Please note that your reply will now only go to
the original sender
Question:
“What is the best way to note in a program the places where people were born
when that address no longer exists. For example, my father was born at home
on the farm near Ghost Pine Creek, which had a post office at the time. The
post office now is Three Hills, Alberta.”
“Should I still use Ghost Pine or Three Hills in my computer software
program? I suppose the best way is to get a land description but that seems
like a lot of work/research and won’t be that helpful to whoever takes over
my books.”
What I do in these cases is put the place name at the time of the event and
then add in brackets [now followed by current name] e.g. Ghost Pine Creek
[now Three Hills], Alberta.
My mother and her brother were born on the homestead in Bladsworth, SK but
my mother was registered as born at Kenaston (the nearest post office) and
my uncle as born at Tessier, which was the post office closest to where my
grandfather was working as a sectionman for the railroad at the time. The
homestead didn’t move – both children were born in the same house on the
same property. The place did not even change names. It was due to my
grandfather just using a different postoffice from which to send in the
registration. So I have both recorded as Bladsworth, Saskatchewan. Then for
one I have added [registered at Kenaston] in brackets and the other has
[registered at Tessier]. The youngest child was born on a farm near Looma,
Alberta but she was registered in Edmonton where my grandfather was working
as a labourer at the time. Here I have it listed as Edmonton [farm at
Looma], Alberta.
In other places not only has the name of the town changed over time but so
has the county or even state or country. So again, I list what the location
was at the time with full details and then bracket in full detail what they
are now. If I find many of the same location then and now, I keep it in a
separate index so I can look it up quickly when I want to search for where
the records are now. For example, for France there are too many changes of
names for the location of records – the major change was from pre to post
revolution as pre-revolution the events were recorded in church registers
and stored at various ecclesiastical levels. The revolutionary government
changed the handling of records to civil authorities so every level changed
from parish church to town hall, from diocese to arrondisement (government
regional office), from archdiocese/province to "departement" (higher
government regional level). However, during the pre and post times there
were other changes - towns changed names or were placed under different
jurisdiction. The family location may not have changed but the records are
kept in different places over the years. Since there are so many changes, it
would be too difficult to cross-reference each in brackets. So I enter in
the event location field the name of the town and higher levels what it was
at the time of the event and keep a database of changes over time and where
those records are kept currently so that when I order a record, I know where
to obtain it.
I am working toward making my searchable sortable database available to
others but if you need this information now, I can refer you to various
sources from which I compiled my database.
Another major area of change was the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. My
grandparents on both sides lived in what today are totally different
countries - my paternal from what is now Austria and my maternal from what
is now Ukraine. So at the time of their birth/baptism, the record shows the
country of both sides as Austria. It is useful to know where the records
were kept during the relevant years because some of the Ukrainian ones are
in Vienna, the capital of present-day Austria and some are in Moscow, others
in Kiev and still others in Poland.
I also try to use the language and spelling from the original document – for
whatever country – but I could simplify it by using the English equivalent
and then keeping a separate database (or list – I like to use Excel or Word
tables so I can sort by field and also search for a particular name or
spelling)
e.g. Tirol instead of Tyrol; Österreich instead of Austria.
Even in Canada names of the country and province changed. In my genealogy
program I enter Port Royal, Acadia as Port Royal, Acadie (Annapolis, Nova
Scotia).
Also as Lorna pointed out, you can note the changing information in your
source field or the general notes field.
à bientôt,
Xenia Stanford (president@...)
A.G.E. Ancestree Genealogical Enterprises
Local genealogy book sales, professional research & writing: http://www.knowmap.com/age/
Column: "Nos Racines Francaise" http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette
Scrapbooking & preservation techniques
Phone: (403) 295-3490; Fax: (403) 274-0564
In addition to Xenia's terrific suggestions, I have come up with two steps that I like to take towards handling this problem:
1) One program I use, Family Tree Maker, allows me to carry more than one birth, death, or other dated event for each individual. The program also allows me to "check" my preferred event in each case. For example, I could set up one birth event for Ghost Pine and a separate birth event for Three Hills. This way, a search of birth locations for Ghost Pine would list this person and a similar search for Three Hills would also find this person.
2) My personal preference is to try to "check" as preferred the name of the place as at the date of the event. For instance, I have one individual born in Edmonton in 1903, in which case I have one birth event set up for Edmonton, Northwest Territories and one for Edmonton, Alberta, with the one for Edmonton, Northwest Territories checked off as my preferred one. Since he died in Edmonton after 1905, I only have one death event set up - for Edmonton, Alberta. In the notes section, I have an brief explanation concerning the name change and the historical event that brought about the name change (in this case, the formation of the province of Alberta in 1905). This gives me a little opportunity to work in little facts of historical interest into my family history report (putting a little meat on the bones, so to speak) and no tidbit is discarded (like most of us, I abhor throwing any bit of information away!).
I suspect that there is more than one good way to handle this problem and that different Gen program manuals will offer different suggestions. I don't think there is one "best" way; however, as with most databases, consistency is the key if you wish to use the criteria as the basis for a search or filter. It's best then to pick a method that you think will work best for your purposes and stick with the same procedure for every person in the database.
All the best,
Joyce
Xenia Stanford <president@...> wrote:
Please note that your reply will now only go to the original sender
Question: “What is the best way to note in a program the places where people were born when that address no longer exists. For example, my father was born at home on the farm near Ghost Pine Creek, which had a post office at the time. The post office now is Three Hills, Alberta.”
“Should I still use Ghost Pine or Three Hills in my computer software program? I suppose the best way is to get a land description but that seems like a lot of work/research and won’t be that helpful to whoever takes over my books.”
What I do in these cases is put the place name at the time of the event and then add in brackets [now followed by current name] e.g. Ghost Pine Creek [now Three Hills], Alberta.
My mother and her brother were born on the homestead in Bladsworth!
, SK
but my mother was registered as born at Kenaston (the nearest post office) and my uncle as born at Tessier, which was the post office closest to where my grandfather was working as a sectionman for the railroad at the time. The homestead didn’t move – both children were born in the same house on the same property. The place did not even change names. It was due to my grandfather just using a different postoffice from which to send in the registration. So I have both recorded as Bladsworth, Saskatchewan. Then for one I have added [registered at Kenaston] in brackets and the other has [registered at Tessier]. The youngest child was born on a farm near Looma, Alberta but she was registered in Edmonton where my grandfather was working as a labourer at the time. Here I have it listed as Edmonton [farm at Looma], Alberta.
In other places not only has the name of the town changed over time but so has the county or even state or country!
. So
again, I list what the location was at the time with full details and then bracket in full detail what they are now. If I find many of the same location then and now, I keep it in a separate index so I can look it up quickly when I want to search for where the records are now. For example, for France there are too many changes of names for the location of records – the major change was from pre to post revolution as pre-revolution the events were recorded in church registers and stored at various ecclesiastical levels. The revolutionary government changed the handling of records to civil authorities so every level changed from parish church to town hall, from diocese to arrondisement (government regional office), from archdiocese/province to "departement" (higher government regional level). However, during the pre and post times there were other changes - towns changed names or were placed under different jurisdiction. The family locat!
ion may
not have changed but the records are kept in different places over the years. Since there are so many changes, it would be too difficult to cross-reference each in brackets. So I enter in the event location field the name of the town and higher levels what it was at the time of the event and keep a database of changes over time and where those records are kept currently so that when I order a record, I know where to obtain it. I am working toward making my searchable sortable database available to others but if you need this information now, I can refer you to various sources from which I compiled my database.
Another major area of change was the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. My grandparents on both sides lived in what today are totally different countries - my paternal from what is now Austria and my maternal from what is now Ukraine. So at the time of their birth/baptism, the record shows the country of both sides as Austria. It !
is useful
to know where the records were kept during the relevant years because some of the Ukrainian ones are in Vienna, the capital of present-day Austria and some are in Moscow, others in Kiev and still others in Poland.
I also try to use the language and spelling from the original document – for whatever country – but I could simplify it by using the English equivalent and then keeping a separate database (or list – I like to use Excel or Word tables so I can sort by field and also search for a particular name or spelling) e.g. Tirol instead of Tyrol; Österreich instead of Austria.
Even in Canada names of the country and province changed. In my genealogy program I enter Port Royal, Acadia as Port Royal, Acadie (Annapolis, Nova Scotia).
Also as Lorna pointed out, you can note the changing information in your source field or the general notes field.
à bientôt,
Xenia Stanford (president@...) A.G.E. An!
cestree
Genealogical Enterprises Local genealogy book sales, professional research & writing: http://www.knowmap.com/age/ Column: "Nos Racines Francaise" http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette Scrapbooking & preservation techniques Phone: (403) 295-3490; Fax: (403) 274-0564
Thanks Joyce. Your further information reminded me that I did not mention I add fields for other vital events, such as baptism, christening, burial and other data that is important to your particular family tree. For French, French Canadian and other countries as well the events were registered through the church, especially the Catholic Church for many mainland European countries prior to the 18th century (some changed to civil registration later, some earlier than that). Basically the Church recorded the date of baptism and if it was the baptism of an infant the birthdate and place was also usually given (I won't go into the history of when and how details of records varied because that is a complicated topic). The date of the "act" (i.e. baptism or funeral/burial service) was usually different from the date of the vital event (e.g. birth or death). So I have added a field called baptism which includes date and place, a field called burial which includes date and place. Also in some records I have both a christening (which I use to note it was in a non-Catholic church) and a baptism for those who converted to Catholicism (or vice-versa).
One of my clients was very proud of the fact that nearly every family member for several generations had graduated from high school and a high percentage went on to college, university or other specialized education. Thus fields for graduation were added to cover a number of levels from high school to Ph.D. and types from teachers, doctors to pilots etc. These special fields can be included on reports and other printouts. So flexibility in a program that allows for special fields is great as then everything does not just have to be lumped in the general notes and the particular event(s) of importance to the family lineage can be printed out in a special report.
P.S. I don't know why my accented words were garbled or changed in my message as shown below!
-----Original Message----- From: owner-dist-gen@... [mailto:owner-dist-gen@...]On Behalf Of Joyce Metcalfe Sent: April 5, 2005 2:17 PM To: Dist-Gen Subject: Re: Question on noting in a program locations that no longer exist or have changed names
Hi List,
In addition to Xenia's terrific suggestions, I have come up with two steps that I like to take towards handling this problem:
1) One program I use, Family Tree Maker, allows me to carry more than one birth, death, or other dated event for each individual. The program also allows me to "check" my preferred event in each case. For example, I could set up one birth event for Ghost Pine and a separate birth event for Three Hills. This way, a search of birth locations for Ghost Pine would list this person and a similar search for Three Hills would also find this person.
2) My personal preference is to try to "check" as preferred the name of the place as at the date of the event. For instance, I have one individual born in Edmonton in 1903, in which case I have one birth event set up for Edmonton, Northwest Territories and one for Edmonton, Alberta, with the one for Edmonton, Northwest Territories checked off as my preferred one. Since he died in Edmonton after 1905, I only have one death event set up - for Edmonton, Alberta. In the notes section, I have an brief explanation concerning the name change and the historical event that brought about the name change (in this case, the formation of the province of Alberta in 1905). This gives me a little opportunity to work in little facts of historical interest into my family history report (putting a little meat on the bones, so to speak) and no tidbit is discarded (like most of us, I abhor throwing any bit of information away!).
I suspect that there is more than one good way to handle this problem and that different Gen program manuals will offer different suggestions. I don't think there is one "best" way; however, as with most databases, consistency is the key if you wish to use the criteria as the basis for a search or filter. It's best then to pick a method that you think will work best for your purposes and stick with the same procedure for every person in the database.
All the best,
Joyce
Xenia Stanford <president@...> wrote:
Please note that your reply will now only go to the original sender
Question: What is the best way to note in a program the places where people were born when that address no longer exists. For example, my father was born at home on the farm near Ghost Pine Creek, which had a post office at the time. The post office now is Three Hills, Alberta.
Should I still use Ghost Pine or Three Hills in my computer software program? I suppose the best way is to get a land description but that seems like a lot of work/research and wont be that helpful to whoever takes over my books.
What I do in these cases is put the place name at the time of the event and then add in brackets [now followed by current name] e.g. Ghost Pine Creek [now Three Hills], Alberta.
My mother and her brother were born on the homestead in Bladsworth! , SK but my mother was registered as born at Kenaston (the nearest post office) and my uncle as born at Tessier, which was the post office closest to where my grandfather was working as a sectionman for the railroad at the time. The homestead didnt move both children were born in the same house on the same property. The place did not even change names. It was due to my grandfather just using a different postoffice from which to send in the registration. So I have both recorded as Bladsworth, Saskatchewan. Then for one I have added [registered at Kenaston] in brackets and the other has [registered at Tessier]. The youngest child was born on a farm near Looma, Alberta but she was registered in Edmonton where my grandfather was working as a labourer at the time. Here I have it listed as Edmonton [farm at Looma], Alberta.
In other places not only has the name of the town changed over time but so has the county or even state or country! . So again, I list what the location was at the time with full details and then bracket in full detail what they are now. If I find many of the same location then and now, I keep it in a separate index so I can look it up quickly when I want to search for where the records are now. For example, for France there are too many changes of names for the location of records the major change was from pre to post revolution as pre-revolution the events were recorded in church registers and stored at various ecclesiastical levels. The revolutionary government changed the handling of records to civil authorities so every level changed from parish church to town hall, from diocese to arrondisement (government regional office), from archdiocese/province to "departement" (higher government regional level). However, during the pre and post times there were other changes - towns changed names or were placed under different jurisdiction. The family locat! ion may not have changed but the records are kept in different places over the years. Since there are so many changes, it would be too difficult to cross-reference each in brackets. So I enter in the event location field the name of the town and higher levels what it was at the time of the event and keep a database of changes over time and where those records are kept currently so that when I order a record, I know where to obtain it. I am working toward making my searchable sortable database available to others but if you need this information now, I can refer you to various sources from which I compiled my database.
Another major area of change was the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. My grandparents on both sides lived in what today are totally different countries - my paternal from what is now Austria and my maternal from what is now Ukraine. So at the time of their birth/baptism, the record shows the country of both sides as Austria. It ! is useful to know where the records were kept during the relevant years because some of the Ukrainian ones are in Vienna, the capital of present-day Austria and some are in Moscow, others in Kiev and still others in Poland.
I also try to use the language and spelling from the original document for whatever country but I could simplify it by using the English equivalent and then keeping a separate database (or list I like to use Excel or Word tables so I can sort by field and also search for a particular name or spelling) e.g. Tirol instead of Tyrol; Vsterreich instead of Austria.
Even in Canada names of the country and province changed. In my genealogy program I enter Port Royal, Acadia as Port Royal, Acadie (Annapolis, Nova Scotia).
Also as Lorna pointed out, you can note the changing information in your source field or the general notes field.
` bienttt,
Xenia Stanford (president@...) A.G.E. An! cestree Genealogical Enterprises Local genealogy book sales, professional research & writing: http://www.knowmap.com/age/ Column: "Nos Racines Francaise" http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette Scrapbooking & preservation techniques Phone: (403) 295-3490; Fax: (403) 274-0564
Please note that your reply will now only go to
the original sender
Multiple education details and multiple occupations are a deciding factor in
the choice of genealogy software for charts. Some genealogy programs are
limited to one event or tag for birth/baptism and some charts may not show
the field where education or occupation are entered.
My display chart had photo, occupation and medical clip art but a Family
Tree Maker file could easily be planned to include education or religion
clip art. -- Elizabeth
----- Original Message -----
From: "Xenia Stanford"
> One of my clients was very proud of the fact that nearly every family
> member
> for several generations had graduated from high school and a high
> percentage
> went on to college, university or other specialized education.
Send Email
