Notes from the February 8, 1996 meeting of the Rochester Genealogical Society / Computer Interest Group.

There were 39 attendees, including 4 visitors, as Mark Bewicke opened the meeting.

He noted "Getting a Line On Real Information" in Geneal. Comp., Oct. 1995, p. 16. He pointed out the genealogical lists are available for subscription and subsequent e-mail responses.

News About Town:

Dick Halsey noted that we have 330 members in RGS, 130 in the CIG, and he received a couple more memberships at this meeting.

Mark requested a reporter for local BBS status. J. Hall noted that both FROG and EnviroLink provide a file from Tracy Logan's Lognlist giving the current local BBS and a description of their special areas. Jim pointed out the error/omission in last month's notes, the correct phone for EnviroLink is 359-0008. Larry Naukam noted that he makes a hardcopy monthly of the Lognlist and deposits it at the Science Dept. of Rundel (Central) Library. He also gave Mark a copy of the Internet sites, which will be useful next month. Jackie Van Auken of the Brighton High Computer Dept. will speak on the Internet in March.

J. Hall noted that he has changed servers, and his new 1996 e-mail address is jhall@vivanet.com (all lower case). He apologizes to the Hear Ye recipients for not being able to send their addresses until they get this notice. The FGS Conference (Aug. 14-17, 1996, Rochester) is progressing, and the program/registration brochure is now available. He noted that copies are available at CIG and RGS meetings, but should be taken to pass on to a non-RGS member. All RGS and KGS members will soon receive a copy. Answering a question, the Holiday Inn appears to be viable as the headquarters for the conference.
It is imperative that we support the conference, to assure good attendance, customers for the exhibitors, and significant remuneration to RGS. Check with Ozzie Salyards to volunteer, and see the list of members of the Local Arrangements Team in Hear Ye - give them a call. A special event will be a reception at the new Frontier Field and a laser show at High Falls on Saturday evening. Souvenir T-shirts and drink mugs will also be available.

Jim also offered a video from last Spring, "Out of Ireland" taped from WXXI-a very interesting commentary on Irish immigration to the U.S. (Now available from Carter Livermore at RGS meetings).

Fred Kolb announced the February 13^th KGS meeting (already reported in CIG last month), and Jim Swarts announced the RGS program for February 15^th.

Mark noted that he had gotten onto a genealogy echo (chat group) on FROG, downloading daily, then searching the file for a desired surname.

Ken Veneron reported that the Westfall Family History Center has several new film readers. Also, he brought in packets of the Mt. Hope Cemetery digitizing project, for editing. The packets include the digital record and original hard copy of the record for comparison. Film orders are being delivered very quickly from Salt Lake City.

Mark has used the digitized phone directory/CD-ROM at the Brockport Family History Center and found an entry for a person with his surname. A call opened a likely contact with his grandfather's place of emigration from England. Barry Coomber stated that he has a new CD-ROM that can be used with both a PC or MAC. His was about $50, while a unit on sale for $13 at Computer City has limited use. Bob Heselberth noted that one brand is digitized by keyboarding (overseas) while others do scanning and OCR. The digitizing is more accurate and more detailed. Ken Veneron noted that Parsons has a very detailed type of phone number CDROM. Another member reported that the Penfield Library has a national phonebook on disks, along with Yellow Pages (FREE).

Jim Hall reported that he will be having a hip joint replacement in early March, with a short recovery expected. The February notes and March meeting announcements will be published earlier to assure delivery. Marlene White will be the substitute recorder operator, Jim will do the transcribing, then Gloria Church will keyboard and an associate at Xerox will do the printing for the March notes and April announcement. Thanks to all.

MAIN PROGRAM - Personal Ancestral File

Mark introduced Debbie Barnes as his partner in presenting a program on PAF (Personal Ancestral File). and Ancestral Quest. To begin, Mark noted that the LDS Church has stopped production of PAF. But, order forms are still available at various places, including the Family History Centers. An order blank at F.H.C.'s has an 800 number, 1-800-537-5950; to get info on availability call 1-800-453-3860, extension 2584. Both DOS and MAC versions are made. Larry Naukam stated that he is beta testing a new MAC version, with unknown date of issue.

Mark described the PAF package, disks and manuals. The manuals are very helpful, but Joan Lowrey's book, "Guide to Using PAF 2.31" is much more detailed, at about $30.

He noted that PAF is an excellent entry-level program, with almost all other genealogical programs accepting PAF data through GEDCOM transfer. He also recommended that beginners visit a F.H.C. to get first-hand help on starting genealogy, and using PAF. There are also many guides to research and how to contribute to the main collection at Salt Lake City, Ancestral File, accurately checking and verifying data presented. This gives an identification of your presentation for others to confirm and exchange other data with you.

A question on location of F.H.C's was responded to, noting that the Brockport Library (see last month's notes for address and open times) is usually not very busy.

Starting the presentation, Mark described and Debbie followed with the program. They started with the CONFIG file, with definitions of each step. Several steps were highlighted, as important options and the result of the selection made. They pointed out the relationship of RIN's (Record Identification Number) and MRIN's (marriage RIN's) and the ID number. The numbers can be included or excluded from printed forms or focus reports. Including the numbers can often confuse other users of the information.

Starting with Pedigree Search, he showed how an extensive collection (of Debbie's data) can be used to search and select data for exchange or publication. They moved through the menus, adding an individual to the file, showing how the data is entered, then describing how a marriage record is formed from two individual records. The date format was shown by using a non-standard date, then seeing how the program converted to the standard format, automagically.

Continuing the discussion/display of an individual, the 4 levels of PLACE were noted as important; check with the manual to assure future searchability.

Creating notes showed the importance of priorities, using an exclamation point before the TAG, i.e. !BIRTH:. Silicon Valley PAF Users Group has a good list of proper usage. Use of a text editor is not recommend with PAF notes, as corruption of the file is easy to do. Utilities like HOTNOTES are available, (but wait until you read about Ancestral Quest). Using INSERT/REPLACE for editing notes was displayed. Notes can be reused in PAF, moving and adding, deleting lines, then ditto,F8, to the next person. The ID field is a customized feature for individual definition.

Working with SPOUSE, a menu selection is important. "unknown" can be used, and you can add children if the couple is not complete. In FAMILY, children can be added as found.

MARRIAGE was next, indicating the need for date and location. Up to 60 marriages of one person can be handled. Divorce is noted as Y or N. Additions of children are in the MODIFY FAMILY MENU, and birth order can be corrected.

State names as Post Office abbreviations are discouraged, but many find difficulty in printing charts with the full state name.

Titles can be processed when identified in CONFIG. There is not a TITLE field in the selection menu for FOCUS reports.

An ALPHA list gives an alphabetical list of surnames in the database. You should use this to check for spelling errors, especially if you turn off the spell check feature.

Match-Merge was displayed, showing the process (and hazards) of adding new data from another database. The options were stepped through, showing details of the process.

If there is a conflict in dates, it is necessary to make a selection. Match-Merge can be switched from Right to Left instead of Left to Right, to select the more correct initial record. It is wise to check the parents of the person being merged, as a further confirmation of the right selection.

Facts and Fun in the Utilities were described as valuable tools for relationship determination, Soundex for a surname, several manipulations of data to identify problems in the database (like no complete linkage!), Searches can be performed on a field, matching any or all spellings.

Ancestral Quest:

This was described as a Windows program, with all the added benefits. The program and PAF share the same database, a significant time saver.

Debbie started the program, showed how notes can be modified directly vs. the clumsiness of PAF. Bob Hesselberth reported that Salt Lake City developers of A.Q. were emphatic about MatchMerge. Debbie concurred, and displayed how you can choose the correct parents from a Match-Merge set, moving the individual easily with the mouse. Step-children can be separated to the correct family. Debbie also displayed the benefits of using the mouse to move around the database.

It was noted that a damaged or foreign GEDCOM is as difficult to handle as in PAF, always requiring a back-up prior to merging databases.

Updates:

The price of Ancestral Quest was $50 at the Seattle Conference, but Ken Veneronreports that the current price is $19 from Sweet Enterprises, 671-2157. What a bargain!

The Kraeg Road FHC will be closing for renovation on March 3^rd.

. Keyboarded by Gloria Church.

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