>> Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1992 13:38:39 EDT >> >> Sender: LifeLines Genealogical System >> From: ttw@PETREL.ATT.COM >> Subject: LifeLines Newsletter Number Two - - - - - - - - - - - - cut here - - - - - - - - - LIFELINES NEWSLETTER 2 19 October 1992 T. T. Wetmore IV, ed. >>> TABLE OF CONTENTS <<< o EDITOR'S NOTE o STATUS o ADDING UNSTRUCTURED DATA TO YOUR DATABASE o TWO TYPES OF GENEALOGICAL DATABASES o HINTS: EXTENDING A LINE >>> EDITOR'S NOTE <<< I spent more time than I care to admit coming up with the name LifeLines. For a long time it was just GTOOL (Genealogy Tool). My kids generated a long list of ideas, and one of my daughters came up with LifeLines. My wife, who doesn't feel quite the same lure to this subject as I do, pointed out that the names DeadEnds or DeadReckonings would have been much more ap- propriate. I agree with her, but opted for marketing over honesty. >>> STATUS <<< The version of LifeLines now ready for distribution is 2.2.2. With this version I can also provide statically linked executables for SUN4 systems. The shift to the 2.2 line occurred with the addition of the new merging features (as described in the first newsletter). There have also been a few minor bug fixes and additions to the report programming builtin li- brary. The quick reference guide has not been updated since 27 September 1992, so it is getting a little out of date. I am working on 2.2.3 now, and have already made a few more additions to the builtin library. I am hoping to add a few significant modifications to 2.2.3 before releasing it. The LifeLines "wish list" has grown substantially over the past month, due mostly to thoughtful suggestions made by new users. I appreciate your feedback and will continue to do what I can to keep you happy. >>> ADDING UNSTRUCTURED DATA TO YOUR DATABASE <<< You may want to add unstructured information to the records in your data- base. For example, you may want to include the text of an obituary, a sto- ry from your grandmother, or an explanation of some unusual fact. I do this sort of thing quite often, especially for the persons I research the most seriously. The GEDCOM record of one of my ancestors is over 10K bytes in length. Here are some of the conventions I use for storing unstructured data. Let me stress that these are my own conventions. For English prose that I write, and that I want to show up in English language form in the more de- tailed report formats, I use the following: 1 NOTE ... text in proper grammatical sentences ... 2 CONT ... .... I generally put one paragraph's worth of sentences in each note, using the CONT lines for continuation. With this technique, I can easily insert paragraph breaks into my English language reports. When I want to quote directly from a source I use the following: 1 TEXT ... verbatim text copied from some source 2 CONT ... LifeLines Newsletter 2 .... 2 SOUR ... source of the text If I want to add a quick note of information about something in the data- base, but it isn't information I want to see in reports, I use the follow- ing: 1 INFO ... short sentence If I want to add private information to the database, say of a confidential or potentially embarrassing nature, I use the following: 1 PRIV ... text I never use such information in reports. And finally, if I want to refer to information stored in a file external to the database proper, I use the following: 1 FILE filename The report programming language has built-in function, copyfile(), which will open a file and copy its contents to the report output file. >>> TWO TYPES OF GENEALOGICAL DATABASES <<< There are two obviously different types of genealogical databases. One kind, which might be called the "results" database, is the type that most people think of first. This type of database holds person records and fam- ily records (or something equivalent) that are believed to represent unique individuals who really lived and their family relationships. Such results databases are based on research, hypothesis and conjecture. Many genealo- gists might even say that building up such databases is the real essence of "doing genealogy." The other type of database might be called a "research" database. Such a database contains persons and family relationships, often taken from an original source document, or in this day and age, from a GEDCOM file ex- tracted from the LDS IGI system. In such a database there are no assump- tions one way or the other that the records represent unique persons or families. A research database represents a number of events in which each event involved one or more persons (birth, baptism, marriage, death, and so on). It is the genealogist's job to discover which records in a research database represent the same real persons and families and then to transfer these conclusions into a research database. LifeLines can handle both types of databases, although it may be easier to use LifeLines on results databases. This is because it is natural to think of results databases as made up of persons and families, which is the model that LifeLines supports best. On the other hand, the concepts of event and source are more natural in a research database, and these concepts are second class citizens in LifeLines. (A major extension to LifeLines, which I have been considering for a long time, would be to include events and sources as two more top level record types in a LifeLines database.) I would recommend that you don't mix database types. For example, if you have a precious results database, I wouldn't read a new GEDCOM file into that database without much careful preparation. If that GEDCOM file really represents a research database (eg, GEDCOM files from the IGI) you will really get frustrated with your messed up database. LifeLines Newsletter 3 A good process for adding new persons and records, taken from an imported GEDCOM file, to a LifeLines master, results database might be: o Read the GEDCOM file into an empty database; this creates a small, research database. o Process the new database by using the LifeLines merging features to join together persons records that represent the same person, and fam- ily records that represent the same families; this results in a small, results (or mostly results), database. o Use the LifeLines person set and extraction features to extract the set of persons and families from the small, results database, that you want to add to your main, results database. o Read that extracted GEDCOM file into your master database. o Use the LifeLines merging features to merge together the persons and families that became duplicated when you read in the new data. o (Optional) Remove the small database where you did your research. >>> HINTS: EXTENDING A LINE <<< For many of us extending a line is the raison d'etre of doing genealogy. When you first discover who the parents of one of your direct ancestors were, your first reaction is probably leaping around the room with a broad grin on your face. Once you have calmed down, however, your second reac- tion is probably to add the new persons to your database. As an ever- accommodating program, LifeLines makes this happy activity as easy as it can for you. o First browse to the end-of-line person whose parents (or just parent) you have just discovered; this will make him or her current in the person browse mode. o Use the 'a' command to add a new family, and choose the '1' option to create a new family which contains a single child. LifeLines will present you with a blank family template. Fill out the template for the family whose parent/s were just discovered. When you return from the editor you will be in the family browse mode with this new family. The family will contain one child (the former end-of-line) and no parents/spouses. o Now use the 'n' command to add one of the parents (or the only parent) to the database. When you return from the editor you will still be in the family browse mode. o Now use the 's' command to add a spouse/parent to the current family. LifeLines will guess that the person just added should be the new spouse/parent. When you confirm this, Lifelines makes that person a spouse/parent in the family. o If you know the other spouse/parent in the new family, repeat the last two steps.