TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2001-09 > 0999445881


From: Leslie Price <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] Step children
Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2001 10:51:21 -0500
In-Reply-To: <200109020908_MC3-DE61-9CFB@compuserve.com>


<< Lurk mode OFF >>

It seems that this time this thread is trending towards a polite
well-reasoned request to Mr. Velke for enhancing treatment of non-bio
relationships. Excellent!

BTW - the more we help TMG become both a pure-genealogy AND family history
tool the broader the customer base which means more sales, and that's a VERY
good thing. But, it has to be done carefully, with no compromises on the
genealogy just to make family historians happy.

First, observations on the situation as it is today

- We can choose different parent types - Ado,Ste,Fst,Can etc. Allows for
precision in data entry. Easy to change if you later find out that one of
your ancestors was adopted rather than biological (or step, or foster,
etc.).
- They are relationship tags, which is intuitive. And there are appropriate
Event tags to enter details about the adoption event. Again, logical and
sensible, I found it intuitive when I was brand new to TMG and entering
data.
- We can select and easily change which parent is considered "primary" and
thus listed on reports and shown on trees. Great flexibility, supports both
the pure-biology method and the family history method.

So inside the program, when I'm looking at the screens, I see exactly what I
intended, everything is clear. It's on the output side that we need a bit of
refinement so that our data entry integrity is easily communicated to
others.

Request for Enhancement

- Add sentences for non-NAT parent/child relationships. This makes narrative
reports honestly and accurately reflect the type of relationships shown. The
NAT relationship would not require any change since that's the assumed
relationship type, and conforms to other published genealogies.
- Add a suffix or highlight on charts to indicate that the person is
adopted/step/foster whatever. Something in parentheses after the person's
name seems fairly straightforward. This makes those reports honest and
accurate.
- Add an option on reports that allows us to print "biology only" regardless
of the primary state of the relationship tags. I could keep the non-bio
parents primary if that's what I normally want to look at, but could also
print charts and reports that show the biological descent or ancestry. These
reports would only follow the NAT tags, even if they are not marked primary.

These additions would seem to cover all of the situations that have been
discussed in prior iterations of this thread. They also would further add to
the uniqueness of TMG in its ability to support all kinds of data, all kinds
of output, with no assumptions made by the program. It could become a
marketing benefit.

I'm sure I've missed something, but I'd like to get to the point where we
can propose a well thought out enhancement to Bob and he could then consider
it for inclusion in 5.1.

Also, these changes seem to be pretty easy to incorporate, but then, I'm not
a programmer. :-)

Leslie Price

-----Original Message-----
From: Karla Huebner [mailto:]
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 8:09 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [TMG] Step children


I like the idea of an Adoption tag prompt.

I do try to remember to create an Adoption tag, as that seems more
productive than the flag and the whoever-Ado relationship. Still, even an
Adoption tag is not going to print in the most bare-bones reports.

From that standpoint, I'd like something to print for any parent-child
relationship that's other than Nat. Thus, something for Ado, Cand, God,
Step, whatever. It is not much use for me to have created candidate
relationship tags when no hint of the uncertainty prints on a chart or
narrative. I'm thinking there of all the James Andersons in a given
Scottish parish or area where there is not much to show which one fathered
the new James, but of course lots of countries have this sort of silliness.

Karla Huebner

Message text written by INTERNET:
>Perhaps TMG could follow the pattern it uses in cases of entering
spouses. After the spouse is entered, TMG politely asks if we want to
create a marriage tag. It would be in this same spirit if after
creating a Son-Ado that TMG would ask if we want to create an Adoption
tag. At least it would remind us to do so.

I'm afraid I have been caught in this trap also, but I did not realize
it until I read this thread.
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