FREEBMD-DISCUSS-L Archives

Archiver > FREEBMD-DISCUSS > 2001-10 > 1003314924


From: Peter Hendy-Ibbs <>
Subject: Re: March 1867 Marriages, Page 75
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2001 11:35:24 +0100


Uh, oh!! I'm beginning to feel like Dustin Hoffman in Rainman!

My difficulty (and I presume the same is true for Peter Abbott and Kevin
Sutton) is that I receive files from family researchers who have often
collected their data over many years. It is not possible to tell (and
they probably cannot recall) where a new +PAGE started.

Some of the One-namers are selective, that is they only research a
surname for a particular region (I am guilty here because I do not
record the Stoke-on-Trent Ibbs names), so the names are not true
sequences. Others include related surnames (i.e. related by marriage)
within the same file, so I may have a long sequence of Dutton (for
instance), some random Trewicks, and a small sequence of Goths where
someone has been looking for a specific event. It is impossible for me
to be sure that sequences are complete, and difficult at a practical
level, to search and insert so many +BREAKs. The only files where that
may be achieved is in the few larger files where a contributor has
transcribed every instance of a name - and then I would have to insert
approximately 250 +BREAKs between 1837 and 1900 (and some files go to
1983)!

I can't change them to Random if they have sequences, and I can't tell
where the BREAKs should be. Rainman meets Catch22?

best wishes :-)

Peter

On Tue, 16 Oct 2001 18:27:54 +0100, Dave Mayall wrote:


>If your files are ONENAME, then you MUST;

>1) Insert a +BREAK if you have included 2 variant surnames (or
>different surnames) in one quarter, so;

>2) Insert a +PAGE if a sequence of names started on one page and ended
>on another

>If your files are RANDOM and actually contain sequences of data, they
>should be ONENAME



--
Researching: IBBS from Hunts/Beds and HENDY from Pembrokeshire

Transcribing and reformatting for FreeBMD (http://freebmd.rootsweb.com)


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