Hi Fellow Genealogists,
I thought I would post the most commonly relevant sections of the entry guidelines manual we use at the FHC data center.
Some of these guidelines conflict with the instructions shown in the FTW manuals, but are strongly preferred over the methods suggested by Broderbund.
Note especially how to handle special names like \White Cloud\. A double backslash indicates a missing surname, thus using White Cloud \\ as instructed, would mean parsing to, given name White, middle name Cloud, Surname missing. Whereas \White Cloud\ means this is his/her complete Surname or in this case, the whole name is an understood.
Another item of importance is the use of the ALIA field, AKA in FTW. FTW does not offer both an ALIA and a NICK placeholders, they have combined the two totally unrelated fields into one AKA field, which reaps havoc with the UDECODE parsing software, AKA is not a recognized GEDCOM tag. The result is, AKA is dumped into oblivion on submissions and important legal namechanges are lost. Please, only place Legal Namechanges in the AKA field, use the Facts Tables for entering pet names and nicknames used for family members. During parsing the ALIA field is displayed on the monitor, a quick glance will determine if ALIA was used for nicknames, if so, ALIA is not imported to the database.
See the note on the SOUR field, it is displayed on the monitor as well, and if the majority of the Sources displayed are not publicly available documents SOUR is killed.
The only other thing that you should be aware of, is that prefixes and suffixes when used in the name placeholder, rather than in the title placeholder, are removed from all submissions, thus if they do not also appear in the title placeholder they are lost. So, if you want others who access the databases to know you or your mother or another family member was an RN, put it where it belongs, in FTW this is in the Title placeholder.
Much of the above will not affect genealogists that do not make submissions to the FHC, but in the interest of sharing data with other genealogists, it helps considerably not to have spurious data floating around in the various fields of your database. Specific fields are designed for specific purposes and most fields are linked to a standard GEDCOM tag, which tags are recognized by most genealogy programs on todays market. Unexpected data under a specific tag causes many imports to abort those lines of data or parse the data into another tag, which is why you end up with improperly entered dates parsing down to the location fields, names appearing in title fields, etc.
The closer you stay to the unwritten standard, the normal accepted way of entering data, the less problems you will have sharing your data or importing data from others.
Offered only as suggested guidelines.
TTUL
Gary
"Gary V. Deutschmann, Sr." <[email protected]>
16 May 1999
D A T A E N T R Y G U I D E L I N E S
NAMES:
Full Name
Joseph F. Smith, Jr. (always use full punctuation)
Joseph F. Smith (father
of JFS, Jr. - NOT Sr.)
Partial Names
Joseph F. \\, Jr. (use // in FTM/FTW
for proper indexing)
\Smith\
(if spouse exists)
1m Smith
(no spouse, childrens list)
2f Smith
(unmarried female child of Smith)
3u Smith
(unknown gender child)
4m Smith
(numeric is birth order)
Unknown Name
\\
(if other data available)
(blank)
(no data available)
Nn. Smith
(ONLY for no legally given name)
Split Given
Emma(alt0160)Lou Smith (alt0160 creates a hard space)
Split Surname
Liana \Su Chan\ (forces
indexing under S)
Whole Name
\White Cloud\
(NOT White Cloud \\)
Roman Numerals
Joseph F. Smith VIII (III through VIII no comma)
Joseph F. Smith, IX (IX forward use comma)
Name Suffix
Joseph F. Smith, Phd. (NEVER - use suffix or title field)
Name Suffix
Joseph F. Smith, Sr. (NEVER - adopted suffix)
Name Prefix
Rev. Joseph F. Smith (NEVER - use title field)
Name Change
Johann Smitherington (ALIA - John Smith - AKA in FTM/FTW)
Nicknames
Honest John
(NICK Only - NEVER in ALIA or AKA)
CHILDREN:
It is preferred that the children of one marriage or partnership
NOT be included on the page with the step-parent, even if the
child or children lived with the new parent their entire lives.
This is to avoid confusion to other genealogists. It is
acceptable in your own private databases to do so, but clearly
indicate the relationship in the Lineage section and also make
additional reference to same in the Notes section.
If a child is Adopted, so indicate in the Lineage section.
If the child's true name is known, this is the name that should
be placed in the name placeholder, the name taken at adoption
should be placed in the ALIA field (AKA field in FTM/FTW).
Divorces are usually bitter events that affect everyone
involved. Genealogists close to or involved in the event
oftentimes omit those sections from their database or alter
them to be inaccurate representations of the childrens parent.
Your personal Genealogical Database is a permanent record of
the FACTS associated with the Lineage of the Individuals
contained therein. Purposely introduced errors, can have
exponentially devastating effects in the years to come.
Please keep all data entered as accurate as possible.
NOTES TO NAMES:
Always use full name of individual, if middle name is known
use the full middle name, not the abbreviation or letter.
Always use Maiden name or \\ if unknown, Never married name.
Unknown given name of unmarried children, use numeric and
gender in lower case or 0 and gender if birthorder is unknown.
Only use Nn. if person was never legally named, such as a
stillborn child, NEVER use Nn to indicate an unknown given name.
Only the exact name given at birth, normally the name shown on
the birth certificate, shall appear in name placeholders.
Titles and/or adopted Suffixes should NEVER appear with name.
Titles and/or adopted Suffixes may appear in the Title field.
Earned degrees shall NEVER appear in the name placeholder.
The Suffix Sr. is adopted by the parent of a Jr. and shall
NEVER appear in the name placeholder.
NEVER use the Roman Numeral I behind any Surname.
NEVER NEVER NEVER use I, II, III, etc. to differentiate
individuals with the same name in a database.
The Roman Numeral II is NOT the equivalent of Jr. for most
European or American born individuals. II normally denotes
a rank of succession. If in doubt use Jr. unless the actual
birth certificate or bible notation shows otherwise.
The ALIA field (AKA placeholder in FTM/FTW) is for legal name
changes only. The ALIA field is NEVER to be used for Nicknames.
Pre-version 6 FTW users, preceding the Legal Name used in the
AKA field, the use of doubledashes --John Smith in the AKA field
helps to differentiate in the indexing program AKA's shown.
Nicknames are not Legal Names, nor or they universally used by
family, friends, classmates, co-workers, etc. A family member
may use one nickname, a classmate another, etc. DO NOT place
nicknames of individuals in the ALIA or AKA fields, use the
NICK placeholder (in FTW use the Facts Fields).
DATES:
European Standard
15 January 1998 (NEVER
15/1/98)
American Standard
January 15, 1998 (NEVER 1/15/98)
Unknown Day
January 1998
(NEVER 1/98)
Unknown Month and Day
1998
(NEVER '98)
Unknown Year
January 15
(Avoid if possible)
Unknown Year Prefered
Abt. January 15, 1998 (Year only is estimated)
NOTES ON DATES:
Always spell out the month, never use numerical data only.
When a month and day are known, try to estimate the year and
place either Est., Abt, Cir., etc., It is understood if a month
and day are shown, they take precedence over the year shown.
Make it a practice to NEVER estimate a day or month if the year
is not known.
The use of double dates is not encouraged, due to the fact that
the new calendar was adopted at different times in different
locations. The date in your records was recorded using the
calendar of the period, double dates tend to confuse the issue.
LOCATIONS:
American Standard
Special Location, City, County, State
County Hospital, Rolla, Phelps, Missouri
Holy Cross Church, Ballwin, St. Louis, Missouri
NOTES ON LOCATIONS: Consistancy is the keynote
in data entry.
Use the standard addressing for the applicable country.
Show the country if not in your present country or if the
country is unusual, changed names, etc.
Spell out completely all location names. USA states may be
abreviated, but if you share your files internationally, then
spell out the name of the state.
NEVER put the cemetary name in the Death Date Location field.
INTR, INTE, etc. are NOT available tags, CEME is preferred.
Use Facts Tables and Notes fields ALWAYS.
SOURCES:
Documentation
It is preferable that all data be sourced as to where the
information was obtained. However, a SOUR is NOT Aunt Hilda or
the Berg Family Bible, these are personal sources to the data
entry person and should be indicated in the Notes Field, NOT in
the SOUR field.
Any entry placed in the SOUR field should be obtainable by any
person using the information shown in that field.
Examples of Sources
are:
Certificate of Live Birth #1234567, St. Louis County, Missouri
Death Certificate #5678901, Trimble County Courthouse, Tennessee
1880 Census of Pike County, Kentucky, Film #RP78TL880
Church Records maintained at St. Richards Catholic Church,
Branson, Missouri, Archive Section 1940-1950, Nuptuals.
Holt Family History, ISDN 456789, from Reference Section of
Clark Library, Burlington, Winslow Township, Arizona
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