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Archiver > TMG > 2002-09 > 1030978143


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Tip of the day: Census people
Date: Mon, 02 Sep 2002 10:49:03 -0400
References: <5.1.0.14.2.20020831173536.00a9c7d0@pop3.airmail.net><88.1d6a3269.2aa26cbc@cs.com><5.1.0.14.0.20020901220411.00a168c0@pop.sprynet.com>
In-Reply-To: <3D73759C.DE9A55C5@bellatlantic.net>


Bob Gillis wrote:
>Adding unrelated people by adding as witnesses is not the "normal" way.
>It is one way. I add often add unrelated people in the memo especially
>if he has a different surname as is a "fisherman boarder".
>
>If I come across the name later I can do a search for memo contains
>"whoever" and find the tag.
>
>What features are we depriving ourselves of?

None, depending on your preferences. Yes, the unrelated name may found by
search for it in the Memo field. But the Picklist might be faster. Of
course, this means that you must take time _now_ to create the person in
TMG so that they can be included s a Witness and shown in the
Picklist. Given that many unrelated persons in a census household do turn
out to be related, it is a matter of spending time now or spending time
later. On the other hand, while many unrelated person do turn out later to
be related, there are also many that do not. In this case, spending time
now does not translate into saved time later. In this case, about the only
reason for entering those unrelated person as their own person and as
Witnesses is for consistency in your data entry.

Consistency can resolve a lot of very trivial problems and help locate
errors in a data set. On the other hand, consistency for it's own sake may
not be worthwhile if the end-result (the printed report) accomplishes the
same thing.

So to answer your question you would lose nothing or something depending on
a number of factor including your preferences and the particular
situation. And the situation may or may never make a difference.


Lee Hoffman/KY
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)

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