Today I uploaded the John Henthorn family, using a GEDCOM file, to the RootsMagic5 genealogy program on my laptop computer. Prior to today this file resided on my desktop computer in a RootsMagic3 file.
Henthorn researchers believe that the first two Henthorns to arrive in the British colonies were brothers, James and John. The John Henthorn family is the smaller of the two.
My genealogy files were originally created with the LDS program, Personal Ancestral File (PAF) version 2.31, on a computer running the DOS operating system. Getting from that point to today entailed years of work and many computer disasters. It's a relief to once again have the data at my finger tips.
A Descendant report created from this file, with place and every name indices is 508 pages.
Dick Henthorn
17 March 2013
Showing posts with label DOS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DOS. Show all posts
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
It's A Mess
It's A Mess
When computers fail, when you use more than one genealogy program, or you change from one genealogy program to another, It's A Mess. I'm going to write at least two posts of my observations concerning some of the issues and problems I must deal with if I'm going to continue to record new genealogy information and if I want to be able to take advantage of the latest technology for sharing on the Internet.
My Genealogy Programs
I have two working computers, an old desktop with some issues and a relatively new Toshiba laptop.
On the desktop computer I have three genealogy programs installed:
- Personal Ancestral File (PAF) version 2.31 a DOS genealogy program which I run in a Window
- RootsMagic version 3 which I used to convert some of my files to the RootsMagic format and to create some new files
- Personal Ancestral File (PAF) for Windows (version 5.2 I think) which I used for experimentation.
On the new laptop I have RootsMagic version 5 installed. I'm using this program to learn about the features of this version and to experiment with moving my files from the desktop to the laptop computer. I was never proficient with version 3. I'm aware that I continue to fall further behind and that the latest version of RootsMagic is version 6.
I own a copy of the book Getting The Most Out of RootsMagic version 4 even though I've never owned that version of the program. I've found the book to be quite helpful.
The LDS church has announced that as of July 15, 2013 they will discontinue support and downloads of Personal Ancestral File. Something tells me it might be useful to download and install their program one last time before the program is no longer available.
Dick Henthorn
27 June 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
The Amos Tree - Revisited - 2nd Installment
More comments about the document, History and Descendants of Amos and Elizabeth (Sharp) Henthorn - 1816-1959 sometimes called The Amos Tree, by Roy Lee and Norma (Latham) Henthorn.
I think the quality of the 44-page document, The Amos Tree was quite good considering that it was created before the advent of personal computers and genealogy programs. I particularly like the four-page name index and all of the textual information.
That said, there are some issues with readability. This is because the numbering system used is difficult to follow. Arabic numbers are used to designate more than one generation and the oldest person in a line doesn't have a number.
For example:
THIS IS THE FIRST MEMBER IN A FAMILY
1. THIS IS HIS SON (or daughter)
1. THIS IS HIS GRANDSON (or grand daughter) (sometimes this level doesn't use a number)
1. THIS IS HIS GREAT GRANDSON (or daughter) (sometimes this level doesn't use a number)
This isn't too hard to follow on a single page but gets quite confusing when the family is large enough to cover several pages.
Entering the information from an older genealogy report into a computer genealogy program improves clarity of the prior researcher's work and makes it much easier for readers to follow the family structure. The challenge, for the person doing the data entry, is to "get it right." Success in the task depends on the ability of the person doing the data entry to read and interpret the numbering system used in the source document.
Years ago I entered the information from The Amos Tree into my DOS Personal Ancestral File (PAF version 2.31). In June 2013, as part of a project to learn how to use version 5 of RootsMagic, I keyed the data a second time. I also extracted additional information from my own file and added it to my new file.
I produced a 46-page PDF report with RootsMagic version five which is now available from the "Henthorn" page on the HenthornFamily Wiki. This four-generation report is for Robert and Mary (Nicholson) Henthorn, the parents of Amos Henthorn. It includes an every name index and a place name index. The report was limited to four generations. A report including additional generations is available, on request, to researchers who are known to me and who are willing to share their own research information.
Robert and Mary (Nicholson) Henthorn
Dick Henthorn
25 June 2013
I think the quality of the 44-page document, The Amos Tree was quite good considering that it was created before the advent of personal computers and genealogy programs. I particularly like the four-page name index and all of the textual information.
That said, there are some issues with readability. This is because the numbering system used is difficult to follow. Arabic numbers are used to designate more than one generation and the oldest person in a line doesn't have a number.
For example:
THIS IS THE FIRST MEMBER IN A FAMILY
1. THIS IS HIS SON (or daughter)
1. THIS IS HIS GRANDSON (or grand daughter) (sometimes this level doesn't use a number)
1. THIS IS HIS GREAT GRANDSON (or daughter) (sometimes this level doesn't use a number)
This isn't too hard to follow on a single page but gets quite confusing when the family is large enough to cover several pages.
Entering the information from an older genealogy report into a computer genealogy program improves clarity of the prior researcher's work and makes it much easier for readers to follow the family structure. The challenge, for the person doing the data entry, is to "get it right." Success in the task depends on the ability of the person doing the data entry to read and interpret the numbering system used in the source document.
Years ago I entered the information from The Amos Tree into my DOS Personal Ancestral File (PAF version 2.31). In June 2013, as part of a project to learn how to use version 5 of RootsMagic, I keyed the data a second time. I also extracted additional information from my own file and added it to my new file.
I produced a 46-page PDF report with RootsMagic version five which is now available from the "Henthorn" page on the HenthornFamily Wiki. This four-generation report is for Robert and Mary (Nicholson) Henthorn, the parents of Amos Henthorn. It includes an every name index and a place name index. The report was limited to four generations. A report including additional generations is available, on request, to researchers who are known to me and who are willing to share their own research information.
Robert and Mary (Nicholson) Henthorn
Dick Henthorn
25 June 2013
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