Very Well Said. Glen A. Sedrick http://www.qulinmo.com/
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of mffowler Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2007 3:08 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [LegacyUG] Historical information WAS: Godparents Jose, I am a long way from producing reports but I am thinking about what I may do. I am an amateur historian and amateur genealogist. In my working life, now retired, I managed a cancer data base with functionality concepts similar to genealogy software. If one wishes to compare information with others or actually share data in electronic format, one must have and follow some basic "standards" that everyone else follows. It stands to reason then that some guidelines are agreed upon by a group of people who usually are the professionals in the field and try to represent all of us. Thus, the reason for the various fields with drop-down pre-defined selections and other such "cookie-cutter" selections and formats. Yes, we do care a great deal about the output because we are not generally doing this work only for ourselves. Often we could not achieve our desired end results if others before us had not published or otherwise shared the genealogic information they have obtained. Some "standardization" for the way the reports are preferred have been set, again, by the "professional" organizations in the field of genealogy. This is to achieve reports that others, like we amateurs, are more likely to interpret the way the information was meant by those who gathered it. Now we come to the great flexibility of Legacy--to make changes/modifications to suit our own purposes. Each of us operates in a somewhat different set of circumstances and we have different needs or desires. I, too, want to include some historical and socio-economic information along with my genealogy. If I am able to reach my ultimate goal, I will produce a book(let) for the total of seven people in my family--my sister, her two sons and their three children (and me). The children are in middle school and I know they have not learned history or to appreciate it as I have. Some of our ancestors made a great impact on the way our world is today but, with only the family tree to look at, they will likely never know or understand the implications of who they are and where they came from--the very reason many people are involved in genealogy to begin with. I hope this helps your understanding of why some things are the way they are in genealogy and, except for some tweaking, likely will basically never change. Marcellyn Fowler Kansas City, MO ________________________________________ Jose wrote Genealogy softwares seem to me to be subjugated to output formatting needs. Every single piece of information must be entered in a particular field (sometimes several clicks afar) with the only goal to construct a grammatically correct phrase in the Reports options. Any piece of information that doesnt exactly fits the predefined format requires a tricky and cumbersome solution like the one you suggest. As a newby, I wonder why the softwares doesnt focus on the obvious standard fields (birth, marriage, death, etc.) so that the application produces the core of the report and let the genealogists write their own additional text, based on the multiple tags and Notes fields. Do they think genealogists cant write by themselves? Do they think that genealogists only care about descendant narrative reports or alike, and not about family history, kinship or social relationships (as you recall) and all the comments you could deduce analysing your data? As for my experience in other areas, databases are a repository of information you can use, analyse and interpret, not an automatic way of writing stories. Agreeing or not, I think users should let the software producers to know their feelings about the (seems to me) complication of ingesting data just for the purpose of printing reports. Have you unlocked the real power of Legacy? Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has 92 features not found in the Standard Edition. Learn more about these features at http://legacyfamilytree.com/DeluxeEdition.asp. Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.16/914 - Release Date: 7/23/2007 7:45 PM No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.10.16/914 - Release Date: 7/23/2007 7:45 PM Have you unlocked the real power of Legacy? Legacy 6.0 Deluxe has 92 features not found in the Standard Edition. Learn more about these features at http://legacyfamilytree.com/DeluxeEdition.asp. Legacy User Group guidelines can be found at: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp To find past messages, please go to our searchable archives at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For online technical support, please visit http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp To unsubscribe please visit: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp
