Jump to content

joanmc

Senior Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    151

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by joanmc

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Have you been able to see this by testing, Joan?

     

    One of my datasets is significantly larger than any of the others and I've noticed a difference when I've got it disabled. Admittedly not nearly as much difference with this machine which is an Intel duo with lots of speed and lots of memory<g> but on my laptop with less speed and not a duo, it's still noticeable. So, whether it skips that or is somehow able to skim it quicker when disabled I have no idea........

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    From what little I know about how the internals work, I'd not expect that. All the records for all the data sets are intermingled in the files, so I'd think the system has to read through all of them anyway to find the ones it needs for a particular task. I'd not think those from disabled data sets are more quickly disposed of than any other record not needed for that task. But I may be wrong on that.

  2. Posted · Report reply

    My reason for using Gedstar Pro is to avoid having to pack my laptop all the time. :) I have both my projects (client & personal) on my Palm LifeDrive via GedStar and it along with its keyboard fit nicely into my purse which helps my back injury immensely. When I travel, the laptop stays safely locked up while I use my Palm at whatever repositories I'm doing research in. In the evening, I sync the info onto the laptop then onto my thumbdrive, work on it if necessary and start again the next day. While at home, I do the same thing when at the Archives, Family History Centre, etc. It's absolutely wonderful. Even when I was using my laptop, I never typed notes directly into my program, rather entered it into a WP document then double checked it, analyzed it and, if I decided it should be entered into my database, I simply copied & pasted it so that process hasn't changed.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Thanks for your kind comments, Joan. I have linux running on an Acer Travelmate 3004 laptop which weighs 1.9kg, so I have no need to anything else - I carry my entire office with me every where I go. I can't quite imagine using something as small as a Gedstar for TMG.

    I would imagine that TMG7 will be easier to run on wine than v6. Later versions of programs like Dreamweaver, Photoshop and the genealogy software we mentioned seem to be better behaved than they used to be. I expect everyone is aware of the economic potential of writing cross platform applications. I think TMG6 uses an earlier version of Visual Fox Pro which has been superseded.

    Ian.

  3. Posted · Report reply

    There are few cases where I can see any merit to keeping data in separate data sets within single project. <snip>

     

    Mostly I would agree with Terry on this. If, however, the husband's family is a great deal larger, it would certainly allow TMG to work faster if that dataset was disabled while doing data entry or creating charts or reports in the other dataset :) Otherwise, absolutely it adds difficulties in being consistent.

     

    B)

    Joan

  4. Posted · Report reply

    I wanted to create a separate set because my husband and I do not have any children together and his family is huge. The intent was to create two separate more manageable files than the one I have now.

     

    Thanks for your help.

     

    In that case, I would definitely use 2 datasets in the same project. I have 10 datasets in my personal project: 1 is my primary dataset, 1 is my husband's line which is being researched by my daughter so I keep it locked so she can update it whenever she has more info and the rest are from other researchers which allows me to compare their info on people in my lines and, once I verify and source the info, I can import it into my dataset should I wish but in the meantime am able to see it along side my own.

     

    B)

    Joan

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Rob, you have my sympathy. I don't have a solution for you other than how I've dealt with that problem. In Eastern Ontario, between the 1780s to the 1860s, the name changed from Quebec to Upper Canada to Canada West to Ontario while the townships changed, the counties were created and, for a time, there were districts as well. I settled on using the name of the location at the time of the event and, in any publication - chart, report or whatever, give a 'legend or timeline' indicating the names of what the area is now. I've also created several different Place Styles to help with this.

     

    Just some info on how someone else does it.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Hi

     

    I'm trying desperately to decide how I want to enter place names in my database, but so far I'm not coming up with anything that I like.

     

    I've searched through the Fora here (although I really only found one posting that addressed the problem as I'm seeing it), and I've been through Terry Reigel's help pages.

     

    Basically, I'm concerned about major changes in place names and how to record thm/connect them. From what I've seen, there's basically two approaches to this:

    a) Record the name of the place as it currently is and make notes regarding the name as it used to be, and

    B) Record the name of the place as it was at the time of the event and make notes (e.g., Comments) regarding how it has changed since.

    c) I've also seen the suggestion of having it both ways by using the original name and then (in brackets or parentheses giving the current name: e.g: XXX, in YYY County, Tennessee [now XXX, West Virginia] or something along those lines.

     

    My concern is basically this:

    I feel fairly strongly that I should record the name of the place as it was at the time of the event; I'm therefore not thrilled with option a). Besides, the name of the city/county/country may change tomorrow and make the entire scheme wrong/obsolete. [i have the same objection to merely giving the name of the place as it was at the time of the (w/o specifying more info, as the name may have changed the year before the event as well].

     

    If I record the name as it was, however, I'm forced to use either option B) or option c), above. Either way, I'm going to end with multiple place names in my Master Place list for the same place.

     

    For example, I need to record an event that happened in a specific town. From 1812 to 1873 it was called Yedintsy and it was located in the uyezd "district" of Bessarabia, Russia (some sources say that Bessarabia was technically an independent region). Regardless, as of 1873, Bessarabia was officially incorporated as a guberniya, or province, of Russia and Yedintsy was placed in the Khotin district of this province. After 1919, Bessarabia became the independent country of Moldova, and the name of the city was changed to Edinets.

     

    I currently have at least one event to record while it was independent, another when it was in the Khotin district of Bessarabia, and another once it became Edinets, Moldova.

     

    I might possibly be willing to simply call it Yedintsy, Bessarabia and explain the changes in the comments, but now that it's in another country altogether, I see no way of linking the various names. It's going to show up in my reports as being at least one city in "Russia" and another in Moldova, regardless of whether I give it the same Lat/Lon coordinates or not.

     

    My research makes it imperative that I be able to connect people living in/near the sanme place, and trying to remember all of the name changes, especially when it involves countries, is going to quickly become impossible.

     

    When I had first seen that TMG allows you to define a specific place name for a specific time period -- even going to the length of warning you if the recorded event is outside the specified period -- I had been quite excited, assuming that I could simpy tell the program what changes had occurred [i certainly didn't expect the program to keep track of this for me ahead of time; that would clearly be an overwhelming task. But I [b]had[/b] assumed it would allow me to specify such changes in towns/areas that were important to me]. Frankly, I'm not overly sure of what good it does you to tell the program that the town was only called Yedintsy from this year until that year, if it won't then also allow you to tell it what is was called earlier and later.

     

    Anyway.....I'd appreciate any and all suggestions.

    I don't want to end up with multiple entries for the same place, nor am I overly willing to essentially pick a time at random and use the name of the place as it existed at that particular time.

     

    Any and all help appreciated.

    Thanks,

     

    Rob

  6. Posted · Report reply

    I am trying to break my project up into separate family projects. Ie: my family would have one file and husband's would have a separate file. Anyway what is the best method for exporting data from one file to the other. I am using version 6. I have a host of custom census tags that I don't want to have to re-create by hand.

     

     

    I'm just curious as to why you wish to put part of your current project into another one? At the very least, I would maintain them in the same project and create a separate data set. However, again, I'm interested in why you would want to do that.......

     

    B)

    Joan

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Victoria TMG User Group will have our next session on Friday evening, August 31 at the BB&C Clubhouse, 85A Burnside Rd W. Those who wish to join in a potluck supper & discussion will meet at 6pm with a supper contribution (I'm bringing corn on the cob). At 7pm we will review the Intermediate TMG tutorial video.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    Boy, can I ever relate to that! Fortunately, the video tutorials opened my eyes to many of the possibilities and forums like this are adding more daily! I love it :D It definitely keeps the brain in tune......

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Thank you for posting this information. This is such a great idea. I created my roles and am adding cemeteries as well as updating TMG to incorporate this. I don't know a thing about all the codes, but am trying to learn it. There's so much to learn about TMG that I've never bothered to since version 4. :mellow:

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks Teresa, that's what I had thought but because I hadn't used an alternate language wasn't sure if I should just copy English and name it 'Tasks' or if I actually had to create a new one :unsure: Great, now I can get on with setting this all up, hopefully before our TMG Users' session on Friday night<g>

     

    Thanks again, it's so helpful to be able clarify with you before passing on the info to the Group.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    You can create it at any time, but your sentences will need to be created in the NEW LANGUAGE, so you probably need to do it first. You don't need to know anything about the language feature, since you will just be creating sentences. Just copy the language you are using, name it what you want, and then make sure your sentences are in that new language. When you want reports, make sure you use the new language.

  10. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks so much for this Ian! Now I'm really excited :D Not only will TMG work but John Cardinal's great utilities AND GenSmarts - that's wonderful. Hmmm, I wonder about GedStar Pro? Don't want much do I?

     

    As a Linux newbie, it will take me some time to figure it all out. I have Kubuntu Feisty on one machine and GenToo on another and currently run Win XP Pro with Firefox

     

    Do you or anyone else beta test TMG using Linux? It would be good to know about v7's compatibility......

     

    Thanks again Ian.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    TMG6 runs perfectly well with linux. However, you do need to know how to set it up.

    It will run in the emulators Wine4LinPro or ParallelsWorkstation. However, I prefer to run it natively using wine. I have explained in detail why and how to do this on my website at www.rhus.org.uk. Follow the link Linux. (Put very briefly: Importing and checking external images does not work on the emulators but does with wine.)

    I have not succeeded in getting TMG to run with any version of wine (latest 0.9.43). However, as explained how, it will run with CrossoverOffice v6.1.

    All the other common utilities like TMGUtility, SecondSite2 and GenSmarts run better under wine than CrossoverOffice.

     

    I wonder if TMG version 7 will be easier to run using wine in Linux?

     

    I hope this helps, let me know how you get on.

    Best wishes,

    Ian.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    I should have known that SS would deal with the issue :rolleyes: John, your programs are truly a wonder! As an aside, I just love OTD - it's the first thing I check when I sit down at my computer each day and get such a kick out of seeing an ancestor's birth in the 1600s on that particular day.......

     

    The question is about storing the basic citation info such as the date, where it's from & what it is in such a way that it doesn't obscure the actual photo or document yet will stay with the image. Another suggestion (other than XMP/IPTC) is to create a frame and put the text on the frame, sideways if necessary. It's becoming more of an issue as more and more documentary evidence is digitized so I thought I would raise it here. Also, it gets exacerbated by researchers (such as myself) who share images with other family researchers electronically.

     

    So, obviously, though I don't plan to put my data online, I DO plan to put it on CD/DVDs for family so I definitely will be purchasing SS.

     

    Thanks John!

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    As of TMG v6.12, I don't think TMG reads IPTC or XMP meta tags.

     

    Where are you storing the "citation" and where do you want it to appear?

     

    FYI: In Second Site, if an exhibit file includes an IPTC caption (I think the actual meta data field name is "Caption_Abstract") and there is no caption defined in TMG's exhibit record, Second Site will use the IPTC caption. You can't include a true citation in the caption text, but if you include source information in the IPTC caption field it will be displayed in the generated site.

  12. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks so much for this Virginia, Lee & Robin. I happen to have the book so could look it up but I know several of our Users' Group haven't been able to purchase one due to it being out of print so this will be most helpful. (I hope a new edition will follow the release of v7?)

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Instructions (based on Robin's method described in GTMOOTMG) for creating and using custom frames are at:

     

    http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...st=0#entry30360

     

    Virginia

  13. Posted · Edited by joanmc · Report reply

    In trying to solve the problem of including a citation with an image, whether scanned or downloaded, the use of IPTC or XMP has been suggested. The problem seems to be a)depending on which photo editor one uses, it may or may not be recognized by another, and b, some genealogical programs will recognize it and some won't. Is TMG a 'will' or 'won't'? :blink:

     

    B)

    Joan

  14. Posted · Report reply

    I'm wondering if TMG v7 will change to the new styles........could create some interesting challenges for us :wacko:

     

    At this point, I'm mostly concerned with the creation of the 'To Do' list and 'Copied'. Setting up for ancestry.com for example will be more likely to need the new style but fortunately I do have Elizabeth's 'Tips' sheet which should help with that. I haven't got the book yet but have seen it - no wonder the shipping is out of this world! I was able to purchase it from a local supplier so didn't get dinged with shipping to the 'wilds' of Western Canada :D

     

    Do you create the language before the Place Style & Roles or does it matter? I haven't ventured into language creation before........

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Joan,

     

    Another thing is I can't say how close my method of using the repository is going to meet the new Mills models. I have the book, but haven't had time to read all of it. Other than punctuation, I probably won't change how I print the sources if they aren't exactly the same, but you might want to check how you set them up if you want to match her examples exactly.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    I'm glad I posted this - I like the concept of using the repository much better. Of course, now you'll have to update the website I suppose :wacko: Sorry about that.....

     

    Thanks so much Teresa.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    First let me catch up those who may not understand why I use TO DO LIST ROLEs.

     

    I like all my tasks to be attached to TAGS. But I don't want it to appear that James Jones had a will between 1885 and 1900 when he didn't. So I created a new ROLE called TO DO LIST in the will tag. (Each tag type has this role). Now based on when I have found James alive, and when the available will records are, I can set up a research task and create the tag role called TO DO LIST. I have ROLES show on the Person View, so James Jones has a Will tag, with a TO DO LIST role an I can attach my task, but I can tell the difference between a real will and a will task from the role.

     

    Now repositories CAN NOT USE PLACE STYLES. They print in L1, L2, L3, L4... order. So my place styles have to be in that order. I like to keep my places levels close to what TMG uses, but for repositories, I had to put the labels in order as they would print. My place style for MICROFILM is: <[Name of County], ><[book Type], ><[Roll Number], ><[Archives], ><[City], ><[County], ><[state] ><[FHL Film Number]>

     

    The name of the county goes in L1. So in your example, L1 would be Essex County, or Rochford Parish. The County in L6 is for the Archive. I use the Tennessee State Library and Archives, so L6 would be for the Archives, which is Davidson County. I changed L8 to the FHL film number because I sometimes use the films from there instead of the state archives and found I needed that more than I did the phone number of the archives.

    So lets say the film is the Williamson County, Tennessee Deed Books E-F for Dec 1816-May 1821 which if you go to the Tennessee State Library and Archives is Roll 139.

    This would print: Williamson County, TN Deed Books E-F Dec 1816-May 1821, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Davidson County, TN.

     

    Since creating the page you quoted, I have changed my output. At that time I didn't realize that I had to have repositories (I use the same place data for the repository of the task) in L1, L2, L3... order.

     

    I now use:

     

    [:CR:][:CR:][bOLD:]WILL-Research to be done[:BOLD][:CR:][D][:CR:][L1][:CR:][L2][:CR:][L3][:CR:][L4][:CR:][L5], [L7]

     

    That prints:

     

    WILL-Research to be done

    Dec 1816-May 1821

    Roll 139

    Williamson County

    Deed Books E-F Dec 1816-May 1821

    Tennessee State Library and Archives

    Nashville

    TN

    I created a new language simply so that I can control printing. I call it Tabular. In ENGLISH, the sentence for all TO DO LIST TAGS is simply --. That way no matter what when I print a report, my research tags will not print as part of my narrative. Only when I change to TABULAR will the tags print.

    Now to the repository. I do not treat the building as my repository for a TASK. I treat the will book, deed book, roll of microfilm, or probate file as my repository. When I order a roll of film via ILL or from the FHL, I create a new repository for that roll of film. I then search my ancestors for anyone that MIGHT be found on that film and set up tags with TO DO LIST roles and research tasks using that film as the repository for the task. Once I find the document, I change the role, and use that same repository for my source record.

     

    So in our example, when I find a deed for James Jones's dated 14 April 1820, I create a new source record: James Jones deed, Page 134, Deed Book F, Williamson County, TN Deed Books E-F Dec 1816-May 1821, Roll 139, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

     

    So I now have a link between that ROLL of FILM, and the task, the source and the tag. That to me just makes more sense that any other method I tried.

  16. Posted · Report reply

    I know this isn't as functional as circles/triangles or similar symbols, however, what about coloured and non-coloured boxes which, in B&W, would show as shaded and unshaded? At least it would easily indicate male and female for your clients.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    John, I thank you for alerting me to the possibilities of Second Site. However my comments throughout refer to TMG. By and large my clients do not have access to computers, the internet and colour printers. Hard copy, B & W charts are therefore the most useful way of displaying their genealogies. For my purposes and for the majority of my work, Second Site is not yet the answer.

     

    If its a question of prioritisation, rather than technical difficulty, perhaps someone closer to Wholly Genes could tell me how to get my 'druthers nearer to the top of their priority list. To me, providing greater flexibility in reporting and output formats should be a higher priority that quite a few of the "enhancements" in Velke's original post, such as (for example) "an option to assign layouts to custom toolbars." These are all well and good and may make some marginal difference to our experience of data entry; but what I'm more interested in is the output. I would prefer to see the programmers' valuable time and efforts going into to that, rather than worrying about the relative flummery of buttons and the user interface generally.

     

    But who knows, perhaps I am vexing prematurely; maybe Bob does intend to put in circles and triangles, and my voice in the wilderness has at last been heard ? I live in hope!

     

    pktropics

  17. Posted · Report reply

    After reading Teresa's article on setting up 'To Do' tags instead of the Task List (found at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~r...metery/TMG.html

    ), I've got a few questions for clarification. One she has already answered and that was that once the different roles are set up, she uses them for whatever tag is appropriate. IOW, if it's a Will that needs finding, she would use the Research Will role in that tag for that person.

     

    My next question is to do with setting up the Place Style. Her first entry (L1) is labelled 'County Name'. Is this because the film is likely to be organized by county? My reason for checking is because L6 is also labelled County so I'm wanting to be sure I understand that L1 is essentially the 'focus' of the microfilm. If I'm bringing in a film of parish records covering several parishes in Essex County in England and I plan to concentrate on Rochford Parish, I assume L1 would read Rochford......

     

    Next question - is there a reason for L8 being Phone or do you simply not use that one and leave it as it is?

     

    Now I'm off to see if I can figure out how to set up a second language called 'Task' :blink:

     

    B)

    Joan

  18. Posted · Report reply

    Right. In the tag window, and detail of the Person View, it will be L1, L2, L3, L4... Also you probably need to know that Repositories always use L1, L2, L3, L4, regardless of the Place style attached to them. So for repositories, I set them up in the order I want them to print, even if that puts the city in say L6.

     

    Now, all I have to do is get used to entering the township after I've entered the country :rolleyes: or the district after LatLong........

     

    Thanks very much for clearing this up and for mentioning the repositories method.

     

    B)

    Joan

  19. Posted · Report reply

    Ooookaaaay, so, if my output template is, in essence, L3, L1, L2, it should print out that way but doesn't show that way in PV nor in any of the tag entry screens?

     

    B)

    Joan

     

     

    No, sorry. The labels will be in the order you gave them in the label fields in the style. So if your style is:

     

    L1: Addressee

    L2: Detail

    L3: City

    ANd your output template is [City], [Addressee], [Detail], then the tag should use Addressee, Detail, City. If that's not what you are seeing, then you might want to post a screen shot here.

  20. Posted · Report reply

    I had an occasion recently where I'd entered a whole group of people to the wrong project!! In the correct project, I created a new dataset then in the wrong project, I created a focus group of the newly added people. I then copied the focus group to the new dataset and merged that dataset into my usual dataset. Once I was sure everyone was in the proper place :rolleyes: , I then deleted the focus group from the incorrect project. This sounds much more complicated than it really was and was a good lesson in a)being more careful in noting which project I am in; and, b)creating a new dataset and importing people into it.

     

    As a side note, my current dataset is one that was created by combining 4 different family files from another program (a similar situation to one previously mentioned). Aside from the duplications which needed merging (I have a number of intertwined lines ;) ) I found the process of merging those datasets in TMG a relatively simple process.

     

    I'm with you in being cautious - you just never know! I think your solution makes perfect sense.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    I appreciate both responses. I seriously doubt that I'd ever want to add this particular group of people back into my primary dataset. None of the members of this group are in any way connected to anyone else in the original dataset. I understand the advisability of using separate datasets to review received gedcoms although I never request or accept them.

     

    When I started working on an extremely difficult family line, I added this ;group of 132 individuals on the off chance they could be related. But subsequent research has determined that they are not directly related. Of course if one goes back to the 1300s or so, they are. However due to political upheavals in this part of England, records were lost. Later in the 1500s-1600s, the King of England's lineage experts could not resolve the problems of tracing the baronial line of this family prior to the 1500s. Obviously tracing the non-baronial lines would be even more impossible. Hence my desire to remove them from my dataset.

     

    I could simply delete them all and don't think I haven't considered this. But, being cautious by nature, I decided to simply move them into a separate dataset, save it to a standalone hard drive and not think about them again!

     

    Thanks again for the help. I reviewed Terry's chapter and am considering following his recommendations (although, frankly, it seems as if there ought to be a simpler method - - one would think that placing them into a focus group and exporting that group into a separate dataset should suffice).

    Leslie

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Virginia: Any chance this could be moved to the TMG6 Forum? You have no idea how many times I get asked this question (or maybe you do :P ) and it would be good to have it easily located.

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Thank you so much, Virginia. That was a real blessing. Got all that good clicking done and am back into the swing of things.

    iona

  24. Posted · Report reply

    These 2 topics are so intertwined, I'm wondering if it would make sense to make this trial forum for both? This occurred to me while reviewing the Census thread in the TMG6 forum. It is such a huge, important & complex topic with roles & sentences being a large part of understanding how to best do it.....our TMG Users' Group is about to examine the various methods that are given as examples so I was very pleased to see the topic renewed in the forum but wondering how it could be preserved 'up front' :rolleyes: I'm not sure if it should be in the Tips section or perhaps in here or????

     

    Just an idea to make it easier for any of us who are needing to constantly refer back to it (the census thread) and also needing constant reference to roles and sentence structure......

     

    B)

    Joan

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Do you mean using L1,L2 etc instead of the field labels in the Place Style output sentence?

     

    B)

    Joan

     

    Is your output sentence in L1, L2, L3, L4 order? The labels in the tag will be in that order. If you have L1, L4, L2, L3 in the sentence, that will not effect the labels in the tag.
×