                       ENTERING DATA

Unlike many other genealogical programs, Family Tree Journal
data  is  structured  around  individuals rather than family
group records.

In its most refined form, genealogy is simply the  study  of
human  biology.  Therefore, the only required information to
produce a complete family tree is that each individual  must
have  one mother and one father. With this information alone
you may traverse through an entire family. Family groups are
produced  dynamically  by  locating  and  grouping  children
through parental linkages. The sex of the individual is  im-
plied  when a person is recorded as a father or mother which
is loosely translated as husband or  wife  in  some  of  the
printouts.  (The  marital  status  of  parents is a cultural
linkage that sometimes tends to confuse computers!)

Family Tree Journal allows you to add, delete or modify  the
information  for individual family members without regard to
the impact that those  changes  may  have  on  a  particular
family group.

You  will always start data entry from the individual infor-
mation screen. Data fields may display default data. If  the
default  is  your desired response, then you can simply type
an <ENTER> without over-typing the default. The <INSERT> key
will  toggle  between normal and insert mode. (The cursor is
full size in normal mode and half size in insert mode).  The
left  and  right  <ARROW> keys move between fields in normal
mode and move between characters within a  field  in  insert
mode.  The  <HOME> and <END> keys move between the beginning
and the end of the line  in  insert  mode  and  between  the
beginning  and  end  of the screen in normal mode. The <ESC>
key will return you to the previous menu or screen.

Names,  dates  and  places  are  critical   when   compiling
genealogical  information.  Because  computers  require more
stringent rules than people when interpreting information, I
had  to  apply  some  restrictions  to  the way data must be
entered. I did, however, try to make the rules conform  more
to  normal  human  usage  and force the computer to read our
language rather than the other way around.

NAMES - You should try to  include  full  middle  names  and
titles  such  as  Jr., II, 3rd, etc. Married women should be
listed using their maiden names. If you do  not  know  their
maiden  name, enclose their married name in parenthesis i.e.
Mary (Smith). Any other names that you are unsure  of,  such
as  nicknames, stage or professional names, that are not the
names that appear on birth, death, etc. certificates, should
also  be  enclosed in parenthesis. The parenthesis will flag
the name as incorrect for the audit feature of the program.

You should enter names in  their  natural  order,  that  is:
first name-middle name-last name. If a surname has more than
one word, the name may not be sorted  as  you  would  expect
when  it  appears  in  the  book.  As  an  example, the name
"Wernher von Braun" would appear  in  the  sorted  lists  as
"Braun, Wernher von". Titles (Jr., II, 3rd, etc.,) should be
preceded by a comma and a space, i.e. "John Smith, Jr." This
will  appear  as  "Smith,  John,  Jr."  when  sorted  by the
program. (If you don't include the  comma,  the  name  would
appear  as  "Jr.,  John  Smith").  (Only  one title per name
please - John Smith, Jr., M.D. won't work, and I doubt  that
his degrees would appear on his birth certificate anyway!)

Names  are  limited to a total of 30 characters. This should
be enough for most names. If anyone has a longer  name,  you
should  use  abbreviations  where  possible, (Wm. instead of
William for example) and enter the full name as  a  note  in
their references.

If you type a number in the NAME prompt (instead of a name),
the name that is assigned to the number will appear  in  the
blank.  This  can  help  to prevent spelling errors and also
makes data entry easier especially for long names.

When you enter a new name, the bell will sound and a  flash-
ing  name and number will appear for that person. This indi-
cates the number that will be  assigned  to  the  person.  A
typing  mistake  can also cause this to occur. If you do not
wish to add this name to the name list, the <ESC> key may be
used to cancel the save.

A  quick  name  search may be made by typing a question mark
<?> as the FIRST character in any name prompt followed by  a
name or partial name. Either upper or lower case letters may
be used for the name, they will match either way. The  first
name  that matches the name or partial name that you entered
will appear in the prompt. If there is no match, the  prompt
will turn blank.

PLACES  - Try to list the city or county where birth, death,
and/or marriage occurred or the name of the church, hospital
etc.  Many  records  are  kept  in  these  places that could
provide additional information. Except for the size  of  the
field, there are no other restrictions on places.

DATES - Dates should be as complete as possible. If you only
know the approximate date, use  the  abbreviation  'c.'  for
circa,  followed  by the year i.e. c. 1850. You may also use
the abbreviations ABT, BEF and AFT  for  ABouT,  BEFore  and
AFTer if you wish.

Dates may be entered in any of the following ways:

                mm-dd-yyyy
                dd/mm/yyyy (If non-USA format in setup)
                yyyy
                c. yyyy
                ABT yyyy
                AFT yyyy
                BEF yyyy
                dd MMM yyyy
                MMM dd yyyy

where  'mm'  is  the  month  number (1-12), MMM is the first
three characters of the name of the month (JAN-DEC),    'dd'
is  the day number (1-31) and 'yyyy' is the full year number
(note: don't assume 19--). The month and day may be  one  or
two digits. The '-' and '/' in the example may be any single
character except a digit. If you know only part of the date,
you  should  put  a '?' in the missing field, i.e. 5/?/1887.
Dates must be in one of these formats in order to  calculate
life-spans correctly.

                       FUNCTION KEYS

F1 HELP - Displays help information.

F2 NAMES - Display and edit your name list.

F3 SEARCH - Search all data files for information.

F4  EDITOR  -  You  may edit any ASCII file, biographies and
references from this screen using the F4 key.

F5 and F6 MOTHER and FATHER - Changes the screen to  display
the  genealogical  information  for  this person's mother or
father.

F7 TREE - Shows a family tree for this individual  that  in-
cludes  mother, father, spouses, children and siblings. This
function may also be used as a quick way to link individuals
into family groups.

F8  SAVE  -  Saves  the  genealogical  information  for this
screen.

                          *******
