General Chat

I keep a diagramatic family tree like most people but to keep all details of an individual I put them on a database as soon as I discover them. Microsoft Excel Worksheet is ideal.

Column A: surname; B: Other names; C: year of birth; D: place of birth;
E: Occupation; F: all other information.

If information is not available put "unknown". This is an example:


A: Bloggs. B: Joseph Charles. C: 1750. D: Midsomer Norton. E: Unknown

F: 2nd child of Henry & Martha Bloggs. Married to Ann Smith, (1751), (nee Brown); Father of James (1772); Daisy (1774); Louisa (1777); Henry (1780). Died in Midsomer Parva in 1823.


Use the A-Z facility on the worksheet to keep all individuals listed in alphabetical order by surname. When you look at the family tree and need details of an ancestor, it is a simple matter to scan down the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is virtually endless and on one document you can store the essential information of thousands of individuals.

When I have a lot of online information to sift through and organise first I copy and paste to a word doc then transfer the facts to a spread sheet where they can be listed by category - ie personal names in first column, followed by place column, birth reg etc. It is then easy to move people around with their personal data. I also colour code each potential head of household and follow through their family groups for each census.

:-D ;-)

See Mick, I'm not the only one with the wallpaper :-) lol

Try looking at the new "outlook" (replaces Hotmail).

You can put all your information, including documents on a "cloud".

The cloud will always be there, even if your computer dies.



:-D

I have my own tree on a wedsite, I also have a box I keep scribbled notes with dates and names sometimes underline that make no sense the morning after , this includes a log of information I have found, new papers cuttings my certs .

You are the second person today to mention wallpaper and family records

I have the tree in GR on the puter. It wouldn't print out as big as a wallpaper job I suppose.

It's searching for stuff that appears in these posts that I want to be able to do.

Myself I don't bother about putting a Tree on the computer, what I do is make
a note of all the information and put it on the reverse of a roll of wallpaper and
is up on the wall of the spare bedroom, covers one wall, is instant info for all the
family to see, is so easy to make a mistake and click on the wrong thing and lose
info, also can see the whole lot in one go instead of bits & pieces.

F.

Thank you KTC. It sounds like a mix of hard copy and soft copy. I want it all soft copy that can be searched. I have been overwhelmed with information and I don't have a process for remembering it all. It's what pooters were built for! But How?

In an ideal world I like to make notes in the family tree programme on my PC and back up onto a memory stick.

I use word to paste info to be used later or write things in a notebook to refer to at a later date..............or put on my to do list.

In reality.......I have bits of paper with randon information all carefully put into the various surname drawers or folders. I back everything up when my son-in-law reminds me to.



Certificates are all in folders and I go through them periodically to see if any informants or witnesses are now identified. :-) :-) :-)

Folks,

I have come late to the Family History party. It was something I was saving for my old age then I realised this WAS my old age!! :-D

I have two threads bubbling away, one in here, and one over in Find Ancestors. The information that is being put up is breathtaking in its scope. It is comprehensive and there are a thousand dates and names. Leads go off this way and that way, never to be mentioned again buried in pages of posts. I have tried to keep up putting stuff on my tree but I have been unlucky. I am too slow.

So I thought I would like to be able to manage all this information with ease; type in a name, or a date (for a census for example) and everything on that term would be found. I would like to do it offline too because then I could focus on the tree without having to keep looking for a post in five pages of posts where I am sure I saw something two days before.

Here is a message I sent to someone this afternoon and they replied that I should post on here because there are a few real IT gurus (you were named but I shan't embarrass you).

"I have this fabulous thread with a mountain of information and it occurred to me I would like to keep it because there is far more information in it than appears on my tree despite my best efforts.

How is this usually done? I am planning on 1) cutting and pasting every post into Word - this will give me a search facility as well or 2) creating a database in Access (which I have never used) or - what? "

What do other people do? Is there a program already just for this kind of thing? Or is Word or Access the answer?

mick