                       ENTERING DATA

Unlike many other genealogical programs, Family Tree Journal
data  is  structured  around  individuals rather than family
group records.

In its most refined form, genealogy is simply the  study  of
human  biology.  Therefore, the only required information to
produce a complete family tree is that each individual  must
have  one mother and one father. With this information alone
you may traverse through an entire family. Family groups are
produced  dynamically  by  locating  and  grouping  children
through parental linkages.  Family  Tree  Journal  does  not
record  the sex of any individual. The sex is implied when a
person is recorded as a father or mother  which  is  loosely
translated  as  husband  or  wife.  (The  marital  status of
parents is a cultural linkage that sometimes tends  to  con-
fuse computers!)

Family  Tree Journal allows you to add, delete or modify the
information for individual family members without regard  to
the  impact  that  those  changes  may  have on a particular
family group.

You will always start data entry from the individual  infor-
mation  screen. Data fields may display default data. If the
default is your desired response, then you can  simply  type
an <ENTER> without over-typing the default. The <INSERT> key
will toggle between normal and insert mode. (The  cursor  is
full  size in normal mode and half size in insert mode). The
left and right <ARROW> keys move between  fields  in  normal
mode  and  move  between characters within a field in insert
mode. The <HOME> and <END> keys move between  the  beginning
and  the  end  of  the  line  in insert mode and between the
beginning and end of the screen in normal  mode.  The  <ESC>
key will return you to the previous menu or screen.

Names,   dates   and  places  are  critical  when  compiling
genealogical information.  Because  computers  require  more
stringent rules than people when interpreting information, I
had to apply some restrictions  to  the  way  data  must  be
entered.  I did, however, try to make the rules conform more
to normal human usage and force the  computer  to  read  our
language rather than the other way around.

NAMES  -  You  should  try  to include full middle names and
titles such as Jr., II, 3rd, etc. Married  women  should  be
listed  using  their  maiden names. If you do not know their
maiden name, enclose their married name in parenthesis  i.e.
Mary  (Smith).  Any other names that you are unsure of, such
as nicknames, stage or professional names, that are not  the
names that appear on birth, death, etc. certificates, should
also be enclosed in parenthesis. The parenthesis  will  flag
the name as incorrect for the audit feature of the program.

You  should  enter  names  in  their natural order, that is:
first name-middle name-last name. If a surname has more than
one  word,  the  name  may not be sorted as you would expect
when it appears  in  the  book.  As  an  example,  the  name
"Wernher  von  Braun"  would  appear  in the sorted lists as
"Braun, Wernher von". Titles (Jr., II, 3rd, etc.,) should be
preceded by a comma and a space, i.e. "John Smith, Jr." This
will appear  as  "Smith,  John,  Jr."  when  sorted  by  the
program.  (If  you  don't  include the comma, the name would
appear as "Jr., John  Smith").  (Only  one  title  per  name
please  - John Smith, Jr., M.D. won't work, and I doubt that
his degrees would appear on his birth certificate anyway!)

Names are limited to a total of 30 characters.  This  should
be  enough  for most names. If anyone has a longer name, you
should use abbreviations where  possible,  (Wm.  instead  of
William  for  example)  and enter the full name as a note in
their references.

If you type a number in the NAME prompt (instead of a name),
the  name  that is assigned to the number will appear in the
blank. This can help to prevent  spelling  errors  and  also
makes data entry easier especially for long names.

When  you enter a new name, the bell will sound and a flash-
ing name and number will appear for that person. This  indi-
cates  the  number  that  will  be assigned to the person. A
typing mistake can also cause this to occur. If you  do  not
wish to add this name to the name list, the <ESC> key may be
used to cancel the save.

A quick name search may be made by typing  a  question  mark
<?>  as the FIRST character in any name prompt followed by a
name or partial name. Either upper or lower case letters may
be  used for the name, they will match either way. The first
name that matches the name or partial name that you  entered
will  appear in the prompt. If there is no match, the prompt
will turn blank.

PLACES - Try to list the city or county where birth,  death,
and/or marriage occurred or the name of the church, hospital
etc. Many records  are  kept  in  these  places  that  could
provide  additional  information. Except for the size of the
field, there are no other restrictions on places.

DATES - Dates should be as complete as possible. If you only
know  the  approximate  date,  use the abbreviation 'c.' for
circa, followed by the year i.e. c. 1850. You may  also  use
the  abbreviations  ABT,  BEF  and AFT for ABouT, BEFore and
AFTer if you wish.

Dates may be entered in any of the following ways:

                mm-dd-yyyy
                dd/mm/yyyy (If non-USA format in setup)
                yyyy
                c. yyyy
                ABT yyyy
                AFT yyyy
                BEF yyyy
                dd MMM yyyy
                MMM dd yyyy

where 'mm' is the month number  (1-12),  MMM  is  the  first
three  characters  of the name of the month (JAN-DEC),  'dd'
is the day number (1-31) and 'yyyy' is the full year  number
(note:  don't  assume 19--). The month and day may be one or
two digits. The '-' and '/' in the example may be any single
character except a digit. If you know only part of the date,
you should put a '?' in the missing  field,  i.e.  5/?/1887.
Dates  must be in one of these formats in order to calculate
life-spans correctly.

                       FUNCTION KEYS

F1 HELP - Displays help information.

F2 NAMES - Display and edit your name list.

F3 SEARCH - Search all data files for information.

F4 GROUP - Displays, and allows you to create family groups.
The  individual for which you are entering data will show as
a child in the group.

F5 and F6 MOTHER and FATHER - Changes the screen to  display
the  genealogical  information  for  this person's mother or
father.

F7 TREE - Shows a family tree for this individual  that  in-
cludes mother, father, spouses, children and siblings.

F8  SAVE  -  Saves  the  genealogical  information  for this
screen.

F9 BIO - Quick way to add biographical information.

F10 REF - Quick way to enter references to genealogical  in-
formation entries.

NOTE:  F9 and F10 will not work when the Genealogical infor-
mation screen is blank.
                          *******


