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Archiver > TMG > 2006-07 > 1151879911


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Data Entry Question
Date: Sun, 02 Jul 2006 18:38:31 -0400
References: <070220061744.15967.44A805FD000B41AC00003E5F22007507849D019B0E0207039D0A90A10A089B@comcast.net>
In-Reply-To: <070220061744.15967.44A805FD000B41AC00003E5F22007507849D019B0E0207039D0A90A10A089B@comcast.net>


wrote:
>How would you handle this?
>
>Known Facts:
>
>Head of house's name, city, county, and state of residence as of a
>certaind date.
>Household consists of:
> 1 free white male over 16
> 2 free white males under 16
> 3 females
> 1 other free person
> 7 slaves
>
>Before beginning any research you want to get at least that info
>into TMG so......
>How does one enter that? There are no names, dates, relationships or
>other identifying marks.
>
>Oh- one other thing.. you and others will be entering approx.500,000
>of such unrelated families.

The question is what you (and others) want. And what the other have
available to work with -- TMG? Access? Excel? Something else?

As for TMG, you can do a number of things. One is to add the Census
Tag to the Head of Household since you know that for sure. You can
then add the remaining data as a free-style
text table in the Memo field.

Further on that, if you know the composition of the family and it
agrees with the census data, you might add the family members as
Witnesses to that Census Tag. I would adjust the Sentences to note
that you _think_/_assume_/whatever the Witnesses are the ones
enumerated in the census. Of course, if you (at this time) do not
know the names of the persons in the family, you could create persons
that meet the known (from the census) data (three unnamed females
without Birth Group Tags, a 16 plus year old male <Head of Household
(HOH)?>, two unnamed 0-16 year old males, another unnamed male
without a Birth Group Tag, seven unnamed and no Birth Group Tags
persons as slaves). The slave persons might be just accorded as
reference in the Memo field unless there is expectation that they
might be named later and/or have further connection with the family
in some way. If you enter them as persons, I would create a Custom
Flag to help distinguish them and allow you to find them easily later.

As for names to enter, you do know the HOH and can enter at least
that name. For most of the rest, you can use the surname as a guess
leaving the GivenName blank until you learn more.

For relationships, you may never know those or you may find them in
other sources -- at least enough to allow you to construct a probably
family structure and adjust Tag Sentences as needed. For dates, you
can use data ranges that fit what you do know from the census and if
nothing else, you can enter Sort Dates to "guesstimate" reasonable
child arrangement.

Hope this helps -

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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