Best of Big Blue Disk/bbdbest.zip/FAMILY.TXT

Text File | 1987-09-18 | 12KB | 199 lines

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^C^1Family Tree
^Cby
^CDaniel Tobias

   Genealogy, the study and charting of one's ancestors and other relatives,
has been a popular pursuit of mankind for thousands of years.  The long lists
of "begats" in the Bible establish the lineages of the characters, going all
the way back to Adam and Eve.  The royal families of several countries are
proud to trace their ancestry to a variety of famous conquerors of the ancient
and medieval eras.  The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) have a great interest in
genealogy, and have been intently charting lines of descent for church members
and others for over 100 years.  More recently, Alex Haley's "Roots," a popular
book which formed the basis for an even more popular TV miniseries, has many
people searching for their own roots.

   This program will help you chart your own family tree.  You can enter all
the relatives and ancestors, living or dead, that you know of, and show their
relationships to one another.  Then, you can use this data to browse through
the tree of your relatives, stepping back and forth; or you can output the data
to a printer in several different formats.

   ^1Family Tree^0 can hold data on over 3000 people on a 640K system; this number
will be somewhat less on smaller-memory systems, but even a 256K system will be
able to hold at least 600 people's records.  The exact number will vary
depending on how much information such as marriages, children, and comments is
added; these things take up additional memory space.  These numbers should be
sufficient to chart the average family's tree.  However, if you're part of one
of the families that has charted several different lines of descent in great
detail going back to Adam and Eve, you might run out of room.

   When you start the program, you will get a main menu with the following
options:

   ^1(A)dd new entries^0:  This allows you to enter new records.  Each record
corresponds to a person in your family tree.  Each person has an I.D. number,
assigned automatically by the program as the record is entered.  These I.D.
numbers are used to uniquely identify a person even if there are several people
with identical names.

   When you select the (A) command, you will be told what I.D. number is being
assigned to the record you are entering.  These will be assigned in order,
beginning with 1, unless a record is deleted; in that case, the numbers of the
deleted records will be re-used for new records entered after.  This is done to
save memory and disk space since data files are indexed by I.D. number.  Thus a
vacant number means that its space is wasted in the file.

   Now fill in the information on the new person as prompted.  First, enter the
person's name (or press ENTER to abort if you really didn't want to add a
record).  In general, the established genealogical practice is to use the name
under which the person was born; this means the maiden name in the case of
married women.  However, it is up to you what name you use.  Just try to be
consistent.

   Next you are asked the person's gender (or sex, if we are allowed to include
that word in a family magazette).  Press 'M' or 'F'.

   Next is the date of birth.  Enter the date in the format MM/DD/YYYY, like
04/01/1987.  You can omit leading zeroes; 4/1/1987 would also work.  Two-digit
years default to 1900 + year; 4/1/87 is identical to the above two dates.  To
enter dates prior to A.D. 100, make them into three- or four-digit years by
preceding them with one or more zeroes, like 1/1/0087.  Years from 1 to 9 are a
special case; if you enter them as single digits, they represent A.D. 1 through
9.  If you precede them by one zero as 01 through 09, they are two-digit numbers
and hence represent 1901 through 1909.  Make them 001 through 009, however, and
they are once again early A.D. years; same with 0001 through 0009.  Enter B.C.
dates as negative numbers; -1 represents 1 B.C.  There is no such thing as the
year "zero"; 1 B.C. was immediately followed by A.D. 1.  (Because of this, the
year 2000 is actually part of the 20th century; the next century does not begin
until 2001, since the First Century began with the year 1.  Just a little
calendar trivia to further confuse you.)

   There are a few other options when entering dates.  A question mark in any
field means it is unknown; 4/?/87 means an unknown date in April, 1987.  A date
preceded by 'c', as in c4/1/87, means it is approximate.  If you type the letter
U instead of a date, this indicates that the date is totally unknown.  Typing N,
or just pressing ENTER with no input, means that it is inapplicable.

   Next is the place of birth; usually a city and state or country is sufficent;
it is probably not necessary to name the exact room of the maternity ward.

   Next is the date of death, entered in the same syntax as the birthdate.
Obviously, if the person is still living, this item is not applicable; just
press ENTER.

   If you entered anything for the death date, you'll also be asked for the
place of death.  Like birthplace, this usually consists of a city and state or
country.  ("In bed" probably isn't appropriate.)

   Now you are asked for some information that will establish genealogical
links between the person you are entering and other persons whose data has
already been entered.  First, you are asked for the I.D. numbers of the new
person's mother and father.  If the parents have not yet been entered, press
ENTER with no input; these will be filled in later.  If you don't know the I.D.
number of a parent, type L to see a full or selective list of the entries with
their I.D.'s.

   Next you are asked if the person is or has been married.  If you say yes,
you are prompted for more information on each marriage.  Any number of
different marriages can be entered, indicating all spouses the person has been
married to.  (Not generally all at once, although when Mormons are involved you
never know...)  As with the parents, if a spouse has not yet been entered, just
press ENTER when prompted for his or her I.D. number.  You will be asked for
the date of marriage and the date the marriage was terminated (if applicable) -
- use the same syntax as for birth and death dates.

   Now you are asked if the person in question has any children.  If so, enter
the I.D. numbers of the kids one at a time.  Any children who have not yet been
entered into the database should be skipped at this time.

   Finally, there is a line for comments.  You can leave it blank by pressing
ENTER (this saves memory and disk space).  Or fill in a brief comment of up to
80 characters.  Entries over 26 characters will "wrap around" on the screen
when data records are shown in the "browse" phase.

   All items you couldn't fill in now, because they refer to people who have not
yet been entered, will be filled in automatically later when you add the entries
for the people in question.  For example, if you left a parent blank, that slot
will be filled later when you enter the parent's record.

   ^1(L)ook up/browse through entries^0:  This lets you see the data that has
already been entered.  The results of a search by I.D. number or name can be
output to the screen or a printer .  A search by I.D. number will show the
single record you selected, while a search by name produces all records
matching the full or partial name you've entered.  (Case doesn't matter; John,
JOHN, and john are all identical.)

   If you select the printer as the output device, all selected data will be
printed out, then you will be returned to the main menu.  With the screen as
the output device, you are placed in the more sophisticated "browse" mode.
After each record is displayed you have several options which let you look
through the tree.  Typing M and F move you to the mother and father,
respectively, of the current record.  C gets you the children and S gets you
the siblings (brothers and sisters, including half-brothers and half-sisters).
For each of these, if there is only one person of the given relationship, you
will be moved directly to this person; otherwise you'll get a list and must
select one to view.  Typing W lets you see information on weddings (marriages)
of the person, and move to a spouse's record.

   Typing N goes to the next matched record, or back to the menu if there are
no more.  For instance, if your original search was for all persons named
"John," the next John (if any) will be shown.  Typing E exits to the menu even
if the search is not yet complete.

   ^1(P)rint a family tree^0:  This choice lets you output a report showing
lines of descent to your screen, printer, or a disk file.  You select one
person as a starting point and indicate whether you are charting ancestors or
descendants of that person.  A descendant graph will show the starting person,
his or her children (indented into the second column), the grandchildren (in
the third column, beneath their parent), and finally the great-grandchildren
(in the fourth column).  That's as far as the chart goes, even if there are
later generations on file.  Conversely, an ancestor graph shows the original
person on the fourth column, his or her parents to the left, and grandparents
and great-grandparents further to the left, each surrounding their child.
Siblings are not shown on this chart.

   ^1(E)dit data^0:  This choice lets you revise the data on a person.  You are
shown the information one field at a time and asked if you wish to change it. If
you do, you're asked for a new value, entered in the same manner as in the
(A)dd command.  If you alter such information as who a person's parents,
spouse, or children are, then all pointers back and forth will be adjusted
appropriately.

   ^1(D)elete a person^0:  I'm sure you've got relatives you'd like to purge from
your family tree altogether.  This gives you that chance, as well as letting
you get rid of entries you added by mistake which don't really belong.  You are
prompted for an I.D. number, and that person (and all pointers to him or her in
any other record, as a parent, child, or spouse) will be removed without a
trace.  Just like in all other places where you're asked for an I.D. number,
you can type L for a list of names with their I.D.'s.

   ^1(R)ead data from disk^0:  This lets you retrieve family tree data that has
been saved to a disk file.  The default file, "FAMILY," contains sample data to
let you test the program.

   ^1(W)rite data to disk^0:  This lets you save data to be retrieved by the
(R)ead command.  Use a filename of up to 8 characters with no extension; the
extensions for the several different data and index files created for each set
of data will be added automatically.

   ^1(C)lear data and start over^0:  This wipes out the data in memory and lets
you start again.  We all need a chance to start over sometimes.

   ^1(Q)uit^0:  Finally, this option returns you to BEST OF BIG BLUE DISK.

   To run this program outside BEST OF BIG BLUE DISK, type: ^1PASRUN FAMILY^0.

DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FFAMILY.CHN
^FPASRUN.COM
^FRETURN.CHN
^FFAMILY.FPD
^FFAMILY.FMD
^FFAMILY.FCM
^FFAMILY.FIX