AP On-line

Genealogy on RISC OS

software we need
First in a series of missing software. This is the software we want - are there any programmers listening? Genealogists and Family Historians are welcome to contact us with ideas to add to the following and programmers should write outlining their problems in producing such software.
Perhaps, out of the dialogue we can produce a program of excellence. 		by Tim Powys-Lybbe
& John Cartmell
< • i >

The Design of a Genealogy Program - part 2 Observations

Tim was asked to provide an introduction to the design of a genealogy program on RISC OS. Genealogy is in the top few activities on the internet (no prizes for guessing the top one) and RISC OS desperately needs a strong program to cope with the ever increasing expectations of the typical family historian. Here are some responses to Tim's article in the form of additional ideas from this magazine's editor. We'd also like to see responses from readers - both Family Historian's and programmers to us at AP On-line.

Tim's original article     Additional observations

There are a number of items that I'd like to add to Tim's article and in a future update of that article we may merge these, and other, observations.

Tim wrote about reports but there are additional concerns. In addition to producing a report as a final piece of work a Family Historian may want a print-out for specific research purposes. It's possible that I would be able to spend a day at a particular County Record Office, Library or church and want a print out of all the threads of research that could be investigated at that location. This will require flagging of research leads and an option to locate flagged items and print out associated research questions and personal/family notes.

In the article Tim mentioned two distinct items: individuals and families. There are other groups that need to be considered:
  • a house and inhabitants at a census;
  • those present at a wedding;
  • names on a monumental inscription;
  • grave records;
  • individuals on a photograph.
There are other groups but the important factor is that the information for each should be stored once only, that the data is linked to all the individuals and that all the individuals so linked can be brought together in a display or report. NB The groupings are more complex than might at first be appreciated as individuals on eg grave records will include those buried, paying for the burial, officiating as a priest and the addresses of any of those individuals. As Tim says - customisation is the key but so are well thought out defaults.

Names
You might think that it would be simple to search and locate all the male members of a family. Not so. Even ignoring the modern ractice of adding the wife's name and the Victorian alternative of honouring grandmothers in middle, sometimes hyphenated, names it is still impossible to produce a clean search when the spelling of names change. In my family it has been mainly restricted to one 'L' or two at the end of the name but others vary much more. A genealogical database needs a means of searching for members of a family separate from the surname field. This could be accomodated by an additional field completed with support from the program itself offering options for completion of that field. "Is this a member of the XXX family?" forcing an entry to be linked to a given family, add a new family or mark it "unknown" and flagged for clarification.

The second problem with names is with first names. Peggy Smith may be the name of a witness as shown on a marriage certificate but her birth certificate may show Margaret and she may appear on a census as Maggie. Somehow searching for Peggy Smith should bring up all the occurances of variations on the name. It's simple enough but it needs to be programmed in with options to customise.
Initially published November 2002
December 2002

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