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From: "Bruce W. Fairhall" <>
Subject: TMG-L: Informant Database: How I Did it
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 12:47:44 +1000

I placed two enquiries on this list over recent times, seeking help with
setting up T.M.G. with a structure and corresponding report for my
Informants: those who may or may not be a part of the family but who are a
source of information for an aspect apart from their own family: eg. a
family line in another country, a village, passengers on a migrant ship etc.

Thank you to those who replied, and I explored all the suggestions but found
some to require multiple processing etc and explored further for a simple
solution. One suggestion was to use the List of Events structure from CRW,
and that is the way I went finally.

My steps:

1.Set up a Flag as INFORMANT (NY) that I use to flag the informants. Those
people's names may be a part of my family or another "unconnected" person.
Of course, they may also be a "Source" within the list of sources if I have
referred to their supplied data in my files.

2.Set up an INFORMANT Tag, and a LETTERS tag.

3.I then use the MEMO field of these two Tags to record relevant
information.

In the Informant tag MEMO field I complete a brief description of the
subject about which this person informs, remembering that the first word is
the one I am going to sort on in my report. So, the MEMO field would
contain descriptions such as:
eg. Fairhall family (U.S.A.)
Fairhall family (New Zealand)
Sheather family (Australia)
"Maitland" passenger list
ETC
If the person is an Informant for more than one topic then I include
multiple tags, so each appears in the report separately.

In the MEMO area of the LETTERS tag I record my reference to incoming
correspondence, including EMails, as filed (eg. 93-45, 96-56) to show the
year of the letter and its number in order of receipt for that year. This
is great for locating all letters about a certain topic or family. This Tag
is not used in my Report, only on screen.

4.In CRW, copy the List of Events Sample, and amend the copy as follows:

Title: List of INFORMANTS

Focus: Filtered Group
Prin1 INFORMANT FlagEqualsYAND
Tag Type LabelEqualsINFORMANTEND

Output Columns:
SortContentHeaderLength
1MemoSubject50
Prin1 Last,GivenName25
Prin1 ID#ID#6

This report gives me a list, sorted as to their area of interest, with Names
of the Informants and their ID#. To locate Informants quickly, I just run
the report with output to screen, and write down the ID# of relevant
researchers. Going to the Person Screen screen for these, I have a list of
their inwards letters, Address, Phone Number and other relevant
information. It works for me!

I hope this item is of value to others, or gives them an idea of a further
way to use T.M.G. for their research.

--
Bruce Fairhall

PHONE: 02 4571 1019 (International: +61 2 4571 1019)
EMAIL:
HOME PAGE: http://www.ros.com.au/~fairhall/index.htm
GOONS: Member 2257 (Fairhall, Fairehall, Fairhale, Fayerhall)
(and some interest in Fairall as well !)


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• TMG-L: Informant Database: How I Did it by "Bruce W. Fairhall" <>