Recording information

[Bill Guion]

I have two situations I would like some advice on.

1. How do you record alternate names? For example, I have an ancester with the following names: Louis Guion's wife's name was Anne Thomas and she was known as Tomaza (other sources cite Tomaza ______ or Tomaza Forestiere). Tomaza Forestiere seems to be the most commonly recorded name (without citing the others), but this suggests Anne Thomas is her given name. How would you record this in Reunion?

2. How do you record information found in wills? My first thought was as a note, but before doing that I thought I'd ask here.

Thanks in advance for all inputs.

-----===== Bill =====-----

[donworth]

Re: Recording information

I created a fact type called ANAM. I brought my data over from Family Tree Maker and it had alternate names. I attach the sources to either the main name or one or more alternate name facts depending on how it appears in each record.

[Allsop]

Re: Recording information

I created a fact type called ANAM. I brought my data over from Family Tree Maker and it had alternate names. I attach the sources to either the main name or one or more alternate name facts depending on how it appears in each record.

Now there is a good idea, I never thought of that and have always put the alternative name in brackets after the registered name.

[Jane Davies]

Re: Recording information

I have two situations I would like some advice on.


2. How do you record information found in wills? My first thought was as a note, but before doing that I thought I'd ask here.

Thanks in advance for all inputs.

-----===== Bill =====-----

Hi Bill

I started off by recording information from wills in a note but didn't find it very satisfactory and so I've constructed a separate Will Database in File Maker.
The main problem I had was that I wanted to record all the people mentioned in the will, not just immediate family members of the testator but other legatees and witnesses. I may not know when I read the will who these 'extra' people are, but subsequently I find that they are often related to the family of interest.
You can, of course, add them as unrelated people and use a flag to label them but I found that this became cumbersome as I have a lot of wills. My situation is probably different to yours, though, as I'm doing a One-Name Study and so I collect anything I can find on my Rippingale family - hence the large number of wills.
I do still have a note in Reunion, and cross-reference my Will Database to Reunion by UserID and source number. As usual with Genealogy, you just have to decide what would work best for you!

Jane

[Bill Guion]

Re: Recording information

I created a fact type called ANAM. I brought my data over from Family Tree Maker and it had alternate names. I attach the sources to either the main name or one or more alternate name facts depending on how it appears in each record.

That's a good idea. I didn't think about creating a new fact. I'll give it a shot.

-----===== Bill =====-----

[Bill Guion]

Re: Recording information

Hi Bill

I started off by recording information from wills in a note but didn't find it very satisfactory and so I've constructed a separate Will Database in File Maker.

snip

I do still have a note in Reunion, and cross-reference my Will Database to Reunion by UserID and source number. As usual with Genealogy, you just have to decide what would work best for you!

Jane

Jane,

Let me make sure I understand what you've done. You have created a source record (the will) and put a copy of the will into FileMaker in a Wills database. I assume you have created an electronic (scanned, photographed, or some other format) copy of the will. Other fields in the FileMaker database point to the author of the will by UserID and source number (i.e., the source assigned to the will).

If that understanding is correct, what information can someone learn about the will from your Reunion records?

-----===== Bill =====-----

[Jane Davies]

Re: Recording information

Jane,

Let me make sure I understand what you've done. You have created a source record (the will) and put a copy of the will into FileMaker in a Wills database. I assume you have created an electronic (scanned, photographed, or some other format) copy of the will. Other fields in the FileMaker database point to the author of the will by UserID and source number (i.e., the source assigned to the will).

If that understanding is correct, what information can someone learn about the will from your Reunion records?

-----===== Bill =====-----

Hi Bill

What I have done is created a document database specifically for my wills, of which I have over a hundred. Wills are a major source of data for my Rippingale one-name study and although I started by using note fields, attaching transcriptions to sources and flagging people involved in a particular will, I found the system a bit unwieldy.

Below are a couple of screenshots which will explain the set-up better then words, I hope.

The overview is notes and a summary of the main points of the will. I often just copy and paste these into a notes field in Reunion. Along the top is a UserID field. I give all Rippingales in the Reunion database a unique user ID. This is not the same as the Reunion ID, which, of course can change.

In the bottom corner is a related table of individuals mentioned in the will. Clicking on a surname will take you to notes on that person (people view). This is vital for me as I want to keep track of people not yet entered into Reunion in case they turn out to be of interest.

The transcription view is a container for a scanned image of the document and a full transcription.

The source view has notes on the source, including the Reunion source number.

So my workflow is to scan the will if necessary and give it a source number in Reunion. I then enter basic information (date of will, probate) as an event for the testator and any family legatees. I then enter the data into the will database. The database is set up so that each will is automatically assigned a unique number. I go back to Reunion and enter this number into the source documentation for the will and use both Reunion source number and the database number to file any paper copy of the will.

This may be overkill for someone who has few wills as most of this could be done in Reunion with a few tweaks. As I said in my previous post, I find it less confusing to keep track of all data and people not yet related to any Rippingale family group in this way. I'm also not constrained by limits on character number in some fields

Hope this is clearer
Jane

[Keith Bage]

Re: Recording information

Hi Bill

What I have done is created a document database specifically for my wills, of which I have over a hundred. Wills are a major source of data for my Rippingale one-name study and although I started by using note fields, attaching transcriptions to sources and flagging people involved in a particular will, I found the system a bit unwieldy.

Jane,

What a great looking database. As a one-namer myself (studying the BAGE surname) I can really appreciate how this can pull all your will related information together. Is this something you developed yourself and if so is it something you would be willing to share?

I'd also be really interested to know how else you are utilising Filemaker to assist you with your One-Name Study.

Regards

Keith

[Jane Davies]

Re: Recording information

Hi Keith

Thanks for the nice comments about the database. I'd be happy to send you a copy.
Actually, I can take very little credit for it. It's based on Beth Chaplin's document database which she was generous enough to share with me. See this thread:

http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=6344&highlight=filemaker

I use a slightly modified form of Beth's template as a general document database for my family documents.

The other Filemaker database that I have is a general index of all occurrences of Rippingales that I come across in the records. Again many thanks to another member of GOONS and Reunion user Nick Michael who sent me copies of his setup. My index is an exact replica of his with the fields arranged slightly differently. It contains basic information, such as birth, marriage and death dates, location, spouse(s) & parents names. It also gives each person a unique number, which I use as the basis of my UserID system in Reunion. The other part of the user ID is a generation letter, again, suggested by Nick, which I've found absolutely invaluable in trying to spot family connections.
See: http://www.reuniontalk.com/showthread.php?t=6019

This index replaced the seemingly exponentially growing number of spreadsheets that I used when extracting records - I had sheets for the UK birth, marriage & death indexes, each UK census, extracts from FreeReg, Boyds marriage index, Ancestry London records etc etc and would tick off names when I was able to associate them with a family group. Now I just add them to my index.

I like Filemaker better than Bento for this as the search capabilities are so much more sophisticated (although I haven't looked at the latest incarnation of Bento). It's much easier to set up complex queries to find potential duplicates in the index and look for associations with family groups in Reunion. However, if you're not already a Filemaker user, there is a pretty steep learning curve. Thanks again to Beth & Nick for helping this Filemaker novice!

I've come to the conclusion that some double entry (into Filemaker DB & Reunion) is unavoidable in a one-name study but this system does keep it to a minimum.

Jane

[Keith Bage]

Re: Recording information

Hi Jane,

Thanks so much for sending me a copy of your database. One of the great things about genealogists (and dare I say Guild members in particular) is their willingness to share. I'll check certainly check out the original thread on Beth's template.

Nick's more general database sounds really interesting as well and i'd really like to know a little more about this to see how it compares to my own Filemaker BMD database. My own version is of great use to me as it allows me to colour code by gender with sorts by, name, date, Maiden name, location, gender etc. Sorting and filtering really seem to make the data pop out.

I think Filemaker is incredibly powerful but I don't always find it particularly intuitive and I find unless I spend a lot of time with it I tend to forget things quickly. However I am encouraged by what I have seen from other users and really need to look to putting it to more use in my genealogy. These kind of databases are such a help when researching a One-Name study in particular.

Keith

PS sorry to Bill for seemingly redirecting his initial posting