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From: "Kith-n-Kin" <>
Subject: Re: [ADVANRES] Common surname research - managing largegroupsof people
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 12:27:31 -0700
References: <mailman.18821.1212212503.16752.advanced-research@rootsweb.com><776B77A4DEF6420E94F2C6BA5BB56452@JeanPC><000901c8c345$eae9a6c0$c0bcf440$@net>
In-Reply-To: <000901c8c345$eae9a6c0$c0bcf440$@net>


Jean

I noticed last evening that TMG 7 has a "person" called "unrelated." I see
that TMG 6x also has this feature. I never used it before then(I'm not as
creative as Teresa), but am planning to increase its use.

I found an obituary for the wife of Dr. Wm H Trent in Fayette County,
Tennessee. I had a Wm C Trent in the same county, same time. But, wrong
wife's name. Who is this, and are they cousins? Don't know that yet, but
there were only two Trent families in Fayette. Turns out, Dr. Wm H was from
SC, not VA, as was Wm C. But, now that I have him in the program (with
wife), I won't spin my wheels next time I come across a reference to this
family.

Clicking on it, it asks for the sex, (including "unknown") and puts up a
regular add person screen. The person appears in the database without
connection to anyone. From there, you can complete all the pertinent
data/events. You can add all the people who are related to the original
person. Each person should have a "research note" to explain what you're
doing.

For example, if you find "Sam Smith" in an 1840 census, with the 13 kids and
adults ranging across the spectrum of age, you can put in "Smith, Unknown"
female, with birth "bet 1825 and 1829" This will help distinguish this
family from one of the 1080 "Sam Smith"s in the census for that year <G>.

The advantage is that each discrete group/family has all the relationships
"right there" for checking, unlike Excel, where you have to scroll around
from person to person.

Eventually, if you get to a point that two people appear to be the same
person, you can connect him/her by merging a person, and making the
relationship "child-can", "father-can" etc., and using the flags as Teresa
suggested to clarify.

You might wind up with a whole lot of people in the DB who aren't related to
others in the DB, but regardless, next time you run across him/her, you'll
know "you've been there before."

This may seem like a big effort, but (a) you're already putting the
information in a spreadsheet, and (b) if they are "yours" you will want to
put them in anyway.

I don't know if you can do this with other programs, but I suspect some of
them will track multiple families at once.

Pat (in Tucson)

-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of Teresa Elliott
Sent: Saturday, May 31, 2008 10:44 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [ADVANRES] Common surname research - managing large groupsof
people

Jean,
In TMG, I would create a flag for not yet related. Then mark those that you
haven't proven related with a Y. Then accent them so that you could see that
they weren't connected in yet. When you prove a link, change the flag.



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