Copyright: Copyright (C) Jim Blaich & Radial Laria Prod.


Table of Contents
 Help Table of Contents

Product Support	General Information	Technical Information

The Contents lists Help topics available for WinGen.  Use the scroll bar to see entries not currently visible in the Help window.  To learn how to use Help, press F1 or choose Using Help from the Help menu.  In most cases the screens in this help file will have an area near the top just under the menu bar that contains an icon of either a tree, a series of forms, or a series of menus.  If you position your pointer over this icon the mouse pointer should change to a hand.  Clicking on this icon should bring up a strategic list of forms, menus, or a copyright message.

  Menus:

Menu Descriptions

Pop Up Menus

Short Cut Keys

   Forms:

Procedures and Form Descriptions

Misc.

Welcome

About Radial Laria Productions

Known Problems

Non Western Naming Conventions

Searching Your Family Tree

Numbering Systems In Computer Genealogy

Newspapers in the US with Genealogical Columns


All Others:  Procedures for adding data.
   All Others (Military, Other, Physical and Medical, Vital Statisics:)

Military	Other	Physical/Medical	Vital Statistics

All others procedures table.  Click on one of the items above to view the form for that specific one.

Opening:	Opening the form is accomplished in a number of ways.  These procedures are as follows:  Double click on the record in the Individuals listing, or select the record and click the edit button, or select the record and press the enter key, or select the record and choose the add or edit option from the floating tool box, or select the record and choose add or edit from the records menu.
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of thier menu text. To access the Pop up menus move to a clear part of the form and press the right mouse button and select the appropriate menu option.  Depending on where you are on the form will determine which Pop up menu you are presented with.  For instance, the pop up menu located in the marriage and child section of the form brings up a duplicate of the main menu bar, the pop up menu for the husband is slightly different from that of the wife's pop up menu and both of these menus are significantly different that that of the marriage/child area.
Editing Fields:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Saving your data:	Saving the data is pretty simple.  Click on the Ok button.  All associated open forms will be closed and you'll be asked to save any changes to them as well.
Printing:	Most forms can be printed by selecting the main file menu and selecting to print from.
Closing	Closing the form can happen as a result of several procedures.  The first being the request to close the form by clicking on the Ok button (you'll be prompted to save any unsaved changes.)  The second one second is as the result of closing the database.  And the third is by being prompted because you are closing the related forms to retrieve another family member from the family tree.


   Tool Bar

Displaying

The toolbar is displayed by choosing the options menu and selecting tool bar.  This will place a toolbar just below the menu on the main form.    When displaying the toolbar your screen will adjust to the new size.  You should reorganize your forms appropriately.  The toolbar can be setup to be displayed on startup if you choose "Display Toolbar" from the preferences dialog box.

Components

The components of the toolbar are about the same as the floating toolbox.  Both are provided for your preference.

Hiding

Hiding the toolbar happens in the same manner as displaying.  In fact, the options for toolbar is simply a toggle.


   Status Bar

Displaying

The status bar is displayed by choosing the options menu and selecting status bar.  This will place a toolbar at the bottom of the main form.    When displaying the statusbar  your screen will adjust to the new size.  You should reorganize your forms appropriately.  The toolbar can be setup to be displayed on startup if you choose "Display StatusBar" from the preferences dialog box.

Components

The components of the status bar are the status text, the clock, and the progress indicator.  The status text is explanatory text that assists you by providing you with information about what to do.  The clock provides you with a quick reference to what time of day it is, and the progress indicator provides you with some feedback as to how far along you are in one of the lengthy steps.

Hiding

Hiding the status bar happens in the same manner as displaying.  In fact, the options for status bar is simply a toggle.


Creating a New Data file
   Creating a new file

Displaying Dialog Box

To bring up the Create New Dialog Box select the File Menu then choose New or press Ctrl+N.  This will present you with a listing of available data files in the directory specified.  The directory of files displayed from those found in the data directory specified in the preferences form, if a data directory has not been specified the directory where the applications program is stored will be presented.  You can select to create a new document with the same name as one of those listed here or you can type in a totally different name.  There is no need to specify the *.WGN extension.  Win Gen will create the file with that extension.

Note:  You cannot create a data file with the name of an "Open" data file.  If you attempt to do so you will be so informed.

Components of the Create New Dialog Box

File Name - The file name box is where you type in the name of the file to be created.  If you type in a filename that does exist you will be informed of this and asked if you want to overwrite the existing data file.

Files Listing - Below the file name box is the listing of the available files that Win Gen can create.  If you select a a file that does not exist Win Gen will create the file.  Win Gen will continue to create all the necessary tables within the database file and then it will check to see if you have any other valid Win Gen databases.

If you do have other valid Win Gen databases the Create New process will examine the configuration table within these files and prompt you, asking if you wish to duplicate any of these existing database configuration data.  If you don't care to be bothered by this process you can turn it off by opening the Advanced Preferences Options.  It will display a dialog box that shows you what the configuration data is.  You can select "Yes", in which case it will update the newly created file with this data.  You can select "No" to continue to the next valid file's configuration, or you can select "Cancel" in which case it will not search any further and will not duplicate any existing configuration data.  Note:  You can update the configuration data of the newly created file by opening the database and selecting Preferences from the Options menu and then fill in the appropriate fields.

When you answer this prompt and the appropriate action is taken by Win Gen if an existing database is already open you'll be asked if you wish to open this data file, thus closing the open data file.  If you select to open this new file the open file will be closed.  If there are no open data files Win Gen will automatically open the newly created data file.

File Types - Below the files listing you will find a drop down list box that contains the valid extension for Win Gen databases and other Win Gen supported file types.  When you select a valid file type you will be show a listing of the files that match that file extension pattern.  Note:  You can basically ignore this drop down list because you can only create a valid Win Gen file from this dialog box.

Directory Listing - This is a list of the current directory structure.  You select from here to move through the directory tree.  In case you have saved your data file in another location other then the directory where the application is stored you'll need to move to the proper directory before retrieving the file.

Drive Listing - This drop down list box displays all valid drive's from which you may select to traverse directories in order to find valid Win Gen files to open.

Ok Button - After filling in the appropriate areas of this Create New Dialog Box you select the OK Button to tell the program to continue and open the file.  At anytime you can press the Return Key which does the same thing pressing the OK Button.

Cancel Button - Selecting the Cancel button aborts any request to open a file and returnes you to the place you were before you selected to open an existing file.

Help Button - the button that opens this Help file and presents this help screen.

Network Button - Allows you to log onto another network drive in order to traverse the directory tree for that drive to open a valid Win Gen file.

Closing

Closing the file Create New dialog box is accomplished by providing a valid file name and pressing OK or enter, or by selecting the Cancel Button.

Note:  You should keep your eye on the status bar, if visible, for information about the progress of the actions of creating a new data file.  Because this is a data file that uses the Microsoft Access database structure you have the benefit of being able to examine and update this data using any program that can read and update this file structure.  The drawback of using this database structure is that it takes quite a while to create a new data file that has any complexity to it's structure.  In the case of Win Gen the structure is quite complex and requires about a minute to a minute and a half to create the new file.


Giving the file a new name
   Saving the file under another name

Displaying Dialog Box

To bring up the Save As Dialog Box select the File Menu then choose Save As or press Ctrl+A.  This will present you with a listing of available data files within the directory specified.  The directory of files displayed by default will be the directory where the application program is stored.

Components of the Save As Dialog Box

File Name - The file name box is where you type in the name of the file to be created.  If you type in a filename that does exist you will be informed of this and asked if you wish to overwrite the existing file.

Files Listing - Below the file name box is the listing of the available files that Wingen can create.  If you select a valid file name that does not exist Win Gen will create the file without a problem.

File Types - Below the files listing you will find a drop down list box that contains the valid extension for Win Gen databases and other Win Gen supported file types.  When you select a valid file type you will be show a listing of the files that match that file extension pattern.

Directory Listing - This is a list of the current directory structure.  You select from here to move through the directory tree.  In case you have saved your data file in another location other then the directory where the application is stored you'll need to move to the proper directory before retrieving the file.

Drive Listing - This drop down list box displays all valid drive's from which you may select to traverse directories in order to find valid Win Gen files to open.

Ok Button - After filling in the appropriate areas of this Save As Dialog Box you select the OK Button to tell the program to continue and create the file.  At anytime you can press the Return Key which does the same thing pressing the OK Button.

Cancel Button - Selecting the Cancel button aborts any request to create a file and returns you to the place you were before you selected to Save As.

Help Button - the button that opens this Help file and presents this help screen.

Network Button - Allows you to log onto another network drive in order to traverse the directory tree for that drive to open a valid Win Gen file.

Closing

Closing the file open dialog box is accomplished by providing a valid file name and pressing OK or enter or by selecting the Cancel button.


   Compacting a data file

Displaying Dialog Box

To bring up the Compacting a file Dialog Box select the File Menu then choose Compact database.  This will present you with a listing of available documents within the directory specified.  The directory of files displayed by default will be the directory where the application program is stored.

Notes:  If you attempt to compact a database file that is already open you will be told that you cannot perform this function.

A very special note:  When ever you compact a data file Win Gen creates a special file called 080259.DEL, then it proceeds to create the newly compacted file with your old data.  If you have problems you might be able to undelete your data file using Microsoft's Undelete utility or those provided with other utility packages.  Each of these packages should list the original file name as a deleted file that should be able to be able to recover.

Components of the Compacting a Database Dialog Box

File Name - The file name box is where you type in the name of the file to be compacted.  If you type in a filename that does not exist you will be informed of this and told to reenter a valid file name.

Files Listing - Below the file name box is the listing of the available files that Win Gen can compact.  If you select a valid file name Win Gen will compact the file without a problem.  You can also compact any valid Microsoft Access data file.

File Types - Below the files listing you will find a drop down list box that contains the valid extension for Win Gen databases and other Win Gen supported file types.  When you select a valid file type you will be show a listing of the files that match that file extension pattern.

Directory Listing - This is a list of the current directory structure.  You select from here to move through the directory tree.  In case you have saved your data file in another location other then the directory where the application is stored you'll need to move to the proper directory before retrieving the file.

Drive Listing - This drop down list box displays all valid drive's from which you may select to traverse directories in order to find valid Win Gen files to compact.

Ok Button - After filling in the appropriate areas of this Compact Data File Dialog Box you select the OK Button to tell the program to continue and open the file.  At anytime you can press the Return Key which does the same thing pressing the OK Button.

Cancel Button - Selecting the Cancel button aborts any request to compact a file and returns you to the place you were before you selected to compact an existing file.

Help Button - the button that opens this Help file and presents this help screen.

Network Button - Allows you to log onto another network drive in order to traverse the directory tree for that drive to compact a valid Win Gen file.

Closing

Closing the file compact data file dialog box is accomplished by providing a valid file name and pressing OK or enter or by selecting the Cancel button.


   Repairing a data file

Displaying Dialog Box

To bring up the Repairing a file Dialog Box select the File Menu then choose Repair data file.  This will present you with a listing of available documents within the directory specified.  The directory of files displayed by default will be the directory where the application program is stored.  After repairing a database the database will be compacted automatically.

Notes:  If you attempt to compact a database file that is already open you will be told that you cannot perform this function.

Components of the Repairing a Database Dialog Box

File Name - The file name box is where you type in the name of the file to be repaired.  If you type in a filename that does not exist you will be informed of this and told to reenter a valid file name.

Files Listing - Below the file name box is the listing of the available files that Win Gen can repair.  If you select a valid file name Win Gen will repair the file without a problem.

File Types - Below the files listing you will find a drop down list box that contains the valid extension for Win Gen data files and other Win Gen supported file types.  When you select a valid file type you will be show a listing of the files that match that file extension pattern.

Directory Listing - This is a list of the current directory structure.  You select from here to move through the directory tree.  In case you have saved your data file in another location other then the directory where the application is stored you'll need to move to the proper directory before retrieving the file.

Drive Listing - This drop down list box displays all valid drive's from which you may select to traverse directories in order to find valid Win Gen files to repair.

Ok Button - After filling in the appropriate areas of this Repair Data File Dialog Box you select the OK Button to tell the program to continue and open the file.  At anytime you can press the Return Key which does the same thing pressing the OK Button.

Cancel Button - Selecting the Cancel button aborts any request to open a file and returns you to the place you were before you selected to repair an existing file.

Help Button - the button that opens this Help file and presents this help screen.

Network Button - Allows you to log onto another network drive in order to traverse the directory tree for that drive to repair a valid Win Gen file.

Closing

Closing the file Repair Data File dialog box is accomplished by providing a valid file name and pressing OK or enter or by selecting the Cancel button.


Setting up the printer and printer options
   Setting up the printer

Displaying Printer Setup Dialog Box

The printer setup dialog box is the same setup dialog that you get when you modify the printer setup through the control panel.  Please refer to the Windows 3.1 manual for more information covering this dialog box and it's components.


Opening an existing data file
   Opening a file

Displaying Open Dialog Box

To bring up the Open Dialog Box select the File Menu then choose Open.  This will present you with a listing of available documents within the directory specified.  The directory of files displayed by default will be the directory where the application program is stored.

Components of the Open Dialog Box

File Name - The file name box is where you type in the name of the file to be opened.  If you type in a filename that does not exist you will be informed of this and told to reenter a valid file name.

Files Listing - Below the file name box is the listing of the available files that Wingen can open.  If you select a valid file name Win Gen will open the file without a problem.

File Types - Below the files listing you will find a drop down list box that contains the valid extension for Win Gen databases and other Win Gen supported file types.  When you select a valid file type you will be show a listing of the files that match that file extension pattern.

Directory Listing - This is a list of the current directory structure.  You select from here to move through the directory tree.  In case you have saved your data file in another location other then the directory where the application is stored you'll need to move to the proper directory before retrieving the file.

Drive Listing - This drop down list box displays all valid drive's from which you may select to traverse directories in order to find valid Win Gen files to open.

Ok Button - After filling in the appropriate areas of this Open Dialog Box you select the OK Button to tell the program to continue and open the file.  At anytime you can press the Return Key which does the same thing pressing the OK Button.

Cancel Button - Selecting the Cancel button aborts any request to open a file and returnes you to the place you were before you selected to open an existing file.

Help Button - the button that opens this Help file and presents this help screen.

Network Button - Allows you to log onto another network drive in order to traverse the directory tree for that drive to open a valid Win Gen file.

Closing

Closing the file open dialog box is accomplished by providing a valid file name and pressing ok or enter or by selecting the cancel button.

Note:  If you select an invalid file, such as a file that is not a valid Win Gen database you will be informed that this is an invalid file that is not a Win Gen database.


Selecting Fonts

Selecting fonts is accomplished by pressing the pressing Ctrl+F5.  Only a couple of forms can have their fonts changes.  These forms are the Individual listing, the Descendent Tree, and the Notepad.  The fonts dialog box is exactly the same as those all provided by most other windows program.

If you want to cancel the font selection press cancel.


Selecting a Report

Most specifically reports are select for processing.  These reports are selected in a number of ways.  The first way is to select a report from the listing of hard coded reports.  The second way is to select from the select report dialog box.  This will present you with a list of reports that are stored on disk, by filename.  You can then call one of these reports to print preview, print, or send its output to file.  The next method is to call the report setup dialog box and add to or modify the custom report menu.  This builds up to 9 menu entries, using the files that you select and are represented on the menu with the descriptions that you provide.  Once this is done you can then print your report either to a window, file, or to your printer.


Advanced Preferences (Memory and Resources)
Advanced Preferences (Memory & Resources)

If you've made it to this dialog box you are really looking for things to do.  This dialog box allows you to set the warning for low system resources and to specify the lowest level allowed before you are warned of impending system crashes because of the low status of the system resources.  If you select to compact global memory this will cause the loading and unloading of Win Gen to take a bit longer, but it will ensure that you have the maximum amount of global memory available to Win Gen.  It also ensures that Win Gen releases all the possible memory to Windows for use in other applications.


Finding Text in the Notepad

To find text, fill in the text box.  Select the direction you want the search to take and then press find.  If you want to cancel the find then click the cancel button.  After finding text the first time you can press Ctrl+F3 to have Win Gen search for the next series of text that matches the search specified in your first search.


Deleting Win Gen Data Files

The feature is somewhat buggy at this time and it is not recommended that you use it.  It is intended solely for the purpose of deleting Win Gen data files.  When deleting a Win Gen data file and the file is still in the frequently used files list then the entry will be removed.


Configuring the Printer

Configuring the printer is done using the printer setup dialog box.  You can do this at several places in the Win Gen program.  Mostly, you'll do this from the printer setup menu located under the file menu.  For further information about this printer setup dialog, see the MS Windows manual.


Exporting To Tab Seperated Text
Exporting data to Tab Seperated Text

Specify the text file.  The default is the name of the data file with the extension .txt.  You may choose to overwrite the filename and extension if you so choose.  Press ok when done. Pressing help brings up this help topic.


Exporting To Comma Seperated Text
Exporting data to Comma Seperated Text

Specify the text file.  The default is the name of the data file with the extension .CSV.  You may choose to overwrite the filename and extension if you so choose.  Press ok when done. Pressing help brings up this help topic.


 General Information

Technical Information	Glossary of Genealogical Terms

Below is a list of the available topics that provide the general information about Radial Laria Windows Genealogy.  Click on any underlined item to receive specific information about that topic.

Program Description:

What is Wingen

Purpose

Usage Directions:

Registration

Updates

Copyright

Support

Product Support


 What is Windows Genealogy

Radial Laria's Windows Genealogy was written for those individuals interested in to genealogical research.  The program was created to be operated within the Windows 3.1 environment.  I've thoroughly run Windows Genealogy in the MS Windows NT 3.1 environment and find that it works flawlessly.  Win Gen has been tested in the Windows for Work Groups environment and it works there flawlessly as well.  If anyone has had a chance to try the program in the Windows NT environment, and has experienced problems, please send me or Radial Laria Productions, Inc., a note and we'll check it out!)  Since Windows 3.1 is a sophisticated operating environment I recommend this environment because it makes better use of your hardware and thus Windows Genealogy can take better use of it as well.  The system requirements for Windows 3.1 are quite stern for the average person using a computer to do this type of research, therefore, I recommend that the system have a minimum of 8 megs of RAM memory and at least 800x600 super VGA video resolution and be a 80386DX computer running at 33Mhz or greater.

The forms that comprise Win Gen 0.98b are very simple.  Each form consists of standard Windows controls (in this case we'll call most of these controls "fields".)  In addition to the fields for entering data there are standard controls for saving, closing and getting help.  The buttons that make up these controls are located on the far right of the form.  Each button is labeled "Ok", "Cancel" and "Help".  Windows itself also maintains a series of controls for managing basic functions of the Windows program.  These controls operate in the same manner as you might suspect.

What is a Windows Genealogy Database?

Win Gen uses the formal data structure provided with Microsoft's new database management system called Access.  It is a very sophisticated and complex structure that was specifically designed for use in the MS Windows environment.  As a user of the program you need not concern yourself with dealing with the structure of the data file.  It is completely maintained by the Win Gen application.  If you are interested there is a program, called VisData (created by Microsoft) to view the data field and their contents.  It may be necessary for someone to manipulate the data in this manner, but should never be required or attempted by the end user.

How do I Interact with a Windows Genealogy database?

Databases are opened through the file menu by selecting the open option.  A files dialog box will be displayed, presenting the user with a list of the available files.  From this dialog box you choose the file you wish to work with.  Once you have selected a file your data will be retrieved and placed in the list in alphabetical order.  There are other ways to open a file, these will be explained later.

Once the data file is opened the data will be displayed in an list in alphabetical.  This data can be scrolled to view those entries that are not visible.

Once you decide which individual or individual's you wish to edit, you can select the individual in a number of ways, the most likely way will be to double click on the individual's name.  After doing this, a form or series of forms will be displayed.  Through these forms you'll be modifying your data.

That's about it.  Opening the file, selecting a record and interacting with the data by changing data on the forms that are presented to you.  Saving the data is just as easy.  You select to save by pressing the "Ok" button.  This will  save the data and close the form.  Ctrl+S can be used to save the data but leave the form open.


  Welcome

Copyright	Registration	Product Support	Installation	Configuration

Welcome to Windows Genealogy Version 1.01.  This program was written specifically to run in the Windows 3.1 environment and the Windows NT 3.1 environment (this is not a 32 bit application and runs as a Win 16 application when run in the Windows NT 3.1 environment).  I congratulate you on your choice of the best program for maintaining your ancestral and descendent families history.  The program takes major advantage of the use of the mouse and icons.  The program was also designed for those people that feel more comfortable using the keyboard to enter their data and move through out the forms.

Mouse support allows you to popup menus that are appropriate to the tasks you are attempting to accomplish.  For instance, you can press the right mouse button on the individual's listing and bring up a menu that allows you to edit specific data on your family member.  When pressing the right mouse button on the notepad form you'll be presented with a menu for cut/copy/paste, etc.  This keeps you from having to move to the menus at the top of the screen, or remember keystrokes.  Mouse support also allows you to point at a form or a form's control to quickly move between them.

Keyboard support for Win Gen is indepth.  Most important functions have short cut keys and all menus and most controls on the forms have accelerator keys.  The function key bar is available at the top of the screen just below the menu bar to inform you of what keys to press to perform any pertinent specific function.

Win Gen has a complete tool bar that has buttons that are appropriate to the tasks you will be performing.  On the Tool bar are two special icons, one for "next form" and the other for "previous form".  These icons are represented by a hand with a finger pointing to the right and to the left.  On any form, if you press one of these icons on the menu bar you'll be presented with the next form to enter that forms specific area of data about the currently selected individual.

A Status bar at the bottom of the screen is available to help you determine where you are in any given task.  Messages are presented on this status bar to inform you about the accomplishment of a task, the opportunities you have, etc.

Each member in your family, be they ancestors or descendents, have a series of data that can be maintained.  These areas are broken down by type.  For instance, basic information consists of birth and death dates and places., marriage and divorce information.  The Vital Statistics form maintains some of this same information but allows you to change other more detail specific information, such as changing the gender, the child's relationship to the head of the household, the christening (baptismal) infromation, and specific information about death, such as the cause of death, etc.  Some of the other types are:  Military, physical/medical, and other, as well as a small notepad for maintaining data that doesn't fit elsewhere.

I sincerely hope you enjoy using Win Gen.  It took me about a full year to accomplish.  I worked on the program for about two years but actually it took about 8 hours a day for a year to accomplish.


About Radial Laria Productions, Inc.
   About Radial Laria Productions

Radial Laria Productions, what is it?  Who is it?

Well, Radial Laria Productions, Inc. is an official corporation wholly owned by Jim Blaich.  It was established as a company to distribute applications developed for the specific purpose of designing and creating Genealogical applications for the MS Windows environment.

Why the name Radial Laria?

Radial Laria were small microbial creatures that were isometrically perfect in appearance, having an appearance similar to that of a snowflake.   These creatures were one of the first living organisms on the planet Earth that we know about.  These creatures have been described as being living snowflakes.  No two Radial Laria were exactly alike.  Just like no two family trees are alike.

The term radial means to extend out in all directions from the center:  like the extensions of a snowflake .  A family tree extentends out in all directions from the center person, YOU!  These creatures, being one of the first known living creatures, are, in essence, our long past ancestors.  What more a fitting name for the production company responsible for a Windows based genealogical program?

Who is Jim Blaich

Jim Blaich is a person, whom in his spare time, has put forth the effort and given his time to create this program.  He has created others as well and distributed those applications through shareware free of charge to the public.  This program, WinGen, is his first attempt to create a program for distribution as shareware for a profit, well hopefully.  He has been in the computer field now for about 10 years.  Although, at first he hated computers, he became addicted to them about 1983 when the first PCs and other personal computers were introduced.


 Product Support

Copyright	Registration	Updates	Installation	Configuration

Product support directly from Jim Blaich nor Radial Laria Productions, Inc., is not available.  You may find almost all necessary information to sucessfully use this product within this help document.

This online help should provide one with almost all the information necessary to operate the program and get the most out of it.  The Win Gen 0.98b manual should provide some additional insight on how to use the application to it's fullest extent.  Since I believe that most of your problems will be with your hardware or changes to your Windows environment that were made by you or someone else in your behalf I can't be held responsible for providing support to changes that occur as a result of those types of changes.  If for some reason you have suggestions or want some assistance beyond the normal support provided by this you can reach me by calling, via modem, InfoLinc in Antioch, CA at (510) 778-5929 or by leaving me a message on your local BBS in one of the internet conferences that carry the Visual Basic or Windows basic forums.  If you elect to call InfoLinc you'll be required to adhere to the policies and procedures of that board.  Remember I'm just a user on these systems.  In addition to sending messages to me in the above described manner you can write me at:

Jim Blaich

1808 Oak Park Blvd,  Suite 17

Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

If you elect to send me a question or suggestion please feel free to do so, but if you expect a reply you'll need to enclose a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE), and only then will I reply by mail.

In the future, I expect to be able to provide limited telephone support,  I first have to have the supporting funds coming in in order to pay for phone calls and the time required to answer questions.


Purpose of Windows Genealogy
 The Purpose of Windows Genealogy

The purpose of the WinGen program is to provide a genealogy program that runs in the Windows environment, complies to the way Windows operates and to provide a graphical front end to a traditionally weak interface design.  The program was to allow the user to use the mouse and keyboard to their maximum extent.  Visual attractiveness is a minimum and was designed into the program from the start.  To cut down on the need to endlessly shift through screens to get to where the meat of the data is or even to get to those extremeties of the program where little maintained data is entered.

To provide a program that allows on to use the standard User Interface of the Windows environment to maintain all their genealogical data on a computer system.

To be honest I checked out most of the DOS based genealogical applications and found them seriously problematic.  They were limited in the data that was collected and were buggy.  The interaction was different for each one and made it hard for anyone to figure out what was going on.

Every single person engaged in the fascinating search for ancestors will necessarily, at some point, be faced with the problems of completing a written account which documents research results.


Registering Windows Genealogy
 Registration of Windows Genealogy

Copyright	Updates	Product Support	Installation	Configuration

As a developer of User Supported Software, shareware, after having put endless hours into making a program that I feel is top quality and very flexible I want to make an impassioned plea to you to take out your checkbook and make payment for this program.

I worked, as a starving young man, for about two years (non-dedicated time) on writing this program hoping that my efforts would pay off.  There were times when I sweated blood and other times when I was up to 3 and 4 am enhancing the program.  I spent hundreds of dollars on the software for writing the program.  I listened to others in the development cycle and spent enormous hours learning and writing the help system.  I took care to search out what I thought were the best features from all the all round genealogical computer software and implemented them to the best of my ability.

As a user and register of shareware I know what it is like to find a good program and feel the rewards of paying for it, thus rewarding the author.  It is so easy to use the program and not pay; there are so few limits on people to keep them from using software without making payment to the author.  If you want to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit that it took to create something like this please pay for this software.

Sincerely,

Jim Blaich

President, Radial Laria Productions, Inc.

Trial Period and Registration Fee

This is a fully functional beta version of the Win Gen program.  If you use it you are subject to the payment/registration policies outlined in the registration section of this document.  You should encounter no serious problems with it that cause you to loose significant amounts of work.  If any work is lost that loss will be absolutely minimal.  The beta release does have some features that are not operating perfectly.  In the final 1.0 release of this product those features should be fully operational.

You have the right to try this program out for 15 days from the time that you install it.  If you continue to use the program beyond that period you are required to register the program.  You can register Windows Genealogy for $45.00 and get a clear conscience.  You will be entitled to 3 updates without requiring that you pay anything additional.  You'll get your questions answered via mail or through specified BBS support.

If I receive enough funds I'll have a professional manual printed up and this will become one of the advantages of registration.

Free Registration

If any shareware author is willing to give me free registration to their programs I am willing to provide that shareware author with the same free registration of Win Gen.

If any Sysop is willing to provide me with a free access to their board I am willing to provide to them a free registration to my program.  If a Sysop is willing to provide me with a free lifetime access to their BBS I am willing to provide them with a free lifetime right to use Win Gen.


 Updates to Windows Genealogy

Copyright	Registration	Product Support	Installation	Configuration

Windows Genealogy will be updated regularly, time and resources permitting.  Each registered user will receive a 3 free updates before having to pay anthing additional.  Since there are no limited features in the unregistered version of WinGen you could continue to use the product beyond the 3 free updates but then you'd have your conscience to deal with.


Copyright Information on Windows Genealogy
 Copyright Information

Updates	Registration	Product Support	Installation	Configuration

Copyright (C) 1993, Jim Blaich and Radial Laria Productions, Inc.  All rights reserved.

DISCLAIMER

Users of "Windows Genealogy" must accept this disclaimer of warranty:

"Windows Genealogy" is supplied as is. Jim Blaich and Radial Laria Productions, Inc., disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. Jim Blaich and Radial Laria Productions, Inc., assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of  "Windows Genealogy."

"Windows Genealogy" is not a "freeware program" unlike Jim Blaich's "Windows Genealogy" and is provided at a charge to the user.  Feel free to share it with your friends, but please do not give it away altered or as part of another system.

Jim Blaich and Radial Laria Productions, Inc., reserves the right to deny the use of this program to any person regardless of reason.  This overrides all other rights of any individual using this program under the terms of this disclaimer/agreement.

DISTRIBUTION RESTRICTIONS

"Windows Genealogy" is distributed as shareware.  All rights to the program are reserved.  The program should not be considered public domain or freeware.  You are free to use the program without any requirement to send the author money for a period of 3 months.  At that time the cost of registration to the user is $45.00.  The program can be distributed to any other user or business as long as the distribution media contains this document and the program unaltered in any way.

This program must not be contained in any media where the cost to the end user is greater than $3.00.  That is, including all other contents of the media; including this program and its supporting document the cost to the end user cannot exceed $3.00.  The only exception to this restriction would be any distribution through a BBS.  If the cost of the BBS subscription is greater than $3.00 the program can still be distributed through the BBS legitimately.

Special Recognition

I would like to give special recognition to those individuals that took the time to help me with program and help system testing.  I sincerely appreciate their assistance for all the time it took out of these individual's lives.

Yury Vaynshteyn

Dave Chrobak

Brian Wilkenson

Dedication

I'd like to generate this to the next generation of those individuals growing in my family tree.

Ashley Rose Martire

Andrew Robert Martire

Paul Coleman

Brian Paul Coleman

Eric Raub

Rebecca Clark

My brother Raymond's daughter

Any others that I don't yet know about.


   Technical Information

General Information

Click on an item from one of the lists below to get specific information about that item.

Systems Information:

System Requirements

Configuration

Installation

Files Information:

Wingen.ini

Custom Controls

Required Files

Miscellaneous:

Known Problems

Glossary of Technical Terms


Installation Procedures for Windows Genealogy
 Installation of Windows Genealogy

Copyright	Registration	Product Support	Updates	Configuration

This is a fully functional beta version of the Win Gen program.  If you use it you are subject to the payment/registration policies outlined in the registration section of this document.  You should encounter no serious problems with it that cause you to loose significant amounts of work.  If any work is lost that loss will be absolutely minimal.  The beta release does have some features that are not operating perfectly.  In the final 1.0 release of this product those features should be fully operational.  Before continuing, besure to view the requirements stated below.

Installation of Win Gen is quite simple.  You'll need to create a subdirectory on your hard drive, if you have one (if you do not, then forget trying to run the program,) copy the required files into it and copy a few support files into your Windows System directory.  Below you'll see some installation instructions (only recommendations) and some recommendations about backing up your work and maintaining extra copies of the program outside your computing environment.

If you wish to simplify the program's installation even more you can create a program directory and copy all the files into that directory.

Installation

Installation is quite easy.  Place the first installation diskette into drive A or B and using the file manager change to the drive and click on the setup program.  You'll be asked what directory you want to install the program files into.  Make your choice and wait for the program to finish.

Requirements

If you are running Microsoft  Windows 3.1 (i.e. not Windows for Workgroups), you will need to change your AUTOEXEC.BATas follows:

SHARE /L:500 /F:5100

If the /L or the /F setting to SHARE has a larger value than listed here, leave the setting as it is rather than reducing it.

Please make this change as soon as possible in your system.

A special note about using VB 3.0 applications on a 286 based PC.  If you have the older than May 12, 1993 vbrun300.dll you should update to the one dated with this date or more recent.  The problems 286 users encounter are system crashes and General Protection Faults.  Microsoft acknowledged this problem and has updated this dynamic link library to resolve these problems.

Recommdendations:

Keep a copy of your program and support files on disk.  Backup your work regularly to floppy or some other backup medium.  If you don't have a backup program DOS 6 provides an excellent Windows based backup program designed by Peter Norton Utilites.  You can backup your data in DOS using the DOS backup utility but I don't recommend the use of that utility since it is quite unreliable.

Installation of Windows Genealogy is accomplished by the following:

Create a sub directory to place the required files in.  Copy the files or unzip the files to this sub directory.  Some files should be copied into the Windows System sub directory.  These files are those that have the extension *.vbx.  If none of your other programs require the files you can safely leave them in the same directory created for the Windows Genealogy program files.

The first time you run the program Windows Genealogy will create a wingen.ini initialization file in your Windows sub directory.  Throughout the editing session Windows Genealogy will be updating this file so do not delete it during an editing session.  If you do delete it for some reason don't be alarmed you should be able to start again by running Windows Genealogy.  If you quit Windows Genealogy the file should be recreated again.

Because this is a Windows program the System Requirements are a strong.  You should consider updating your computer to this configuration or better especially if you are attempting to run on a 286 with 2 or more megabytes of RAM.


   System Requirements

Copyright	Updates	Product Support	Installation	Configuration

Windows Genealogy was written in Microsoft Visual Basic 3.0.  Below is a listing of the hardware and software configurations.  Most of these are minimum requirements.

MS Windows 3.1 or  MS Windows NT

33 Mhz 80386 CPU (preferred)

VGA (640x480) Video Adapter (a resolution of 800x600 is preferred)

8 Megs of RAM*

Note:  As much RAM as one can install in a particular computer is recommended.  4 megs of RAM will probably due but 8 or greater is recommended.  Running under 386 Enhanced Mode is also recommended.


   Configuration

Copyright	Updates	Product Support	Installation	System Requirements

Most of the configuration is automatic.  When Win Gen starts it should automatically configure itself for the location of the help files and the directory containing all the support files.  Configuration of Windows Genealogy is quite simple.  Once Windows Genealogy has been setup the Options Preferences menu choice can be chosen to change options.  Some of these options are:  fonts, load last file, etc.,.


Known Problems
  Known Problems and Desired Enhancements

Known Problems and Desired Enhancements

Bolded entries mean the item is still active or unresoved.  Non bolded entries are fixed, no longer problems..

1.	It's possible to add a child without a first or middle name.  Ah that may be so, but is it possible to add a child without a name at all.  That would be devistating.

2.	It's possible to delete an individual and their spouse and then undelete the spouse orphaning that individual.  This can cause a significant problem with the data continuity.  Do not attempt to do this.

3.	The descendent tree is problematic.  You can delete from this tree and still not have the name removed from the descendent tree.  The name may be deleted from the individual listing though.

4.	Selecting the data files directory does not work.

5.	The help system isn't complete.  Some help buttons don't call the help file properly.  On some specific occasions the help file isn't opened even by those controls that have worked in the past.  This seems to be a minor irritation.

6.	Deleteing data files from the delete data files menu leaves one or more files that were selected still live on the disk.

7.	Some times when creating a new file a directory is made instead.  This is confusing.

8.	When selecting a file from the frequently used files list located on the file menu and that file you've just chosen has been deleted or removed to another directory an improper message is displayed.  The file menu should be updated and the user should be informed that the file no longer exists.  When deleting the file through the delete files menu these entries on the menu should immediately be updated.

9.	Some times when closing a form it's "action menu" entry is not made visible again.  This seems to be a transient error.  The error stemmed from when you press the right mouse button to bring up the tear off menu over the form.  The program "code" branched to close the form and then branched back to the routines that run after a menu selection is made from the calling routine.  This routine then proceeded to check to see which form called the popup menu.  If that form happened to be the military form, etc then the routine would then rehide the menu option for military even though the form was no longer loaded.  The solution was to check the variable assigned to the form that keeps track to see if the form is still loaded and only allows the calling routine to hide the menu item if it is still loaded.

10.	A transient error occurs that causes the program to terminate when doing a search in the individual's listing.  This only happens under extreme conditions.  Haven't been able to find the problem that causes this error.

11.	Under certain circumstances the actions menu is not built properly.  This is a small error that can be overcome with attention to detail.

12.	If the edit form is up and a second or third spouse of an individual is open, rather than the first spouse entered, and you press F4 or F5 to bring up either husband or wife's parents wrong spouse's parents is retrieved.  A minor annoyance.

13.	When selecting a specific individual and their spouse from the Descendent tree the first spouse of the selected indivdiual is retrieved into the edit form.  This is annoying.

14.	Some display messages presented on the status bar are not complete or accurate.

15.	When using the next button where there notepad would be retrieved the proper individual is not retrieved for this form.  In fact, no individual is, causing some problems with maintaint this data.

16.	The printer button doesn't do anything but bring up the printer setup dialog box.

17.	Export data to tab or comma delimited file takes too long.

18.	Importing text into the notepad takes too long to import.

19.	When changing the font from the fixed system font the birthdate listed in the individual listing list box is displayed jagged. -- fixed.  This took about 4 hours to complete and was solved with a combination of windows sendmessage functions and postmessage functions.  They don't make it easy for you.

20.	By default some of the forms that are displayed are not sized appropriately.  When the forms are resized to the desired height and width, and position they will stay that way unless you choose to resize them.

21.	Some of the F1 help screens aren't in place.  Most are.  Most of the help buttons are connected to help screens, just in case you need to see what these forms are for.

22.	When closing the graphics window the toolbar and function key bar menu items are re enabled.

23.	When selecting a file from the frequently used menu and that file just happens to be the currently open file the system improperly closes some of the windows, all windows except the trashcan and the individual lisitng, and then stops.  This should not happen the program should just stop and return you to your editing session.

24.	When changing the point size or fonts in the individual listing the Title labels don't realign properly.  This is minor but annoying.  Set the font size and name to equal that of the individual listing.  Removed the tab seperating the text and made a more simple title displayed there.

25.	Once in a while after adding a spouse the add children menu item becomes visible but is not enabled.

26.	When adding parents to an individual the actions menu should be disabled.  When the new family member's data is saved to disk the actions menu should be re-enabled.

27.	The horizontal scroll bar on the individual listing seems to operate irratically.  This is minor but still any annoyance.

28.	The number of individuals in the descendent tree is inaccurate.  At this point I am presenting you with a list count when I should be accounting for the duplications based upon second marriages.  Also I should be accounting for spouses of the individual's as well.  This should be accomplished using a integer counter.

29.	If a family member's parents were being added, after the family member had been added, and the you pressed ctrl+s to save the flag for add new parents was set to false, potentially confusing the program.  This was changed to check first to see if the names were left blank and if so the flag was not reset.  If you selected the ok button in this same situation it would normally close the form, and do so without causing any kind of harm.  The problem was solved.  Now a message that can be displayed on the status bar informs you that there were no names entered for adding to the data file.  Fixed.

30.	The window state of the trash can should be saved and restored throughout the editing sessions.

31.	This is now in effect.  The window state of the trash can is checked when the close list (close data file) is selected and it is restored when then list is reopened (open data file.)  It is necessary on the restore of the trash can window state to refresh the form in order to provide a clean and tidy interface.  Normally, after the family members are loaded into the listing all program activity stops, unless load last individual is or a blank data file is loaded forcing the program to load an add edit form, all controls are automatically refreshed by messages sent from Widows.  The force of the refresh eliminates this apparent delay.  It appears that the refresh method for a form that doesn't have the focus or is in the load process will not automatically repaid the form on the screen.

32.	Implement a method of access the last message that Win Gen has presented on the main windows status bar.

33.	Implement a clock to display on the main windows status bar.

34.	Implement the capability to access the last 10 messages displayed on the status bar.

35.	The data file directory option in the preferences dialog box does not work properly.  Fix this to save and restore the user defined data directory.  Fixed.  Was simple and quick to implement

36.	The Help menus need to be cleaned up and made consistent with the Windows environment Help menu messages.

37.	Need to add a Search for Help on Help menu option.  Using a flag and the WinHelp function I was able to easily accomplish this.

38.	Make the clock that is displayed on the status bar right aligned while displayed.  Set back to left aligned when displaying any Win Gen specific message.  Easily accomplished and done with a couple of extra lines in the do while events() loop and the display message sub procedure.

39.	The trash can buttons don't enable/disable properly when no records exist or records are deleted or undeleted.

40.	The trash can should be checked for a valid selection in the list portion of the trash can.  There is an example of how to do this in the visdata program that MS provides those of us who purchase their VB 3.0 professional edition program.  Seems to be a simple solution to a big problem.  The data control name needs to be checked for a blank string.  If the checking the control and the control returns a blank string then a message should be provided to the user stating that no items in the list have been selected.

41.	The data directory needs to be checked on startup to verify that the path still exists.  In the event that the data directory has been removed by the user for some reason the data directory needs to be reset to that of the application program's execution path.  Done.

42.	The delete button control in the trash can is not implemented.  Must be fixed before distribution.

43.	When moving an item from the individual listing to the trash can the trash can listing is sorted and therefore the list index of that listing needs to be set to the new index property of the list.  This is accomplished by setting the listing.listindex = listing.newindex.

44.	Trashcan status bar should show the status of a delete.  Can a record be deleted?  Does the system need to delete the husband and wife together?  Yes to all of the questions.

45.	TrashCan should not allow a individual to be restored or deleted without restoring or deleting the spouse.

46.  The Trash Can must be limited to drag and drop input from the Individual Listing window.  Dropping from any other form will cause a problem.  This can be accomplished by checking the window flag associated with the individual listing.  If the flag does not equal that assigned to the individual listing then present a message on the status bar informing the individual of that status.

47.	When making the change to validate an error on the retrieve data file an error routine was branched to a sub procedure to present a message.  Then the error handling was turned off which cause the program to terminate when opening a new data file and attempting to place the listindex on an entry that doesn't exist.  It didn't exist because there were no records in the data base, so there were no records in the list.  Anyway, the error handler was turned back on and the routine now works.

48.	Need to enable/disable the delete button routine.  This button should be enabled/disabled at different points in the delete/undelete process.  It is now functioning the same way as the undelete and empty trash button controls on the trash can form.

49	Enable the delete individual record from the data file when the delete button has been fixed.  Fixed.

50.	Need to enable the empty trash option when closing a data file.

51.	Find a way to save and restore the icon position of a mdi child form that has been minimize.  Need to be able to restore that position when the data file has been reopened.  This can be done with the GetWindowPlacement and SetWindowPlacement and the WindowPlacement type structure.  This structure allows you to get and set the placement including icon placement on the desktop.  The Window coordinates are somewhat different that the twips/pixel coordinate system used internally in the window mdi client area.  Discovered that I can use this system of placement to save the coordinates of a window without having to restore the window to normal position before closing it.  This will clean up the close down process significantly.  It will speed it up because the screen doesn't have to be redrawn.

53.	When implementing the data directory the create new duplicate configuration procedure hadn't been updated to reflect the necessity to look into the data directory for files of which a configuration duplication could be accomplished.

54.	When deleting an individual the drop down list box itemdata arrays must be checked to see if the individual is listed there.  Also must search the immediate family group to find the individual.  If the individual is found in any of those drop down list boxes the user must be informed that the individual cannot be deleted unless the individual is removed from the list.  Otherwise, give them an option to delete the individual from that applicable drop down list box.

55.	If the individual is listed on the immediate family group the entry must be removed.

56.	If any of the two above conditions exist and the individual was restored then the individual that would normally be delete needs to be replaced into the applicable array and the immediate family group.

57.	Would like to create icons that will display disabled buttons.  This is to keep users from being confused as to what options are available to them.

58.	The next button remains visible and enabled when the blank, first add form is presented and then closed.  This button should not be made visible unless the individual's record has been saved to the data file.

59.	Hide, somehow, the last message menu entry.  Since the MDI form doesn't have a keypreview event the keystrokes cannot be trapped and their actions diverted.  Unnecessary to do this since I moved it to the miscellaneous menu.

60.	If all the individual's have been deleted from the individual list the buttons and menus that allow one to perform actions need to be disabled.

61.	Need to have a close window menu options for the trash so when the trash can receives focus the menu option will be updated.  The status bar message associated with that new menu nees to be updated.

62.	It's a true convenience to present the user with a message box when the status bar is not visible.  This message box is presented only when the individual tries to delete an individual from the individual listing.  The message box states the reason for the abort on the delete.

63.	Enable the capability to make the individual listing title label and the individual listing status bar non visible.  Each should be made non-visible independently from each other.  Save those settings to the ini file for restoration upon program launch, that is, if these controls were hidden when the user quit they should remain hidden until the user makes them that way.  This maximizes the usefulness of the program and having them hidden allows the user to miximize the amount of real-estate.  Fix any problems associated with resizing the individual list.

64.	The trash can procedures for unloading and the checks that need to be done when a new data file is to be loaded weren't properly put into place.  Now they are.  Upon closing the trashcan a question must be asked that will allow the user to abort the unload.  When the user selects to load a new data file the trash must also be checked to see if there are any clippings in the trash.  If the user says no then just load the new file, if the users says yes then empty the trash and then load the new file.

65.	When you say no on the unload of the trash can you must undelete the records contained in the trash can.

67.	Get the window handle of the client area of the MDI window.  This had daunted me for some time, but after reading about a little Win API function call "GetTopWindow" that returns the windows handle of the first child window of any parent specified by the window handle of the parent.  I then realized that the first child window of the MDI windows had to be the MDI Client area.  When I determined this I used the CCMouse custom control to map a mouse down event for this client area.  This provided me with the opportunity to create a popup menu for that client area.  I decided on the file menu.

68.	The next goal is to find the handle of the top most VB menu, that is the handle of the menu bar itself so I can present a cascading menu to popup on the client area of the MDI desktop.

69.	Save and restore all window placement using the getwindowplacement and setwindowplacement API function calls.

70.


Glossary of Computer Specific Terms
   Glossary (Computer Specific Terms)

Term	Definition	Glossary of Genealogical Specific Terms

Abort	Abort means to cancel the the action you just asked to have performed.  You can only abort when you are answering a question or you decide to cancel an entry of some sort.
Bulletin Board System (BBS)	BBS means Bulletin Board System.  It is usually accessed using a modem connected your your computer and a piece of communications software.  You call and log into it, just as you might any of the commercial Bulletin Board Systems such as CompuServe, Prodigy, or America On-Line.
Client Area	This is the internal desktop area of the Win Gen program. If you press the right mouse button in this area you'll be presented with the pop up file menu.
CrippleWare	Crippleware is software that was written with some features intentionally disabled or removed and only when the user registers the application will the shareware author provide a fully functional program.
CPU	Central Processing Unit.  CPU speeds are rated in Mega Hertz or millions of herts or millions of cycles per second.  A 33 MHz CPU is rated at a speed of 33 million cycles per second.
Custom Control	These controls are used by Visual Basic programmers to enhance their programs, giving them advanced capabilities with a minimum amount of coding and effort.  A program must be distributed with all the necessary custom controls.
Dialog Box	A on screen box that the user of a specific program interacts with usually filling blanks, checking boxes, selecting options or simply answering yes or no.
Family List	Also known and the immediate family group list.  It is a table that lists the members of the individuals immediate family.  This listing is generated whenever an individual is chosen for addition or update.
Associated Forms	Associated forms are those forms that you have open during the add or edit process other than the add/edit form.  These forms typically are associated with the name of the individual you've place in the fields on the add/edit form.  You probably called for the form to be loaded by pressing the right mouse button while it was located over a blank area of the form or by bringing up the husband or wife's menu from the main menu.
Icon	A 32 by 32 pixel bitmap used in Windows to represent an application or other window.
Individual Listing	The grid that contains all the names and specific pieces of data associated with that name.
Linkages	A linkage is defined as an individual's record and it's associated data linked, via the reference number, to other records and data in the same database.  You cannot create linkages; while entering data these linkages are automatically created for you.  This also means that you cannot create linkages to external databases.
MHz (MegaHertz)	MegaHertz or millions of cycles per second.
Popup Menu	A menu that popus when specifically called for at a specific point within the program.  Usually, designed to popup under the mouse pointer whenever the right moust button is pressed.  The options on the menu are usually specific to the task at hand.
Random Access Memory (RAM)	Random Access Memory.  Scratch pad memory, the component of the computer where the computer stores the data that is currently being worked upon.  It also is used to run program from.  The area of the computer where programs and data are stored while you work on them.
Reference Number	The references number is automatically assigned to an individual when that individual's record in the database is created.  This reference number is used to track relationships to other individual's records in the database for the purposes of retrieving immediate family groups and printing various reports and generating family trees.
Video Resolution	Video Resolution is defined as the number of horizontal and verticle picture elements (pixels) used to display information on your video screen.  The higher the resolution theoretically the more (and more complex) information can be displayed.
Runtime	Runtime is a term used to refer to a specific program or time that only occurs when you run the program and not the development
Status Bar	The bar at the bottom of the window that is used to present you with up-to-date information about what is going on and what to do.
System Operator (Sysop)	Sysop means System Operator.  Typically, Sysops manage Bulletin Board Systems.  Sysop or Systems Operator is also used by those individual that manage large computer systems.


Siblings

The individual's brother and/or sisters.


Events

Events are actions that take place based upon some specific action taken on the part of the users.  For instance, to click on a form is a "click" event for that form; to type into a field invokes a "change" event (and a keypressed event); and so to click on a drop down list box invokes the click event for the drop down list box and executes a specific series of commands for that click.  Drop down list box "keypressed" events and click events occur for the items in the list of the drop down list and execute together, so if you use the keyboard to step through the list component of the drop down listbox the actions are the same as clicking on the item in the list.


Shareware

The shareware concept is based upon the premise that a user or users of any specific program try the program out before actually paying for it.  The terms of the try-out period are set by the company producing the application and must be adhered to by the user or users or be in violation of copyright laws.


Central Processing Unit (CPU)

Central Processing Unit.  CPU speeds are rated in Mega Hertz or millions of herts or millions of cycles per second.  A 33 MHz CPU is rated at a speed of 33 million cycles per second.  I recommend that you run this program on a machine 80386 or compatible machine.  The system can be run on a 80286 based machine but really would not operate fast enough to please you.


Custom Control

A Visual Basic custom control is an extension to VB that allows programmers to add capabilities to their applications with the minimum of programming effort.  All the custom controls used by an programmer must be distrubuted with the application, and in many cases a special version (runtime) of the custom control must be distributed.  There is a small problem with having to distribute bunches of custom controls and with having to install these custom controls in specific directories.

Note:  Please make sure that all the *.vbx custom controls are located in the Windows System directory.


Runtime

A runtime custom control is a copy of the custom control that is distributed without the capability to be used by other programmers or would be experimenters without liscense. In other words no modification or addition of the custom control can be done by the recipient of the program or control.


Microsoft and Microsoft Windows 3.0, 3.1, and NT are trade marks of Microsoft Corporation.  Visual Basic 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 are trade marks of Microsoft Corporation.  CompuServe is a registered trademark of H&R Block, Prodigy and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines, and America On-Line is a registered trademark of America On-Line.


Random Access Memory (RAM)

Volitile scratchpad memory used to edit data before final storage and/or manipulate program code (applications such as Windows Genealogy.)


Video Resolution

Video Resolution is defined as the number of horizontal and verticle picture elements (pixels) used to display information on your video screen.  The higher the resolution, theoretically, the more (and more complex) information can be displayed.


Associated forms are those forms that you have open during the add or edit process other than the add/edit form.  These forms typically are associated with the name of the individual you've place in the fields on the add/edit form.  You probably called for the form to be loaded by pressing the right mouse button while it was located over a blank area of the form or by bringing up the husband or wife's menu from the main menu.


Retrieving family groups is accomplished by double clicking on an individual in the individuals list.


Reference Numbers

The references number is automatically assigned to an individual when that individual's record in the database is created.  This reference number is used to track relationships to other individual's records in the database for the purposes of retrieving immediate family groups and printing various reports and generating family trees.  Records are created in the Add/Edit form and the Child Form.


BBS

BBS means Bulletin Board System.  It is usually accessed using a modem connected your your computer and a piece of communications software.  You call and log into it, just as you might any of the commercial Bulletin Board Systems such as CompuServe, Prodigy, or America On-Line.


Icon

An icon is a 32 by 32 pixel bitmap used in Windows to represent an application or other window.


Abort

Abort means to cancel the the action you just asked to have performed.  You can only abort when you are answering a question or you decide to cancel an entry of some sort.


Crippleware

Crippleware is software that was written with some features intentionally disabled or removed and only when the user registers the application will the shareware author provide a fully functional program.


SysOp

Sysop means System Operator.  Typically, Sysops manage Bulletin Board Systems.  Sysop or Systems Operator is also used by those individual that manage large computer systems.


The DOS extension vbx as in *.vbx is the extension used by all Visual Basic custom controls.


Client Area

This is the internal desktop area of the Win Gen program. If you press the right mouse button in this area you'll be presented with the pop up file menu.


   Required Files

Below is a list of the files required to operate the Win Gen program, their location where they should be stored (in some cases the directory is simply a recommendation), the size, date, and time.  The size, date, and time are provided so you will know that you have the correct version of the files and that these files have not been altered.

File Name	Directory	Size	Date	Time
wingen.exe	d:\progdir	NA	NA	NA
gsw.exe	d:\progdir	286,720	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
struct.cnf	d:\progdir	65,536	11/4/93	9:21:34pm
nations.cnf	d:\progdir	131,072	11/14/93	8:49:20pm
wingen.mdb	d:\progdir	NA	NA	NA
wingen.hlp	d:\progdir	NA	NA	NA
wingen.wri	d:\progdir	NA	NA	NA
ccfcurs.dll	d:\windir\system	89,184	3/1/93	12:02:10am
msaes110.dll	d:\windir\system	33,280	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
msajt110.dll	d:\windir\system	710,752	5/19/93	11:00:00pm
vbdb300.dll	d:\windir\system	95,200	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
vbrun300.dll	d:\windir\system	398,416	5/11/93	11:00:00pm
msafinx.dll	d:\windir\system	31,744	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
crpe.dll	d:\windir\system	910,848	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
dwspydll.dll	d:\windir\system	62,560	3/1/93	12:05:24am
gswdll.dll	d:\windir\system	72,192	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
mci.vbx	d:\windir\system	30,112	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
msmasked.vbx	d:\windir\system	30,288	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
msoutlin.vbx	d:\windir\system	24,000	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
ccmouse.vbx	d:\windir\system	12,160	2/4/93	12:10:32pm
cmdialog.vbx	d:\windir\system	18,688	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
crystal.vbx	d:\windir\system	30,208	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
graph.vbx	d:\windir\system	70,800	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
keystat.vbx	d:\windir\system	25,648	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
grid.vbx	d:\windir\system	44,656	4/27/93	11:00:00pm
threed.vbx	d:\windir\system	64,544	4/27/93	11:00:00pm


   Custom Controls

Custom controls are used in Visual Basic programs to enhance their capabilities without forcing the program author to expend large efforts in coding those procedures themselves.  Custom Controls are files that are distributed with the program author's program and these files are typically stored in the d:\windir\system directory.  These files have the files extension of "VBX".


   WINGEN.INI

Below is a listing of the sections contained in the Wingen.ini file, used at startup and closure of the program.  This file is constantly updated and should never be deleted.  If you do accidently/unintentionally delete this file the Wingen.exe program will recreate the file with a series of default settings.  Almost all of the sections pertain to the coordinates of the windows.  These coordinates are restored when a window is opened.  It allows you to continue to work without having to continually reorganize your desktop.

'This section controls the operating parameters of the main Windows Genealogy Window.  The window positions, the window state and what controls are visible.  Also associated with the main window are values such as what the last file that was edited, what tune to play when the about dialog box is displayed

[Main Window]

Last Opened File=C:\WINGEN\BLAICH.WGN

Window State=2

Left=1335

Top=435

Height=8205

Width=8985

ToolBar=0

StatusBar=0

Function Key Bar=0

Build Tree=0

Build Family Group=0

Minimize List=-1

Tune=jazz.mid

'This section controls the file menu frequently used files list.  There are a maximum of 9 files that can be displayed.  The "Total Files In List" entry defaults to 4.  You can increase this to the maximum of 9 or anything in between.

[Main Files]

Total Files In List=4

File0=C:\WINGEN\BLAICH.WGN

File1=C:\WINGEN\TEMP1.WGN

File2=C:\WINGEN\TEMP4.WGN

File3=C:\WINGEN\TEMP2.WGN

File4=C:\WINGEN\TEMP3.WGN

'This section controls the window coordinates of the add/edit window.

[Add/Edit]

Add Left= 1140

Add Top= 120

Add Height= 6045

Add Width= 9420

'This section controls the functioning parameters of the Individual Listing and its' window coordinates.  The font name, size, bold and italic parameters can be set to any available font in your system.

[List]

List Maximized=-1

List Left= 15

List Top= 15

List Height= 8445

List Width= 5235

Font Name=MS Sans Serif

Font Size=8.25

Font Bold=-1

Font Italic=0

'This section controls the parameters for the program that are set with the preferences dialog box.  Some parameters stored here are set with the advanced preferences dialog box.

[Preferences]

Selected Control Color= 16776960

Duplicate Configuration=-1

Duplicate Prompt=-1

Retrieve New File=-1

Retrieve Prompt=-1

Add Children= 0

Add Children Prompt= 0

Open New Blank Form=-1

Edit Last Individual= 0

Prompt for Deletion=-1

Advanced Left= 5460

Advanced Top= 1215

Beep= 0

Startup Option= 2

Date Formats= 0

Time Formats= 0

Progress Indicator=0

List Search=-1

Preferences Left=-6105

Preferences Top= 840

'This section controls

[Advanced]

Global Compact= 0

System Resources= 0

System Warning Tolerance=45

Memory Left= 2805

Memory Top= 3045

'This section controls window coordinates of the military window.

[Military]

Military Left= 3240

Military Top= 225

Military Height= 5850

Military Width= 7725

'This section controls the window coordinates of the immediate family group window.

[Family]

Immediate Left= 1650

Immediate Top= 615

Immediate Width= 9855

Immediate Height= 5250

'This section controls the parameters of the graphical descendent tree.  It also controls the window's coordinates.  Tree Style pertains to the look of the descendent tree.

[Graphical Tree]

Descendent Left= 4935

Descendent Top= 105

Descendent Height= 8295

Descendent Width= 6735

Font Name=MS Sans Serif

Font Size=12

Font Bold=-1

Font Italic=0

Tree Style= 2

'This section controls the notepad window parameters such as colors, fonts, point sizes, etc.

[Notes]

Notes Left= 3495

Notes Top= 810

Notes Width= 9270

Notes Height= 6390

Notes Background Color= 16711680

Notes Foreground Color= 16777215

Notes Font=MS Sans Serif

Notes Point Size= 8.25

Bolded Text=-1

Italic Text= 0

'This section controls window coordinates of the "other" form.  The other form is used to enter and maintain the data that is simply in the other category.

[Other]

Other Left= 3540

Other Top= 1320

Other Height= 5040

Other Width= 7305

'This section controls window coordinates of the Physical/Medical window

[Physical]

Physical Left= 3330

Physical Top= 1005

Physical Height= 4845

Physical Width= 7950

'This section controls

[Vitals]

Vitals Left= 2370

Vitals Top= 15

Vitals Width= 8280

Vitals Height= 6270

'This section controls

[Child]

Child Left= 2580

Child Top= 465

Child Width= 9210

Child Height= 5685

'This section controls

[Printer]

Window Destination=-1

Printer Destination=0

File Destination=0

'This section controls

[Nations]

Nations Left= 225

Nations Top= 105

Nations Height= 6960

Nations Width= 9360

'This section controls

[Report Files]

Report0=Blaich Family;C:\WINGEN\BLAICH.RPT

Report1=Civil War;C:\WINGEN\CIVILWAR.RPT

Report2=Family Group Sheet;D:\WINGEN\FMGRPSHT.RPT

Report3=Family Notes;D:\WINGEN\NOTES.RPT

Report4=Died Before Adulthood;D:\WINGEN\BLAICH.RPT

Report5=

Report6=

Report7=

Report8=

Report Left= 5865

Report Top= 2370

'This section controls

[Find]

Find Top=3030

Find Left=2265

'This section controls

[Cite Wizard]

Cite Wizard Top=615

Cite Wizard Left=1470

Cite Wizard Width=9195

Cite Wizard Height=2370

'This section controls

[Trash Can]

Trash Left= 5640

Trash Top= 1200

Trash Width= 4965

Trash Height= 3990

'This section controls

[Graphics]

Graphics Left= 2130

Graphics Top= 60

Graphics Width= 8400

Graphics Height= 6735


Menu Information:  Index
   Index to Menu Information

File Menu	Edit Menu	Actions Menu	Reports Menu	Graph Menu	Options Menu	Windows Menu	Help Menu

The following are the menu choices and their descriptions:

Short Cut Keys Index

Pop Up Menus


Menu Information:  File Menu
   File Menu

Short Cut Keys

The file menu is used to create new files, open existing files, export and import data, print data, close data files, save data files with new names, and to make quick selections of frequently used files.


Menu Information:  Edit Menu
   Edit Menu

Short Cut Keys

The edit menu is used to cut selected text, copy and past that selected text, undo last change to a control, and to find pieces of text from within a control.


   Actions Menu

Short Cut Keys

The actions menu allows you to retrieve forms that correspond to the menu items.  For example, the Actions|Edit menu retrieves the Add/Edit form and fills in the fields with the data corresponding to the selected individual.  The same corresponds to the other menu items such as the Vital Statistics, Military, and Physical/Medical forms; as well as others.  From this menu the gender of select individuals can be changed as well.

Other actions allow the user to add parents of select selected individual, add children to select selected individuals, and to add a spouse to the selected individual.

The Actions menu is built and displayed at a number of times through your editing session.  Whenever you are in the Individual Listing form and you press the right mouse button the actions menu pops up.  Whenever you press the right mouse button on any of the forms the actions menu is displayed.


   Reports Menu

Short Cut Keys

Use the reports menu and its options to produce output for all the data you put into it.


   Graphs Menu

Short Cut Keys

The graphs menu allows you to generate output data in graphical form.


Menu Information:  Options Menu
   Options Menu

Short Cut Keys

The options menu is used to change specific ways you want the program to operate.  For instance you can change the fonts of the Note pad, the Individual Listing, and the Descendent Tree.

It allows you to select the preferences dialog and it allows you to open the send mail dialog for your mail system if you have a mail application installed on your computer.  There are several other things that the options menu allows you to perform.


Menu Information:  Windows menu
   Windows Menu

From this menu you can select from the numerous open windows.  You can also choose to manipulate the windows by arranging their icons on the Win Gen background, you can tile all open windows, and cascade those windows if you so choose.

From this menu you can see all the open windows associated with Win Gen.  The Open windows listed here shows that you can have many windows open at one time and not all of them have to be associated with the same individual.


Menu Information:  Help Menu
   Help Menu

Select from the help menu the specific items you want help with.  The "About Win Gen" can be selected to learn about Win Gen and some specific system information.


Short Cut Keys -- Index
Short Cut Keys Index

File

Edit

Actions

Reports

Graphs

Options


Pop Up Menu
  Menu:  Pop Up Menus

All Kinds of popup menus.


Short Cut Keys:  Graphs Menu
Graphs Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

New Data File	Ctrl+N
Open Data File	Ctrl+O
Close "Active Window"	Ctrl+W
Save Data File As	F12
Export	None
Import	None
General Notes	Nones
Compacting a Data File	None
Repairing a Data File	None
Print Form	Ctrl+F
Print	Ctrl+P
Printer Setup	None
Exit	Alt+F4


Short Cut Keys:  Reports Menu
Reports Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

New Data File	Ctrl+N
Open Data File	Ctrl+O
Close "Active Window"	Ctrl+W
Save Data File As	F12
Export	None
Import	None
General Notes	Nones
Compacting a Data File	None
Repairing a Data File	None
Print Form	Ctrl+F
Print	Ctrl+P
Printer Setup	None
Exit	Alt+F4


Short Cut Keys:  File Menu
File Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

New Data File	Ctrl+N
Open Data File	Ctrl+O
Close "Active Window"	Ctrl+W
Save Data File As	F12
Export	None
Import	None
General Notes	Nones
Compacting a Data File	None
Repairing a Data File	None
Print Form	Ctrl+F
Print	Ctrl+P
Printer Setup	None
Exit	Alt+F4


Short Cut Keys:  Edit Menu
Edit Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

Undo	Ctrl+Z
Cut	Ctrl+X
Copy	Ctrl+C
Paste	Ctrl+V
Delete	DEL
Select All	None
Find	F3
Find Next	Ctrl+F3
Close "Active Window"	Ctrl+W


Short Cut Keys:  Options Menu
Options Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

Fonts	None
Build Descendent Tree	None
Build Immediate Family	None
Minimize List On Retrieve	None
Tool Bar	None
Status Bar	None
Preferences	None


Short Cut Keys:  Action Menu
Action Menu Shortcut Keys

To choose	Press

Add Parents	F7
Add Children	F8
Add Spouse	F9
Edit	Ctrl+E
Vital Statistics	Ctrl+U
Notes	Ctrl+T
Military	Ctrl+M
Physical/Medical	Ctrl+Y
Other	Ctrl+H
Change Gender	Ctrl+G
Print Form	Ctrl+F
Exit	Alt+F4


Create New Data File

Create a new data file is used to start an empty data file for entering a new family group.  You might, for instance, be using this program at home to maintain data for friends or clients, and in that case you might be maintaining many different data files.


Open an Existing Data File

Use this to open a file that is currently stored on disk and is not listed in the frequently used files list.


Delete Data File

Use this to delete outdated unneeded files Win Gen data files.


Close Data File

Use this menu to close the existing open data file.  You'll be prompted to save changes to any altered data.  You'll be given the opportunity to cancel the closure at this time if you so choose.


Save As Data File

This allows you go save the open data file under a new name.


Print

This allows you to print specific lists and reports.


Printer Setup

Calls the printer setup common dialog that you normally see when you select to perform this function in just about any Windows based application.


Print Form

Allows you to print the form as it exists on the screen.


Frequently Used Files

A list of up to 9 frequently used files that you can select from to open those frequently used files quickly.


Export

Export the data from the currently opened data file to a format that can be used with other programs, such as other databases, word processors, or spreadsheets.


Import

Allows you to bring in text data into the notepad.


Compacting A Database

Removes empty delete flagged records to free up files space and increase speed of data access.


Repairing a Database

Allows you to repair a damaged data file.  This is a feature of the database engine built into the Win Gen Visual Basic application, automatically repairs the data.  If the data file is beyond repair you'll be notified of that.


Exit

Allows you to exit from the Win Gen program.  Alt-F4 is the short cut for doing this.


Prune

Allows you to prune selected branches from the family tree.  You are significantly limited in this capability because you may inadvertently orphan sections of the tree if strict controls are not placed on this capability.


Undo

Allows you to undo select editing functions, returning the controls contents to the last edit before the most recent change.


Cut

Cut the selected text and place the contents into the Windows clipboard.


Copy

Copy the selected text and place the contents into the Windows clipboard.


Paste

Paste any valid clipboard contents into the control (field) on the form.  By valid is meant to mean paste graphics objects only when the field or control accepts graphics, or to paste text only when the control or field accepts text.  For the most part text will be the primary data pasted in from the clipboard.


Find

Find the specific text within the notepad contents.


Find Next

Find the next occurrance of the specific text within the notepad contents.


Select All

Select all of the text from withing the notepad contents.


Delete

Delete the selected text from within the notepad contents.


Soundex

Generate a soundex code and display that code on the status bar for the selected individual.


Cite Wizard

Call the Cite Wizard form to assist you in formatting you cite references and places those cite references into the notepad contents.


Add Parents

Allows you to add partents of the selected individual if that individual doesn't currently have any parents stored in the data file.


Add Children

Allows you to add children to the selected individual if you know that selected indivdiual's spouse and that spouse has been entered into the data file.


Add Spouse

Allows you to add a spouse to the selected individual.  You can enter more than one spouse for a selected individual.


Edit

Call up the edit form to edit the basic information about the selected individual and his immediate family group.


Vital Statistics

Call up the Vital Statistics form information about the selected individual for editing.


Military

Calls up the Military form information about the selected indivdiual for editing.


Other

Calls up the Other form information about the selected individual for editing.


Physical/Medical

Calls up the physical/Medical form information about the selected individual for editing.


Notes

Calls up the Notes form information about the selected individual for editing.


Comma Seperated Text

Exporting the data to comma seperated text causes the data to be written to a text file, a record at a time, records being seperated by carriage returns and fields being seperated by commas instead of spaces or tabs.


Tab Seperated Text

Exporting the data to tab seperated text causes the data to be written to a text file, a record at a time, records being seperated by carriage returns and fields being seperated by tabs instead of spaces or commas.


Menu Bar

The main menu bar from which most of the menus used throughout the program are selected from.


Export Data File

Select the choices for exporting data to intermediate formats so the data collected using Win Gen can be used with other programs.


Listing Title

This title bar displays the "name" and "Birth data" of the members in the list.  This title bar can be removed by double clickin on it.  To retrieve the hidden title bar click on the individual listing status bar.


Individual Listing

The Individual Listing.  It is a list of the names and birth dates (if they have been entered) of your family members.  Here you can search for a specific individual and retrieve selected information about the currently highlighted individual.


Trash Can

The Trashcan is used to prune the tree of a branch of family members or a specific qualifying individual.  By qualifying the individual must not have any children and must not be an individual who would orphan a branch of the tree.  In most cases this means the individual must be a person who has no children, and no parents unless his spouse has parents.  If the individual you want to delete has a spouse the individual must have a spouse that has parents entered in the family history file and have no children.


Desktop

This area is the desktop.  Nothing happens in this area except the arrangement of icons and the movement of forms.


Spouse Menu

This menu item will indicate if the selected indivdiual has a spouse and if so whether that individual has more than one spouse.  If the individual does not have a spouse the menu will say "No Spouse" and the menu text will be grayed out.  If the individual has one spouse the menu text will say spouse and the menu item will be enabled.  There will also be a fly out menu associated with it which when selected will display the individual's spouse' name.  If the selected individual has more than one spouse entered the menu caption will say "Spouses" and will be enabled.  The flyout menu associated with it will list all the spouses entered for the selected individual.


Spouses List

This menu item shows the list of spouses for the selected individual.  From this menu you can select a specific spouse of the selected individual.  Listed after each spouse's name is the spouses reference number.


Previous Button

Click this button to see the previous form for the selected individual.


Next Button

Click this button to see the next form for the selected individual.


Add Children Button

Click this button to add children to the selected individual.


Function Key Bar

This bar displays the active function keys available to you to perform the action described in the labe.  Note:  Some function keys are not available at all times.  The Win Gen program knows when to display the appropriate function keys.  This function key status bar can be turned off by selecting options Function Key Status bar.


Add Parents Button

Click this button to add parent for the selected indivdiual.


Add Children Label

Add Children Label.  Displayed when the selected individual can have children added as a relation to him.


Help Label

This label is displayed at all times.  It is displayed to show that you can press F1 to receive help.


Vital Statistics Button

Click this button to edit or enter the Vital Statistics data for the selected individual.


Physical Medical Form

This is the minimized form for entering the Physical/Medical data.


Build Descendent Tree Button

Click this button to retrieve/build the descendent tree for the selected indivdiual.


Status Bar

This is the main windows status bar.  You'll receive most of your status messages if this status bar is visible.  This status bar can be turned off by selecting the options menu.


Add Spouse Button

Click this button to add a spouse to the selected individual.


Add Edit Button

Click this button to retrieve the edit form to edit the basic information on the selected individual.


Notes Button

Click this button to retrieve a small notepad to write comments about the selected individual and to add other non-form specific data, such as cite references.


Military Form

This is the military form in its iconic form.


Military Button

Click this button to retrieve the military data for the selected individual.


Individual Listing Status Bar

This status bar displays a running count of the number of individuals in the data file.


Other Button

Click this button to retrieve the other form to add other information about the selected individual.


Add Parents Label

This lable is displayed when the selected individual is elidigible to have his parents added to the data file.  If the individual already has parents added to the data file this label will not be displayed.


Individual Listing Title Bar

This title bar contains the title that was added to the Preferences|registration|title field.


Physical Medical Button

Click this button to enter or edit the physical and/or medical data for the selected individual.


Print Button

Click this button to print the currently active form.


Save As Button

Click this button to save the data file under a new name.  A data file must be open in order to save it under a new name.


Retrieve File Button

Retrieve a new file by click this button and selecting the data file.


Pop Up Menus

Below is an example of a popup menu.  This specific popup menu is presented when you click the right mouse button with the mouse pointer positioned over the individual listing.

Above is an example of a popup menu.  You'll see many of these throughout your use of the program.  Popup menus are available almost everywhere.  You access these popup menus by pressing the right mouse button on specific controls.  Pressing the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is over most controls brings up a menu specific to the task you are attempting to accomplish.  You'll like using this feature as you get used to using the program.


Importing Text

Text can be imported into the note pad from ascii text.  You are limited to files that don't exceed 64K.  If the contents of the notepad and the contents of the file come to a total of greater than 64K the import will work, but will be truncated at the 64K limit.  If you then attempt to add more to the notepad you won't be able to.

Text can be brough into the notepad by using the windows clipboard.


Printing Forms

Printing forms is accomplished by selecting the form you want printed, resize it to the proportions you desire and then select print from the popup menu or from the mail file menu.  If the form consists of a list or the notepad only the form will be printed with the displayed information.  If you want to print nonvisible information you'll have to scroll those lists and the notepad and choose print form again.


Printing

Non-functional menu at this time.


Quitting Win Gen

Select this menu item or use the Alt-F4 keyboard combination to close the Win Gen program.  Any unsaved changes will be prompted for.  If you cancel any of these prompts you effectively cancel the Win Gen program closure.


Closing Active Window

Use this menu option to close the window that is currently active.  Active windows are typically the topmost window with the active title bar.  To close this you can press the escape key, select the popup menu option, or select the ok button on the form (in most cases), or close active window off the main file menu.


  Accessing Forms

Forms Procedures	Forms Descriptions

Typically you'll be working with a set series of forms.  Usually the most commonly used forms will be the Add and Edit form, the Child Add form, the Vital Statistics form, and the Physical and Medical Description form.  Once in a while you'll be accessing the other forms.  Those for entering a military history, logging legal documentation such as law suits, property ownership, etc.

Select forms procedures to get information on how to basically access the  form and how to move around.  Select forms descriptions to see a list of the available forms that can be viewed and the form's components can be explained for the most commonly used forms.

A quick explanation of forms


Add and Edit Form Description and it's Components
  Form description and it's components

The Form

The form, hopefully, is simple to understand.  It's components are the same as standard windows components and should operate in the same manner as other Windows applications.  Editing data in the fields is exactly the same as entering data into any complex dialog box presented to you through any standard Windows program.  Most forms for entering data in WinGen possess a title bar, control menu, minimize and/or maximize buttons, text boxes, drop down list boxes, option buttons, check boxes, a background, and an Ok and Cancel button.

Keyboard Considerations

Use the standard Windows keyboard conventions to move through the fields.  Special note about the drop down list boxes, do not attempt to use the keyboard controls on them.  Use the mouse to move through the fields if you so desire.

Pop Up Menus

You can press the right mouse button on the background of the form and some of the labels to bring up a popup menu.

Colors

The colors of the form are fixed.  You should not be able to change the forms colors from gray and white to any other color because it will destroy the 3D effect of the form.

Resizing/Moving the Form

You can resize the form using the Windows border handles.  These border handles and the resizing of the form happens in the same manner as any Windows application.  You may minimize or maximize the form at any time.  Minimizing the form will place an icon onto the desktop.


  Individuals Listing

The individuals listing is a grid with the heading running across the top of the grid and the individual records running down the grid.  The names of the fields are in plain english and the names of the individuals are in the fixed column to the left.

Press the right mouse button on the grid to bring up a popup menu.


Select from the Forms below to

view a sample form

Most Commonly Used Forms

Main Window

Individuals Listing

Add and Edit Form

Immediate Family Group Listing

Children

Vital Statistics

Physical/Medical Description

Other Used Forms

Military Records

Other

Preferences


Procedural Descriptions for Entering Genealogical

Data into Forms

Main Window

Individual List

Add and Edit Form

Immediate Family Group

Child Form

All Others (Military, Other, Physical and Medical, Vital Statisics:)

Preferences

Tool Bar

Status Bar


  Military Records

The military records form is used to show military history.  Accumulating military records is a big task and can comprise volumes of information.  In designing the program I've decided to provide some of the more common information, such as the date and place of discharge and a series of check boxes to indicate which war your relative served during and what type of papers you have for this person.


  Other Records

Other records is simply a conglomeration of numerous types of records you have have acquired on your relative.  Including which types of information you have on your relative is performed by checking the appropriate check boxes.


  Physical/Medical Description

In the physical/medical part of the data entry process you include the physical description of your relative if you have it.  You include things such as the nationality and any diseases your relative might have suffered from.  This is also done with a series of check boxes and a few fill in the blanks.  When you select the nationality of the individual a national flag will appear, if it is available.  At present there are 71 flags.  If the individual's nationality is not known do not select a nationality.


Add and Edit Form
  Add and Edit Form Description

Purpose	Moving around using the keyboard	Visual Description	Other Keyboard activities	Saving and closing the form	Traversing Family Groups
Finishing with the form	Moving around using the mouse	Creating Relationships between the Husband and Wife sections of the form	Other Mouse Activities	Adding Records (Steps)	Other

Purpose

The purpose of ths form is to add your family memers to the data base.  It is the first of two forms that can and will be used to enter these family members into your data file.

On this form you'll enter the male family members and the female family members or both, in chich case you are entering a relationship between the two individuals.

When both male and female members are entered here onto the same form you are associating the two together as husband and wife.  After doing this association and saving the data and association to the data file additional information can be entered about the individual, such as the marriage data and the children.

This form will be used to enter the individuals, the individual's spouses and second and consecutive spouses, and the individual's parents.

Visual Description

The form consists primarily of three sections.  The first two equal sections are the "Husband" and "Wife" sections.  If an individual is not married this does not imply that they are a husband or wife.  The thrid section is for the marriage data. Outside of these three sections are the forms buttons.

Each of the two two sections consist of fields for entering/altering data about names, dates and places pertaining to death and birth.  Each of these two sections have two listings, one is for parents and the other is for siblings.

The third or marriage section has room for marriage dates and places.  It also has information about other marriage data and a listing of the children born to the husband and wife.

To view any individuals in the numerous lists use your mouse pointer and click on the list.

The buttons on the outside of these three sections are used for saving and closing the form, cancelling and closing the form and for opening this help topic.

Each section on the form has a frame surrounding it.  The purpose of which is to seperate these three sections visually as well as logically.  Locically you can use accelerator keys to move between these sections.  Also, the frames have visual characteristics used to assist you in keying off on who's who.  For instance, the descendent tree, by default, is generated for the selected individual.  The selected individual is indicated on the edit form by having its frame raised and the frame caption has a heavy 3D effect.  The other two, the non selected individual and the marriage/children section have recessed frames with a minor 3D effect.

To assist you visually in sighting where you are position on the form the selected (active) fields is offset with a soft blue background color.  As you move from field to field you will see the active field receives the bluing effect of its background.  Note: this color can be altered by using the preferences form and selecting the color button.  When you enter the field any text in the field will be selected.

The form is sizeable, so if you want to, you can size it to fit your needs.  You resize the form using the keyboard or mouse exactly like you would resize any other windows window.

Moving around with the keyboard

Moving around the form is accomplished using the keyboard or mouse.  Initially, when you are entering the data on the family members you'll probably use the keyboard.

Moving around using the keyboard is accomplished using the Tab key.  To move from one field to the next press the tab key.  To move to the field previous to it use the Shift key while holding down the Tab key.

To move from section to section use the accelerator keys assigned to these sections.  The husband or male section's accelerator is Alt+U, the wife's is Alt+W and the marriage/children section is Alt+M.

To activate the buttons you can press the accelerator assigned to them.  These accelerators are Alt+O for the OK button. Alt+C for the Cancel button, and Alt+H for the help button.  When the Add Child button is visible use the Alt+A.  Additionally, you can use the Enter (or Return) key to accomplish the same thing as invoking the OK button.  Escape accomplishes the same thing as invoking the Cancel button.

One thing to note about the lists on this form.  You cannot access them using the keyboard.  If for some reason you attempt to you may inadvertently select the first individual in the list for recall to the immediate family group (IFG).

Moving around with the Mouse

To move around using the mouse point at any field you want to activate and click the left mouse button.  You'll use the mouse to access the lists on the form that you shouldn't attempt to access using the keyboard.

Other Keyboard Activities

In addition to using the keyboard to move between the fields the keyboard can be used to accomplish "Actions" for the family member.  For instance, while your positioned in any field in the Wife's section or husband's section you can press the accelerator key assigened to a specific action, such as pressing F9 to Add Spouse or F8 to Add Children.

Every field on the form can have data pasted into it, cut from it or copied from it and placed into the windows clipboard.  Additionally any change made to the field on the form can be independently undone or redone.  You accomplish the cut, copy, and paste respectively, by pressing the Ctrl+X, Ctrl+C, and Ctrl+V keyboard sequences.  To undo/redo the last field edit you can press  the Ctrl+Z keyboard sequences.

Any field where data is pasted into it is limited to the data type that that field can accept.  For instance, if a text field (a field where you can enter alphanumeric text) you can only paste in alpahnumeric data.  That is, you cannot paste a graphic image into those fields.

The date fields, although capable of cut, copy, paste, and undo/redo will work they don't always format correctly, so doing so is not recommended.

You can see a list of the available actions by pulling down the actions menu located at the top of the main form.  This menu also shows the accelerator keys associated with those actions.

Saving the data and Closing the form

While on this form you can do two additional actions besides the normal actions of entering or calling the various other forms to enter the other data about the family member.  The first and possibly the most important action is to SAVE the data for the family member on the form.  This is accomplished by pressing the Ctrl+S key.  This will effectively save the family member(s) data without closing the form.  Under certain circumstances such as adding the parents of a  family member you could be prompted to add the children of the newly added parents.  The second actions does not pertain to entering and saving data.  It is associated with closing the form.  You can close the form by pressing the keyboard sequence of Ctrl+W.

A couple of the fields on this form are formatted and they require that specific data be entered into them.  These fields are the date fields.  You need to enter a valid date into these fields.  You cannot enter partial dates.  You may have unexpected results if you do.  If you need to enter approximate dates use the text area of the "place" field associated with this date.

The date fields are formatted in one of the several date formats that are made available to you using the preferences form.

The lists require special care.  Normally, if you want to view them you'll point at them using the mouse, and if you want to select a family member from the list you'll point at the individual in the list with the mouse and click on them.  If there are more individuals in any of these lists tthen can be seen the list will have scroll bars .  Use these scroll bars to s croll up or down the list to view those other family members.  If you attempt to use the keyboard with the list you are effectively selecting the individual just as if you had clicked on them with the mouse.

Several of the text labels above the lists inform you of the total number of individuals in the lists.  In the case of the parents of the husband or wife, if the label shows 0 then you know the individual has no parents entered.

Creating Relationships between the Husband and Wife sections of the form

As with entering the husband and wife together is required in order to make the marriage data available it is also requied to enter the children.  In other words if you don't enter both husband and wife together on the same form and then save the data to the data file you cannot select to add any children for them.  The marriage data is the exception.  You can enter it without having had first saved the husband and wife together.  Some options are not available, such as the marriage certificate, divorce, and formally married check boxes are disabled until you actually enter something into both sections (for the husband and wife).

On the forms, within either the husband's section or the wife's section, you may press the right mouse button while the mouse cursor is positioned over either of these sections to bring up a pop up (tear off) menu.  This popup menu is actually tailored to the specific individual.  For example, the spouse flyout menu will have the names of the spouses associated with that individual, and if the individual has more than one spouse those additional spouses will be presented in this flyout menu.  Pressing the right mouse button over the other individual ont he form will present a similar but customized menu and if that other individual does not have more then one spouse then the other spouses flyout menu will only have that one spouse.  Try pressing the right mouse button while over one of these sections and view the menu.  Then press the right mouse button while the cursor is over the other individual's section.  If the other section does not have an individual entered then no menu will be presented.

Other Mouse activities

The form can also accept an item being dropped onto it from the individual listing and from the descendent tree.

Special Note:  If you attempt to delete (from the family list) any individual part of this IFG you will be informed that it is not allowed.  In order to delete that individual you'll either need to close the form or recall a different IFG where the individual you want to delete is not part of the newly recalled IFG.  This means that if the individual you want to delete is part of any list associated with that open form you'll be so informed and a recommendation will be made as to how to resolve the problem, as described above.

Closing the form

Finally, if and when you attempt to close a form where you haven't specifically saved the changes to the data you'll be prompted to save those changes.  At that time youll be provided the opportunity to save, abort the changes, or to cancel the closure of the form.

Other

In addition to not being able to edit the text or select the listings on this form you cannot edit the Soundex code displayed ont he form.  This code is automatically generated by the program and the only way to change it is to change the individual's last name.  If you attempt to click on the Soundex code the individual's last name will be selected.


Add and Edit Drop Down List Box Notes
   A Sample Drop Down List Box on the Add/Edit Form

In Win Gen if you attempt to scroll through a drop down list box you invoke what is called an event.  Clicking on an item in the list selects that individual and builds their immediate family group and places their basic data and that of their spouses basic data into the form if the spouse exists.  So if you select to click on the name of the father in the husband's parents drop down list you will retrieve this individual and his immediate family group (something you may or may not desire to do.)  To use the keyboard to move through the list will invoke this same event.  So, it becomes next to impossible to move through the list with a keypressed event (keystroke).  You'll constantly be bringing up someone else rather than, say, maybe looking at the people in the list.  With drop down list boxes, such as the siblings list box or the children list box where you must scroll to view all the individuals at times you'll cause any item highlighted to be selected and thus that person retrieved and their immediate family group.

The drop down list in the graphic below is shown encompassed with a marquee.

You'll notice that there are a two of drop down list boxes for each individual on the add/edit form and a common drop down list box for both the husband and wife on this add/edit form.  Since there are so many of this type of controls/fields this control/field requires a bit of special explanation.

You may also use the UP and DOWN arrows in specific cases.  Drop down list boxes will not operate this way.  You must always use the mouse pointer to access these fields.

Parental data is handled by either adding a record in the normal manner then adding the children or by adding a child and then adding the parents.  Adding siblings is handled by adding the child record to the parent not the sibling record to the sibling record.  What this means is that you enter any individual you want in any manner as long as when you enter the data you do not create multiple family groups based on the same family tree.  If you enter an individual into the database you can then enter that individuals parents or children.  You CANNOT enter the individual's siblings.  The siblings are entered through the parents records.


Add and Edit Pop Up Menu
  An Example of a Pop Up Menu for the Add/Edit Form

Below is a graphic of an example "pop up menu" for the Add/Edit form.  There are other pop up menus for other forms, some that differ significantly and others that differ slightly.

Pressing the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is over almost any  space on the add edit form will bring up the popup menu.  If you want to retrieve the pop up menu with the mouse pointer over the form background or over the buttons and their 3D panels will not bring up the pop up menu.


Add and Edit Steps to Adding
   Steps to adding immediate and family group members

The first record entered in the database enables some of the menu items and enables all of the pop up menus.  When the first record is entered the creation of the reference number and the addition of the record to the database causes the "Actions" menu to become enabled.  So, while you are entering the first individual you cannot access those menus until you save the individual and their spouse (if applicable.)  You can save the individual by pressing the OK button, or the Cancel button and responding to the appropriate prompts, or by pressing the CTRL+S keystroke combination.  You cannot enter any child until you have both the husband and wife saved and cannot enter any siblings of the first individual until their parents have been entered.  Below is an example of how to enter the data for the individual and their immediate family group.

A convoluted example.

The steps to perform adding an individual, his brothers and sisters and then children is as follows:  (Note:  This example is a bit convoluted to make the point of the dangers of accidentally creating multiple family groups with the same family tree.

1.	Press the Edit button from the toolbar or press enter to bring up the blank form (if it is not already displayed.)

2.	On the add edit form fill in the blanks and then save the record (Press OK button.)

3.	Retrieve the individual's record a second time.

4.	Press the F9 key with the cursor in the selected individual's frame.

5.	Add the parents data.

6.	Save the parents and retrieve them again if necessary.

7.	Press the F8 key.

8.	Add the child's record.  Continue to enter as many as you wish.

9.	Close the child add form.

10.	Close the Add/Edit form containing the parents information.

11.	Select the individual's parents records

12.	Select the drop down list box labeled "Child" (Notice the individual's name is listed there).

The purpose of this exercise is to show you that you enter an individual, probably yourself to start, then you move on to add the individual's parents and children.  After that you'll enter the individual's brothers and sisters by entering them as children of the individual's parents, NOT as a separate family group with the same parents names and reference numbers.  (Note:  Do not mistake the definition of family groups with immediate family groups).

Family tree's are entered into separate databases.  You should not enter the data for Princess Diana and Prince Charles (House of Windsor) into the same database as yours unless you are actually, somehow part of their family tree.

A concise example.

The most common steps involved in adding an family group to the database is as follows:

1.	Retrieve the new data file.

2.	Enter the individual and/or their spouse's information

3.	Save the record to the data file by pressing CTRL+S.

4.	If the spouse data has been entered press F8 to add children.

5.	If  the parental information available is press F9 to add that data.

6.	When you enter the data for the parents and press OK or CTRL+S you'll be prompted for adding children to these parents.

7.	Fill in the Child form's data for as many children as you have for the parents.  Notice in  the siblings list the name of the first individual.

That's about it.  You should be able to continue to add data in this manner ad infinitum.  One thing to note is that you cannot add children without having the record entered for "both" parents.  If you do not have the name of both parents then enter unknown in the first and last name fields for either/both parents.


Add and Edit Saving Data
    Saving data that was just entered on the Add/Edit Form

If you wish to save the data just entered into this form you should click the Ok button.  This will place the data from the form into the database and closes the add/edit form.  Another method would be to press the CTRL+S keyboard combination.  This saves the data, updates any related forms and enables any menu options that are applicable the the changed conditions of the individual, yet leaves the ADD/Edit form in the same state it was before you pressed CTRL+S.  That is, the add/edit form is not closed.  This is a big time saver if you have large databases.


A Definition of Immediate Family Groups
   Family groups

A definition of family groups and immediate family groups

A family group is defined as all the records associated with any individual's record.  This means that all the records in the database are part of the family group, also known as family tree.  The IMMEDIATE Family Group are those individuals that are immediately around the individuals records.  For example, the individuals children, wife, parents, and brothers and sisters.  Also, immediate family group members are the individual's spouses mother, father, and brothers and sisters.  You can see a list of the immediate family group members by accessing immediate family list that is built when you retrieve the immediate family group.

I guess something should be explained.  When you retrieve an individual you are not necessarily just retrieving that individual, you are retrieving his immediate family group.  Well, actually, you are retrieving the individual and his wife's basic vital information, and you are retrieving the linkages to the other members in the immediate family group not actually their basic vital information.  When you choose to retrieve an immediately family group member's basic vital information other than the individual or their spouse a new immediate family group is then retrieved.

Retrieving the immediate family group members

Retrieving this data can be time consuming.  If you are going to be adding/editing quite a bit of data associated with the immediate family group you should choose to retrieve the new immediate family group through the immediate family group listing.  This listing maintains some extra information for retrieving immediate family groups that the drop down list boxes do not.  Of course, there is a sort of delay while you open the immediate family list, that is bring it up from it's iconic state.  You can choose to have this open at all times if you so choose to expedite this process but you'll be cluttering up your screen.


Linkages
   Linkages (what are they, and how are they created?)

A linkage is defined as an individual's record and it's associated data linked, via the reference number, to other records and data in the same database.  You cannot create linkages; while entering data these linkages are automatically created for you.  This also means that you cannot create linkages to external databases.

Each individual entered into the database is assigned a reference number.  This reference number typically is the record number, but it is completely unrelated with the record number.  It is simply a number assigned to the individual.  Maintained in each individual's record is the reference number of their spouse, mother, and father.  By knowing the mother's and father's reference number you can determine who your brothers and sisters are.  The spouse's reference number is maintained so you can determine who your wife and children are.  Since you can have more than one wife (not available yet) you can have children that don't belong to a specific immediate family group for which you are part, but may belong to another immediate family group.

There is never a need for you to create the linkages.  By filling the fields on the form these linkages will be automatically created.  If for some reason you have a problem with the reference numbers you can edit them.  You'll edit them though the individual listing where you chose to add/edit the record.


Add/Edit:  Father's first name
 First Name:

Type in the husband's first name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a husband still enter the person's name into this box.


Add/Edit:  Father's middle name
Middle Name:

Type in the husband's middle name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a husband still enter the person's name into this box.


Add/Edit:  Father's last name
Last Name:

Type if the husband's last name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a husband still enter the person's name into this box.


Add/Edit:  Father's birth date
Date of Birth:

Type in the husband's date of birth.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar  (i.e., Sep 13, 1960.)


Add/Edit:  Father's birth place
Place of Birth:

Type in the husband's place of birth.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Add/Edit:  Father's death date
Date of Death:

Type in the husband's date of death.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar (i.e., Sep 13, 2085.)


Add/Edit:  Father's death place
Place of Death:

Type in the husband's place of death.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Husband's Parents Total:

This is a display of the total number of parents entered as a logical link to the husband's record.  It simply means that if the number displayed is greater than zero (0) then the parents have been entered and their records exist as a link to this record.  If the number displayed is zero (0) then no parents have been entered for this individual.


Husband's Siblings Total:

This is a display of the total number of siblings entered as a logical link to the husband's record.  It simply means that if the number displayed is greater than zero (0) then the siblings have been entered and their records exist as a link to this record, and the total number of siblings is displayed.  If the number displayed is zero (0) then no siblings have been entered for this individual or the individual has no siblings.


Add/Edit:  Father's parents listing
Husband's Parents Listing:

This drop down list box displays the names of the parents of the husband.  You may select the name in the list by clicking on it.  When doing so this individuals family group will be retrieved and all list boxes and grids will be updated.  Any changes that have been made and not saved will then be prompted for saving.  You may choose to cancel the save at which time the family group retrieve will not take place.  You may choose to not save or to save.


Add/Edit:  Father's siblings listing
Husband's Siblings Listing:

This drop down list box displays the names of the siblings of the husband.  You may select the name in the list by clicking on it.  When doing so this individuals family group will be retrieved and all list boxes and grids will be updated.  Any changes that have been made and not saved will then be prompted for saving.  You may choose to cancel the save at which time the family group retrieve will not take place.  You may choose to not save or to save.

Above the listing you will see the number of siblings enclosed in parentheses.


First Name:

Type in the wife's first name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a wife still enter the person's name into this box.


Middle Name:

Type in the wife's middle name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a wife still enter the person's name into this box.


Last Name:

Type in the wife's last name.  Even though the person may not be married and therefor not qualify as a wife still enter the person's name into this box.


Date of Birth:

Type in the wife's date of birth.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar  (i.e., Sep 13, 1960.)


Place of Birth:

Type in the wife's place of birth.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Date of Death:

Type in the wife's date of death.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar (i.e., Sep 13, 1960.)


Place of Death:

Type in the wife's place of death.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Wife's Parents Total:

This is a display of the total number of parents entered as a logical link to the wife's record.  It simply means that if the number displayed is greater than zero (0) then the parents have been entered and their records exist as a link to this record.  If the number displayed is zero (0) then no parents have been entered for this individual.


Wife's Siblings Total:

This is a display of the total number of siblings entered as a logical link to the wife's record.  It simply means that if the number displayed is greater than zero (0) then the siblings have been entered and their records exist as a link to this record, and the total number of siblings is displayed.  If the number displayed is zero (0) then no siblings have been entered for this individual or the individual has no siblings.


Wife's Parents Listing:

This drop down list box displays the names of the parents of the wife.  You may select the name in the list by clicking on it.  When doing so this individuals family group will be retrieved and all list boxes and grids will be updated.  Any changes that have been made and not saved will then be prompted for saving.  You may choose to cancel the save at which time the Family group retrieve will not take place.  You may choose to not save or to save.


Wife's Siblings Listing:

This drop down list box displays the names of the siblings of the wife.  You may select the name in the list by clicking on it.  When doing so this individuals family group will be retrieved and all list boxes and grids will be updated.  Any changes that have been made and not saved will then be prompted for saving.  You may choose to cancel the save at which time the family group retrieve will not take place.  You may choose to not save or to save.


Date of Marriage:

The date the legal marriage took place.


Place of Marriage:

Where the legal marriage took place.  You are limited to 50 characters, so use abbreviations when and where possible.


Number of Children Total:

The total number of children sired by the couple.  If the number displayed is equal to zero (0) then no known children were sired by this couple.


Number of Children Listing:

The listing of children with first and last name of the children that were sired by this couple.  The first entry in the drop down list shows Add Child.  If more children are to be entered then select Add Child.  A child entry form will be presented.  Before doing so you will be prompted to save any unchanged data.  If you select not to save then the Add Child will be aborted.


Formally Married:

Check this if the couple was formally married.  You need not have the marriage certificate in your possession.


Marriage Certificate:

Check this if you have in your possession a copy or the legal marriage certificate.  This check box will be grayed out until you check the formally married check box


Divorced:

Check this if you know this couple has been formally divorced.  This check box will be grayed out until you check the formally married check box


Ok Button:

Select this if you wish to save your work and return to the Individual's Listing.


Cancel Button:

Select this if you do not wish to save your changes.  Any changes that were made and not saved will be prompted for saving.  You may chose no.


Control Menu:

   You may choose to close this specific entry form by double clicking as you would on any control menu.


Title Bar:

This title bar's text is update with the names of the family, husband and wife's first names and then the husband's last name.  I believe this is the formal way of naming a family group so I apologize if there are those who are offended.


Soundex for Father:

This is a code used by the census bureau for tracking microfilm tapes.  This will tell you what the code for your relation's last name.  It is generated on the fly.  You can then write this down and take it with you when you go to look at the census microfilm.


Soundex for Mother:

This is a code used by the census bureau for tracking microfilm tapes.  This will tell you what the code for your relation's last name.  It is generated on the fly.  You can then write this down and take it with you when you go to look at the census microfilm.


Family List Icon

The family list when it's iconized.


Add/Edit Entry Form Popup Menu:

Available when you press the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is positioned over a blank area of the entry form.  Click anywhere with the right mouse pointer positioned over any area to make it disappear or press ESC or select an option.


Add/Edit Entry Form

Partial view of the entry form.


Individual Listing Iconized

Individual Listing when it is in it's minimized (iconized) state.  Note that this is a child document of the main window.


Drop down List

This type of control needs to be handled with the mouse.  If you attempt to use the keyboard you will confuse yourself and cause needless delays while the system retrieves the records you might not necessarily needed to retrieve.


The Child Entry Form
 Child Entry Form

Procedures for Adding a Child

Below is a graphic of the child entry form.  Click anywhere on the graphic to display an explanation of its' components.

As you can see it is very attractive and easily traversed.

Moving through this entry screen is pretty much straight forward.  Use the tab key to move from field to field in a clockwise order and use the shift-tab key to move through them in a counter-clockwise order.  You can use the mouse to locate the point or field to update.  When selecting a text field you will notice that the contents of the field become selected.  You can position the pointer in the field at any location simply by positioning the mouse pointer and pressing the left mouse button.  To delete the contents of the field press the backspace key with text selected or with the cursor positioned infront of the character(s) you desire deleted.  If you notice the labels of some of the available fields (mostly check boxes and radio buttons) you'll notice the underscore character.  To access and select that specific field press the "alt" and the letter that is underscored.

On this form if you press the right mouse button with the pointer over a blank area of the form or over any of the labels for text boxes and summary text you will be presented with a popup menu.  You can select from any of these menu options that are not grayed out or disabled.

When you are finished entering the data for the child press the "Ok" button or Ctrl+S.  This will save your work to the data grid (database) and will clear the form -- only some of the fields -- so that you may continue to enter more children of these parents.  When you are finished with all children and their siblings select the cancel (close) button.  If you have not saved the data on the form you will be prompted to save these changes.  You should answer the prompt appropriately.

Which fields are not cleared and why?

The fields that are not cleared are the date of birth, place of birth, sex, and last name.  These fields are not changed because you may be entering twins (the date of birth, place of birth and sex) or you might have a group of children that were born in the same town and location to the same mother and father, thus the place of birth and last name remain unchanged.  I hope this simplifies and speeds up the entry process for family groups.

The association to the parents and siblings will be automatically updated.  You will notice that on the add/edit form for the parents the child list box has been updated to list the new children and the children total should also be updated to reflect the total number of children for this family.

As you move through the entry fields and select others you should see the field descriptions displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the WinGen window.  Keep an eye on this to help you stay informed about what to enter and how to enter it.

The gender of the child is deselected to keep you from mistakenly saving the child record with the WRONG gender.

When adding a child to a set of parents if the child's parents weren't formally married the option on the child form called "Child Unwed/Single Mother" will be checked by default.  If mistakenly failed to check the formally married option on the parents form you can uncheck this box.


Adding a Child
   Adding a Child to the Immediate Family Group

Adding a Child

Adding a child to your data file is accomplished by associating the new record with an individual already entered into the data file.  The most common practice is to add the very first individual in the data file, then add that person's spouse and children.  After adding that person's spouse and children you can then add the parents of the indivdiual.  Once the partents are entered you can then add their children.  This is accomplished by answering the prompt that is presented, optionally, after you  enter the parents of an individual.  If you answer yes to that you'll be presented with a form for adding a child.

When you save the husband and wife (individual and their spouse), the "Add Child" button will be displayed.  You can then add a child by clicking this button.  Anytime after you click this button you can close the parents form.  At the bottom of the child form are the names of the parents of the child.

You can select from the individual listing by pressing the right mouse button, and then selecting the optional "Add Children" menu option.  The only time this menu option will be presented is when the individual that has been selected in this list has a spouse.

The second to last method of adding a child is to click the "Add Child" button displayed on the toolbar.  If the child button does not have a 3D appearance, it cannot be depressed.  It means that the selected individual you are working with is not married and therefor you cannot add a child for them.

The final method of adding a child is to grab a person from the listing and drop that individual on the add child button (located on the optional tool bar) or onto the add child form.  If you drop the indiviudal on the add child form and there are unsaved changes you'll be given the opportunity to cancel, abort or process without saving the data on that open add child form.

   Select the forms icon to the left to see the Child Entry Form and get a bit more information on entering and saving data.

Opening:	Opening the child form is accomplished by selecting the Children drop down list box from the Add/Edit form and selecting the option for "Add Child."
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of thier menu text. To access the pop up menus move to a clear part of the form and press the right mouse button and select the appropriate menu option.
Editing Fields:	When you get to the field you want to edit begin typing.  You'll be updating the data in the field.  You should enter the data in a consistent manner so when you go to report the data later you'll have everyone and everything accounted for.  As you move into fields that already have text in them you should notice that the text in those fields that newly received the focus become highlighted.  To edit a specific piece of sub text from the text in the field's selected text use the mouse pointer to the location in the selected text and click the left mouse button.  Double clickin on a word will cause that word to become highlighted.  Pressing the backspace key with some text highlighted will cause that text to be deleted.  If you desire to paste text in from the clipboard press Shift+Ins together.  To copy text to the clipboard press Ctrl+Ins, and to Delete the selected text to the clipboard press Shift+Del.  I believe that most of the Win 3.1 cut, copy, and past keys function properly in the program.
Saving your data:	Saving the data is pretty simple.  Click on the Ok button. Or press CTRL+S. There will be other times where you'll be prompted to save data such as closing out the add/edit form with the child form open or in the case where you are shutting down the program.
Printing:	Print the form by choosing print from from the file menu.
Closing	Closing the form can happen as a result of several procedures.  The first being the request to close the form by clicking on the Ok button (you'll be prompted to save any unsaved changes.)  The second one second is as the result of closing the database.  And the third is by being prompted because you are closing the related forms to retrieve another family member from the family tree.


Child's First Name:

Enter the child's first name.  Use proper case.  If you don't know the full first name use the initial or type in what you know.  If the person uses a nickname then put the nickname in parentheses as part of the middle name.  Your data should be entered as correctly and consistently as possible.


Child's Middle Name:

Enter the child's middle name.  Use proper case.  If you don't know the full middle name use the initial or type in what you know.  If the person uses a nickname then put the nickname in parentheses as part of the middle name.  Your data should be entered as correctly and consistently as possible


Child Last Name:

Enter the child's last name.  In most cases the child's last name will be the same as the child's father's last name.  The text entry box does not really allow for much flexibility on what can be entered here.  You should not incorporate spaces in the last name.  If you want to use a multiple last name such as Ward-Howe you should include a hyphen (-).


Child's Date of Birth

Enter the child's date of birth.  For ease of use please use a consistent format.


Child's Place of Birth

Enter the child's place of birth.  For ease of use please use a consistent format.


Child's Date of Death

Enter the child's date of death.  You can enter it here or go the individual and select the birth/death menu option from the popup menu selected by pressing the right mouse button over a blank space on the add/edit form.  Note:  if you know the child's date of birth then enter it now.


Child's Place of Death

Enter the child's date of death.  For ease of use please use a consistent format.


Birth Certificate

This is a check box.  Select it or de-select it.  Selecting it indicates possession of the child's birth certificate.


Death Certificate

This is a check box.  Select it or de-select it.  Selecting it indicates possession of the child's death certificate.


Christening Certificate

This is a check box.  Select it or de-select it.  Selecting it indicates possession of the child's christening (baptismal) certificate.


Picture

This is a check box.  Select it or de-select it.  Selecting it indicates possession of a picture(s) of the child/person.


Other   ********* this field is no longer there.

This is a check box.  Select it or de-select it.  Selecting it indicates possession of other records that are pertinent to the identification of this child/person.


Child Sex Male

This is a option button.  Selecting the male option de-selects the female.  Use this to indicate the sex of the individual.


Child Sex Female

This is a option button.  Selecting the female option de-selects the male.  Use this to indicate the sex of the individual.


Child Natural

This is an option button.  Selecting the Natural option de-selects all other options.  Use this to indicate the true relationship of the individual to the parents.


Child Adopted

This is an option button.  Selecting the Adopted option de-selects all other options.  Use this to indicate the true relationship of the individual to the parents.


Child Foster

This is an option button.  Selecting the Foster option de-selects all other options.  Use this to indicate the true relationship of the individual to the parents.


Child Unknown

This is an option button.  Selecting the Unknown option de-selects all other options.  Use this to indicate the true relationship of the individual to the parents.


Child OK Button

Select the OK Button to save this record to the database file and to update the grid.  You'll notice that the child drop down list box now contains this individual's name.


Child Cancel Button

Selecting the cancel button cause all changes to be aborted.  You will be prompted if there have been changes to this form.  Answer yes or no as appropriate.


Child of Unwed Mother

This is a check box.  Select this to indicate the individual was born to an unwed mother.  You may or may not know the father's name.


Child Sex

Enter the sex of the child.  If the child was born a female then select the female option.  The male option will automatically be deselected.


Child Control Menu

This is a standard control menu.  It operates in the same fashion as any Windowsstandard control operates.


Child Title Bar

This is the title bar for the child window.  It operates in the same fashion as any Windows standard control operates.


Child's relationship to the head of the parents.

This frame contains all the options for indicating this child's relationship to the mother and father.  The child may have been adopted or lived with the individuals as a foster child.  In most cases the child's relationship with be natural indicating the child was born to the father and mother.


If you select any of these items in the list you will load the immediate family group for that individual.


If you select this option you will bring up the child add form.


Main Window - the form
  The Main Window

Main Window Procedures

This is the starting point of the Windows Genealogy program.  Here all the windows and menus are displayed for you to select from.  Normally no opening document will be displayed.  If you so chose you can select from preferences to load the last used file (be careful, large files take a long time to load and you could be waiting longer than you like.)

Below is a listing of the components you'll find in this window.  Above you will find a graphic of the main window with some other component child windows.  If you select any component in the above graphic by moving the mouse over the graphic and when the pointer changes to a hand cursor press the left mouse button for the information and description on that element of the graphic.

Menu Bar

Function Key Bar

Tool Bar

Status Bar


Main Window Procedures
   The Main Window Procedures

Below is a description of how to perform the basic procedures for interacting with the Main window.  This window is the starting point for most of your activities when you interact with the Windows Genealogy program.

  Click on the icon to the left with the left mouse button to see a sample of the form.

Opening:	Opening the form is accomplished in a number of ways. These procedures are as follows:  Double click on the record in the Individuals listing, or select the record and click the edit button, or select the record and press the enter key, or select the record and choose the add or edit option from the floating tool box, or select the record and choose add or edit from the records menu.
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.  Some controls on the form cannot be traversed using these same keystrokes.  To be specific the drop down list boxes and combo boxes do not operate with the standard keystrokes.  You can resize the form to make it fit your screen better.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of thier menu text. To access the pop up menus move to a clear part of the form and press the right mouse button and select the appropriate menu option.  Depending on where you are on the form will determine which Pop up menu you are presented with.  For instance, the pop up menu located in the marriage and child section of the form brings up a duplicate of the main menu bar, the pop up menu for the husband is slightly different from that of the wife's pop up menu and both of these menus are significantly different that that of the marriage/child area.
Editing Fields:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Saving your data:	Saving the data is pretty simple.  Click on the Ok button.  All associated open forms will be closed and you'll be asked to save any changes to them as well.
Printing:	Select print from from the popup menu or from the main file menu.
Closing	Closing the form can happen as a result of several procedures.  The first being the request to close the form by clicking on the Ok button (you'll be prompted to save any unsaved changes.)  The second one second is as the result of closing the database.  And the third is by being prompted because you are closing the related forms to retrieve another family member from the family tree.


Function Key Bar Description
  The Function Key Bar

Click on any of the function key bar labels to view a description of their function.

The function key bar is useful for those individuals whom are work/letter or keyboard oriented.  The function key bar can be turned off by going to the options menu and selecting the function key bar menu.  If the function key bar menu has a check in front of it the function key bar will be hidden and the check mark will be removed.  If the function key bar does not have a check mark in front of it when you view the menu it's because the function key bar is not visible.  Selecting this will cause the function key bar to be displayed and a check mark to be placed in front of it.

Double clicking on any label that is displayed will cause that function/action to take place.

Sections of the function key bar are not visible at all times.  This is done to show you what functions are necessary and what functions are not.


Tool Bar Description
  The Tool Bar

Click on any of the tool bar icons to view a description of their function.

The tool bar is useful for those individual whom are sight oriented rather than work/letter oriented.  The tool bar can be turned off by going to the options menu and selecting the tool bar menu.  If the tool bar menu has a check in front of it the tool bar will be hidden and the check mark will be removed.  If the tool bar menu does not have a check mark in front of it when you view the menu it's because the tool bar is not visible.  Selecting this will cause the tool bar to be displayed and a check mark to be placed in front of the menu.

Sections of the tool bar are not visible at all times.  Other sections (buttons) on the tool bar are enabled/disabled depending on the procedures you are trying to perform.

Clicking on any of these icons will cause that function/action to take place.

If you move your mouse pointer over any of the active buttons, a description of what that button will do will be displayed on the status bar at the bottom of the window.

If you grab a family member and drag that family member's name over one of the active buttons and drop the family member onto one of the buttons then the program will cause that function/action to take place.


Status Bar Description
  The Status Bar

The status bar is displayed to assist you in determining where you are, what was done, what you can do, and how far along in a specific process you have gone.

In the graphics above the first graphic displays the status bar with the general messages.

The second graphic above shows the status bar being used as a progress indicator.

And the third graphic above shows the status bar displaying the clock with the date proceeding it.


  Vital Statistics Form

Vital Statistics Procedures

The vital statistics form is for entering the data that is specific to your family member that pertains to birth, christening, and death information that is not found on the other forms.  Below is a list of the individual field data that you'll be entering on the form.

Clicking on the form component you'll receive a description of what that form's component expects and is used for.

Birth Information	Christening Information	Death Information
Birth Date	Date of Christening	Date of Death
Birth Place	Place of Christening	Place of Death
Gender	Christening Certificate	Time of Death
Child of Unwed Mother		Burial Location
Child's Relation to Head of Household		Cause of Death
Time of Birth		Social Security Number
Birth Certificate		Social Security Death Index
		Obituary Notice
		Death Certificate

The other information on the form consists of three buttons.  The OK button saves the data and closes the form.  The cancel button will close the form but will prompt you for any unsaved changes.  The Help button will bring up this help screen.

Other Form Components

Ok Button

Cancel Button

Help Button


Date of Birth

Type in the individual's date of birth.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar  (i.e., Sep 13, 1960.)


Date of Death

Type in the individual's date of death.  You should use a consistent format, such as MMM DDD, YYYY, or something similar (i.e., Sep 13, 1960.)


Place of Death

Type in the individual's place of death.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Place of Birth

Type in the individual's place of birth.  You are limited to 50 characters.  This should be sufficient.  If necessary you might want to abbreviate where possible.


Male Sex Option

Notice the option is grayed out.  This indicates that this individual has a spouse.  Since the male option is selected this indicates that the spouse is a female.  If these option buttons were not grayed out then the sex of the individual could be changed.  This male, possibly incorrectly entered, could be changed to a female record.  When this option is changed the names on the form will then be properly placed in the appropriate fields on the add/edit form.


Male Sex Option

Notice the option is grayed out.  This indicates that this individual has a spouse.  Since the female option is selected this indicates that the spouse is a male.  If these option buttons were not grayed out then the sex of the individual could be changed.  This female, possibly incorrectly entered, could be changed to a male record.  When this option is changed the names on the form will then be properly placed in the appropriate fields on the add/edit form.


Time of Birth

Enter the time of birth in a consistent format such as 12:24 am.


Date of Christening

This is the date that the individual underwent his/her christening and when the certificate was issued.  You need not have the certificate in your possession.


Place of Christening

This is the location where the individual was christened.  You should indicate the church or parish and the physical location such as the city/state/province or country where the christening took place.


Time of Death

This is the official time the individual died.


Burial Location

This is the actual location the individual was buried at.  You should state the cemetary and the physical location such as the city/state/province or country where the burial took place.


Social Security Number

Enter the individual's social security number.  Obviously this number is only issued within the United States of America.  This data is only for your records.  This number may indicate that individual was elidigible to receive a social security pension and when died was entered into the Social Security Death Index.  This can provide information as to what the location of the individual at the time of death and other pertinent information.


Cause of Death

This is the actual cause of death.  Pick from the categories listed in the drop down combo.  If you enter a cause of death that is not in the list when you save the record the list will be updated so that cause of death can be reused with other family members.  When you type in this field if you have the list displayed  you'll be able to see the list searched and the closest to your choice highlighted.  To clear out the Cause of Death highlight all the text in the typing area and press the backspace key.


Social Security Death Index

This is the database maintained by the National Government that indicates the individual's receipt of a social security pension and the date, time and place of the individual's death.  This database is maintained, in duplicate form, by the LDS Church.


Death Certificate

Select this check box if you have a copy, in your posession, of the individual's death certificate.


Obituary Notice

Select this check box if you have a copy, in your posession, of the individual's obituary notice.


Ok Button

Use this button to save the changes to the database and to close this window.


Cancel Button

Use this button to cancel the editing of the vital statistics information about this individual.  You will be prompted for any changes that have been made that have not been saved.  Chose your options appropriately.


Birth Certificate

Select this box if you have in your posession a copy of the individual's birth certificate.


Christening Certificate

Select this box if you have in your posession a copy of the individual's christening certificate.


Help Button

Select this button to display this screen for help.


Gender

Specify the gender (sex) of the individual.


Child of Unwed/Single Mother

Child of a mother that was not married at the time of the individual's birth.


Natural

Child's relationship to the head of household is that the child was born a natural child of the head of the household.


Adopted

Child's relationship to the head of household is that the child was born a adopted child of the head of the household.


Foster

Child's relationship to the head of household is that the child was born a foster child of the head of the household.


Unknown

Child's relationship to the head of household is that the child was born a unknow relationship  child of the head of the household.


   Other Records Form

Other Form Procedures

Entry Procedures, etc.

The information on this form is represented by check boxes.  To select an option click on it to deselect it click on it again.

Click on the graphic control above to view information about that option.


Military Records - the form
   Military Entry Form

Military Procedures

Entry Procedures

Only some of the military information that one can compile about ones ancestors and descendants can be maintained in the database.  Allowing one to maintain all the information could cause the database to become unwieldy.  As in most cases if you have a recommendation regarding which data to maintain send me a letter and I'll do what I can to accommodate your request.

The wars one might have been in are something that all of us are interested in.  I've tried to provide a concise list of the wars.  To select a war or series of wars one's ancestors and descendents might have fought in click on the check boxes.

The discharge date and place are important for one to determine

Whether someone has specific records can help.  Most of what I've selected to maintain are what I received from the national archives when I was asking for information on my great-great-grandfather.  I know there are more, but how much can effectively be maintained by a program such as this.  Certainly what is maintained is more than most program that allow one to track genealogical histories provide.  If you want to enter more information about ones relatives concerning military history it can be entered in the notes portion of the database (not available at this time.)


Physical and Medical Description Entry Form
   Physical/Medical Form

Physical Description Procedures

A quick description

More information follows.


Immediate Family List - the form
   Immediate Family List

 Immediate Family List Procedures

The immediate family group listing is the table that contains the immediate family members of the selected individual.  The selected individual is the person that you choose from the individuals listing (by double clicking on their record), from one of the drop down list boxes on the add/edit form, or you selected (by double clicking on their record) from this same family group listing grid.

The table here provides you with some additional information not found elsewhere.  Other than that it is not that useful.  You can move through most of the screens and also view the descendent tree to see the relationships to the individual.   The information about nationality is found on the physical/medical form.  I like it because it brings the family members together onto one form and give me a count and relationship to the selected indiviual in words rather than graphically.  If this proves to be a useful display I'll enhance it.  Otherwise, I might remove it from the system recovering systems resources and memory for other necessary things.


Immediate Family List Procedures Table
   Immediate Family List

   Select the icon to view the form.

Opening:	Immediate Family Listing: When you retrieve the immediate family group the immediate family group listing is automatically retrieved.  This form cannot be closed except by closing the immediate family group .
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of thier menu text. Click anywhere on the form with the right mouse button to view the popup menu.
Printing:	Select the Print form menu option from the main file menu.  It will only print the form as it is currently displayed and will not print non visible names that normally would be visible if you scrolled the form.  Try enlarging the form before printing.
Closing	Immediate Family Group Listing: Closing the immediate family group listing is accomplished by closing the immediate family group.  This form cannot be closed in any other way.


Relationship Column

This column indicates the relationship of the individual in the row to the selected individual.  When you selected an individual this person became the center point for the immediate family group.  Similar to being the radial point of the snowflake.  Naturally any of the individual listed retrieved as part of the immediate family group should show their relationship to the selected individual.


Minimize button

This button will cause the form to be minimized and will cause the form to appear as an icon on the desktop.


Data area

This area contains the information that will assist you in differentiating your individual, in determining which individual is actually which.  Often times individuals are named for their parents or grandparents, or their aunts and uncles.  Knowing the birthdate and relationship to the selected individual will assist you in making this determination.


Number of members in immediate family group

This number indicates how many people are in this list.  It is simply presented as a nicety.  I use it so I can have some indication of how big my immediate family groups are.


Control menu

A standard Windows control menu.  Double click to close.  Ctrl-F4 does the same.


Ttle bar

A standard Windows title bar.  It's text is usually updated to show who the center or pivital person is in the immediate family group.


Relationship

The relationship indicator.


Column Headings

These column headings reflect the type and purpose of data listed in the columns.


Preferences Dialog Box
   Preferences

Preferences Procedures

Below is a graphic of the Preferences form.  Click anywhere on the graphic to display an explanation of its' components.

As you can see it is very attractive and easily traversed.

Moving through this entry screen is pretty much straight forward.  Use the tab key to move from field to field in a clockwise order and use the shift-tab key to move through them in a counter-clockwise order.  You can use the mouse to locate the point or field to update.  When selecting a text field you will notice that the contents of the field become selected.  You can position the pointer in the field at any location simply by positioning the mouse pointer and pressing the left mouse button.  To delete the contents of the field press the backspace key with text selected or with the cursor positioned infront of the character(s) you desire deleted.  If you notice the labels of some of the available fields (mostly check boxes and radio buttons) you'll notice the underscore character.  To access and select that specific field press the "alt" and the letter that is underscored.

On this form if you press the right mouse button with the pointer over a blank area of the form or over any of the labels for text boxes and summary text you will be presented with a popup menu.  You can select from any of these menu options that are not grayed out or disabled.

When you are finished making your choices press the "Ok" button.  This will save your preferences.  When you are finished select the Ok or cancel (close) button.  If you choose cancel and have made changes you will be prompted to save these changes.  You should answer the prompt appropriately.


Preferences Procedure Description
   Preferences

  Click on the forms icon to view the form.

Opening:	Opening the form is accomplished in a number of ways.  These procedures are as follows:  Double click on the record in the Individuals listing, or select the record and click the edit button, or select the record and press the enter key, or select the record and choose the add or edit option from the floating tool box, or select the record and choose add or edit from the records menu.
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of thier menu text. To access the Pop up menus move to a clear part of the form and press the right mouse button and select the appropriate menu option.  Depending on where you are on the form will determine which Pop up menu you are presented with.  For instance, the pop up menu located in the marriage and child section of the form brings up a duplicate of the main menu bar, the pop up menu for the husband is slightly different from that of the wife's pop up menu and both of these menus are significantly different that that of the marriage/child area.
Editing Fields:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Saving your data:	Saving the data is pretty simple.  Click on the Ok button.  All associated open forms will be closed and you'll be asked to save any changes to them as well.
Closing	Closing the form can happen as a result of several procedures.  The first being the request to close the form by clicking on the Ok button (you'll be prompted to save any unsaved changes.)  The second one second is as the result of closing the database.  And the third is by being prompted because you are closing the related forms to retrieve another family member from the family tree.


  Advanced Preferences

Click the graphic control to view it's function.

Explainations follow:


Show Progress Indicator

Select this to show the progress indicator graph on the status bar, when the status bar is visible.


Beep When Complete

Select this to have the computer beep at you when some of the lengthy procedures have completed.


Search Individual List on Keypress

Select this to have a complete search by name in the individual listing.  The alternative is to have the list jump to the name in the list that begins with the letter just typed.


Data File Directory

Fill this in to indicate to Win Gen where it should look to find its data files.


Startup Options

Select this to indicate the startup options.  None is the default.  The other two options are "Load Last File" and "Open Dialog"


Tree Style

Select from the four options for the descendent tree display.  Lines and text are default.


Date Formats

Select from one of the predefined date formats to be used when entering and displaying dates data.


Time Formats

Select one of the predefined time formtas to be used when entering and displaying time data.


Title

Enter the Title that you wish to use on your reports and the title you wish to use on the title bar of the individual listing.


Name

Enter the name of the preparer of this data file.  This name will be used in the reports.


Street Address

Enter the street address of the preparer of this data file.  This address will be used in the reports.


City

Enter the city portion of the address of the preparer of this data file.  This city portion of the address will be used in the reports.


State

Enter the state portion of the address of the preparer of this data file.  This state portion of the address will be used in the reports.


Zip Code

Enter the zip code portion of the address of the preparer of this data file.  This zip code portion of the address will be used in the reports.


Telephone Number

Enter the telephone number of the preparer of this data file.  This telephone number will be used in the reports.


OK Button

Click this button to save the changes to the preferences.


Cancel Button

Click this button to cancel the changes to the preferences.


Advanced Button

Click this button to retrieve the advance preferences form.


Help Button

Click this button to display this help topic.


Color Button

Click this button to select the backgroud color of the control that has focus.


Status Bar

This is the status bar that lists the name and path of the currently opened file, if one is currently opened.


Individual List - the form.
   Individual Listing

Individual Listing Procedures	Searching for Family Members

The individual listing is an ascending alphabetical listing of all the family members that have been entered into the data file to date.  The listing is where you'll begin the process of maintaining the ancestral/descendent data on your family.  If you need to find out if a family member has been entered into the data file you'll search the listing here.  If you need to delete someone from your data file you'll delete the individual from here by dragging the individual to the trash can.

The individual listing is flexible enough to be tailored to your desires.  For instance, you can change the look of the windows by turning on or off the label bar and status bar.  You can also alter the size of the font and the type face.  The window can be resized to your wishes.

Individual Listing List

This list contains an alphabetical listing of all the names that have been entered into the data file.  As you add more names to the data file the names will appear here.  If you change the name of any individual it will appear here in its new position automatically.  To view those names not displayed use the scroll bars (located to the right of the list) to scroll up or down through the list.  If you want to see a specific name (if it has already been entered) you can, at any time, begin typing the name.  The syntax for entering the name is:  Last Name, First Name, Middle Name or Initial.  Use a comma to separate the last name and the first name.  The text that you type for the search should match the format of the names displayed in the list.  If you do not have the option "Search Individual List on Keypress" when you search the highlight bar will be focused on the first name that begins with the letter you type.

Usually you will use the mouse to point at a specific name in the list and then normally you'll select one of the buttons on the button bar, or select from the actions menu, or press the right mouse button while the mouse pointer is over the individual listing form to bring up a tear off (or pop up) menu.  All actions begin typically at this individual listing.  After an action is taken on an individual, such as retrieving the individual's vital statistics form, you can bring up other forms related to this individual without having to return to this listing.

Associated with each of the names in the list is the birth date, as explained above, and a reference number.  The birth date usually is displayed.  In fact, you can be pretty sure that if you can't see a birth date associate with the individual that individual does not have their birth date entered into the data file.  The other piece of data associated with the name in the list is the reference number, as explain a moment ago.  This reference number typically is never available to you to edit.  This number is created and associated at the time you create (or add) the individual and store that individual's data into the data file.  The only way to alter this reference number is to use some utility or a full fledged data base program that can access MS Access 1.0 and greater databases.  In any event, you'll never want to access this reference number because it is your link to the other individuals within the immediate family group, or for that matter the whole family.  When you add a family member to the data file a linkage is created.  At times, when menus and other lists are presented to you, you will see the associated reference number.

Below you will see an example of the Individuals listing.  Any birth date is listed to the right of the name.  When a family member does not have a birth date entered into the data file the birth date to the right of the name will be blank.

Individual Listing Title Bar and Label Bar

At the top of the individual listing is the name (or title) that was entered into the Preferences dialog box under registration title.  If you want to change the name that appears on the individual listing title bar then change it in the preferences dialog.  Below the title bar is a label bar.  This label bar shows the column headings for the data in the list just below the label bar.  This label bar can be hidden to make more room to display more names.  To make the label bar disappear position your mouse over it and double click the left mouse button.  To bring this label bar back, position the mouse pointer over the Individual Listing status bar shown just below the individual listing list and double click the left mouse button.  The label bar is used when ever you do the comprehensive search of the individual list.  At times it will seem that the label bar appears and then automatically disappears.  If having this label bar appear and disappear causes confusion for you, you might wish to have it displayed at all times.

Closing the List

When you close the individual listing form, either by double clicking on the form's control menu, choosing to close from the control menu or by closing from the file menu "close list" menu item you effectively close the database associated with it.  Any open forms will be closed along with it, including the trash can.  If you have entries in the  trash can's list you'll be prompted to restore those deleted individual's or to delete those individuals immediately.  At any time, when prompted, you can cancel the action thus halting the closure of the data file.  You may chose to cancel the closure of the data file by canceling a prompt for an unsaved change to the Military form, for example.

Standard Controls

All the windows in Win Gen have the standard controls.  The listing has a title bar, a maximize button, a minimize button, window resize borders, and a control menu.  All the windows normal controls operate exactly like expected of any other Windows program.  The Title bar of the listing windows can have its title bar caption altered.  You do this by modifying the "title" section of the registration block found in the preferences form.

Programmed Controls

Additionally the list has additional components.  These components are; a label bar, the listing, and a status bar.  These additional components operate just as if you would expect any windows application control to operate.  The additional windows components can be manipulated by the users in a number of ways.  For instance, the status bar and label bar can be turned off or back on; the listing can have its typeface and point size changed.

There are additional features that are part of the listing.  The first feature, beyond the altering of the type face and point size is the ability to pop up a menu right over the listing.  The menu that pops up is customized to reflect the status of the individual that is currently highlighted in the list.  Items can be dragged from the list and dropped onto other forms or controls.  The listing can be searched to find a specific family member.

Individual's Listing Window Components

Individual's Listing Pop Up Menu

Dragging and dropping individuals from the listing

Minimizing the listing

Searching the listing for a specific individual

Description of the information contained in the list

Turning on or off the label bar and status bar

Altering the title bar caption

Using other windows controls to act upon the item in the listing

Changing the typeface and point size of the list

Using the keyboard with the listing

Removing items from the list (throwing clippings into the trash)

Restoring items to the list from the trash can

Scrolling the list

Getting Help


Drag and drop

If you select a family member from the list and hold down the left mouse button you should see the mouse pointer change to a hand holding a piece of paper.  This new pointer indicates that you can take that individual and drop it onto any of the open forms, the buttons on the button bar, or the trash can.  If you drag and drop the individual onto the "Build Descendent Tree" button the descendent tree form will be displayed and a descendent tree will be generated based on that selected individual.  If the individual is dragged and dropped onto the vital statistics form that form will then load the data appropriate to that form for the dropped individual.  Dropping the individual onto the trash can will, if applicable, remove the individual from the listing and enter the name into the trash can's delete list.  At no time can you drag and drop something onto the individual list.


Turning on or off the status bar and label bar

To allow you to customize the listing window to your tastes you have to option of turning on or off the status bar and label bar of the individual listing.  When you do turn off or on one or both of these components the status of them are retained throughout your sessions.  That is when you quit the program and come back into it these settings are retained.

To turn off the label bar and status bar do the following"

Use the alt-left mouse click to remove the status bar.

Use the ctrl-left mouse click to remove the label bar.

To turn on the label bar and status bar do the following:

Use the alt-left mouse click to restore the status bar

Use the ctrl-left mouse click to restore the label bar

What is meant by using the alt-left mouse click is that you should hold down the alt key on the keyboard and click the left mouse button on the list both at the same time.  The same applies to the ctrl (control) key.

Normally what will happen will be that the listing is resized to accommodate the new free screen space.  To reclaim this screen space is another reason for you to turn off these controls or change the point size/type face of the list.


Displaying and Using the Pop Up Menus

The individual listing was designed to help you get at your ancestors/descendants data quickly.  Using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) such as MS Windows allow programmers to create programs that do a lot more for the users than any other program.  It also allows them to create programs that operate like virtually every other program written for the same environment.  One of the major innovations to come about because of the GUI is the ability to create pop up (tear off) menus and present those menus at the point of the cursor (arrow) on the screen.  Win Gen provides this innovation throughout the program.  The individual listing has a very sophisticated tear off menu.  The tear off menu is generated every time you select a new individual in the list (that is, move around the list highlighting their name.)  Once this individual has been selected you may bring up the tear off menu by positioning the mouse cursor over the listing (anywhere) and then click the RIGHT mouse button.  Note:  if you have swapped the left and right mouse buttons using the control panel press the left mouse button instead.

The advantages of using the pop up menus is that you can quickly get to the actions (if you are a mouse oriented person) without having to constantly move the mouse around.  If you are a keyboard user you can access this pop up menu by selecting from the many menu options from the main menu bar. The individual listing's pop up menu duplicates and enhances the menu options presented when you select the Actions menu from the menu bar.

One thing about the pop up menu for this listing is that the flyout menu for spouses is right there.  I can quickly get at the name or names of the spouses for the selected individual.  The other thing that I like about the pop up menu presented here is that I can almost immediately tell if the individual is married, has children, has more than one spouse, and/or has already had their parents added to the data file.


Changing the type face and point size of the listing

If you want to alter the look of the names in the listing you can change the type face and point size of the entries in the list.  The way to do this is to select the window then select from the Options menu the option called fonts.  This will bring up a dialog box that will present to you the names of the fonts, their available point sizes and a sample box so you can see what the type face and point size look like.  When you are finished you should select the "Ok" button to keep the changes you have made.  If you decide to cancel the changes you can press the "Cancel" button.  If you need help you can press the "Help" button to display this help text.

One thing to note about changing the point size and type face.  Changing this causes the label bar of the listing to change also.  If your change exceeds 18 points in the point size change the label bar's point size will be limited to 18.  For instance, if you select a 36 point font the label bar will still be limited to 18 points.  If you select a 16 point type face then the label bar point size will be 16.


Description of the information contained in the list.

As you can see this is an ascending list of your family members.  It also contains the birth data of your family member if you entered one for the individuals.  When you select the date format in the preferences form this date format will be used to display the date in this listing.


Using other windows controls to act upon an item in the listing.

Using Buttons

If you select the first method, that is select a button, that pertains to the action you want to perform you can view the bottom of the Main window and examine the main window's status bar.  This status bar will provide you with the information as to the functionality of any button, if that button is enabled.  If you attempt to press a button that does not apply to the selected individual you should notice that nothing happens.  The buttons that are inappropriate to what task you are trying to perform will be disabled and won't allow you to depress them.  An inappropriate task, for example, would be to click the "Add Parents Button" when the selected individual already has its' parents added.

Using Menus

If you choose the latter two methods you will notice that the menu's that are presented to you change and are specific to the individual that you have selected.  You can be pretty sure from the menu that is selected specific information about the individual.  For instance, if the "Change Gender" menu option is available then you know the individual must NOT be married.  If the "Add Children" menu option is presented you should know that the individual has at least one spouse.  If you see "Add Parents" displayed on the menu you should know that this individual does not have their parents added to the data file.

Dropping Clippings into the Trash

The individuals can only be dropped into the trash from this listing.  You cannot drop any individual from any other list or form.  If you attempt to do so you will be informed that this is not possible.


Using the keyboard with the listing

Normal keyboard use is allowed with Win Gen's individual listing.  The keyboard sequences that you expect work in the same manner.  In addition to the standard keyboard sequences you can use the short cut keys for the listing for accessing the forms.  It can be a real bother to do alt-this then alt-that then this letter, etc. when accessing the main menu bar.  Control key sequences seem more appropriate.

The listing allows for standard keyboard access to moving through the listing.

Home/End

You can for instance use the Home key to move to the beginning of the listing.  You can use the End key to move to the last entry in the list.

Page Up/Page Down

The Page Up key moves you one page up in the list and the Page Down moves you one page down in the list.

Control Page Up/Control Page Down

Using the Page Up and Page Down keyboard sequences with the control key will move you to the top entry and bottom entry in the window.

Enter Key

The enter key is used to select a family member for retrieval into the immediate family group.  That is, it retrieves the edit form and loads the individual and their family members.  These family members together make up the immediate family group.


Removing items from the listing and putting them in the trash

Specific qualifying individuals can be deleted from this listing.  This deletion of individuals, also referred to as pruning, is accomplished by grabbing an individual and dragging and dropping them to an on the trash can.  If an individual qualifies that individual will then be removed from the listing and will appear in the trash can's listing.  If the individual does not qualify to be deleted you'll be informed of this and the reason for the rejection.

Family members can be removed from the trash and returned to the individual listing. This is accomplished by accessing the features of the trash can.

If you remove all the individuals from the listing the system returns to the state of a newly created file.  That is the pop up menus are disabled.  Several menu bar items are disabled as well as most of the buttons on the button bar.  These features won't be re-enabled until you add a new family member or you undelete/restore a member from the trash.


Individual Listing's window components

The individual listing's components are standard windows components.  They contain the standard controls, such as the control menu, minimize and maximize buttons, resize borders, a title bar, etc.  The individual listing is referred to what is called an MDI Child.  This means that when the listing is in its' iconic state the icon appears on the applications internal desktop, rather than the desktop of the main Windows screen.

As has been stated earlier in this help you can alter the caption on the status bar.  Doing so will cause the title bar to reflect, at least partially what you place in the preferences form Registration Title text.

Using these standard controls you can act upon the visual appearance of the listing window.  You can minimize the application turning it into an icon.  You can resize the window to take more room or less room in the Win Gen client area.  Resizing the window also causes the listing to adjust within the window.  You can maximize the window to take up most if not all the room on the screen.  By grabbing the title bar you can move the listing to another area on the Win Gen client area.


How to change the title bar's caption

The title bar is updated when you change the title in the preferences form under registration.

By default when a new data file is created the title bar appends "UNTITLED" to the window title bar caption.


Scrolling around the window

Scrolling around the listing is accomplished by either using the keyboard and/or the mouse pointer.  The first method is described in the topic "Using the Keyboard with the Listing".

Using the Mouse with the listing accomplished as with any other windows component.  The listing's components that are designed for use with the mouse are described below:

If you want to move one item up in the listing click the scroll bar to the right of the listing once.  You can hold down the mouse button on this control and have the list scroll up slowly.  Clicking the left mouse button on the down arrow portion of the scroll bar causes the window to scroll down one entry.  If you hold down the mouse button on this control it will cause the listing to scroll down slowly.

Another method of scrolling using the mouse is to use the scroll bar thumb.  This thumb can be grabbed by pointing at it and pressing the mouse button holding down the button while you move the mouse up or down.  You should see the screen automatically update the items shown in the list.  This is a fast method of move to an area in the list, for example you might use it to move 3/4th of the way down the list, if this estimate is appropriate to the task you are attempting to perform.

Clicking between the up or down arrow and the thumb on the scroll bar will cause the list to jump approximately one page up or down, depending on where you clicked.  If you are already down near the bottom of the list and click between the thumb and the down arrow you might position the list on the last page.  Clicking in this way causes Win Gen to approximate how many items in the list should be adjusted up or down.  This is actually a function of Windows itself and the Win Gen programs takes advantage of it by virtue of using this standard control.


Getting Help

Press F1 for help on the window and you'll be presented with a graphic of the list windows and some of this help text.


In the preferences dialog box you can select the option to have the individual listing minimize when you retrieve a family group.  This is quite convenient because it removes quite a bit of extraneous information from the screen to allow you to focus better on the forms.  The option in the preferences dialog box is called "Minimize on retrieve."


Individual Listing Procedures Table
   Individual Listings

   Select the icon to view the form.

Opening:	Individual Listing: Opening the Individual listing is performed by either selecting to create a new database or by opening an existing database.   The point behind this explanation is that you cannot just open the Individual listing you must retrieve a database and thus opening the form.
Traversing the Form:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Accessing Menus:	To access the menus move the mouse pointer to the menu bar and select the appropriate menu option.  Those menu options unavailable will be grayed out.  Some selected will have check marks in front of their menu text. To access the Pop up menus move to any part of the form and press the right mouse button and select the appropriate menu option.
Editing Fields:	To traverse the form use the standard Windows keystrokes or use the mouse.  Some of the standard keystrokes are:  Use the tab and shift-tab key to move back and forth through the fields, use the up and down arrow keys to move between most fields.  Use the mouse key by clicking on the field you desire to take focus.
Saving your data:	Saving the data is pretty simple.  Choose the save icon from the floating toolbox, the toolbar or by selecting the save menu option off the file menu.
Printing:	Not available at this time.
Closing	Individual Listing: Closing the individual listing is accomplished by closing the database.  You'll probably do this because you choose to quit.  The individual listing form will close and open as you retrieve different databases.


Searching the Individual Listing
Searching the Individual List for a family member

There are two ways to search an individual from within the individual listing.  The two searches consists  searching for the first then next occurrence of the individual with a last name that begins with the letter you type.  The second is a more concise search.  This search allows you to type out the full name as you can remember it and the individual listing will be searched with the highlight bar being position on the closest, but not greater, name that matches your search.

The first type requires no real explanation.  You type the character you believe your family member's last name begins with and the first occurrence of a name that begins with the letter just typed will be highlighted and positioned, normally, as the top entry in the list.  Actually the list is scrolled to that name and that name is then placed as the first apparent one in the list.  If you then select to type that character again the next entry beginning with that character will be selected.

The second is a more concise search.  Below is a graphic showing the search box.

In the preferences dialog an option for performing a search on keypress is selected by default.  This allows you to perform a more sophisticated search throughout the individual list.  The process is pretty simple.  Make sure the individual list box has the focus (is selected) and begin typing.  You'll type the last name, first name, then middle name.  At the top of the individual listing the Individual listing title will change to a recessed input box where you can see what you're typing.  That's about it.  You're finished.  If a name is matched it will be highlighted and in most cases will be brought to the top of the list.

When you are finished you can then press return, escape, or click (using the mouse) somewhere else and this recessed input box will disappear.  If you normally had the list labels turned off they will then disappear.  The list box will then resize to accommodate the extra room.  If the labels were already visible they will then be restored.


Title Bar

The title bar typically reflect the "Title" entered into the preferences dialog box.  If you have not filled in this field in the preferences the title bar with say "List of Family Members:  UNTITLED."  You can grab this title bar and move the listing around the screen, within the bounds of the Main window.


Label Bar

The label bar displays the listing column headings.  This Label Bar is also used to hold the text (or string of characters) when you perform a comprehensive search.  This Label Bar can also be made to disappear.  Note:  If you choose to have it non-visible it will be made visible so the text for the search can be entered.  When the search is complete it will be again made invisible.  This can cause confusion and make the list appear to jump, per se, around a bit.  If this makes you uncomfortable then leave it visible at all times.  If you for some reason inadvertently made it non-visible, you can bring it back (make it visible) by double clicking on the Individual Listing Status Bar.


Listing of Names

This is an alphabetical listing listed in ascending order of all the names that have been entered into the data file.  Associated with each name in the list is usually listed the birth date.  Select a family member and then choose the actions from the tool bar, actions menu, or pop up (tear off) menus.


Scroll Bars

Use these scroll bars to display names that are not currently displayed in the list, either because they are below the boundaries of the window or they are above the boundaries of the window.


Listing Status Bar

This status bar typically lists the number of family members in the list.  As the names of individuals are added or deleted this number is updated.  The status bar is also used to make the Label Bar visible again.  If you have made the Label bar non-visible, in order to make more room to display more names or inadvertently, you can double click on this status bar to bring back (make visible again) the Label bar.


Altering the sort order of the list

It is not possible to change the sorted order of the listing.


 Trash Can

The trashcan is used to delete/prune family members from the family tree.  It won't allow you to prune and therefore orphan a small family groups.

How the trash can operates.

The Trash Can's Purpose

Filling The Trash Can

Emptying The Trash Can (Not just mens work)

Closing The Trash Can

Deleting All The Family Members In The Data File

Who Can Be Deleted

Trash Can Messages


The Trash Can's Purpose

The trash can is used primarily to get rid of those individuals that do not belong in the family tree that you've been preparing.  They might not  belong to the family tree any more because you guessed at their relationship and later found that they just didn't belong.  Another might be that you mistakenly entered a name twice and need to get rid of the duplicate.


Filling The Trash Can

The trash can is filled by taking items from the individual listing and dragging them onto the trash can icon or into the open trash can window.  When you drag these items into the trash can the mouse pointer will change to something that represents a hand dropping a piece of paper.  When you pick up the item from the individual listing it will appear as a hand holding or picking up a piece of paper.


Emptying The Trash Can (Not just men's work)

After you have dropped the item from the individual listing into the trash the icon for the trash becomes a trash can that appears to be full or at least have something stuffed into it.  When the trash can has items stored into it these items can be manipulated in a two different ways.  The first is to undelete the records and move them back to the list.  The trash can was designed to delete individuals so using the trash individual family members can be permanently deleted or all the individual's listed in the trash can can be deleted.  The first method of deleting is to delete individuals.  Select the individual you wish to delete and press the delete button.  The second way to delete individuals is the global delete which is accomplished by pressing the "empty trash" button.  The "empty trash" button removes everyone from the list and permanently wipes them from the data file.  Note:  Periodically you should choose to compact the data file you've been working on to free up any remnants of the records in the file, thus freeing up disk space.


There is a help button, this button brings up this screen.


Closing The Trash Can

The Close button causes the trash can to minimize to its' iconic state.

The trash can can be closed, that is removed from the desktop, thus freeing up memory and system resources for other more critical processes.  If you attempt to close the trash can and the trash can contains one or more items you'll be prompted to delete them, undelete them, or cancel the trash can unload procedure.

If you select to delete them the entries will be wiped from disk in the manner explained above.  If you choose no to the prompt your family members will be restored to the list.  You'll be provided an opportunity to cancel this whole process.

If you attempt to unload the data file and load another data file you'll be prompted to empty the trash can first.  If you choose not to empty the trash can the trash can will be cleared and the individuals in there will have been restored to the data file.  You'll see this the next time you open the data file.

Anyway you look at it deleting records that are associated with a complex tree structure needs to  have many prompts and controls to keep the records from crossing the boundries of multiple data files.


Deleting All The Records In The Data File

If you manage to delete all the records in the current data file manu menus and buttons will become disabled.  The process will begin as if you were opening/creating a new file.  Notice that the Actions, Graphs, and Reports menus are disabled and that many of the items in the File menu and all buttons, except three (the file save as, file open, and Add buttons) have been disabled.  Disabling these is necessary to keep you from attempting to access forms for individuals that do not yet exist or no longer exist.  The descendent tree and immediate family group are also unloaded for the same reasons.


The trash can can be restored to its window position by double clicking on it just like any other


Who Can Be Deleted

Reasons why Win Gen will reject a request to delete an individual.

First and foremost, a delete attempt will be rejected because the attempt may cause a portion of the tree to be orphaned.  To orphan a branch of the tree is not allowed.  There are currently only a couple of  circumstances that will allow individual to be deleted.  First, the individual must have a connection to the family tree.  The Individual must not have any children.  If the individual has children those children must be deleted first.  If the individual has a spouse that individual's spouse must not have parents and obviously that individual must not have children.  If an individual does not have any parents and that individual has children and that individual has a spouse that individual must not have any other spouses regardless of whether the individual has children or not.

A second reason would be because you have an an individual open on one of the forms and when you attempt to save the data to the data file there will be no record left to associate with it.

A third reason would be because you are deleting an individual that is connected to the immediate family group in some way, such as being the sibling of one of the individuals currently being edited on the edit form.  This individual might also be listed in the children list of the individual you are currently editing.

A fourth would be that the individual is listed in the immediate family group list or descendent tree.  Deleting this individual would cause an error that might cause the program to abnormally terminate.  In the least there would be no record connecting the individual to the entries in the list.


Orphaning branches of the family tree

You orphan a branch of the tree when you delete that branch's connection to the main trunk or chain of individuals.  To orphan a branch of the tree means that you'll possibly miss or mess up connections with in the ascendent or descendent tree.  Reports that specifically report on groups of individuals will have these branches excluded.  A condition that might cause orphaning would be to allow the delete of an individual that had children.


Trash Can Messages
Trash Can Message Explained

This trash can message informs you that you may have a spouse that if deleted would orphan a part of the tree.  It then tells you that you might be able to delete the individual if you attempt to delete the spouse of this specific individual.  If you are not sure who the spouse of the individual is you can reselect the individual in the list and press the right mouse button to bring up the pop up actions menu.  From this menu you can select the spouse menu item to view that individual's spouse's name.  Do not select this name from the spouses menu or you'll retrieve the edit form for this spouse and the selected individual.  You can quickly go to the spouse by closing the menu (click on the Individual listing title bar) and then begin typing the individual's name.  If you type the name correctly the highlight bar will be positioned on the family member you are now searching for.  Then you can grab the individual you have just found and drag and drop that individual into the trash.  When you do this you'll be presented with the following message.

This message is telling you that you have to delete both individuals.  It is not allowable to delete the spouse of an individual that potentially will orphan a branch of the tree.  Future editions of the program will allow that the individual be deleted as long as that individual has parents and the spouse doesn't and the spouse is the individual you want to delete.


 Cite Wizard

The cite wizard is a form used to assist you in entering cite references form research documents you have examined in your search for the specific family member or the family group as a whole..

Fill in the appropriate fields and press the ok button to continue.  Your references will be inserted into the ext of the notepad at the bottom of the text.

This feature is wholly under done for this beta version of the program.  In the final release Ver 1.0 it will be complete enough to handle most of the references.  Hopefully it will allow you to enter the reference at the cursor insertion point.

Until that is done use the Cite Wizard at your own risk.  You'll not have problems that cause it to crash but you might be dissatisfied with its performance.


Notes Form
 Notes

The Notes Form is a very simple notepad for entering comments about your ancestors and descendents.  These comments typically consist of the information about your ancestors and descendents that won't fit on any of the other forms.  Entering text about family stories or references to the many different sources of information you've researched about your family members.  For instance, if you've searched the IGI or the Social Security Death Index and did not find anything you might document that here.  If a person suffered a specific physical or mental disorder that cannot be entered on the physical/medical form you might enter that here as well.

You can select to increase the font size and select a different font name for use in the notepad.  You can select to change the text background and foreground colors to suit your preferences.

Popup menus are available for the notes contents.  This consists of the standard cut/copy/paste options as well as a search, etc.  In the graphic above you can see all the options available from the note pad's contents popup menu.

The actions menu is available if you click the right mouse button over a clear area of the form's background.

The form can accept drag and drop from the list or the descendent tree.

This same notepad is used to edit your general family history.

Other form controls are described by clicking on them on the graphic above.


 Descendent Tree

The Descendent Tree is a graphical outline of your family member had their descendents.  When you select a family member for display in the descendent tree the data file is searched for the individual's father.  When and if found a descendent tree is generated.  The father is selected so you can see the selected individual siblings, if they exist.  If no father exists for the selected individual the descendent tree generates a tree based on the selected individual.

The descendent tree has popup menus just like the listing.  Click the right mouse button to bring that menu up.

The descendents in the list can be double clicked on to expand that branch of the tree further.  If the selected individual's son was married and had children the descendent branch will be expanded to display that son's children.

If you double click on an expanded branch again the tree will temporarily collapse.  It can be quickly expanded again by double clicking on it.

If any individual in the listing that is represented by capital letter making up their name indicates that that individual has more than one spouse.  Listed to the right of the name is the name and reference number of the individual's spouse.

You can drag and drop onto and drag from the descendent tree.  For instance, you can drag from the individual listing and drop it on the descendent tree icon, open list, or button and the descendent tree will be generated for that dropped individual.  You can drag from the tree to any open form or one of the actions buttons at the top of the list, including the descendent tree button.  You cannot drag and drop from the tree to the listing nor can you delete from the tree, that is you cannot drag from the tree to the trash.

No delete will be allowed, at this time, if you attempt to delete from the individual listing with the tree open.  This is done to remove the danger of having names in the listing that no longer exist.

This text is by no means complete.  The descendent tree needs more work. In the final release the tree should operate correctly and be very flexible.


Graphics From
 Graphics

The Graphics Form


Genealogical Dictionary
Genealogy Dictionary

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

AB NEPOS	a great-great-grandson
AB NEPTIS	a great-great-granddaughter
ABEYANCE	a condition of undetermined ownership, as of an estate that has not yet been assigned
ABSTRACT	a statement summarizing the essential facts contained in a document or record
ABSTRACT BOOK	record books containing abstracts of the information contained on deeds or land entries, usually listed in alphabetical order by surnames of the purchasers
ACCELERATED INDEX	an index prepared by computer, such as a census index
ACTION	a proceeding in a court of law
ADMINISTRATION	management and settlement of an estate
ADMINISTRATOR	an appointee of the court who settles the estate of a deceased who died without leaving a will
ADMINISTRATOR'S	a bond posted by an administrator to guarantee the BOND proper performance of his duties
ADMINISTRATRIX	a female administrator
AEGROTANTEM	illness - sickness
AFFIDAVIT	a written and signed statement sworn in front of a court officer
AHNENTAFEL	a table of one's ancestors, from the German words Ahnen  (ancestor) and Tafel (table or list)
ANNUS	year
ARCHIVES	reference to the storage of older records
ASCENDANT	ancestor
ASSIGNEE	the person to whom a privilege or some property is signed over by the court
ASSIGNOR	the person who signs over the right or some property to another
ASSISTANT MARSHALL	census taker prior to 1880
BANNS	publication or posting of the announcement of a coming  marriage, a period of time before the actual marriage, to  allow advance notice to those that might have reason to  protest. In most churches the banns were read aloud in church on three successive Sundays.
BAPTIZAVI I	baptized
BEQUEST	legacy; usually a gift of real estate by will
BOLUTER	a sieve.
BOND	a written promise by a borrower to pay a lender a fixed dollar sum of interest for a prescribed period of time and  to repay the principal on a stated date.
BOROUGH	a self-governing incorporated town, larger than a village.   The term is common in the Northeastern U.S.
BOUNTY LAND	public land given by the government to induce young men to  join the military
BOUNTY LAND WARRANT	a gift of bounty land due to a person entitled by military service, or to his heirs or assigns
BRAND IRON	the cob irons or fire dogs which confine the brands on an open hearth.
BROTHER	a male sibling, or a half brother, stepbrother,  brother-in-law, husband of a sister-in-law, or a Brother in Church. Sometimes it is also used to show close  friendship.
BUNDLING	to sleep in the same bed while fully clothed, a practice commonly practiced by engaged couples in early New England
CADASTRAL	a public record, survey or map for tax purposes showing the ownership and value of land
CALS	Certified American Lineage Specialist - a certification of competence in genealogy
CANON LAW	a law of the church
CAPITATION TAX	tax on people, also called a head tax or poll tax
CATHEDRALIS	Cathedral
CENSUS	periodic official tally of the population with details as  to ages, sexes, occupation, etc. U.S. Federal censuses  have been taken every 10 years starting in 1790.
CENSUS INDEX	alphabetical listing of names enumerated in a census
CG	Certified Genealogist
CHAFFER	a chaffing dish.
CHATTELS	personal property, both animate and inanimate. Slaves were  considered to be chattels
CIRCITER	about
CIVITATE	the city of
CLAN	a social unit in the Scottish Highlands, consisting of a  number of families claiming a common ancestor and  following the same hereditary leader
COAT OF ARMS	shield with certain distinctive symbols or emblems painted on it in definite fixed colors identifying one person and his direct descendants
CODICIL	a supplement to a will
COLLATERAL ANCESTOR	an ancestor not in the direct line of ascent, but of the same ancestral family (a brother or a sister)
COLLIER	a coal miner or a coal ship
COMMON LAW MARRIAGE	a man and a woman living together in a marital status without legal action. In some states living together a  specified period of time constitutes a legal marriage, even  without benefit of legal action
CONJUGI	husband - wife - spouse
CONNUBIUM	marriage
CONSANGUINITY	blood relationship
CONVEY	transfer property or title to property
CONVEYANCE	a written instrument that transfers title to property from one party to another
CONVEYOR	grantor or seller
COUSIN	in colonial usage it is most often meant nephew or niece.  In the broadest sense, it could also mean any familial  relationship, blood or otherwise (except mother, father,  sister, brother), or the modern-day meaning of a child of  one's aunt or uncle. Modern usage includes qualifiers such  as first, second, third and once removed, twice removed,  etc. First cousin is what most people commonly call their aunt's and uncle's children. Second cousin is a child of  the first cousin, as is a first cousin once removed.  Similarly, a first cousin twice removed and a third cousin denote the same member of the family - a first cousin's  grandchild.
CUI	of whom, of whose, of whatever person, of what  place/country
CURTESY	the life tenure which by common law is held by a man over the property of his deceased wife is children with rights of inheritance were born during the marriage
DECEDENT	the deceased
DECEM	ten
DECLARATION OF INTENTION	document filed by an alien in a court of record declaring his intention to apply for citizenship after fulfillment of  the residency requirement. It might also be used to refer  to an intent to marry, usually filed with the town clerk.
DEED	a document signed, sealed and delivered according to law  and conveying title to real estate.
DE JURE	legal term for "by law" or "lawfully"
DEMOGRAPHY	The study of the characteristics of human populations, as size, growth, density, distribution and vital statistics.
DENIZEN	a foreigner permitted certain rights of citizenship
DEPOSITION	a written testimony by a witness for use in court in his or her absence.
DESCENDANT	an immediate or remote offspring
DEVISE	to transmit property by will
DEVISEE	one to whom a devise is made
DIE	day
DIRECT HEIR	one who is in an individual's direct line of ascent or descent
DISTRIBUTEE	one entitled to a share in the estate of a person who died  intestate (without a will)
DOMO	to master, subdue - home, residence, family
DORNIX	linsey wolsey; also a heavy damask linen having a  diaper figure (flowered or figured) formerly much  used for church vestments, altar hangings etc.
DOWAGER	a widow who holds title or property derived from her dead  husband
DOWER	the part of interest of a deceased man's real estate  alloted by law to his widow
DOWRY	property a bride brings to her husband for the duration of  a marriage
D.S.P.	died sine prole - without offspring
DUO	2
EADEM	same
EAM	she
ECCLESCIA	church
EGO	I
EJUS	he
EJUSDEM	of the same
ENUMERATION	process by which persons are counted for purposes of a census
ENUMERATOR	census taker
EODEM	to the same place/person/day
EPISCOPUS	bishop
ESCHEAT	property reverted to the state when no legal heirs or claimants exist.
EST	is
ESTATE	the whole of one's possessions; especially all the property  left by a deceased person
ET	and - both
ETIAM	also - besides - again
ET UX, ET UXOR	and wife
EX	from
EXECUTOR	the person named in a will and appointed by the court to carry out the provisions of the will
EXECUTRIX	a female EXECUTOR
FAMILY GROUP SHEET	a more-or-less standard form for recording genealogical information on one husband and wife with the children born  to them
FAMILY HISTORY CENTER	a local or regional LDS library that can order a lot of genealogical records on loan from Salt Lake City
FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY	the huge library of genealogical information maintained by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt  Lake City, open to the public
FEE SIMPLE	an estate of land of which the inheritor has unqualified ownership and power of disposition
FILIAM	daughter
FILIUM	son
FINAL PAPERS	petition for citizenship with supporting documentation filed by an alien in a court of law
FIRELANDS	a tract of land in northeastern Ohio reserved by  Connecticut for its own settlers when it ceded its western  lands in 1786. The state of Connecticut deeded land there  to its citizens whose homes were burned during the  Revolutionary War, therefore the territory became known as "fire land"
FIRST PAPERS	declaration of intention filed by an alien in a court of law
FOREBEAR	an ancestor, a forefather
FORTNIGHT	14 days
FREEBORN	born as a free person
FREEDMAN FREEDWOMAN	a man or woman who has been freed from bondage or slavery
FREEHOLDER	one who holds land by FEE SIMPLE. In colonial times, a freeholder had the right to vote and hold public office.
FREEMAN	one who held the full rights of citizenship, such as voting and engaging in business (as opposed to an indentured servant).
FRIENDS	correctly called "The Society of Friends", the correct term  for the Quakers
FUERE	were
GEDCOM	GEnealogy Data COMmunications - GEDCOM is a specific file  format invented to allow sharing of data between two  potentially dissimilar computers. All vital information on  each individual in the database is collected and put in a  format the receiving computer may understand. There are numerous GEDCOM files in CompuServe's Genealogy Forum.
GENTILE	a person who is not Jewish
GENTLEMAN	a member of the gentry, a descendant from an aristocratic  family whose income came from the rental of his land.
GODFATHER GODMOTHER	a man or woman who sponsors a child at baptism, also called a Godparent
GOODMAN	a solid member of the community who ranked above a freeman but below a gentleman on the social scale.
GOODS AND CHATTELS	personal property, as distinguished from real property
GOODWIFE	a woman married to a "gentleman". Often the title was  shortened to "Goody". If you come across names such as  Goody Cook or Goody Whitten, they are not first names but  the abbreviation of a title.
GRANT	to transfer property by a deed
GRANTEE	one to whom a grant is made
GRANTEE INDEX	index to grantees of deeds recorded in a deed book
GREGORIAN CALENDAR	the calendar in use today. Pope Gregory XIII ordered the replacement of the previous Julian Calendar in 1582, although it was not adopted by England and the American Colonies until 1752.
GUARDIAN	an appointee of the court who cares for the property and  rights of a minor or someone incapable of handling his or  her own affairs.
GUTTE	gutter or drain pipe.
HAERETICA	heretical
HEADRIGHT	right to a certain number of acres (usually 50) of land  guaranteed in advance for each settler in a new territory
HEAD TAX	tax on people, also called a poll tax or capitation tax
HEIR	a person who inherits, or is entitled by law or the terms  of a will to inherit, the estate of another
HEREDITAMENTS	property that can be inherited
HERALDRY	the practice of devising, blazoning, and granting armoral insignia (coats of arms)
HIBERNIA	Ireland
HIGH SHERIFF	the highest-ranking sheriff, as opposed to deputy sheriffs.  The term was popular in England and Colonial America.
HISGEN	the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the oldest genealogical society in North America
HOLOGRAPHIC WILL	a document written entirely by the hand of the person whose signature it bears
HUC	here - to this place
HUJUS	of this
HUJUSIDEM	of this month & year
HUSBANDMAN	a person whose occupation is husbandry; a farmer
HUTCH	a chest, box coffer or bin.
IGI	the International Genealogical Index - a large collection of microfiche, soon to be on computer CD-ROMs, containing the index to the LDS Church's computerized records of individuals
IMMENS	to be near
IMMINENS	eminent - immediate
IMPOSITUM	the name bestowed
IMPRESSMENT	the act of seizing people or property for public service or use
INDENTURE	a deed, contract, or sealed agreement executed between two or more parties; a contract by which a person is bound over for services.
INDENTURED SERVANT	one who was voluntarily or involuntarily committed to working for someone for a fixed number of years (usually 4 to 7) in exchange for passage to America or some other  financial advantage. The lowest person on the totem pole, an indentured servant had few, if any, rights, but people without skills or money accepted this position in order to emigrate. After the period of work was over, the servant usually became a freeman.
INFANT	a minor
INFANTEM	child
INFRA	down - below
IN-LAW	besides it's modern-day usage, which means a relative by marriage, colonists also used the term for any familial relationship that occurred from a marriage. Thus, a  woman's father-in-law could be her husband's father or her stepfather. Her son-in-law could be her daughter's husband or her own stepson.
INPRIMIS	in the first place
INQUS	repeat - maintain
IPSIUS	in person - of own accord
INSTRUMENT	a formal document, such as a deed or a will
INTESTATE	having no legal will; not disposed of by legal will.
INVENTORY	a list of goods in the estate of a deceased person
ISSUE	offspring or children
JOINED STOOL	one framed with joints.
JULIAN CALENDAR	the calendar in use prior to 1752 (see Gregorian Calendar) that was created by Julius Caesar
JUNIOR, SENIOR, III, ETC.,	not necessarily meaning a father/son relationship, these terms were used to differentiate between men (and sometimes etc. women) with the same name whether they were related or not.  The oldest would be called Senior and the other(s) would be titled accordingly. If Peter Smith had a nephew Peter  Smith, the former would be titled Senior, the latter Junior. In a small community, there might be three men  named Peter Smith. They would be named Senior, Junior and III according to their ages. If Peter Smith, Senior died or moved out of the community, Peter Smith, Junior would  become Senior. These titles were not permanent, but rather conveniences in colonial families and communities.
KEELER	a cooler, broad shallow wooden vessel, where milk was set to cream or wart to cool.
KILDERKIN	a small vessel - the eighth part of a tun or vat.
KINDRED	a group of blood-related persons
KITH AND KIN	friends and neighbors
LANDS AND TENEMENTS	real property, as opposed to personal property
LDS	an abbreviation for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons. This church is very active in collecting genealogical information for religious purposes. Their huge collection of data is available to the general public as well
LEGACY	money or property bequeathed to someone by will
LINEAL DESCENDANT	being in the direct line of descent from an ancestor
LOCO	to place, to establish, to give in marriage
LOCUS	place
LOYALIST	a Tory (person who remained loyal to England during the Revolutionary War) who later moved to Canada or to another British possession
MANUMISSION	a formal written act to free slaves
MARRIAGE BANNS	see BANNS
MARRIAGE BOND	a document executed to guarantee that no legal or moral impediments existed to an intended marriage
MASTER (OF A SHIP)	today would be called The Captain, but in Colonial times was called The Master
MENSIS	month
MOCKADOW	moccado - stuff made of wool and silk and apparently of a mixture of either with flax. Being a substitute for more expensive velvet.
MORTALITY SCHEDULE	the enumeration (census counting) of deaths during the 12 months preceding census day. The U.S. Census included  Mortality Schedules from 1850 through 1900, although the  1890 and 1900 schedules have been destroyed.
MORTIS	death
MR	a title that could only precede the names of gentlemen, clergymen or government officials.
MRS.	a feminine equivalent of Mr., it did not denote marital status but social position (women of the aristocracy). An unmarried woman of social status might be referred to as "Mrs.".
MULIEREM	woman
NATUM	born
NATURALEM	natural
NATURALIZE	to grant full citizenship to one of foreign birth
NECROLOGY	register book of deaths
NEHGS	New England Historic Genealogical Society
NEPHEW	practically the same usage as today, except in very old records it could also mean niece. In Middle English it meant grandson or granddaughter.
NGS	National Genealogical Society
NUNCUPATIVE WILL	an oral will declared by the deceased before dying, in the presence of witnesses, and transcribed by another.
NOTARY	a person officially authorized to draw up or attest to contracts, wills, deeds, or similar documents, to protest bills of exchange.
NOVEM	nine
NOW WIFE	exclusively found in wills, this term implied that there was a former (or ex-) wife.
NUPT -A -AE	Bride/wife
NUBER HUC ADVENTIS	recently arrived here
OAST HAYRE	the cloth on the oast above the fires where the hops are dried.
OATH OF ABJURATION	sworn statement renouncing a former allegiance
OB	before - in front of - because of - on account of
OBIT	died
OCTO	8
OPPIDO	town
ORATOR ORATRIX	attorney handles case and legal proceedings but uses the name orator/oratrix to identify the man or woman that instigated the case and related the events to him. ie: a wife's personal tale of the actions of her spouse when no witness was present.
ORDINARY	public house or tavern
PALEOGRAPHY	the study of ancient forms of writing
PALATINATE	in West Germany, the area west of the Rhine River
PALATINE	people from the Palatinate area
PAROCHUS	rector/pastor
PATRINUS	godfather (sponsor)
PATRITIUS	paternal
PATRONYMIC	a name deribed from a paternal ancestor, such as "Williamson, the son of William"
PAUCIS HEBDOMADIBUS	few weeks
PEDIGREE	recorded ancestry or line of descent
PEDIGREE CHART	a more-or-less standard genealogical form for recording several generations of one's ancestry
PEEL	a long handled broad shovel used for putting  bread into an oven.
PER	for
PERSONAL PROPERTY	property other than land
PER STIRPES	a method of dividing an estate so that children act as a group, rather than individually, taking what their deceased ancestor was entitled to.
POPULATION SCHEDULE	a completed population census questionnaire
POSTHUMOUS	born after the father's death
PRAECENDE	previous preceeding
PRAE	in front - before - through
PRIDIE/PRIEDE	the previous day
PRIMARY RECORD	a record created at the time of the event (birth, death, marriage, etc.), as opposed to records written years later
PRIMOGENITOR	the earliest known ancestor or forefather
PRIMOGENITURE	the right of the eldest child (especially the son) to inherit the estate of both parents.
PROBATE	legal establishment of the validity of a will
PROCURANT	stand instead of - proxy
PROCURATOREM	in behalf of
PROGENY	children
PROGENITOR	an originator of a line of descent, frequently used in  reference to the immigrant ancestor.
PURRELL	made of lace called purl.
QUAKER	a member of the Society of Friends
QUARTA	4
QUEARNE	a handmill for grinding grain or seed.
QUI	who - whereby
QUINQUE	5
REDEMPTIONER	a Colonial emigrant from Europe to North America who paid for his voyage by serving as a bondservant for a specified period of time after arrival
RELICT	widow and sometimes a widower
SANTAE MARIAE	St. Mary
SECONDARY RECORD	or secondary source; a record created some time after the event
SEPTEM	7
SEPULCHERED	buried
SERVUS/A SERVARUM	servant/servants
SEX	6
SIBLING	a brother or sister
SISTER	had definitions comparable to "brother"
SLAVE SCHEDULE	completed questionnaire for the enumeration of slaves in 1850 and 1860 censuses
SOUNDEX	a filing system, usually for recording surnames, using one letter followed by 3 numbers. The Soundex system keeps together names of the same and similar sounds, but of variant spellings.
SPOUSE	a husband or wife
STALDER	a stillen of frame to put barrels on.
STANDARD	a chest; the upright stem or support of a lamp or candlestick.
STUPUET	a stew pan or skillet.
SUTLER	person who accompanies troops in the field or in garison and sells food, drink and supplies.
TARLETAN	a thin, stiff transparent muslin.
TESTAMENT	the disposition of one's personal property by will
TESTATE	having made or left a valid will
TESTATOR	a man who died leaving a valid will
TESTATRIX	a female TESTATOR
THORO	marriage - union
TINY TAFEL	a standardized file format used to exchange surnames of interest between computers. Tiny Tafels are brief "shorthand" of what the originator has researched, limited to the surname only, Soundex, beginning and ending dates as well as beginning and ending locations.
TITHABLE	person subject to a tax
TOLVET	a measure - holding half a bushel.
TORY	a resident of the American Colonies who remained loyal to England during the Revolutionary War (see Loyalist)
TRANSIENTIBUS	in transit from - travling
TRES	3
TRIBUS MENSIBUS	3 months
TRUCKLE BED	trundle bed with casters to run under a higher bed.
TRUG	a basket with a fixed handle like an old american woven wooden grape basket.
TRUSTEE	a person or agent holding the legal title to property
TUNNEL	a funnel.
TURNOUT	an equippage, a carriage with it's horses, attendants, and equipment.
ULTIMO	last
UNUS	1
UXOR	wife - the married state
VERO	certainly - to be sure
VINCINITATE	neighboring area
VISITATION	a visit for the purpose of making an official inspection or examination. This term was used to describe census activities.
WHEELWRIGHT	a person who builds wagon wheels
WILL	the legal document containing the statement of a person's wishes regarding the disposal of his or her property after death.

Revision 2

8/2/89

Special thanks to Bob Shumway 76525,703 for many additions.

This file contains many of the common "buzzwords", terminology and legal words found in genealogy work. If you think of any words that should be added to this list, please notify Radial Laria Productions, Inc.


Non Western Name Conventions
Non-Western Name Conventions

Genealogical Dictionary

by

T.W.Tan

Department of Biochemistry

and

Peter K.W. Tan

Department of English Language and Literature

National University of Singapore

-------------

original 12 Apr 1993 by T.W.Tan

additions 16 Apr 93; 20 Apr 93; 1 May 93

A non-authoritative guide to name conventions to assist network users in addressing each other and for understanding names used in network accessible databases offered throughout the world with Gophers and WAIS sources

The way we are addressed is one of the more personal and often sensitive things which we wish others would get right the first time.  We mean our names: we wish it not to be misunderstood, misspelt, mispronounced or misused by others, if we could help it.

Among many cultures in non-Western nations, the more commonly known name convention of "given name" followed by "surname" is not necessarily adopted.  In order to prevent embarrassment, faux pas or any problems, we have written this short article to accompany this BioGopher.  If there are any inaccuracies particularly those detected by the experts in name convention of other cultures, we would appreciate it if you could inform us so that we can make the appropriate revisions.

Names adopted by people of Western nations generally come in two major parts, the given name, which comes first, alternatively known as the first name, the personal name or the Christian name, and the last name or the surname or the family name.  Famous examples would be those of national leaders such as Bill (given name) Clinton (family name) or John (given name) Major (family name).  If there are additional names, these would be placed in the middle, for example Martin Luther (middle name) King, after the first name, and before the last name.  When abbreviated, it would become "M.L.King" and so on.

Some middle names of married women, such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, are actually their family name, Rodham, with the husband's surname, Clinton, added at the end.  This may become initialised to Hillary R. Clinton. However, if a woman originally has a middle name, she may keep that, such as Laura E. Quarterman where E. for Elizabeth, is the maiden middle name, with the woman's family name entirely replaced by that of the husband, as pointed out to us by John Quarterman of Texas Internet Consulting (jsq@tic.com).  Double-barrelled surnames, often used by English gentility, are another variation.  For instance, when Jane Smith married John Jones, they may agree to have their surnames fused; i.e. Jane Jones-Smith, and their children henceforth known by the double surname Jones-Smith, or Smith-Jones.

Some peoples do not retain a surname or family name which is preserved from generation to generation.  They refer to so-and-so son/daughter of so-and-so.  Examples come from India, Israel, the Arab nations, Malaysia and so on.  For instance, the Malay name Ibrahim bin Abdul Kadir would mean Ibrahim, son of Abdul Kadir.  In Arab nations, "bin" would be rendered "ibn", and in Israel, "bin" would be rendered "ben" and so on.

Names from the Indian subcontinent such as Subbiah Subramanian would be Subramaniam, son of Subbiah, and correspondingly abbreviated as S.Subbiah, under the Western convention.  However, according to N.Sathyanarayanan (sathya@birch.ce.vt.edu), who is from Tamilnadu, a province in India, his initials "N" refer to his father's name, "P.N.Narayanaswamy", and the "P.N." initials of his father's name come from Pazhayanur, a place name, and his grandfather's name respectively.  Hence this is quite the opposite of the western convention in which one's initials are those of one's name.  So in the earlier example, S.Subbiah (western convention) would actually be called S.Subramanian in his home country, Subramanian being his given name, and "S." referring to his father's name.

David R. Micklem, of the Wellcome/CRC Institute in Cambridge, UK, (drm21@mbuk.bio.cam.ac.uk) tells us that some European names have this pattern.  Irish and Scottish names such as Sean O'Keefe, Ryan O'Neal, Ronald MacDonald, John McIntyre and so on, are names that include a reference to the immediate parent or a place name.  Thus "O'Keefe" might mean "from Keefe" or "son of Keefe", or "of Keefe" (says Keith Robison - robison@biosun.harvard.edu), just like the "Mac" or "Mc" in Scottish names.  In some Germanic languages, "van der" of "Peter van der Zee" would refer to "Peter from the Sea".  In the same way, "von" or "van" in say, "Emil von Kruppen" or "Hans van Houten" would have similar meanings, i.e. "from", just as the Latin-based languages have the equivalent in "de la" as in "Louis de la Maza".  Many of these have become permanent family names or full-fledged surnames which do not change from generation to generation.  Reference to people with such names for instance, would be "Professor van der Ley", "Mr van Houten" or "Dr van der Zee" or "Dr von Braun".  Keith Robison also notes that in alphabetical listings, say in dictionaries or in telephone books, "Mac", "Mc" and "O" are significant, whereas the rest which are in lower case are not.  Thus, "van der Waals" would be listed under "W".  Sometimes, as John Quarterman (jsq@tic.com) of Texas Internet Consulting points out, it depends on the person's wishes, for instance, Frank da Cruz may insist on being listed under "D".

Nico van Belzen, Dept of Pathology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands (vanbelzen@pa1.fgg.eur.nl) informs us that in Dutch, it is not uncommon to address Dr van Houten with capitalised "v", as in "Dr Van Houten" unless it comes with the given name.  References in Dutch (and in some English publications) would become (Houten, H.van and Ley, P.van der, 1993), for instance.  The reference (Van Houten, H. and Van der Ley, P., 1993) also occurs.  John Quarterman also mentions the possibility that the given name may be Van, as in Van Jacobson, being a Norse or Swedish name, and not a German or Dutch one; and if it is Danish, it would probably be rendered Jacobsen.

In some parts of Europe and in Latin America, some names come in three parts, i.e. Derlene Silva Attili.  Derlene would be the given name, the maternal name would be Silva and the paternal name would be Attili.  So when abbreviated, it becomes D.S.Attili which would not pose too much of a problem.

The Spanish convention of Jose Marti y Diaz, for instance, is similar: given name, followed by maternal name and finally the paternal name. Many prefer to leave off the paternal name, some the maternal name, or sort the names under one or the other, so John Quarterman tells us.  The Slavic convention, too, is similar.  For Olga Aleksandrovna Romanov, the middle name refers to her mother, Aleksandra.  However, for Erik Aleksandrovich Romanov, the middle name refers to his father, Aleksander, but in familiar speech or writing, the family name Romanov may find itself omitted.

The French convention of writing names is also worthy of note.  French pupils are taught always to write their surnames in capital letters.  Very often this takes first position, especially in official documents and forms, so that a name like "Hercule Poirot" would appear officially "POIROT Hercule".  This practice is naturally adopted by Francophone Africa.  John Quarterman recounts an interesting story about names there.  There, too, the written convention is to have the family name first, generally a short one, like BAH (referring to a totemic plant or animal) and a longer personal name, like Amadouh.  The official version of this name would be "BAH Amadouh".  When he wrote his name in the English convention in Francophone Africa, his personal name was mistaken for his surname, as he got addressed as "Monsieur Jean".

With Eastern cultures, the name convention of having surnames in front applies as well.  Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese names, etc. (but incidentally, not Thai names) have their family names at the beginning, not unlike the French convention or the Tamil convention, S.Subramanian, mentioned earlier.  Here are some examples.

    Mao Tse Tung     - Mao is the surname/family name.

    Sun Yat Sen      - Sun is surname.

    Roh Tae Woh      - Korean president Roh - surname.

    Ho Chih Min      - Ho is surname.

    Lee Kuan Yew     - Lee is surname.

    Deng Xiaoping    - Deng is surname, Xiaoping is the Hanyu Pinyin

                       romanised equivalent of the Chinese characters.

    Sugawara Hideaki - Sugawara is the family name and Hideaki the given

                       name.

In their traditional characters, Chinese surnames are placed in front followed by a generational name (i.e. siblings and cousins all have this same name) and the given name - hence a three-part name.  For instance with my name, Tan is the surname, Tin is the generational name in which my siblings and my cousins all have, and Wee is the given name.  This is not always the case, as many families do not adopt or adhere to the generational name in which case, the middle name becomes the first part of the given name.  Some names have the middle name entirely omitted, merely have a two-part name; e.g., Li Peng.

When addressing a person by the given name, it is usual to refer to both the generational/middle/first part of given name, followed by the last name or given name, i.e. call me Tin Wee, or Tin-Wee, or Tse Tung, Tse-Tung or Tsetung.  Notice that sometimes they are hyphenated.

An additional complication is the fact that the romanised words of Chinese names come in several variations, depending on which phonetic system you use.  So my name Tan Tin Wee is actually a transliteration of the Hokkien pronunciation of the Chinese characters (which cannot be reproduced here in ASCII!). The Hanyu Pinyin system would render these same characters Chen Dingwei (or more accurately with the tonal indicators 0 to 4 Chen2 Ding4wei3).  So Deng Xiaoping would be the Hanyu Pinyin system's rendering and Mao Tse Tung would become Mao Zedong.

An Asian in the west would often reverse the order of the name towards the western convention, e.g. Tin-Wee Tan, and abbreviated T.W.Tan or T.-W.Tan.  This, however, should not be confused to names of certain married women who may wish to adopt the English double-barrelled surname convention, for instance, when A.B. Lim married Lee Suan Leng, Suan Leng may well have decided to be addressed as Mrs Lim-Lee Suan Leng, or worse, Mrs Lim-Lee Suan-Leng, or Mrs S.L.Lim-Lee, or Mrs A.B.Lim (after her husband's name) and so on.  Again, it is basically impossible to know unless you already know which is which.  Often, for fellow countrymen, we could make an intelligent guess, but for others, just enquire discreetly or wait till somebody else addresses her with no apparent adverse reaction and quickly follow suit.

For the Japanese, it is common to see their names, usually in two parts, already reversed in order, e.g. Hideaki Sugawara or H.Sugawara, but when they speak their names to each other in Japanese, they would naturally retain the original order of family name first followed by the given name, i.e. Sugawara Hideaki.  Again, as with Chinese names, these romanised forms (or Romaji) are based on the Japanese pronunciation of the Kanji (Chinese) characters.  This will become clear when you study their business cards, on one side the Japanese name in Kanji following the surname first convention, and on the other side of the card, the Western surname last convention in Romaji (i.e. the Latin/Roman alphabet).

One will therefore address Dr Sugawara as Sugawara-san, or Sugawara-sensei, if he is a professor.  If you know him very well, you may call him Hideaki.  John Quarterman adds that if you know some Japanese very well, you may even add the "chan" honorific, appended to the given name, not the surname and that reads more or less like calling someone Jane-girl or John-boy, except not quite that bad.  Hence, it should never be used with strangers, older people, grown men or in formal situations.

Even more complications arise when Asians adopt Western or Christian names, whether they convert to Christianity or not. Take the following example:

    Harry Lee Kuan Yew - Harry is the Christian / Western name.

                         and people write their names this way

                         or sometimes Harry K.Y.Lee, or

                         more rarely especially while in the

                         west, Harry Kuan Yew Lee, or Harry Kuan-Yew Lee.

Sometimes to avoid confusion completely, the Chinese given names are dropped entirely, e.g. Bruce Lee.

Therefore, be warned that some folks have reversed the order to adopt the western convention of having surnames the last name in order to avoid (!) confusion by westerners.

So when encountering an Asian name, check to find out which is the surname or family name.  Address the person with the honorific followed by the surname e.g. "Mr Lee", or "Dr Tan".  To friends, one might be known by the given names; for example a greeting might be "Hello Tin Wee", or even "Wee" or "Ah Wee" (only for Chinese names) to relatives, but of course, these are minute details of passing interest.

To avoid confusion, some Asians have the family name underlined. Alternatively, the family name is entirely capitalised, like in the French convention.  Or else, look for the abbreviation, e.g. T.W.Tan would indicate that Tan is my surname.

All this business about names and name convention is pretty complicated and bewildering at times.  There are no simple guides or failsafe procedures.  Hopefully, we won't offend folks whose names we mangle too much, for after all,

  What's in a name?  That which we call a rose

  By any other name would smell as sweet.

          Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II.ii

-----------------------------------

For correspondence:

Dr Tan Tin Wee

Biocomputing Research and User Support (BRUS)

BioComputing Interest Group (BIG)

Department of Biochemistry

National University of Singapore

Kent Ridge

SINGAPORE 0511

Tel=(65)-7723678

Fax=(65)-7791453

Int=bchtantw@nuscc.nus.sg

Bit=bchtantw@nusvm.bitnet

Acknowledgements

----------------

The following have written to us personally to confirm some of the above

information and to enlighten us on some other details which we have included

above, with the appropriate attribution.

John S. Quarterman, Texas Internet Consulting (TIC), Austin, Texas, USA.

Steve McKinty, Sun Microsystems ICNC, France

N.Sathyanarayanan (sathya@vbirch.ce.vt.edu)

David R. Micklem, Wellcome/CRC Institute, Cambridge, UK.

Nico van Belzen (vanbelzen@pa1.fgg.eur.nl)

____________________

End of manuscript (bchtantw@nuscc.nus.sg)


NUMBERING SYSTEMS IN COMPUTER GENEALOGY

Genealogical Dictionary	Win Gen Author's Note

Richard A. Pence

July 19, 1986

National Genealogical Society Computer Interest Group

National Archives, Washington, DC

[A good source of additional information on numbering systems is an article by Donn Devine in Ancestry Newsletter (Vol. 4, No. 1, Jan-Feb, 1986) entitled "How to Number People in Pedigrees and Genealogies." This summary of numbering systems used in genealogy was gleaned from that article. Ancestry Newsletter is published by Ancestry, P.O. Box 476, Salt Lake City, UT 84110. Toll-free order number is 800-531-1790.]

ANCESTOR NUMBERING

SOSA-STRADONITZ SYSTEM or AHNENTAFEL. The normal - and extremely easy and effective - method of numbering your ancestors is to assign yourself (or child) the number 1. If you are No. 1, then your father is No. 2, your mother No. 3, your paternal grandfather No. 4, etc. In this system, a person's father's number is always twice the person's number and his or her mother's number is twice plus one. This method of numbering one's ancestors is used worldwide and is called the Sosa-Stradonitz System for the Spanish genealogist Jerome de Sosa who first used it in 1676 and for Stephan Kekule von Stradonitz who popularized it in his 1896 Ahnentafel Atlas. It is also sometimes called the "Ahnentafel Numbering system," after the book. (In popular usage today, an ahnentafel is a listing rather than a chart of ancestors.)

If you want to maintain information on collateral relatives in your database, you can get a unique identification number for any such relative in any line of descent by using the Sosa-Stradonitz number of the common ancestor, followed by a decimal point and an expansible descent number based on the Modified Henry System (see later). The first child of your ancestor No. 128 would be 128.1 and so on. Note that if 128.1 is also your ancestor he would additionally have the number 64 in your chart. Spouses of those in resulting descent files can be given unique numbers by adding the letters a, b and c for spouses 1, 2 and 3 of any given individual.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES: Whether you use a computer or not, there is really no substitute for the ahnentafel numbering system. It is widely accepted and understood - so widely accepted that it is almost universally used. It also has the virtue of being mathematically uniform and, therefore, is made-to-order for computer use. A computer can be easily programmed to find parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc., by use of the prevailing rule of the ahnentafel: Your father's number is always twice as large as yours and your mother's is one greater than that. That one fact makes tracing descent back or down a snap for a computer. It also makes it possible to program a computer to print charts for any person in the genealogical data base and use a different numbering sequence each time. For instance, you might want to print out a set of ancestor charts for someone else using your grandfather as the subject - "No. 1."

The ahnentafel system allows almost limitless additions. However, two problems can arise:

(1) The same person can pop into your family tree a second time, thus requiring  two different records and two different numbers; the thing to watch for here is to make certain that both records contain the (same) correct information. A CIG Digest reader noted that the Stradonitz system "allows extension ad infinitum, but computer problems arise when two different lines lead to the same person and slavish adherence would produce duplicate data under different numbers, or varying data if the research is done twice from different sources and the genealogist fails to go back to the primary source...."

(2) The same arithmetic progression that makes the ahnentafel wonderful for keeping track of ancestors could become a problem if you are fortunate to trace back many generations. The space allowed for the ahnentafel number in your database could tax a small computer. However, with six digits you can handle 19 generations of ancestors, so as a practical matter most of us don't have to worry. On the other hand, a random-access database which relies on there being a record for each individual in an ahnentafel would fill up a disk in just five generations - and half those records might be blanks. (This can be programmed around with a little foresight.)

DESCENDANT NUMBERING SYSTEMS

THE REGISTER SYSTEM: The progenitor or other individual is given the number 1. Each child is then numbered in order with lower-case Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc.) and those whose lines are carried on are also given an Arabic number. For instance, No. 1 may have had seven children (i through vii), but only one of these had descendants, say iv. No. iv is then also given the Arabic number 2 and his children, in turn, are numbered from i on, with, perhaps, Nos. i, iv and vi given the additional identification of 3, 4 and 5. [Advantages and disadvantages of the Register System are discussed with those of the RECORD or MODIFIED REGISTER SYSTEM in the next section.

Example:

Descendants of Henry Pence

Shenandoah (Page) County, Virginia and Champaign County, Ohio

1. Henry Pence, born about 1740 probably Germany; died 1824 Champaign County,

OH; married c1765 Mary Magdaline Blimly. Children:

     i George born 16 August 1766 Frederick County, VA; married Mary Mauck

      9 November 1790 Shenandoah County; died 1810 Shenandoah County. No

      further information on descendants.

 2.  ii Jacob.

 3.  iii Henry.

 4.  iv Abraham.

 5.   v Magdaline, born 31 January 1771 Frederick County, VA; possibly dead

      by father's will 1820; no other information.

    vi Susannah, born 4 July 1772 Frederick County, VA; married (1)

      Benjamin Maggert 6 May 1794 Shenandoah County, (2) Thomas Jenkins;

      died 21 May 1853 Champaign County, OH.

 6.  vii John.

   viii Barbara, born 2 November 1775 Shenandoah County, VA; married (1)

      _____ Rosenberger, (2) John Stewart 9 October 1806 Champaign County,

      OH; died before 1820.

 7.  ix David.

 8.   x Joseph.

 9.  xi Samuel.

    xii Anna, born 10 October 1781 Shenandoah County, VA; married John

      Norman [Newman] 11 February 1800 Shenandoah County; died after 1848

      probably Montgomery County, IN.

 10. xiii Isaac.

 11.  xiv Elizabeth, born 22 June 1786 Shenandoah County, VA; married John

        Steinberger [son John]; died 14 April 1854 Champaign County, OH.

 12.  xv Benjamin.

       xvi Mary, born 9 June 1789 Shenandoah County, VA; married William Runkle

      in Champaign County, OH; went to IL.

 13. xvii Reuben.

Second Generation

2. Jacob Pence (Henry-1), born 15 September 1767 Frederick County, VA; died 12

June 1828 Champaign County, OH; married Maria (Mary) Coffman 7 June 1802

Shenandoah County. Children [apparently several of the nine credited to them

died young]:

     i Katherine, died before 1820 OH; married Michael Kite c1819 OH.

    ii Elizabeth (Lydia), born 1804 Shenandoah County, VA; died 12 March

     1834 Champaign County, OH; married David Steinberger 28 January 1822

      Bartholomew County, IN.

    iii Anna, born 1807 Shenandoah County, VA; died after 1881 Clark County,

      OH; married (1) Edward Wallis 1 January 1824 Champaign County, OH,

      (2) Gabriel Albin 12 June 1846 Clark County.

    iv Julia, born 11 April 1809 Champaign County, OH; died 3 May 1816

      Champaign County.

     v Lucinda, born 1810 Champaign County, OH; died - February 1860

      Champaign County; married Runyon L. Northcutt 4 March 1830 Champaign

      County.

  14.  vi Jacob.

4. Henry Pence (Henry-1), born 4 September 1768 Frederick County, VA; died 11 August 1844 Champaign County, OH; married (1) Elizabeth Koontz 2 January 1788 Shenandoah County, (2) Eve Snider 5 July 1803 Shenandoah County. Children, first two by first wife, rest probably by second [may not be in proper order; also note relatively late dates of birth for last two]:

        ***** Children for Numbers 4 through 12 here *****

13. Reuben Pence (Henry-1), born 28 June 1791 Shenandoah County, VA; died 1 October 1840 Miami County, OH; married Anne Cowick 27 August 1811 Champaign County, OH; to Miami County in 1821. Children:

     i Ocey, born 16 February 1812 Champaign County, OH; died 9 June 1844

      Miami County, OH; married Jabez Lucas 6 October 1827 Shelby County,

      OH.

    ii Phoebe, born 25 May 1814 Champaign County, OH; died 21 January 1843

      OH.

    iii Mary, born 23 January 1816 Champaign County, OH; died 18 June 1837.

    iv Anna Helen, born 27 September 1818 Champaign County, OH; died 9

      October 1834.

     v Rhoda Jane, born 28 June 1819 Champaign County, OH; married Thomas

      McPherson 21 February 1847 Miami County, OH.

 ??.  vi William Lossen Pence (Reuben-2, Henry-1), born 7 April 1821

      Champaign County, OH; died 3 March 1882 Miami County, OH; married

      (1) Harriet Rudy 11 May 1848 Miami County, (2) Barbara Rudy 9

      October 1851 Miami County. Six children.

Third Generation

14. Jacob Pence (Henry-1), born 10 October 1812 Champaign County, OH; died 3 April 1898 Champaign County; married Sarah Dugan 20 September 1833 Clark County, OH. [Eleven Children.]

       ***** Other members of the third generation here *****

??. William Lossen Pence (Reuben-2, Henry-1), born 7 April 1821 Champaign County, OH; died 3 March 1882 Miami County, OH; married (1) Harriet Rudy 11 May 1848 Miami County, (2) Barbara Rudy 9 October 1851 Miami County. [Six children.] (NOTE: William Lossen's number would depend on how many additional lines between him and No. 14 are carried down.)

THE RECORD SYSTEM or MODIFIED REGISTER SYSTEM. This system varies from the Register System in that each individual is given a number regardless of whether the line is subsequently carried on. A plus mark prior to the number is used to indicate if the line is later carried on. This is the system used by the National Genealogical Society Quarterly.

Example:

Descendants of Henry Pence

1. Henry Pence, born about 1740 probably Germany; died 1824 Champaign County, OH; married c1765 Mary Magdaline Blimly. He was granted 474 acres on the Hawksbill Creek in Frederick County [later Shenandoah County, now Page County] on 30 March 1770. Moved to Mad River Township, Champaign County in 1805. All of the following children were likely born on the Hawksbill Creek near Stanley, VA, now Page County. It was Frederick County until 1772 and then became Shenandoah County and was so for most of the time these Pences were there. Page County was created in 1832. Children:

 2.   i George born 16 August 1766 Frederick County, VA; married Mary Mauck

      [daughter Daniel] 9 November 1790 Shenandoah County; died 1810

      Shenandoah County.

+ 3.  ii Jacob.

+ 4.  iii Henry.

+ 5.  iv Abraham.

 6.   v Magdaline, born 31 January 1771 Shenandoah County VA; possibly dead

      by father's will 1820; no other information.

 7.  vi Susannah, born 4 July 1772 Shenandoah County, VA; married (1)

      Benjamin Maggert 6 May 1794 Shenandoah County, (2) Thomas Jenkins;

      died 21 May 1853 Champaign County, OH.

+ 8.  vii John.

 9. viii Barbara, born 2 November 1775 Shenandoah County, VA; married (1)

      _____ Rosenberger, (2) John Stewart 9 October 1806 Champaign County,

      OH; died before 1820.

+10.  ix David.

+11.   x Joseph.

+12.  xi Samuel.

 13.  xii Anna, born 10 October 1781 Shenandoah County, VA; married John

      Norman [Newman] 11 February 1800 Shenandoah County; died after 1848

      probably Montgomery County, IN.

+14. xiii Isaac.

 15.  xiv Elizabeth, born 22 June 1786 Shenandoah County, VA; married John

      Steinberger [son John]; died 14 April 1854 Champaign County, OH.

+16.  xv Benjamin.

 17.  xvi Mary, born 9 June 1789 Shenandoah County, VA; married William Runkle

      in Champaign County, OH; went to IL.

+18. xvii Reuben.

3. Jacob Pence (Henry-1), born 15 September 1767 probably Frederick County, VA;

died 12 June 1828 Champaign County, OH; married Maria (Mary) Coffman 7 June

1802 Shenandoah County. Children [apparently several of the nine credited to

them died young]:

 19.   i Katherine, died before 1820 OH; married Michael Kite c1819 OH.

 20.  ii Elizabeth (Lydia), born 1804 Shenandoah County, VA; died 12 March

      1834 Champaign County, OH; married David Steinberger 28 January 1822

      Bartholomew County, IN.

 21.  iii Anna, born 1807 Shenandoah County, VA; died after 1881 Clark County,

      OH; married (1) Edward Wallis 1 January 1824 Champaign County, OH,

      (2) Gabriel Albin 12 June 1846 Clark County.

 22.  iv Julia, born 11 April 1809 Champaign County, OH; died 3 May 1816

      Champaign County.

 23.   v Lucinda, born 1810 Champaign County, OH; died - February 1860

      Champaign County; married Runyon L. Northcutt 4 March 1830 Champaign

      County.

+24.  vi Jacob.

4. Henry Pence (Henry-1), born 4 September 1768 Frederick County, VA; died 11 August 1844 Champaign County, OH; married (1) Elizabeth Koontz 2 January 1788 Shenandoah County, (2) Eve Snider 5 July 1803 Shenandoah County.

       ***** Descendants of Numbers 4 through 17 here *****

18. Reuben Pence (Henry-1), born 28 June 1791 Shenandoah County, VA; died 1 October 1840 Miami County, OH; married Anne Cowick 27 August 1811 Champaign County, OH; to Miami County in 1821. Children:

 101.  i Ocey, born 16 February 1812 Champaign County, OH; died 9 June 1844

      Miami County, OH; married Jabez Lucas 6 October 1827 Shelby County,

      OH.

 102.  ii Phoebe, born 25 May 1814 Champaign County, OH; died 21 January 1843

      OH.

 103. iii Mary, born 23 January 1816 Champaign County, OH; died 18 June 1837.

 104.  iv Anna Helen, born 27 September 1818 Champaign County, OH; died 9

      October 1834.

 105.  v Rhoda Jane, born 28 June 1819 Champaign County, OH; married Thomas

      McPherson 21 February 1847 Miami County, OH.

 106.  vi William Lossen, born 7 April 1821 Champaign County, OH; died 3 March

      1882 Miami County, OH; married (1) Harriet Rudy 11 May 1848 Miami

      County, (2) Barbara Rudy 9 October 1851 Miami County. Six children.

Third Generation

24. Jacob Pence (Jacob-2, Henry-1), born 10 October 1812 Champaign County, OH; died 3 April 1898 Champaign County; married Sarah Dugan 20 September 1833 Clark County, OH. [Eleven children]

       ***** Other members of the third generation here *****

106. William Lossen Pence (Reuben-2, Henry-1), born 7 April 1821 Champaign County, OH; died 3 March 1882 Miami County, OH; married (1) Harriet Rudy 11 May 1848 Miami County, (2) Barbara Rudy 9 October 1851 Miami County. [Six children]

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE REGISTER AND RECORD SYSTEMS. The main advantages of these two are familiarity and acceptance. As one letter received by the NGS/CIG DIGEST pointed out: "Genealogy has been around, as we all know, far longer than computers. For computer users to try and tell genealogists how to present their work is a case of the tail wagging the dog. This is not to suggest computer methods should not be used, but rather that they must result in a product acceptable to genealogists. Unfortunately, none of the numerous suggestions I have so far seen accepts that conclusion." This writer went on to suggest that printed genealogies must be "in the Register form or risk denigration."

A major disadvantage - at least in the eyes of many - is the relative complexity of the system. A particular fault (more prominent in the Register System than the Record System) is that no "room" is left for newly discovered descendants. As one DIGEST reader put it, "The Register system is a strong deterrent to anyone who has additions or corrections to make to previously published work. Suppose that my great-grandfather wrote a family history and now I would like to extend some lines that he had lost touch with or simply ignored. Why can't I just write an addition to his work with a numbering system that simply hooks onto the 'dead ends' of his?"

As for using these systems for computer record-keeping, George Ely Russell, editor of the NGS Quarterly, points out: "This type of numbering system 'works' only with final published genealogies. For obvious reasons it can not be applied to works-in-progress, data management projects in which children are being added to the database as research progresses. You should distinguish between genealogies being prepared for publication (in which a word-processing program works best, as you note in your article), and genealogies being compiled (i.e., the data-collection phase). Most of the genealogy software programs now on the market provide for automa tic assignment of a unique code number to each individual and for linking parents to children and husbands to wives. A 'logical system' for assigning these code numbers seems unnecessary. The computer doesn't care what the number is, as long as it is unique to one individual. And the so-called 'Register system' of numbering should not be applied, was never intended for data management."

A word of caution and advice: If you are going to publish computer-stored material in the Register or Record format, DON'T begin to add the numbers until you are absolutely ready to go to press. One simple addition early on can throw all your previous numbers out the window, cause considerable confusion and open the way to errors. Another suggestion might be to print out your records in the order you will be adding the record numbers and pencil in the numbers. Experience has taught me that adding them on a computer monitor requires constant backtracking to recheck which number you are on.

The only software I am aware of that will support the Register System is the Dollarhide Software. This program may now be available, but was still undergoing testing at the time of the NGS Conference in Columbus, OH, in late May. I saw a demonstration while at the conference and it does, indeed, print in the Register format, generating the numbers "on the fly." The software can be ordered through Posey International for $185 (regular $195), which will include a 6-month subscription to the Genealogical Computer Pioneer. Available for the Macintosh, TRS-80 Model 4 DOS, CP/M, Apple II family and IBM. Price good until Sep. 30, 1986. Write Posey International, P.O. Box 338, Orem, UT 84057.

THE HENRY SYSTEM. The Henry System is named after Reginald Buchanan Henry, who used it in his "Genealogies of the Families of the Presidents" in 1935. In this system, the progenitor or other individual is assigned the number 1 (or sometimes another number. His oldest child becomes 11, his next child is 12. The oldest child of number 11 is No. 111, the next 112, etc. In the Henry system, when there are more than nine children, the numbers are placed in parentheses. Thus the tenth child of number 111 is 111(10) and his or her children become 111(10)1, etc.

Example:

Descendants of Henry Pence

6 Henry Pence b c1740 probably Germany; d 1824 Champaign Co OH; m c1765 Mary

Magdaline Blimly 1865c. Children:

 61 George Pence b 16 Aug 1766 probably Frederick VA; d 1810 Shenandoah Co VA;

   m Mary Mauck 9 Nov 1790 Shenandoah Co. No further information on

   descendants.

 62 Jacob Pence b 15 Sep 1767 probably Frederick Co VA; d 12 Jun 1828

   Champaign Co OH; m Maria (Mary) Coffman 7 Jun 1802 Shenandoah Co.

   Children [apparently several of the nine credited to them d yg]:

               ***** Children *****

 63 Henry Pence b 4 Sep 1768 Frederick Co VA; d 11 Aug 1844 Champaign Co OH; m

   (1) Elizabeth Koontz 2 Jan 1788 Shenandoah Co VA, (2) Eve Snider 5 Jul

   1803 Shenandoah Co. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 64 Abraham Pence b 4 Sep 1769 Frederick Co VA; d 1838 Champaign Co OH; m

   Elizabeth Mauck 11 Feb 1791 Shenandoah Co; to Champaign in 1811. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 65 Magdaline Pence b 31 Jan 1771 Frederick Co VA; no further information.

 66 Susanna Pence b 4 Jul 1772 Frederick Co VA; d 21 May 1853 Champaign Co OH;

   m (1) Benjamin Maggert 6 May 1794 Shenandoah Co, (2) Thomas Jenkins before

   Apr 1820 Champaign Co.

 67 John Pence b 15 Jan 1774 Shenandoah Co VA; d 20 Sep 1841 Henderson Co IL;

   m (1) Eve Piper 22 Dec 1795 Shenandoah Co, (2) Elizabeth Steinberger 4 Jul

   1803 Shenandoah Co, (3) Elizabeth [Heaton] Records 3 Apr 1828 Bartholomew

   Co IN; to Champaign Co OH in 1805, Bartholomew Co IN in 1820 & Henderson

   Co in 1828. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 68 Barbara Pence b 2 Nov 1775 Shenandoah Co VA; d before 1820 [father's

   will]; m (1) _____ Rosenberger, (2) John Stewart 9 Oct 1806 Cham Co OH.

 69 David Pence b 4 Feb 1777 Shenandoah Co VA [1778 tombstone]; d 1852

   Fairfield Co OH; m (1) Barbara Ruffner 22 Jan 1803 Shen Co, (2) Katharine

   Rose Groves 1 Feb 1832 Licking Co OH. Children, first 11 by first wife,

   last four by second:

               ***** Children *****

 6(10) Joseph Pence b 26 Sep 1778 Shenandoah Co VA; d 6 Jul 1855 Champaign Co

    OH; m Magdalena Coffman 12 Nov 1809 Champaign Co. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 6(11) Samuel Pence b 4 Feb 1780 Shenandoah Co VA; d - Feb 1815 Champaign Co;

    m Elizabeth Cowick 8 Jan 1809 Champaign Co. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 6(12) Anna Pence b 10 Oct 1781 Shenandoah Co VA; d 25 Mar 1847 Montgomery Co

    IN; m John Norman 11 Feb 1800 Shenandoah Co; to Bartholomew Co IN, then

    Montgomery Co.

 6(13) Isaac Pence b 23 Jul 1784 Shenandoah Co VA; d 7 Apr 1854 Washington Co

    IA; m Susannah Aleshire 25 Jan 1806 Shenandoah Co. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 6(14) Elizabeth Pence b 22 Jun 1786 Shenandoah Co VA; d 14 Apr 1854 Champaign

    Co OH; m John Steinberger c1806 probably in Shenandoah Co or possibly

    in Champaign Co.

 6(15) Benjamin Pence b 25 Apr 1787 Shenandoah Co VA; d 8 Feb 1875 Bartholomew

    Co; m Catherine Steinberger 8 Apr 1811 Champaign Co. Children:

               ***** Children *****

 6(16) Mary Pence b 9 Jun 1789 Shenandoah Co VA; d - --- 18-- IL; m William

    Runkle c1808; to IL; their daughter Dicey (Dunlap) d 25 Jan 1912, age

    100 yr, 11 mo, 15 da after having lived in Morgan Co IL since 1830.

 6(17) Reuben Pence b 28 Jun 1791 Shenandoah Co VA; d 1 Oct 1840 Miami Co OH;

    m Anne Cowick 27 Aug 1811 Champaign Co OH; to Miami Co in 1821.

    Children:

               ***** Children *****

Second Generation

621 Katherine Pence b c1803 Shenandoah Co VA; d before 1820 OH; m Michael Kite

  c1819 OH.

       ***** Other Children of Jacob, No. 62, down to: *****

626 Jacob Pence b 10 Oct 1812 Champaign Co OH; d 3 Apr 1898 Champaign Co; m

  Sarah Dugan 20 Sep 1833 Clark Co OH.

               ***** Children *****

631 Barbara Pence b 9 Nov 1789 Shenandoah Co VA; d 14 Apr 1866 Champaign Co OH;

  m Daniel Snider 14 Nov 1809 Shenandoah Co.

        ***** Other Children of Henry, 63, down to: *****

637 Susannah Pence b 1823 Champaign Co OH; d 13 Dec 1846 Champaign Co; m Daniel

  Blose 7 Dec 1837 Champaign Co.

641 Mary Pence b 25 Nov 1791 Shenandoah Co VA; d 14 Dec 1886 Champaign Co OH; m

  Daniel Loudenback 8 Nov 1812 Champaign Co.

          ***** Other Children of Abraham, 64 *****

644 David Pence b 1 Mar 1807 Shenandoah Co VA; d 27 Apr 1884 Champaign Co OH; m

  Priscilla Frazee 1 Sep 1831 Miami Co OH.

671 Elizabeth Pence b 22 Apr 1799 Shenandoah Co VA; d - Dec 1844 Henderson Co

  IL; m Thomas Doolittle Wells c1817 Champaign Co OH.

        ***** Other Children of John, 67, down to: *****

67(16) Charlotte Pence b 1 May 1839 Henderson Co IL; d 14 Jun 1906 Alameda Co

    CA; m John Kee Madden 22 Mar 1865 Henderson Co.

691 Aaron Pence b 10 Dec 1803 Shenandoah Co VA; d 3 Mar 1886 Licking Co OH; m

  Maria Hand c1835 Licking Co.

        **** Other Children of David, 69, down to: *****

69(15) Sarah Katherine Pence b 20 Jul 1840 Fairfield Co OH; m John P. Mays

    c1858 Fairfield Co.

6(10)1 Julia A. Pence b 26 May 1809 Champaign Co OH; d inf.

       ***** Other Children of Joseph, 6(10), down to: *****

6(10)9 Joseph Pence b 7 Jul 1825 Champaign Co OH; d 1 Apr 1909 Wyandotte Co KS;

    m Jane Sifers 7 Nov 1858 Champaign Co.

           ***** Children of Samuel, 6(11) *****

           ***** Children of Isaac, 6(13) *****

          ***** Children of Benjamin, 6(15) *****

6(17)1 Ocey Pence b 16 Feb 1812 Champaign Co OH; d 9 Jun 1844 Miami Co; m Jabez

    Lucas 6 Oct 1827 Shelby Co OH.

       ***** Other Children of Isaac, 6(17), down to: *****

6(17)6 William Lossen Pence b 7 Apr 1821 Champaign Co OH; d 3 Mar 1882 Miami Co

    OH; m (1) Harriet Rudy 11 May 1848 Miami Co, (2) Barbara Rudy 9 Oct 1851

    Miami Co.

Third Generation

6261 Mary Ann Pence b 26 Jul 1834; d 10 Dec 1915 Defiance Co OH; m Charistopher

   Rose 14 Aug 1853 Champaign Co OH.

                **** down to ****

6(17)63 Alfred Fortescue Pence b 30 May 1859 Miami Co OH; d - Sep 1908 Franklin

    Co OH; m (1) Ella D. Stoker c1878, (2) Leona Dell McCashen 1896 OH.

THE D'ABOVILLE SYSTEM. There is also a system called the "d'Aboville System,"

which is similar to the Henry System, except that each digit (or group of two

digits for numbers larger than 10). is separated by a period.

Example:

Descendants of Henry Pence

6 Henry Pence b c1740 probably Germany; d 1824 Champaign Co OH; m c1765 Mary

 Magdaline Blimly 1765c. Children:

 6.1 George Pence b 16 Aug 1766 probably Frederick VA; d 1810 Shenandoah Co

   VA; m Mary Mauck 9 Nov 1790 Shenandoah Co.

 6.2 Jacob Pence b 15 Sep 1767 probably Frederick Co VA; d 12 Jun 1828

   Champaign Co OH; m Maria (Mary) Coffman 7 Jun 1802 Shenandoah Co.

   Children [apparently several of the nine credited to them d yg]:

   6.2.1 Katherine Pence b c1803 Shenandoah Co VA; d before 1820 OH; m

      Michael Kite c1819 OH.

              ***** Other Children *****

   6.2.6 Jacob Pence b 10 Oct 1812 Champaign Co OH; d 3 Apr 1898 Champaign

      Co; m Sarah Dugan 20 Sep 1833 Clark Co OH.

 6.3 Henry Pence b 4 Sep 1768 Frederick Co VA; d 11 Aug 1844 Champaign Co OH;

   m (1) Elizabeth Koontz 2 Jan 1788 Shenandoah Co, (2) Eve Snider 5 Jul

   1803 Shenandoah Co. Children:

   6.3.1 Barbara Pence b 9 Nov 1789 Shenandoah Co VA; d 14 Apr 1866

      Champaign Co OH; m Daniel Snider 14 Nov 1809 Shenandoah Co.

              ***** Other Children *****

   6.3.7 Susannah Pence b 1823 Champaign Co OH; d 13 Dec 1846 Champaign Co;

      m Daniel Blose 7 Dec 1837 Champaign Co.

 6.4 Abraham Pence b 4 Sep 1769 Frederick Co VA; d 1838 Champaign Co OH; m

   Elizabeth Mauck 11 Feb 1791 Shenandoah Co; to Champaign in 1811.

   Children:

   6.4.1 Mary Pence b 25 Nov 1791 Shenandoah Co VA; d 14 Dec 1886 Champaign

      Co OH; m Daniel Loudenback 8 Nov 1812 Champaign Co.

              ***** Other Children *****

   6.4.4 David Pence b 1 Mar 1807 Shenandoah Co VA; d 27 Apr 1884 Champaign

      Co OH; m Priscilla Frazee 1 Sep 1831 Miami Co OH.

 6.5 Magdaline Pence b 31 Jan 1771 Frederick Co VA; no further information;

   neither she nor heirs mentioned in father's will, so apparently she d unm

   before 1820.

And so on to .....

6.17.6.3 Alfred Fortescue Pence b 30 May 1859 Miami Co OH; d - Sep 1908

     Franklin Co OH; m (1) Ella D. Stoker c1878, (2) Leona Dell McCashen

     1896 OH.

THE MODIFIED HENRY SYSTEM. The "Modified Henry System" is different from the Henry system in that instead of using (10), (11), (12) for the tenth, 11th and 12th children, the letters A, B and C are substituted, and so on.

Following is a partial printout of a word-processing file I maintain, "The Descendants of John Pence," which uses the Modified Henry System as a basis for indexing an article. Please note that this file does not separate descendants by generations, but puts each person in the text only once - directly under his or her parents and with his or her siblings. The reason for this: I also keep a database index of each of these text files and each individual's ID number is included in that file. Thus, I can use the database to locate an individual's ID number, then go to the text files to find that individual, as each person is in ID number order, 67 through 67G. Note that 672 comes before 673 - this is the way the numbers will be ordered by a computer with an alphanumeric sort. I have published two books using this system; the advantage is that at any given moment, I can print out the text and create an index for it. No need to know what page the person is on. All you need is his or hers ID number.

Descendants of John Pence (Henry-1)

Shenandoah County, Virginia, Champaign County, Ohio,

Bartholomew County, Indiana, and Henderson County, Illinois

67 JOHN b 15 Jan 1774 Shenandoah Co VA; d 20 Sep 1841 Henderson Co IL; m (1)

  Eve Piper 22 Dec 1795 Shenandoah Co, (2) Elizabeth Steinberger 4 Jul 1803

  Shenandoah Co, (3) Elizabeth [Heaton] Records 3 Apr 1828 Bartholomew Co IN;

  to Champaign Co OH in 1805, Bartholomew Co IN in 1820 & Henderson Co in

  1828. Children, first two by first wife, next nine by second wife & last

  five by third wife:

  671 ELIZABETH b 22 Apr 1799 Shenandoah Co VA; d - Dec 1844 Henderson Co IL;

    m Thomas Doolittle Wells c1817 Champaign Co OH.

  672 MARY b 12 Dec 1800 Shenandoah Co VA; d 18 Sep 1831 Fort Pence, Henderson

    Co IL; m William Beatty 17 May 1817 Champaign Co OH.

  673 GEORGE b 29 Mar 1804 Shenandoah Co VA; d 29 Mar 1879 Warren Co IN; m (1)

    Mary Swisher 27 Dec 1827 Bartholomew Co IN, (2) Grace Gaynor [Foreman]

    Romine 18 Mar 1852 Warren Co IN, (3) Mrs Catherine Loyd 5 Dec 1867

    Warren Co. Children, first nine by first wife, last by third wife:

    6731 CURTIS MONROE b 23 Sep 1828 Bartholomew Co IN; d 15 Mar 1913 Warren

      Co IN; m Susannah Etnire 3 Mar 1853 Warren Co. Children:

      67311 MARY OLIVE b 3 Aug 1856 Warren Co IN; d 7 Oct 1857 Warren Co.

      67312 EMILY JANE (KATE) b 7 Oct 1858 Warren Co IN; d 5 Jun 1920

         Warren Co; m (1) Albert Hevel 11 Feb 1883 Warren Co, (2)

         Charles Edgar Roe 7 Jan 1897 Warren Co.

      67313 ALLEN MONROE b 10 Mar 1861 Warren Co IN; d 22 Feb 1933 Brown

         Co SD; m Rosa May Gady 1 Apr 1888 Warren Co; Palo Alto Co IA

         in 1900, to Brown Co shortly thereafter. Children:

         673131 SILVIA BELLE b 4 Jun 1890 Warren Co IN; d 24 Oct 1977

             Hennepin Co MN; m Ira David Wiltsey 23 Mar 1912 Dickey

             Co ND.

          ***** Plus other children down to: *****

         673138 ROBERT MONROE b 22 Dec 1909 Brown Co SD; d 22 Oct

             1970 Brown Co; m Clarice Ethlyn Stanley 14 Jun 1930

             Leola, McPherson Co SD. Children:

             6731381 RICHARD ALLEN b 17 Oct 1932 Aberdeen, Brown Co

                 SD; m Lillian Llewellyn Hutton 25 Jul 1964

                 Jackson, Hinds Co MS; compiler of these

                 records. Children, b Washington DC: TODD

                 MONROE [4 May 1968], ROBERT CHANDLER [22 Apr

                 1971], LAURA LLEWELLYN [16 Nov 1974].

             6731382 DONALD LEE b 13 Aug 1934 Frederick, Brown Co

                 SD; d 31 Oct 1974 Aberdeen, Brown Co SD.

             6731383 MARGIE ANN b 5 Jul 1937 Frederick, Brown Co

                 SD; d 21 Dec 1985 Aberdeen, Brown Co SD; m

                 Ralph Leroy Buntrock 19 Mar 1955 Webster,

                 Day Co SD.

         ****** Plus other descendants down to: ******

   67G CHARLOTTE b 1 May 1839 Henderson Co IL; d 14 Jun 1906 Alameda Co CA

     [as a result of the San Francisco earthquake]; m John Kee Madden 22

     Mar 1865 Henderson Co.

OTHER VARIATIONS. Letters to the NGS/CIG DIGEST indicate that others have worked out their own "modified Henry" systems. Some use alternating letters and numbers, others all letters. One reader - with relatively few records - assigns each person two digits and separates these with a dash.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF THE 'NON-REGISTER' SYSTEMS. The major drawback of these numbering systems is that they lack acceptance among professionals. And the many variations in themselves can cause confusion among readers going from publication to publication. However, they do allow one to look at the ID number and trace the individual back through the generations.

For computer purposes, the Modified Henry System has distinct advantages over some of the others, in that each generation takes one and only one number or character, thus saving computer space [compare 6A7B9 with 6(10)7(11)9]. The Henry system (along with the D'aboville system), because it is all numbers, does provide the easiest method of tracing back an individual's ancestory. Devine says one of the main advantages of the Henry or similar systems is that it allows for placing newly found children and their descendants without the wholesale renumbering necessary with the Digest or Record systems. This is also somewhat of a problem for Henry-type systems. A reader noted: "If additional genealogical research uncovers another child, who should fit in between two other children with consecutive numbers, there is no way to make this happen, without renumbering the existing children."

This is a problem if you're trying to keep the children in chronological order and the newly found one is the oldest of a dozen. However, if you're keeping your records on a word processor, careful use of its search/replace feature makes the changes are much easier to make. If you're using a nongenealogical database program, you can develop a process to automatically make such changes.

One NGS/CIG DIGEST reader pointed out that a numbering system which requires one character per generation means that in order to provide for 40 generations, data records must be set up to contain that many characters, even though most of them do not use all 40 characters. Again, for most of us, this is not a practical restriction - but it is one to keep in mind.

This same reader pointed out that hexidecimal system runs out at 15 (hex F). "We all know of families with more than 15 children. Even if one extends the concept to include all of the alphabet one reaches a maximum of 35 (9 digits and 26 alphabetics). Checking the Guiness Book of Records shows that even 35 is insufficient." Again, something to keep in mind, but not a real restriction for most researchers. A family beyond 20 - 25 with even several wives - is indeed rare. [One could even add another 26 child identifications by using upper case letters the first time around and lower case the second - computers distinguish between the two.]

COMBINING SYSTEMS. As pointed out by Devine in his article, you can get a unique identification number for any collateral relative in any line of descent by using the Sosa-Stradonitz number of the common ancestor, followed by a decimal point and an expansible descent number based on the Modified Henry System (the first child of your ancestor No. 128 would be 128.1 and so on; Devine points out that if 128.1 is also your ancestor he would additionally have the number 64 in your chart). Spouses of those in resulting descent files can be given unique numbers by adding the letters a, b and c for spouses 1, 2 and 3 of any given individual.

Always keep in mind, however, that ancestor and descendent databases are two distinct things. A Digest reader pointed out why: "The primary problem with numbering systems is the frequent effort to mix ancestral numbering with descent numbering. Like oil and water, they do not mix. They start at opposite ends of the scale." He noted that if you are keeping a record of your own ancestors, you should simply use the Stradonitz system; if you are writing a history of the descendants of one of your ancestors, you will need a different numbering system.

For instance, I keep records on all Pences I learn about. I use the Modified

Henry numbering system for those 15,000 records. But only about a dozen of those are ancestors of mine, so I have extracted these and include them in an ahnentafel-based ancestor record-keeping system.

NUMBERING SYSTEMS IN COMMONLY USED GENEALOGICAL SOFTWARE. Most genealogy software packages rely entirely on the computer to assign numbers to individuals in the database. Parents are then related to the children on the basis of this number. Quinsept's Family Roots is one of those which operates this way. It is also one of those which allows you to include your own numbering system, as do most others. The Dollarhide program, which - as pointed out - will generate a printout using the Register System, allows you to use your own numbering system, but the catch (for me) is that it must be entirely digits.

M. O. Duke, author of the program Genealogy on Display, believes that "the only really valid numbering system is pure numeric. Let the computer keep track of relationships and families within its own structure. Let it present the information in a format which we humans are accustomed to seeing, or would like to see. But, don't require that computers keep track of information in the way that we humans do." His program requires that everyone gets 3 numbers: (1) a unique serial number in the database, (2) person's father's serial number, and (3) person's mother's serial number. Other programs, because of the way they relate individuals within the database, require that individuals be entered in a certain way (e.g., in ascending or descending order).

THE LAST WORD ON NUMBERING SYSTEMS comes from yet another DIGEST reader: "A truly honest statement. As a genealogy teacher, I am sick unto death of people coming up with yet another numbering system. Gilbert Doane gave a numbering system in 'Searching for Your Ancestors' for pedigree charts that as worked for me for 20 years without renumbering. (One of the few genealogists I know that has never had to redo.) The Register system works just fine. Why change it? Computers need numbers for their own use. Numbers as supplied by Personal Ancestral File work just fine for the computer. Why try to make the computer compatible with anything else? Genealogy programs that print pedigree charts do not print books. Change for change sake is a pain in the neck as far as I am concerned. I do not like to waste my valuable research time trying to figure out how an other enterprising author dreamed up the 'ultimate numbering system.'"

WINGEN'S PROGRAM AUTHOR'S FINAL NOTE

Windows Genealogy admits to using the final methodology of numbering your descendents and ancestors.  It has been the purpose of this program to complete most, if not all, of the hard work in maintaining the relationships between individuals in the data file.  There is one addition to the last numbering system.  That change is the addition of one serial number.  The serial number that was added pertains to the spouse of the individual.  From the individual's serial number (called a reference number in Win Gen), the computer can determine whom the person's spouse, mother, father, and children are.  Additional spouse information for the individual is maintained seperately in another data table, so the need for duplication of individual records in the main data file is unnecessary.  I guess it would be possible to add a methodology for generating some of the other numbering schemes, but these seem overly complex for computer use.  So you can tell from my response I don't believe the other systems are that useful in todays automated technological societies.  We can do so much with the data that in entered it's frankly amazing.  For instance, Win Gen can graph the age of all of your family members at the time of death in about 3 seconds.  It can determine all members that were in the military or were participants in a particular war.  The possibilities are endless.  Obviously, you have to have collected this data and entered it into the program.

The author of the above text states that computers cannot write books.  Well a computer can certainly create the basic outline for  your book and do almost all of the work in assimilating the data for orderly reporting.  If the author, Mr. Pense doesn't understand that computers are what will make the future of the world he should take another serious look at what they have accomplished in their mere 10-12 year existence while in the hands of the average user.

The issue of computer space being a consideration is virtually irrelevant in today's 486 computers that have 200 MB hard drives and 8 megs of memory.  The actual storage considerations of a computer's data are minor when compared to the massive storage capability mentioned earlier.


SEARCHING YOUR FAMILY TREE

How to Get Started	Keeping Your Records	Secondary Sources of Information	The National Archives	State and Local Records	Genealogical Dictionary

By Richard A. Pence

[The following beginner's guide to genealogy was first syndicated to newspapers in 1977 and again in 1982 by the Register and Tribune Syndicate. While it has been updated to reflect such things as new addresses, it obviously doesn't deal with how you might effectively use them in genealogy work, since it was written before the days of home computers. Those experienced with computers will readily see applications in research, recordkeeping and printing out material. Richard A. Pence is co-author, with Paul Andereck, of Computer Genealogy, published by Ancestry, Inc., Salt Lake City, and has published several books on the Pence family. He is editor of the NGS/CIG Digest, published bimonthly by the Computer Interest Group of the National Genealogical Society. He is also co-sysop of the NGS/CIG BBS, a part of the National Genealogy Conference, and moderates a conference on genealogy for the Capital PC Users Group in Washington. Copyright 1982 by the Register and Tribune Syndicate, Inc., Des Moines, Iowa. Updated December, 1986; used with permission.]


HOW TO GET STARTED

Interview Pointers	Family Traditions	Genealogical Dictionary

One of the difficult aspects of genealogy - at least for me - is trying to explain to friends why a grown man should spend countless hours in a musty library or chasing around the country copying inscriptions from tombstones in overgrown cemeteries.

That sort of avocation, they think, is reserved for matronly ladies who want to join patriotic societies.

There are many who search their family trees for that reason alone. But genealogy is much more. It is a human history of our nation's growth and a puzzle infinitely more challenging than the crossword in the Sunday New York Times.

If you enjoy solving a mystery or are fascinated by the early history of our country, then genealogy may be the hobby for you.

But where do you start? The best place is right at home.

The first thing you should do is write down all you know about your family, starting with yourself and your parents and working backward to your grandparents, great grandparents and so on. Chances are someone already has started this process; if so, your job will be easier.

You should include dates and places of births, marriages, deaths, places of residence and other information, such as occupation, military service or church affiliation.

When you get stuck, figure out who in your family might know the answer. In fact, you should try to interview your older relatives as a first order of business. With some luck, you may find out much of what you want to know about a particular branch of your family.

Early in my research I visited a great aunt who supposedly had kept some family records. I didn't really expect the treasure I found. Among the things she had: my third great grandmother's family Bible - complete with vital statistics for three generations - which had made its way from Massachusetts to a homestead in South Dakota nearly 100 years before; a family photo album with pictures that predated the Civil War and which contained photos of four of my third great grandparents; and old newspaper clippings, letters and notes which provided additional information and clues.

INTERVIEW POINTERS

There are things to keep in mind when interviewing or writing your relatives.

First, make your questions specific. You'll have a better chance of getting a helpful answer. If you ask generally about early family recollections, your correspondent may not reply or may say that little can be remembered. Ask about specific people, specific times or places.

I once wrote a great uncle, asking him for any information he might have on his ancestors. He answered, saying he didn't remember anything. I then wrote and asked him if he knew were his father had lived in 1870. His return letter not only solved that mystery, but included colorful stories about great grandfather's days as a cowboy in Texas and Kansas, stories told at bedtime when my great uncle was a boy.

Second, inquire about photographs, diaries, letters and other family papers that may give clues for names and places your family lived. Look for items such as funeral cards, birth announcements or marriage, birth or death certificates.

Third, keep track of what you are told in a carefully dated and documented fashion. Write down who told you and when they told you for each piece of information. If a relative sends you an undated letter, add the date you received it. If you use a tape recorder, begin the tape with the date and location and the name of the person you are interviewing, as well as your own name.

FAMILY TRADITIONS

You should treat family traditions with a certain amount of healthy skepticism. These stories - often embellished from generation to generation - are great clues for further research, but they shouldn't be accepted until they can be documented.

There are some traditions that seem to pop up in nearly every family. If you encounter one of these, don't disregard it - but be careful how you use it. Here are some:

* The "Three Brothers." Invariably you will come across the belief that the founders of a particular family in this country were "three brothers, who came here at an early date." A common variation is that "one remained in New England, one went south and one went west."

This tradition reflects the desire of an individual to believe that everyone with the same last name is somehow related. The "three brothers" theory neatly explains why there are families with that name throughout the country whose relationships can't be established. Most genealogists disregard this theory unless there is evidence otherwise.

* "We're Related to Nobility." This tradition also is common but often not true. Variations include a lost dukedom, riches or a castle in some foreign land.

Unscrupulous promotors have played upon the desire for wealth or status by convincing people to contribute toward a fund seeking to restore a lost fortune or property to its "rightful heirs" - usually everybody with the same last name as some rich or famous person.

The strange thing about these con games is that the more you try to tell "Aunt Bessie" she's being taaken, the more she is convinced that there's a giant conspiracy aimed at depriving her and her relatives of their just inheritance.

If it does turn out that you have an English lord as an ancestor or that you and George Washington are descended from the same stock, then you have an interesting addition to the story of your family. (When you consider that in just 12 generations - less than 300 years - an individual has 8,190 ancestors, it wouldn't be terribly unusual to find such a connection.) But don't forget that for every nobleman in most family trees, there are several dozen ancestors who came to this country as indentured servants.

* Association With Famous People. You often will hear of some ancestor's association with famous people or events. Stories like these may have some foundation, but they often are impossible to document. However, if the facts seem to fit you'll want to continue researching the tradition.

As a small boy, I read a relative's account of how our ancestor - my third great grandfather - supposedly spent a winter in an Indian "wickiup" (teepee or lodge) and was later confronted by its owner, Blackhawk, the famous Sac chief. The story was worth more checking for two reasons: Our ancestor was known to be in that area of northwestern Illinois at the time, and history records that an incident such as this (according to Blackhawk's autobiography) was one of the things that led up to the Blackhawk Indian War in the early 1830s.

Finally, several years ago, I discovered an eyewitness account of the event. Not only was our ancestor named as the intruder, but specific dates and places were given, thus documenting when the family moved into Illinois. In this case, a family tradition led to the eventual proof of an ancestor's participation in an interesting historical event and added illuminating details about his life.

But other traditions have never proved out. I'm still trying to document an item in an Indiana history that claims Abraham Lincoln visited once or twice at the home of a second great grandfather (Is it true? If so, what was the reason?), one that says New England relatives were frequent visitors of J. Pierpont Morgan, the financier (they were related to him through a Pierpont line, but at best distant cousins!), and still another that places an ancestor among those who participated in the Boston Tea Party (turns out he was a prominent leader during the Revolution, but no facts relate him to this event).

There are some other common problems with family traditions you should watch for. Some examples:

An incident often will be credited to one side of the family when in fact it happened to another side. Your grandmother may tell you a story she heard as a child about something that happened to her paternal grandfather and later you discover that it was her maternal grandfather who was involved.

Sometimes the story will be credited to a person in the wrong generation. An example appears in my grandfather's obituary, which says he was descended from a "Revolutionary War veteran who became known as Judge John Pence." Since Judge John wasn't born until 1774, I knew this was impossible. I assumed what happened was that the family stretched a statement in an early family history from "the family goes back to Revolutionary days" into veteran's status for the first known ancestor. Years later I discovered documentation that John's father was the one who had served in the Revolution.

Mistakes about national origin can confuse a family's history. Your great grandmother may have denied a particular nationality because it was not "the thing to be" in her day. Consequently, your grandmother might pass on to you what she believes to be the truth; in reality, though, great grandmother "withheld evidence."

Don't be surprised if, while you're interviewing Aunt Bessie, she suddenly has amnesia after having displayed a remarkable memory about the family tree, complete with names, dates and places. Suddenly - when you ask her about a particular ancestor - she can't remember a thing. That's a sure sign you've found a family "black sheep" - we all have them!


KEEPING YOUR RECORDS

The Notebook	The File	Genealogical Dictionary

As you collect more and more information about your ancestors, you'll find that you will have an increasingly difficult time keeping track of who is who. That's when you'll want to set up some sort of record-keeping system.

A looseleaf notebook and alphabetical files are enough at first. The notebook is compact enough to be carried when doing research, yet it can contain enough information so you can double-check information on the spot. The alphabetical file provides a safe and orderly means of keeping copies of accumulated records or notes and correspondence about a particular family.

THE NOTEBOOK

These are the records I include in my "traveling notebook":

Family Ancestor Charts or Pedigree Charts. These charts, which can be purchased through most genealogical societies or from businesses or bookstores which specialize in genealogy, are for your direct ancestors only. They begin at the left of the page with an individual (you or your child or parent), then branch out to the right to show parents, grandparents, etc., including dates and places of births, deaths and marriages. If you are the "subject" of the chart (which is designated as Chart No. 1), you are assigned the number 1. Your father is No. 2, your mother is No. 3, your paternal grandfather is No. 4, and so on. Pedigree charts usually have complete information on three generations of ancestors for an individual, with the names of the members of the fourth generation plus a reference to succeeding charts, where vital information on them is recorded.

This commonly used numbering system for pedigree charts is called an "ahnentafel" by genealogists, after the title of a book where it was first used. By looking at a chart you can see that the number for any individual's father is 2 times that of the individual and that person's mother's number is 2 times plus 1. With the exception of No. 1, who can be either male or female, all even-numbered persons are males and all odd-numbered are females. The spouse of No. 1 is not assigned a number.

If you don't have charts, you can simply do an "ahnentafel listing" on a sheet of paper, with the persons listed in numerical order.

Carrying this numbering system over to other records allows quick identification of any person in your records and allows you to file numerically if you choose.

Charts subsequent to No. 1 are numbered sequentially, with Chart No. 2 having the ancestors of No. 16 (your great great grandfather), Chart No. 3 the ancestors of No. 17 and so on. All these charts are kept in the front of your notebook and provide a record of the statistics you have on your more distant ancestors. As you acquire information, you may need to include an index of each family name in your notebook. This index probably won't be necessary until you have traced several families back a half dozen or more generations.

Family Group Sheets. The other major section in your notebook is a collection of family group sheets containing information about each couple whose names are on your pedigree charts. These sheets can be arranged alphabetically by last name or numerically according to your pedigree charts.

Included on these sheets is the following information: name of husband, date and place of his birth, marriage, death and burial, and names of his parents. Similar information is given for the wife and for each of the couple's children with room for their spouses' names. Space is left for other information such as places of residence, occupation, church affiliation and military service.

Also included is such information as additional marriages for either husband or wife and the citation or source of each piece of information. Children born from other marriages of your ancestors are listed on separate family group sheets. Adopted children may be listed if the adoption is noted.

As with pedigree charts, family group sheets can be done on a plain sheet of paper. Among places where these forms can be ordered are: The National Genealogical Society, 4527 Seventeenth Street North, Arlington, VA 22207; New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 101 Newbury Street, Boston MA 02116; the Everton Publishers, P.O. Box 368, Logan, UT 84321; or they may be bought at any of the many branch libraries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and in bookstores which deal in genealogy or history.

The information on your family group sheets will provide you with backup facts for those contained on your charts and also will come in handy on your research excursions.

While you may not be directly interested in facts about the brothers and sisters (siblings) of your ancestors, this information often can provide a vital clue about your own direct line.

For instance, you might learn that a particular great grandfather's name was John Doe, but you don't know his father's name. From other sources, you learn that John had a brother named James and a sister Elizabeth. Put this information, with actual or approximate dates of birth, on the children's portion of a family group sheet.

If the children you know about seem to have several years between their dates of birth, you should leave blanks for other probable children. Also leave the spaces for the parents blank. Later in your research, you may discover that a Samuel Doe had children named John, James and Elizabeth, as well as others. Check this information against what you have learned about your great grandfather and his siblings. If there's enough to convince you that Samuel may indeed be John's father, then you can begin in earnest to find out more about him.

There's another important reason for learning about the brothers and sisters of your ancestors: They can provide clues to earlier generations of a family.

Building on the above information, suppose your great grandfather and one or more of his brothers named their first sons Samuel. This would be added evidence that Samuel was John's father, for it was the custom in the last century to name the first son after the paternal grandfather.

Likewise, the second son was commonly named after the maternal grandfather, and suceeding sons were often named after uncles or great uncles. The girls, too, were often named after their grandmothers or great grandmothers.

And given names that appear to be surnames also can provide clues to a mother's or grandmother's maiden name. Naming a son John Smith Doe might indicate that his maternal grandfather's name was John Smith.

Your family group sheets can also help in establishing ages of the parents and children. Suppose you are piecing together information on a family and you only have ages or birthdates for a few of the children. Group the children as best you can from the oldest down to the youngest.

If you know the spread of time from the oldest to the youngest, you may be able to approximate the mother's age by keeping in mind normal childbearing ages. Statistics tell us that the average age for men to marry is about 25; for women, about 21. The average time between children is about two years, sometimes less.

If there is a gap of several years between children, it likely could indicate that one or more children died at birth or in infancy. Another possibility is that the older group of children had a different mother who died and the younger group are the offspring of a second marriage.

Large numbers of children with a spread of 25 years between the youngest and oldest definitely should lead you to examine whether there was another wife. If you know there was an earlier wife, but are unsure as to when she died, think of the possibility she may have died in childbirth, a frequent cause of death in early days.

THE FILE

Despite all of the information you'll have in your "traveling notebook," you still will need a place to keep other documents and backup material.

A secondhand standard letter-size file cabinet should do the job. Initially, I had a file folder for each family name filed alphabetically. As the amount of information grew, however, these folders had to be subdivided.

I now have dozens of folders for the Pence family, including several for some individuals, plus many for unrelated Pence families. (In the course of your research, you'll accumulate a lot of material on unrelated lines. You'll want to file this material because it can help you prove or disprove theories about your own lines. In my case, piecing together all of the various Pence families in the U.S. eventually became an overriding genealogical interest.

Above all, remember as you go about your genealogical research that everything must be verified or documented before it can be considered genealogical evidence. Place each bit of information, its source, the place you found it, the date and other pertinent facts on a sheet and put it into its proper file folder as soon as you can.


SECONDARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Libraries	Genealogies And Local Histories	Genealogical Dictionary

Genealogists need to learn what written records are available and where to find them in order to do an accurate job on their family trees. Generally, records are referred to as either "primary" (contemporary or original) or "secondary" (compiled or published).

Primary records are those which report an event at or close to the time it happened. They are original records of events and include state or federal census records; courthouse records, such as deeds, wills, probates, birth or death records, naturalization records, or court proceedings (both civil and criminal); church records, primarily baptism and marriage; ships' passenger lists; and military records.

Secondary, or published records, include histories, indexes or compilations of census or marriage records, printed family histories or genealogies, and collections of tombstone inscriptions.

Primary records are the most reliable source of information, but secondary sources can provide you with many shortcuts in your genealogical research. A printed family genealogy, for example, might have information on several generations of a given line you're searching.

Most competent genealogists consider published family histories only as clues for further searching. They use the dates and places as evidence of where to search for more supporting information. A well-done family history or genealogy will include citations to primary records and will greatly simplify your future research.

LIBRARIES

As interest in genealogy and local history has grown, more and more libraries have improved their collections in these areas. Many county-seat libraries have fine collections. Almost every state library has a special collection of genealogical materials, often maintained with the aid of a state historical or genealogical society. Unfortunately, smaller libraries often cannot afford such collections, although some books may be available through interlibrary loan.

In your search for secondary reference materials, you'll want to start at your local - or nearest larger - library, especially if your family has lived in your county or state for many years. Ask your librarian for local histories and genealogies; one of these might, for instance, tell you where your family lived before it came to the county where you now live. Also check the libraries in nearby counties.

Often the books you need to check will not be available locally. If you have a fairly good idea of the information you want and which book it is in you may be able to write your state library (or another library) and ask for specific information.

Many state libraries have genealogical finding aids which can help you. Some have indexes of names in early histories or other printed or microfilm records, such as marriage record indexes. Write your state library and ask for information. Most have a pamphlet describing what is available.

Many will copy printed or microfilm records for you for a fee. They also may be able to provide you with a list of people who will undertake genelogical research for you for a fee.

The Library of Congress (Washington, DC 20540) has an excellent collection of genealogies and local histories. If your travels include a trip to Washington, this is a must visit. The library's small staff can only do a limited amount of searching in the catalogs and indexes for specific titles or references if you query it by mail.

You can write the library for free leaflets describing its services. The three most helpful are "Reference Services and Facilities of the Local History and Genealogy Room," "Guide to Genealogical Research: A Selected List," and "Surnames: A Selected List of Books."

The Library of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (1776 D Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20006), has an extensive genealogical collection, including printed genealogies as well as manuscripts submitted by individuals or local chapters. It also has Bible, church and cemetery records, abstracts of court records, lineage books, and other materials. The Library is open to nonmembers for a small fee except during April.

The National Genealogical Society has its own library and maintains a library loan service and research service for members. The library collection includes published and unpublished works pertaining to genealogy, local history and heraldry. It is open to nonmembers for a small fee.

The most famous genealogical library is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (35 North West Temple, Salt Lake City, UT 84150). It has a massive genealogical collection, much of it on microfilm or microfiche and available through branch libraries around the country.

Its collection includes a computer-produced genealogical library catalog on microfiche; the latest edition of the International Genealogical Index, which lists the names and selected vital data of approximately 88 million deceased persons from over 90 countries; the Accelerated Indexing System's microfiche index for 1790-1850; an extensive list of library aids and reference books; and the Family Registry of some 100,000-plus names coordinating the searchers with the names being searched.

The library is open to the public and specialists in most areas are available for consultation.

You'll save a lot of backtracking if you make certain you don't leave a library, court house or other research site without a complete citation regarding information you've found. Also write down the citations and general content for books you didn't find anything in and keep a list of those so you won't go over the same ground again. This list can also be of help in case you need to go back to check these sources for newly discovered ancestors.

GENEALOGIES AND LOCAL HISTORIES

As previously mentioned, two of the more common types of secondary information are local histories. Both can be excellent sources of information or clues for further research. You should keep in mind, however, that these sources may not always be accurate.

Local histories were very popular in the latter part of the 1800s, especially in the Midwest. Most of them were money-making efforts of large publishers who sent teams of people out into a county. These people collected some local history and local biographies and added them to a pre-packaged state history.

They also sold books, for that is the way the publishers made money. And the way to make sure they would sell more copies was to include flowery write-ups about county residents - either for a fee or upon the subject's promise to buy one or more of the usually high-priced books. The more prominent one was made to appear, the more books he was likely to buy, so the publisher's word craftsmen spared no adjectives.

The biographies were full of "loyal patriots," "respected farmers" and "prominent merchants," as well as "loving wives and mothers."

Even with these drawbacks, there often is much genealogical information in these presentations. Usually the names of previous generations are given, along with the wife's maiden name and the names of her parents. Often included were the dates the family came to the county and where it had previously lived.

One of the major drawbacks of family genealogies and histories, especially those published in the Nineteenth Century, is the lack of adequate documentation. As often as not, the author - in his zeal to trace the family back to the Mayflower or other illustrious beginnings - made serious mistakes. The most common one was assuming that an ancestor was the son of a particular man with the same name without proper documentation.

On the other hand, these books provide excellent clues for further research. You can usually make your own judgments as to the accuracy of a particular genealogy by noting such things as completeness and citiations to specific sources.


THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Census Records	Military Records	Passenger Arrival Records	Federal Land Records	Genealogical Dictionary

Of all the materials and sources available to the genealogist, by far the most important are primary records or "original" records. These are the records found in archives, courthouses, town halls, old churches - even in the attic.

The value of primary records is that they are contemporary with the event which they record. Thus they are more likely to be accurate than a record made some time later from memory.

The National Archives and Records Administration (Washington, DC, 20408) is the repository for the U.S. government. It preserves and makes available valuable federal records from all three branches of government. The records in the custody of the National Archives are housed in the National Archives building in Washington, DC, (bounded by Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues and 7th and 9th Streets, N.W.), in the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, MD, and in eleven archives branches around the country.

CENSUS RECORDS

One of the most valuable records for the genealogist is the federal census. The United States government has conducted a census of each state and territory every ten years since 1790 and, in some places, other years. The federal census records from 1790 through 1840 contain little genealogical information. Only the head of household is given by name; all others in the family are counted only in specific age groups by sex. These records, though, can be helpful, for they tell you the number of children in the family and their approximate ages (remember that not all in the household are necessarily family members). They also can help you find where your family lived and pinpoint your research.

The 1850 census was the first to include the name of each person in a household, including age, sex, color, occupation, and birth place (state, territory or foreign country), occupation and value of real estate and personal property (usually just for the head of the household). In 1870 the census gave the month of birth if born during the year, the month of marriage if married within the year, and whether the father or mother of each individual was foreign born. The 1880 census added two valuable pieces of information: the relationship of each person to the head of the household and the birthplace of the father and mother of each person. The 1890 census was largely destroyed by fire in 1921 and only fragments of it are available for research.

The 1900 and 1910 censuses are the most helpful available. The 1900 census included the month and year of birth of each individual, as well as the number of years married for each couple, the number of children the woman had borne, and the number living in 1900. The census indicated whether a family rented or owned its own residence, whether it was a home or a farm, and whether it was mortgaged. For foreign born, the year of immigration was given and whether naturalized or first papers filed. The 1910 census has similar information and includes whether it was a first marriage or, if not, what number, language spoken, employment status, and whether served in the Union or Confederate army or navy.

Because of the confidential nature of census records, Congress determines when each census may be released. Current law requires that census information remain confidential for 72 years. The 1920 census, available in 1992, is the last to have been indexed.

Published indexes are available for all U.S. censuses from 1790 through 1850. Computerized indexes of the 1860 census for most states will be available in a few years.

The 1790 census - those parts available - was published by the government in the early 1900s and has since been privately reprinted. Published census schedules for 1790 are for Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Vermont.

The schedules for the remaining states - Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee and Virginia - were burned during the War of 1812. Substitute schedules, made from names in state censuses or tax lists, have been published for many of the missing states. These printed 1790 schedules are available in most larger libraries.

The 1880, 1900 and most of the 1910 censuses have "soundex" indexes on microfilm. The soundex is a coded surname index based on the way a surname sounds rather than how it is spelled. The 1880 soundex includes only those households with a child 10 or younger.

In using a census index, be certain that you have looked for your surname in all of its possible spelling variations. Remember also that indexes, including those produced by a computer, are subject to human error. Every genealogist has a horror story about printed census indexes; studies show that the error rate is high because of improper keypunching or misreading of the original records. So if you don't find your ancestor in an index it doesn't necessarily mean that he cannot be found in the census. You may often have to search every name in a given county before you find him.

The National Archives has original or microfilm copies of all the federal census schedules that have been made available to the public. These can be used in the microfilm reading room in the National Archives or at one of the eleven branches. If you are searching in Washington, enter the Pennsylvania Avenue side of the building. You will need to sign in and out and notebooks or brief cases are subject to search. The reading room is located on the fourth floor. While a researcher's identification card is necessary for certain research in the National Archives, you don't need one to use the microfilm reading room. In any case they are available in the lobby upon request.

To help with your census search, the Archives has a free booklet, "Getting Started: Beginning Your Genealogical Research in the National Archives." Included is an explanation of the soundex system.

If you are unable to visit a library where census record microfilms are available, the National Archives will, on request, send you a copy of each of its catalogs of microfilm copies: "Federal Population Censuses 1790-1890," "1900 Federal Population Census," and "The 1910 Federal Population Census." Prices and order blanks are included. Also, many county libraries have microfilm copies of census records for their local areas.

Census records cannot always be relied on as accurate. Persons giving the information may not have known the exact ages or places of birth of each member of the household. And there's always been vanity about ages - I've noted cases where people aged only five years in the ten years between the censuses! Census takers spelled what they heard and many of them spelled badly. And apparently they weren't hired because of their penmanship. Even so, the family listing in a census gives you valuable information and provides clues for further research.

MILITARY RECORDS

The National Archives has military service records beginning with the Revolutionary War. Two types of records are of particular interest to the genealogist: the compiled service record and the pension application record.

Compiled military service records are of limited genealogical value. They serve primarily to prove military service by your ancestor. For the most part, they consist of the serviceman's rank, military unit, dates of service, payroll and muster rolls, discharge, desertion or death. A few of the later war records include some personal information such as age, birthplace and physical description.

Microfilm indexes of military service records are available for the following periods: Revolution, 1775-1783; post-Revolution, 1784-1811; War of 1812, 1812- 1815; Indian Wars, 1817-1858; Mexican War, 1846-1848; Civil War, Union troops, 1861-1865; Civil War, Confederate troops, 1861-1865; Spanish-American War, 1898-1899; and the Philippine Insurrection, 1899-1902.

Pension application records are the most important military records for genealogists. The National Archives has pension applications and payment records for veterans, widows and other heirs. They are based on service in the U.S. armed forces between 1775 and 1916, but not duty in the service of the Confederate States.

Genealogical information in these files varies. In the file for one of my ancestors was an "autograph letter" recounting his experiences during the Revolution as well as statements signed by John Hancock attesting to his service in Maine, along with notarized information relating to his marriage and the birth of his children. Others may contain only depositions relating to the applicant's service, his age, birthplace and place of residence. Widow's applications often have more material, for they had to furnish the date and place of the marriage, the date and place of her husband's death, her maiden name, age, residence, and the names and ages of her children.

The National Genealogical Society compiled and published an alphabetical name index of the Revolutionary War pension applications files and is working on one for the War of 1812.

To secure photocopies of military or pension records by mail, write the National Archives Reference Service Branch (NNIR) and ask for copies of its military request order forms. Information on the form must be as complete as possible for an effective search to be made. At a minimum, you must know the state from which he served and the period when he served. There is a charge for this service.

Some state archives or libraries have additional military records - or copies of the federal records - so you will want to check there. Iowa, for instance, has an excellent collection gathered as a part of a WPA project in the 1930s and maintained by military authorities. Some states also issued pensions; inquiries about these should be directed to the state where the veteran lived after the war.

PASSENGER ARRIVAL RECORDS/FEDERAL LAND RECORDS

The Archives and its branches have passenger arrival records beginning in 1820 (they were not required before that date). To request a search of the passenger arrival records, write the Reference Service Branch (NNIR) and request forms for ordering passenger arrival records. The important information you will need includes approximate date of arrival of your ancestor, port of entry, and - if possible - the name of the ship. There is a charge for this service.

If your ancestor lived in one of the "public land" states (30 states, primarily from Ohio west) and bought land directly from the federal government, you can request a search of the National Archives Records. You will need to furnish your ancestor's full name, the state in which he or she acquired land, whether the land was acquired before or after 1908, and, if possible, the legal description of the land by section, township and range. If you don't have a legal description, describe its location as precisely as you can. There is a fee for this service and it may take several weeks to process your order.


STATE AND LOCAL RECORDS

Vital Records	Probate Records	Deeds	Guardian Bonds	Courthouse Research Tips	Family Bibles	Tombstone Records	Newspapers	Church Records	Other Help	Genealogical Dictionary

The records maintained by each county or other local jurisdiction are valuable sources of family information. Land records, wills and probates, other court records and vital statistics are just some of the materials available to the genealogist.

Unfortunately, many of these records have been lost by fire or, perhaps, carelessness. And in most states, birth and death records weren't kept until this centrury. Marriage records are often available for much earlier years.

In general, early records for most of New England are fairly complete. Most Massachusetts vital records have been published. In the South, however, many early records weren't centrally kept or were lost or burned.

In most states records of interest to genealogists are kept in the state archives, the state library and a land office. County records not transferred to the state archives are usually found in county courthouses. In New England some records, particularly vital records, are kept in town halls.

Many state libraries have developed information sheets that will help you begin your research. There are also published genealogical research guides available for many states.

The government publication, "Where to Write for Vital Records," gives specific information on the location of these records. Issued periodically, it is available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, or can be found in many libraries. It lists information by state and includes the repository, address and cost of each certificate.

"The Handy Book for Genealogists" is a particularly helpful guide. It contains information on local record sources, including published state and local histories, lists of libraries and historical societies, county maps of each state, a listing of counties, with records available in each and whom and where to write for them, date the county was formed and its parent counties, and a rundown of available census records and indexes to them. Available from Everton Publishers, P.O. Box 369, Logan, UT 84321.

You can find out what records are available in a county by writing the county clerk. (The exact county official in charge of various records varies from state to state; a letter addressed to the clerk will usually be passed on to the proper office.)

If you can provide a specific name and an approximate date for a document (deed, birth, death, marriage, will, etc.), the clerk can find and copy the record for you at a nominal fee (usually about $3).

VITAL RECORDS

While vital records are the most important records for genealogists, their availability varies widely from area to area, as previously mentioned.

An additional problem is that information found in them is not always accurate. Early records may not be complete, the person providing the information may have given inaccurate data either intentionally or by mistake, or other errors have occured in copying or indexing.

If a parent gave the information for a birth certificate, you can assume it is accurate. Beware, however, of information provided for a death certificate. A person giving such information for his grandfather often didn't know the pertinent information asked, such as date and place of birth, or gave confused information. As an example, a great uncle provided information for the death certificate of his father (my great grandfather) and in the blank for the decedant's mother's maiden name (a sorely needed piece of information for me) is listed my great uncle's mother's name, not that of his father's mother.

While the date of death given on a death certificate is usually accurate, the cause of death may not be as complete as you'd like even though furnished by a coroner or doctor. The cause of death for one of my ancestors is listed as "apoplexy" (stroke). Under "contributory causes," the doctor wrote "drunkeness" and under "how long" he entered "many years"! (A story begging to be learned! Followup led to an obituary which recounted a trip to town the Friday night before he died and the wrecking of the buggy on the way home; the obituary was diplomatically silent about the cause of the accident.)

Marriage records are usually dependable, since the persons involved supplied the information. However, sometimes folks fudged about their ages - either because they were too young to marry without permission of their parents or they didn't want the clerk to know exactly how old they were. My father was married a few months before his 21st birthday and gave his age as 21, thus avoiding the hassel of getting his father to sign. And Dad went to a neighboring county for the marriage license, knowing that his home county would verify his age against his birth record.

PROBATE RECORDS

Probate records are important for genealogists. Among the earliest available, they help document family relationships and dates of death. A will may list the wife and/or husband and all the children by their given names, may include some grandchildren's names and the married names of daughters and their husbands' names. Sometimes, though, you'll find one that simply says "my beloved wife" and "all of my children" without naming any of them. Remember, too, that a particular son or daughter may have previously been provided for and the absence of a name in a will does not necessarily mean a person was not an offspring of the deceased.

If no will can be found, you must search for other papers. Usually you will find court orders appointing an administrator or executor. If a person left a will, he often named an "executor" of the will and the court required that person to post a bond. If a person died "intestate" (without a will), then the court usually appointed an "administrator." Thus the use of executor or administrator in court records indicates whether a will was left. Most counties have indexes of executors' and administrators' bonds. If you search long enough and hard enough you can almost always find some court record of a person's death - at least those who owned property, for there had to be some disposition of that property.

DEEDS

Sometimes the answer can be found in deeds, although these usually do not contain genealogical information. At a minimum, deeds help you establish where your ancestors lived and when. Occasionally you will find family references such as "the same land which I inherited from my father, Samuel, as his eldest son and heir." Also, some land records, particularly those for settlement of estates, may list heirs. If your ancestor conveyed "an undivided fifth interest" in a piece of property it would indicate that he and four other heirs, likely his siblings, may have inherited the property.

Deeds can also help establish whether an ancestor was married, since the sale of land requires the wife's consent. The absence of a wife's name indicates the seller was unmarried at the time. In one case, I was unable to find the date of death for an ancestor's wife prior to his remarriage to another woman. To complicate matters, both women had the given name Elizabeth. However, careful checking of deeds involved in his many land transactions revealed a period of about two years when he sold land without a wife signing. This information revealed the approximate dates of the first woman's death and his later remarriage.

While most counties have accurate indexes of deed records, usually these are a "grantor" (seller) index and a "grantee" (buyer) index. Other persons who may be mentioned in a deed are not indexed and the information you are looking for may be "lost" in one of dozens of deed books. I once solved a perplexing genealogical problem for another person quite by accident. She wrote wanting to know if perhaps two of her ancestor's daughters had married into the Pence family since the two families were neighbors. They hadn't. But one day while checking a deed for some land my ancestor had bought, I discovered all of the information relating to the marriages of her ancestor's children. Turned out that the land was being sold by her ancestor's heirs, one of whom was a daughter whose existence and married name were unknown. The deed was indexed under the name of the unknown daughter's husband along with "et al" - "and others." Naturally, the persons she was looking for were among the "others." Moral: You may have to check deeds for in-laws of your ancestors as well as those for neighbors in order to find that elusive fact.

GUARDIAN BONDS

Another useful record found in courthouses is the record of guardian bonds, or orphan's bonds. These can establish the parentage of a person who was a minor and help establish dates of death for the parent or parent. Note that it was not necessary for both parents to be deceased for a guardian to be named. This was sometimes done in cases where a minor child was an heir to a grandfather's estate through the deceased parent or if a mother was remarrying. In both cases, and in others, the guardian was appointed to protect the child's rights to the estate. I've also noted cases such as one where a person was named guardian of two orphans who had the same last name as he. Instead of being niece and nephew, as might be expected, they turned out to be his own children. He was named guardian in order to take custody of their portion of their mother's inheritance from her father's estate.

COURTHOUSE RESEARCH TIPS

As always, be sure to take complete citations when extracting wills, deeds or other court records. Witnesses or those who gave bond for certain transactions should also be recorded, for these may have been relatives.

Remember that in the early years of our country, many people could not read or write, so watch for variant spellings of the name you are searching. Often names were recorded as they sounded to clerks. This is how the name Bentz became Pence in most parts of the U.S. (The German "B" is often pronounced as "P.") Most often the spellings we use today were the result of an accident, not a deliberate effort. It's probably not worth your while to look for a court record for a name change, for it was seldom done. Likewise, people who spell a similar surname different from you may be related to you, while those who spell it the same may not.

A few years ago, notice was taken of the legal name change made by a prominent person. A Johannes Hart Pence lived in New Jersey in colonial times. One of his sons, out of deference to his grandmother's maiden name, began using Hartpence as his surname. Generations later, a member of this family, remembering the story about the name having been changed in early days, went to court to have it changed back to "the old way." That's why a presidential candidate has the name Gary Hart instead of Gary Pence!

Another thing to watch for is translation of names. The German Zimmerman became its English equivalent, Carpenter, for example.

You also need to watch for misspellings of place names, particularly in deeds. In searching for the spot where an ancestor lived, I kept finding it described as being "at the foot of Rich Mountain." No such place could be found on any map, old or new, in the area. I finally figured out why. The ancestor was German and if he described the land to an English clerk, he would describe it with a German accent. If the word was pronounced "rich," what might the correct word be? Answer: "Ridge." Sure enough, Ridge Mountain was on the map and the land was located.

And, in earlier times, the boundaries of the counties were constantly changing. Thus, in order for you to concentrate your research in the proper place, you need to know the geographic history of the areas you are interested in.

For instance, some of my ancestors lived for many years in Shenandoah County, VA. This county was created in 1772 from a portion of Frederick County, which in turn was created in 1738 from Orange and Augusta counties - both of which were carved out of other counties. And today, the land on which they lived is located in Page County, which was created from Shenandoah County in 1833. Therefore, depending on the dates involved, you might have to search the courthouses of three or more counties to find the appropriate record for an individual.

Everton's "Handy Book" (mentioned earlier) can provide you with information about the formation of counties.

FAMILY BIBLES

Family Bibles or information on tombstones are excellent records - but there are some things you have to be careful about. For instance, Bibles usually are accurate family records, but you should check the date the Bible was printed. If it was printed in 1850 and contains family birth, death and marriage records back into the 1700s, obviously someone wrote these records long after the fact and may not have known the facts or remembered accurately, or even could have been told the wrong information.

Also, you should check the handwriting carefully. If several entries are in the same shade of ink in almost identical handwriting, it's a good sign those entries were made at the same time and probably not concurrent with the event. The date of the last nearly identical record is probably closest to the recording date.

TOMBSTONE RECORDS

Tombstones, too, are sometimes erected many years after a person dies and therefore might contain erroneous dates. Or the stonecutter could have erred or been given the wrong information. Be careful, too, of printed compilations of cemetery records (this applies to other published material, such as marriage records), because errors can be made in copying, indexing or publishing. A book on one cemetery contains entry for one of my wife's ancestors, including this quote: "son of N.B." This contradicted other information and it was not until much later - when I had someone recheck the stone for me - that I learned the correct inscription was: "Erected by his son, W.B." This fit what I had previously believed.

When copying cemetery inscriptions, be careful not to misread numbers or letters. The number 4 is often carved with a light horizontal line that wears away leaving what looks like the number 1 or 7. Other numbers that are easy to misread: 3 and 8, 8 and 6, 5 and 3. Letters usually are more distinct, but C, G, D and O can be confused. Mar and May are hard to distinguish, as are Jul and Jun. When copying, place a question mark over letters or numbers you are unsure of.

Be sure to record surrounding stones, for they can provide clues to family relationships. Look for markers outlining family plots and note the names of all those buried within the plot. A woman who was a widow for a number of years, or a bride who died young, might be buried with her parents, and others with different names may be related.

Many cemeteries will not be well cared for and will be badly overgrown. The best time to search is the early spring or late fall when the foliage is thin and the weeds short. Helpful equipment for "tombstone hunting" includes carpenter's chalk (for rubbing over letters to make them easier to read), a putty knife to scrape debris off fallen stones, a scrub brush to clean stones, a crowbar to turn heavy stones, perhaps an axe to clear away underbrush or a shovel to dig away from sunken stones, and a camera to record unusual stones.

Even if your ancestor is buried in an unmarked grave, if you know the cemetery he or she is buried in you can sometimes get information about him from cemetery records. Write a library or historical society near the cemetery to learn if such records are available. Larger city cemeteries usually have a sexton who maintains such records. If one exists for the cemetery you are interested in, that is the person to contact.

NEWSPAPERS

Marriage notices, obituaries and birth announcements are often found in newspapers - if you are willing to spend the time to hunt through them. A few are indexed, but most require a page-by-page search. You'll need to know where the family lived and the approximate date of the event you are interested in.

Some local libraries have microfilm or other copies of early newspapers and many state libraries have extensive collections. The Library of Congress has an excellent collection of early American newspapers.

If you know the place and date of marriage, birth or death, you can usually get a copy of any mention of it (at least for more recent years) by writing newspapers in the area. Your library probably has a directory of newspapers in the U.S.

"Newspaper Indexes: A Location and Subject Guide for Researchers," 3 vols., by Anita Cheek Milner (Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ), lists newspaper indexes by state, county and town, indicating the repositories in which they can be found.

CHURCH RECORDS

If you know the religious affiliation of your ancestor, you should try to find out what records are available for the churches in the area where he or she lived. Records vary widely from denomination to denomination. Some may be housed in a national or state repository; others are found on closet shelves of the current church secretary.

"A Survey of American Church Records," by E. Kay Kirkham (Everton Publishers, Logan, UT), is a guide to the location of church records that have been published or deposited in public archives.

OTHER HELP

There are countless other sources for genealogical information - literally too many to be considered. Your local library is a good resource in discovering some of them. It will likely have several books on genealogical research, all of which will give you additional ideas. It also may subscribe to a number of genealogical periodicals. Take time to check through a few of these. One feature in many of them is a section with queries about "lost" ancestors. I've received a lot of help by writing to those searching the same lines as I am. In fact, one of the pleasant things about genealogy is the willingness of its practitioners to share their findings with you.

If you get stuck on a particular line, placing a query in a genealogical publication may yield results. If you follow this route, BE SPECIFIC. Saying you will "exchange information on the Baker family" won't bring many responses because readers won't know who it is you are looking for or if they have information that will help you.

Try this approach: "Need parents of James L. Baker, born OH 1812, married Sue Allen in Bartholomew County, IN, in 1837; lived Warren County, IN, 1850 census. Who were his parents? Hers? Was George Baker, Bartholomew County 1850 his brother or cousin?" [NOTE: I made up all of the foregoing information, but after this article began appearing in local newspapers, I got a response to it!]

If you write others seeking information, remember your mail manners. Because you're asking them to help you, you should make it easy for them. Ask questions precisely. Include as much information as necessary to identify the individual you are interested in, but don't include extraneous material. A short, to-the- point letter will get a response. One dealing with a variety of subjects will be set aside because of the extensive work involved in answering it.

Be responsive to the needs of the individual you are writing and offer information you may have that could be of help. Offer to pay the cost of copies of material you request or to reimburse for out-of-pocket expenses. And it's customary when writing to seek information to include an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) for the reply.

Keep a copy of the letters you send, for it may be difficult from the reply to tell what you said in your request. And it's a good idea to keep a log of in- coming and out-going letters, including a notation as to when particular letters were answered.


National Listing of Newspapers with Genealogical Columns

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

(NOTE:  Most do FREE, area related queries, unless otherwise noted.)

Alabama:

Centreville Press

Elia Draws

Box 73,

Centreville, Al 35042

Cherokee Co. Herald

"Tracino Southern Families"

Mrs. Frank Stewart Sr.

P. O. Box 295

Centre, Al 35960

Arkansas:

The Citizen

"Family Tracker"

Poteau Valley Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 1031

Poteau, Ok 74953

California:

The Record

"Ancestor Amblings"

Ann McDanell

2328 Oleander

Delano, Ca 93215

Los Angeles Times

"Shaking your Family Tree"

Mr. Vanderpool Gormley

P. O. Box 64316

Tacoma, Wa 98464

Syndicated Nationally; No Queries

Florida:

 	The Florida Times-Union

"Out on a Limb"

LaViece Smallwood

P. O. Box 1949-F

Jacksonville, Fl 32231

The Pensacola News Journal

"Family Quest"

Dorothy S. Brown

P. O. Box 12710

Pensacola, Fl 32574

Georgia:

The Albany Herald

"Knowing your Ancestors"

Marie De Lamar

1006 Sixth Avenue

Albany, Ga 31701

The Alanta Journal

"Genealogy"

Kenneth H. Thomas Jr.

P. O. Box 901

Decatur, Ga 30031

No Queries

The La Grange Daily News

"History and Your Family"

Shirley W. Bowen

P. O. Box 2291

LaGrange, Ga 30241

The Newnan Times Herald

"Norma's Coweta Chatter"

Mrs. R. T. Gunby Sr.

8031 Highway 54

Sharpsburg, Ga 30277

The Thomasville Times-Enterprise

"Genealogy Today"

Annette J. Stewart

401 Tuxedo Drive

Thomasville, Ga 31792

Illinois:

The Commercial News

"Iliana Ancestors"

Joan A. Griffis

105 Poland Road

Danville, Il 61832

Indiana:

The Sunday Herald-Times

Mrs. Mona Robinson

1717 East Hunter Avenue

Bloomington, In 47401

The Brownstown Banner

Jonette K. Johnson

Rt. 2 Box 32

Seymour, In 47274

Your County Magazine

Karen Zack

Rt. 7 Box 43

Crawfordsville, In 47933

The Hagarstown Exponent

Bob Hansen

P. O. Box 231

Hagarstown, In 47346-0231

The Electric Consumer

"Who's Who"

Julia Cullison

P. O. Box 24517

Indianapolis, In 46224

The Indianapolis Star

"Indiana Ancestors"

Vicktoria Hizer

P. O. Box 145

Indianapolis, In 46206-0145

The Loogootee Tribune

Loogootee, In

The Dearborn County Register and

Risino Sun Recorder

Chris McHenry

P. O. Box 328

Lawrenceburg, In 47025

The Madison Courier

"Family Tree"

George H. Miller

4000 East Fletcher Avenue #1-114JKV

Tampa, Fl 33613-4822

The Milford Mail

"Relatively Speaking"

Doris McManis Camden

P. O. Box 214

Warsaw, In 46580

The South Bend Tribune

"Michiana Roots"

Carol Collins

223 West Colfax Avenue

South Bend, In 46626

The North Vernon Plain Dealer

Lilian Hall Carmer

RR2 Box 49

Dupont, In 47231

The Scott County Journal & Chronicle

Mrs. Jeannie Carlisle

Rt. 2 Box 169

Lexington, In 47138-9628

The Terre Haute Tribune-Star

Dorothy J. Clark

2032 North 8th Street

Terre Haute, In 47804

Kansas:

The Chanute Tribune and Good News

    Magazine

Warren H. Fitch

810 South Wilson

Chanute, Ks 66720

Kanhistique

"Your Kansas Family Tree"

Merle Ganier

2108 Grace Street

Ft. Worth, Tx 76111

The Salina Journal

"Smoky Valley Roots"

Judy Lilly

223 West Prescott

Salina, Ks 67401

Louisiana:

The Sunday Advocate

The New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Louisiana Ancestors"

Damon Veach

P. O. Box 44370

Baton Rouge, La 70804

Louisiana Newspapers

"The Challenge of Genealogy"

Marie Wise

P. O. Box 1999

Sulphur, La 70663

Maine:

The Courier Gazette

"Your Side of the Family"

Lauralee Clayton

12 Main Street

Camden, Me 04843

Maryland:

"Old Pike Travelers"

P. O. Box 3103

LaVale, Md 21504

Michigan:

The Oakland Detroit Press

"Heritage Hunt"

Virginia Block

1135 South Adams Road

Birmingham, Mi 48011

Mississippi:

6 Newspapers

"Family Roots"

Lamar Roberts

5560 Gibson Road

Vicksburg, Ms 39180

The Hattiesburg American and the Laurel Leader-Call

"Meet Your Ancestors"

Dr. Betty S. Drake

513 North 19th Avenue

Hattiesburg, Ms 39401

Missouri:

The Kansas City Times

"Shaking Your Family Tree"

Myra Vanderpool Gormley

Box 64316

Tacoma, Wa 98464

The Richland Mirror

"Sharing the Past"

Don Vincent

10223 Meridian East #B212

Puyallup, Wa 98373

Nebraska:

The Blair Pilot Tribune & Enterprise

"Digging for Roots"

Mrs Mary Jo Kubie

1171 South 16th Street

Blair, Ne 68008

The Omaha-World-Herald

"Family Trails"

Mrs John Westmore

P. O. Box 4244

Omaha, Ne 68104

Ohio:

The Columbus Dispatch

Joy Wade Moulton C. G.

1303 London Drive

Columbus, Oh 43221

The Hamilton Journal-News

"Genealogy"

Jim Newton

312 Ross Avenue

Hamilton, Oh 45013

The Record Herald

Sandy Fackler

P.O. Box 119

Washington C. H., Oh 43160

Oklahoma:

The Lawton Constitution

Aulena Scearce Gibson

3607 Arlington

Lawton, Ok 73505

The Poteau News

"Family Finder"

Poteau, Ok

The Spiro Graphic

"Know Your Kin"

Spiro, Ok

The Pocala News

"Family Tree"

Poteau Valley Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 1031

Poteau, Ok 74953

Pennsylvania:

The Press and Journal

Middletown, Pa

The Daily News

"Our Keystone Families"

Schuvler C. Brossman

Box 43

Rehrersburg, Pa 19550

Queries up to 150 words free.  To get a copy of paper in which it 	appears, send $1.00 with query.

Texas:

The Abilene Reporter-News

"Pathways to the Past"

Jean Mansell

P. O. Box 30

Abilene, Tx 79604

The Dallas Morning News

"Family Tree"

Margaret Ann Thetford

Communication Center

Dallas, Tx 75265

The El Paso Times

Mary Margaret Davis

P. O. Box 20

El Paso, Tx 79999

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Texas Kin"

Pat Chadwell Jackson and Paul Campbell

P. O. Box 1870

Fort Worth, Tx 76101

The Henderson Daily News

"Footprints"

Len Rives

Rusk County Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 1503

Henderson, Tx 75652-1503

The Texas Spur

"Family Corner"

Box 344

Jayton, Tx 79528

The Lamar County Echo

"The Family Tree"

Box 1078

Paris, Tx 75460

The Longview Morning Journal

"East Texas Heritage"

Nancy Ruff

P. O Box 1792

Longview, Tx 75601

The Daily Sentinel

Nacogdoches, Tx

The Daily News

Lufkin, Tx

The Daily News

Henderson, Tx

The Cherokeean

"Kissin' Kuzzins"

Carolyn Ericson

1614 Redbud Street

Nacogdoches, Tx 75961

The Northeast Texas Chronicle

Daingerfield, Tx

"The Genealogical Corner"

Jewel Dixon Johnston

Rt 4 Box 10

Mt. Pleasant, Tx 75455

The Pampa News

"Gena on Genealogy"

P. O. Drawer 2198

Pampa, Tx 79066-2198

The Panola Post & Panola Watchman

"Know Your Heritage"

Leila B. LaGrone

512 Stadium Street

Carthage, Tx 75633

No Queries

The Seguin Enterprise & The Gonzales Inquirer

"Family Tree"

Mary C. Bond

Rt 1 Box 142G

Nixon, Tx 78140

The Waxahachie Daily Light

Donna Lonon

P. O Box 385

Waxahachie, Tx 75165

The Weatherford Democrat

"Kissin' Kin"

Evelyn Broumley

512 Palo Pinto Street

Weatherford, Tx 76086

The Wise County Messenger

"Wise Ancestry"

Catherine Gonzalez

Box 66

Rhome, Tx 76078

Virginia:

The Central Virginia Leader

 "Central Virginia Heritage"

Central Virginia Genealogical Society

P. O. Box 39

Crozet, Va 22932

The Kenbridge-Victoria Dispatch

Mildred W. Steltzner

4037 Tanglewood Trail

Chesapeake, Va 23325

Washington:

The Pierce County Herald

"Routes to Roots"

Janet Baccus

5817-144 Street East

Puyallup, Wa 98373

The Spokesman Review & Spokane

 Daily Chronicle

"Heritage Hunting"

Donna Potter Phillips

2204 Houston

Spokane, Wa 99208

The Washinton News Tribune

"Shaking Your Family Tree"

Myra Vanderpool Gormley

P. O. Box 64316

Tacoma, Wa 98464

No Queries

West Virginia:The Morgan Messenger

"Warm Springs Echoes"

Frederick & Maxine Newbraugh

6 Rockwell Circle

Berkley Springs, WV 25411

The West Virginia Advocate

Dr. Wilmer L. Kerns

4715 North 38th Place

Arlington, Va 22207

This is taken from:

"The Langston Family News"

930 South Monaco

Box 11337

Denver, Colorado 80224.