It's All Relative (tm) A Truly "Relational" Database for the Atari ST (c)May 1988 Greg Kopchak 2233 Keeven Lane Florissant, MO 63031 1-314-831-9482 VERSION 1.0 MANUAL I. Introduction II. Quick Start for those who hate manuals III. Setting up your work disk IV. Loading the program the first time V. Adding a person to the database VI. Adding a second or third marriage for a person VII. Adding a memory resident note VIII. Editing an individual's record IX. Printer controls X. Data output to the monitor screen XI. Data output to your printer XII. Using the quick search features XIII. File commands XIV. Using the extended notes feature for unlimited notes XV. Organizing your records for data entry XVI. Tips on data entry and keeping records XVII. Running from a hard disk XVIII.New features planned and support information I. INTRODUCTION "It's all Relative" is a descendants based genealogical program written with the ST in mind from the ground up. Track your family's line from its earliest know member to the present and compute relationships with a user friendly Gem based program. A descendants based genealogy program tracks the progenitor (the earliest known member) of a family line and all of their direct descendants. In a descendants based program all persons with a primary ID number are direct descendants of the progenitor. This differs from an ancestors based program where both direct descendants and relations by marriage may have a primary number. In an ancestors based program all persons with a primary record number may or may not be directly related to all other members with a primary number. Some may be related by marriage only. Minimum System Requirements: Atari 520 ST SF-354 or equivalent disk drive Monitor (color or monochrome) Printer II. QUICK START For those who don't like to wade through a lengthy manual, this section will get you up and running. I would suggest reading the entire manual before you begin to create a large database. 1. Loading the program Your "It's All Relative" can be booted from any drive or folder within a drive. The data file it creates will be created on the drive that the program loaded from in the root directory. Click on create new data file. Four files will be created on your boot drive and the program will load. Go to the EDIT menu and select CHANGE. Edit the record for ID #1 to be the progenitor of your family line (Your oldest known ancestor). Fill in the known information on the individual and their spouse. From the EDIT menu, ADD all of their children. ADD all the children of their children. Repeat until all family members are in the database. Children should be entered only after the parent is entered and marriage file created for the parent. Before quitting "It's All Relative" go to the FILE menu and SAVE your work. Your file will be saved to the drive you loaded the program from and will automatically load the next time the program is run. III. SETTING UP YOUR WORK DISK "It's All Relative" is not copy protected. Make a copy of your original disk (see your computer manual). Store the original and work with the copy. Format a blank disk for each family line you are working with. You will use these disks to store your data. You may either make a copy of RELATIVE.PRG on each work disk by using the Gem file copy function (see your computer manual) or load the program each time from the program disk you created. If you keep a copy of RELATIVE.PRG on each work disk, you will have room to store about 700 records on a single-sided double- density disk. If you don't keep a copy of RELATIVE.PRG on the disk, you will have room for about 900 records on each single- sided double density disk. IV. LOADING THE PROGRAM "It's All Relative" can be loaded from any drive or folder on the disk in the drive. All data files will be created and saved into the root directory of the drive that the program is loaded from, outside of any folder To start the program highlight and double-click on RELATIVE.PRG. The first time you run the program, you will be asked if you wish to create a new set of data files. Click on YES. Four files will be created on the drive you booted from: FAMILY.IAR MARRIAGE.IAR WHERE.IAR NOTES.IAR All four of these files must be present everytime your program is run after the first time or your data may be damaged. The first thing to do after creating and loading a new set of data files is to CHANGE the data for ID #1. Select CHANGE from the EDIT menu and type 1 at the prompt for Id number. Edit the data in this file to make ID #1 the oldest known member of your family line. Fill in as much information as you know about him/her and their spouse. The parent of ID #1 should remain ID #0 for now. Read the sections on adding and changing information for more details. V. ADDING A PERSON Select ADD from the EDIT menu. To ADD a person, you must know the ID number of his parent and a marriage file must have been created for that parent. The arrow keys will move you up or down in the entry box. The escape key will erase all data from the line of the record you are working on. Pressing return will move you down a line in the entry box. HITTING RETURN ON THE LAST LINE OF THE BOX will take you to the review/add/abort screen where your data can be reviewed one last time before being entered into the database. Click on Ok, edit or abort. The default of this box is Ok. Hitting return will add the record to the database. You can also move around within the entry box with the mouse. Move the arrow to where you want to be and click the left mouse button. Fill in as much information as you know on the individual you are adding. If you plan on adding a child for this individual, you must enter y or Y in the married box. This automatically creates a marriage/child file for the individual. If an individual is an unwed parent, still put a y or Y in the married box. The spouse name can be left blank or the notation Unwed can be entered as the spouse name. Use ?? or __ for missing date information or leave it blank. If the date of death field is blank, the program assumes that the individual is living. Use the full maiden name for females. You can't add a child to a individuals record unless a marriage record has already been entered for the individual. In a descendants based database, all of the individuals are related. An individual can't be entered into the database unless they are a relative of the first person entered in the database, the progenitor of your family line. The last entry in the add box is Special ID number. This can be used to tie this record to either a numbering system you are already using or some other records you have kept. Its use is optional. After adding a record, hitting return again at the onscreen prompt will take you back to ADD record again. Pointing to NO with the mouse arrow and clicking the left mouse button will take you back to the main menu. VI. ADDING A SECOND OR THIRD MARRIAGE To add a second or third marriage for an individual, click on MARRIAGE from the EDIT menu. Enter the ID number of the person you are adding the marriage for. Fill in the data on the spouse of the individual and press return from the bottom line. All edit commands in this box work the same as in the ADD person box. Since this is a descendants based program, children are tied to the individual rather than the spouse of that individual. You must have created a first marriage before adding a second or third marriage. VII. ADDING A NOTE A two line note can be tacked onto any record. Select NOTE from the EDIT menu. Enter the Id number of the person to tack the note to. Enter your note. Hitting return on the second line of the note will take you to the confirm/abort option. You can move up or down in the notes using either the arrow keys or mouse. If the person already had a memory resident note tacked to his record, the new note will replace the old one. Only one memory resident note per person is allowed. Rather than using the memory resident notes function, you may want to use the extended notes feature of the "It's All Relative" program. See the section on extended notes. There is no limit on the extended notes function. VIII. EDITING DATA 1. EDITING INDIVIDUAL RECORDS Select CHANGE from the EDIT menu. Enter the number of the person you wish to add or change the data for. The commands and cursor movements in the edit box work the same as they do in the ADD box. Change the information, go to the review box and either confirm the change or abort the procedure. WARNING: Changing marriage from Y or y will delete the marriage record for the individual being edited. All child information for this individual will also be deleted. Try to avoid deleting a first marriage if possible and edit instead. If a first marriage with children is deleted for some reason, you must re-enter the children after re-entering the marriage. 2. EDITING MARRIAGES Select MARRIAGE from the EDIT menu. You can then add change or delete information on the second and third marriages of an individual. Follow the prompts. Information on first marriages is changed from the CHANGE function on the EDIT menu. 3. EDITING CHILD You can add, delete or rearrange the children of an individual. Select CHILD from the EDIT menu. You will be prompted for the record number of the individual to change. Enter the number. A list of their current children will appear on the screen. Enter the new or corrected children of the individual. As you enter the Id number of each child, their name will appear on the screen. Enter 0 to end the edit process. You will be allowed to either confirm the changes or redo or abort the process. Children may be entered in any order. When doing printouts and reports, the oldest child should be first and the youngest last. If you entered children in the wrong order or didn't know their birth dates when their name was entered you can use this screen to make corrections. 4. EDITING LEVEL Each person in the database was assigned a level when they were first entered into the database. If you entered your grandfather as the first record and later found information on your great grandfather the level of the entire database must be changed to make room for him. From the DISPLAY menu select ANALYSIS. You will be shown a report of the status of the database in memory. Click either the left or right mouse button or hit a key. A level adjustment box will appear on your screen. Move ALL levels UP. You can now enter a new progenitor (first person) for your family line. Enter 0 as his/her parent and enter the data as usual making sure that a marriage file is created. Select CHILD from the EDIT menu and add the individuals children to the marriage record. Select CHANGE from the EDIT menu and make the corresponding change in the parent number of the children to reflect the newfound parent. If you make a mistake with the UP level function, you can also move the level of the entire database down again by choosing down from the level adjustment box. If you have entered a wrong parent for an individual, make the corrections in the Individual's record and the CHILD correction in the parent file of the wrong parent and the correct parent. Check the level of the individual. It should be one generation higher than his parent. If it isn't you can change the individuals level from the ANALYSIS option of the DISPLAY menu. You may also need to correct the level of the children of the individual that had the wrong parent and the children of their children till the end of the chain. Use some thought before attempting a level change through many generations on part of the database. It is very easy to get tangled up in levels. Not making parent errors when adding individuals is good way to start. IX. PRINTER CONTROLS The program uses the Epson command codes for printer control. Future versions of the program will support a print driver construction set to make drivers for any printer. 1. NLQ Selecting NLQ from the PRINTER menu will put your printer into its near letter quality mode. 2. FF Selecting FF from the PRINTER menu will form feed your printer to the top of the page. 3. CONDENSED Selecting CONDENSED from the PRINTER menu will put you printer in condensed print mode. 4. CLEAR Selecting CLEAR from the PRINTER menu will clear all previous settings and return your printer to its startup default mode. 5. PRINT TO DISK Selecting PRINT TO DISK from the PRINTER menu will send the output of your very next print option to a disk file. You will be taken to a selector box and allowed to chose the drive and filename to print to. To cancel the option click on cancel from the selector box. Your output will be re-directed back to the printer. After one printout, the print output defaults back to printer. You must select PRINT TO DISK before each print option you wish to send to disk. The output is in ASCII format and can be imported to the word processing or desktop publishing program of your choice for final adjustments and professional quality output. WARNING: The filename you selected, if it already exists, will be erased and a new file written in its place. Selecting the PRINT TO DISK option and then doing a LONG FORM descendants chart of a large database can result in a large output printfile. Make sure the disk you use has enough room for the output you are sending. X. DATA OUTPUT TO SCREEN 1. RECORD Selecting RECORD from the DISPLAY function will display that record on the monitor screen. You will get all information on the individual plus any note tacked to his/her record. If all the record can't fit on the screen, hitting any key or clicking either mouse button will scroll additional information onto the screen. Hit a key or click either mouse button to return to the main menu. 2. ANALYSIS Selecting ANALYSIS from the DISPLAY menu will give you a status of the database in memory. You will get information on levels, marriages and sex of the individuals in the database. Click the mouse and hit return or hit return twice to get back to the main menu. 3. SOUNDEX Selecting SOUNDEX from the DISPLAY menu will prompt you to enter a name. Type in the last name you want to compute the soundex code for. The name and Soundex code will appear on the screen. Hitting return or clicking the left mouse button on Ok will allow you to enter another name. Pointing at exit and clicking on the mouse button will take you back to the main menu. Names like Von Burren are usually coded using only Burren to calculate the code. The coding of last names with multiple parts varies. Consult an expert on Soundex for the possibilities for names like these. The program does not support spaces in names for this reason. Numerals, accents, and punctuations are also not supported. The Soundex code has been used extensively to index census records. Your local library should have more information on the coding and be able to order microfilms of census records for you. 4. NAME LIST Selecting NAME LIST from the Display menu will display all of the individuals in the database, their record number, and the name of their spouses. Click a mouse button or hit a key for the next page of data. 5. DESCENDANTS CHART Selecting DESCENDANTS CHART from the DISPLAY menu will create a descendants chart on your screen for the individual selected. Only the short chart can be viewed on the monitor screen. Each generation is indented in from the previous generation. The generation of the individual relative to the progenitor chosen is also displayed with their Id number. Click a mouse button or hit a key for the next page of data. 6. RELATIONS Selecting RELATIONS from the DISPLAY menu will take you to an input screen. Enter the ID number of an individual and the ID number of another individual. The relationship between the two individuals will be calculated and displayed. Hit return to return to the input screen. Hit enter twice to return to the main menu. 7. DATABASE STATUS Selecting RELATIVE from the DESK menu will give you a status report of memory available and records used in the database. Since "It's All Relative" is a memory resident database, booting the computer with accessories or ramdisk will have an impact on the total number of records that may be entered in the system during a given entry session. The total of individual, spouse or note records can't exceed the number of records available for your use based on memory available. 8. EXTENDED NOTES Selecting EXTENDED NOTES from the DISPLAY menu will display the extended notes for an individual if they exist on the drive that the program was booted on. They must not be in a folder. XI. PRINT OPTIONS 1. RECORDS Selecting RECORDS from the PRINT menu will send the record of an individual to the printer. You can print either a range or all records. The default is range. To print one record, enter its number as both the starting and ending number of the range. Check your supply of paper before choosing the ALL option of print record. 2. DATA ANALYSIS Selecting ANALYSIS from the PRINT menu will print the data analysis of the records in memory. 3. FAMILY GROUPS Selecting FAMILY GROUPS from the PRINT menu will print a family group sheet for the individual selected with information on the individual, their spouse and children, one page for each family. A long record with multiple marriages or many children will run over to a second page. A heading is also printed on the second page. 4. NAMES LIST Selecting NAMES LIST from the PRINT menu will print out a list of all individuals in the database, their record number and the names of their spouses. 5. DESCENDANTS CHART Selecting DESCENDANTS CHART from the PRINT menu will allow you to print out two types of descendants charts. SHORT CHART will print all the descendants of the progenitor you choose, the record number of the individual, and the level of that person relative to the progenitor choosen. As you enter data into the database it is a good idea to print a short chart from time to time to make sure your information is correct and all children are tied to the right parent. It also aides in data entry to make notations on the short chart on new individuals to add to the database. See the section on organizing data. LONG CHART will print a descendants chart for the progenitor you select giving full information on birth, marriage and death dates, spouse information and relationship between an individual and a person you have selected. The person selected for the computing of relations does not have to be the progenitor chosen. Each generation display is indented from the previous generation. Relations and information is displayed for the generation of the progenitor chosen through twelve generations of descendants of that individual. You are given the option of printing out the record number of each individual and their Special record number if you used one. Click on Yes or No. WARNING: If you are using an eighty column printer the LONG CHART must be printed in condensed mode. A wide carriage printer can print a long chart in the standard type size. XII. SEARCH The search function of "It's All Relative" is very fast. Over 500 records can be searched in less than two seconds. This is where a memory resident database beats a disk based database by a mile. Your searches are not limited to a small index field. The full record can be searched through for almost any criteria. 1. BY NAME Select BY NAME from the SEARCH menu. You can enter either a full name, last name or first name to search for. You can also enter a portion of a name to search for. If the name you entered matches any individual or spouse in the database, their record will appear on the screen. With a large database, be specific. One letter searches will give very large results. The search is case sensitive. The name "greg" will not match "Gregory". "Greg" or "reg" or "egory" will come up with a match. A space alone " " will match all names in the database. Enter alone will take you back to the main menu. 2. BY NUMBER Select BY NUMBER from the SEARCH menu. Enter a low and high number to search. All records between the two numbers will be displayed. Enter alone will return you to the main menu. 3. BY LOCATION Select BY LOCATION from the SEARCH menu. Enter a full place name or any part of a name. The program will display all records that have either a birth, death or marriage location for the place name. This search is also case sensitive. If you use the two letter state designation for states (OH = Ohio), it is very easy to pull records by state. 4. BY MONTH If you used "??/??/????" in the date field when entering data, you can search for these missing or unsure dates by entering a "?" in the search field criteria for the missing information. Select BY MONTH from the SEARCH menu. Enter the month number to search for using the two digit number of the month. Enter alone will take you back to the main menu. All records and spouse records for that month for birth, death and marriage will be displayed. Hit enter only for the main menu. This feature is handy to display anniversaries and birthdays for the coming month. 5. BY DAY Select BY DATE from the SEARCH menu. Enter the month and day to search for. Enter 1 as the year to display. All entries for birth, death and marriage for the day chosen will be displayed. Enter only takes you back to the main menu. 6. BY DATE Select BY DATE from the SEARCH menu. All records for the exact date entered will be displayed. XIII. FILE 1. SAVE Selecting SAVE from the FILE menu saves your database to disk. You are prompted to put your data disk in the drive you booted from. Click on OK and your four "It's All Relative" files will be written to disk. To avoid confusion, keep a separate "It's All Relative" data disk for each family line you are working on and make sure the family name is well marked on the disk. Nothing is worse than saving the data for the wrong family on the wrong disk. Keep your data well marked. When I do extended data entry, I put what I call my work disk in the save drive. Every 15-30 minutes save your data to the work disk. In case of power failure or brownout, only a portion of your work will be lost. After finishing the data entry session, do a final save to your actual data disk. If something should happen to your save disk (out of room or bad disk error), you have the work disk from the session to fall back on. WARNING: The files are saved to the same drive that you originally loaded them from. If you loaded from a floppy disk, make sure that the write-protect tab is closed and you have a "save" disk with sufficient room for the database on it. It is a good idea not to use your "It's All Relative" data disk for the PRINT TO DISK option of the program. You may find yourself with a full disk and no place to save your data. 2. QUIT Selecting QUIT from the FILES menu will quit the program and return you back to the ST desktop. All unsaved data is lost when you quit the program. You are given a warning before the program exits to the desktop. If you made some serious parent/child/level errors during your data entry session, quitting and reloading may be easier and more accurate than trying to make extensive corrections. XIV. EXTENDED NOTES When printing out records, you are prompted for EXTENDED NOTES. If you choose this option, when a record is printed, if a matching file exists on the drive you booted from the information is tacked onto the record being printed. There is no limit to the length that this record can be. If the extended record exceeds the page limit a new heading is printed for the record and the balance of the note is printed. 1. CREATING AN EXTENDED NOTES FILE Select EXTENDED NOTES from the EDIT menu. Enter the number of the person to add an extended notes file for. Type up to 13 lines of notes. Cursor control is the same as it is within the ADD box. Hit return on the bottom line of the box to end entry and write the file to disk. Make sure that a disk with sufficient room is in the drive that you loaded the program from and the write protect tab is in the closed position. The lines of notes you typed up to the first blank line will be added to the extended notes of the individual. If you want a blank line in your extended notes enter a space " " on the line hit return and keep on typing. You are given the option of REPLACE, APPEND, or ABORT. REPLACE will replace any old extended notes file for this individual with a new extended notes file. APPEND will tack your new note onto the end of any existing note for that individual, creating a new file if no extended notes file for the individual exists. Append will leave one line spacing between your note segments. ABORT will exit you back to the main menu without any changes being made or file written. 2. CREATING AN EXTENDED NOTES FILE WITH A WORD PROCESSOR The name of the extended notes file must be RECORD#.DOC. The extended notes file for record 2 would be 2.DOC. 123.DOC would be the name of the extended notes file for record #123. The record is created by typing the record in a word processor and saving it as an ASCII file. In a program like First Word or First Word Plus, turn off word processor mode before saving to make the save in ASCII format. Your left margin should be 0 and your right margin no more than 65. The record can be as long as you want to make it. Do not worry about page breaks. "It's All Relative" will paginate the file for you as it prints. See your word processor manual for information on saving a file in plain ASCII text format. ****************************************************************** WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO EDIT ANYTHING BUT EXTENDED NOTES IN A WORD PROCESSOR. ANY OF THE FILES WITH THE .IAR EXTENSION CAN'T BE CHANGED IN A WORD PROCESSOR AS THEY ARE FIXED LENGTH RECORDS. ANY ATTEMPT TO DO SO WILL SCRAMBLE YOUR DATA BEYOND ALL HOPE. ****************************************************************** 2. USING EXTENDED RECORDS It is a good idea to make a disk for each 50 members of each family line you are working with. This will allow you up to a full page of notes for every individual in your database. When doing printouts for yourself or others, print in ranges of 50 making sure you have the correct extended records disk in the drive that you booted from. Extended notes are a good place to keep current address, phone number, place of burial, newspaper clipping, personal notes, sources of information, clarification of data and related items. Your final printouts of individual records will look better if you keep a consistant format to your extended notes. Experiment to find a format that fits your needs. When making a duplicate printout for other, all information you have on an individual can be printed with a couple mouse clicks and keystrokes in a neat organized format. XV. ORGANIZING YOUR RECORDS FOR ENTRY "It's All Relative" is a descendants based program. You will begin your data entry with the oldest known member of your family line. If the oldest known member of your family line also has brothers or sisters you are aware of, you may want to make record number 1 "the father/mother of ...". You can either enter all information for each individual as you make each entry or simply enter each individual and appropriate marriage/spouse information and go back and fill in the missing information later. You can print out the descendants chart for this partial listing of relatives and use it to make notes on for each individual. This saves you from flipping between 200 sheets of notes and old records while trying to enter the data. You will create one set of "IT'S ALL RELATIVE" files for each family line you are recording. Every individual with a primary record in your database will be a direct relation of all other individuals with a primary number in the database. Error trapping is extensive in "It's All Relative", but if wrong information is put into the computer wrong information will come out. The most common mistake made is wrong parent number. Be very careful that your parent numbers are correct. XVI. TIPS ON DATA ENTRY Be consistent in your data entry. You may be entering data over days, months or years. Keep the format the same for all entries. If you use "Firstname Lastname", don't switch to "Firstname LASTNAME" format halfway through your data entry. If you use "??" for missing dates don't switch to "__" without a reason. This will make for neater printouts and reports and more complete results for your searches. Enter a small group of individuals into the database (your father, brothers and sisters and their children). Play around with the data. Become proficient with the edit features. Add, delete and edit some records. Try the different print, display and search commands. When you feel comfortable with the program, begin data entry in earnest. Back up your data disk on a regular basis. Store a remote backup of extensive information. Having two backup disks and a hard copy printout of your information at your computer desk won't do any good if a disaster destroys the desk. The information you are gathering can be passed on to your children and their children, Treat it with care. When making a backup copy of your data, copy each file one by one from the desktop of your ST rather than making a disk copy. This will prevent what is known as file fragmentation. "It's All Relative" will work with well-behaved accessories. Each accessory you add will take away room for data. Some accessories may try to overwrite your data. Experiment with any new accessories you add for use with "It's All Relative". All printouts are date stamped. Be sure to set your system date before running the program. The control panel accessory shipped with your computer has a function to set the time and date. See your manual on its use. Check with your local user group. There are many public domain date/time programs that are easier to use and take less memory than the control accessory. XVII. RUNNING FROM A HARD DRIVE The file REL_HD.PRG on your "It's All Relative" disk is a version of the program designed for use with a hard drive system. All files created by the program are created within the folder that the REL_HD.PRG is run from. Copy this PRG file from your "It's All Relative" disk into a folder you have created on your hard disk. The folder may have any legal folder name. To track multiple family lines, make a separate folder for each line you are working on and put a copy of REL_HD.PRG in each folder. All 4 .IAR files plus any extended notes for these files will be created and run from within the folder. Extended notes must be in the folder to be read by the program. XVIII. NEW ADDITIONS COMING We will be shipping an update disk to all registers users of the program in the fall of 1988. Additional printouts and utilities will be included on the update disk. Be sure to register your copy of the program to receive the update. For additional support for "It's All Relative" you may call 1-314-831-9482 between 9:00 a.m and 7:00 p.m. EST. E-mail messages can also be left to GREG on the GEnie network. The mailbox is checked every few days. You may also post questions in Category 2, Topic 47 of the Genealogy Roundtable of the GEnie Information System. If you have a wish list for the update disk, let us know. We are currently working on a birthday book feature and a time-line of family events among other things. "It's All Relative" is available for $25.00 postpaid from: Greg Kopchak 2233 Keeven Lane Florissant, MO 63031 The $25.00 price is good through September 15, 1988.