PM GMT
Classification: Query
Lessons learned:
1. Avoid using the toys offered by almost all of the family tree programs, including source templates, merging files, and location resolution. These functions almost always destroy relevant information you will eventually need to correct by hand. The toys are also incompatible with Gedcom and reduce your export ability.
2. Keep your database simple and focused on the key genealogy facts with sources for each fact. I have found this discipline forces me to question lots of trees found on ancestry.com and elsewhere. Follow fact sources past secondary electronic sources. Most electronic databases are just aggregations of other secondary sources. Follow the sources as far as possible. Often, you will find that the original source says "might be the father of", but the electronic file drops the "might be".
3. Paper is the best medium for communicating with future generations. A paper printout on acid-free paper will last 100 years, but a CDROM only 10-15 years. This affects how you choose a program since not all programs intend to print as the primary purpose. Moreover, paper is easier for most of your relatives today to use compared to web-based or other electronic trees. When you view your genealogy data as communicating with your great grandchildren, you also tend to be more judicious in accuracy.
4. Keep backups of everything and backup to multiple different formats. I backup to disk, DvD, cloud, and paper. I backup the electronic format to FTM, Gedcom, and pdf. I keep a separate disk drive to keep all intermediate backup files. This maximizes the probability that the next generations will have the information. Remember that many backup services are looking to get your monthly fee forever, so when the payment stops so does your (or your children's) access. Remember also that only 1/10 technology companies survive. PAF and TMG users were abandoned and so were FTM users pre-version 16. I still have ten-year old FTW files that contain information FTM won't correctly import.
5. Get and store documentation for THIS generation. It is easy to get carried away with former generations and forget about this generation since it is obvious not new to you. If you have four grandparents+four siblings&spouses, two parents+four siblings&spouses, three children+spouses and five grandchildren; then you have just defined a massive data collection, sourcing, and documentation project. That is your primary place in history because however much work it is now, your great-grandchildren will find it immensely harder or impossible.
6. Get and store family histories before people die. It is easy to think Grandma will live forever, but when she dies so does her store of remembrance. I read lots of genealogies, and many of them end with some form of "Uncle Joe remembers his mother speaking of his grandmother's maiden name but can't quite recall it". In my case, a great-great grandmother is only recorded in family files as "Old Grandmother Moore", with no first or maiden names as clues. Your main job as a family historian is to document information that might otherwise be lost. A secondary job is compiling the work of other genealogists into your family-specific tree.
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