About the program we use to record our (putative) Family Tree.
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                                                       The Rowe - Hall Family Tree.

We use, to help us record these persons, and events in their lives, several computer programs, The Master Genealogist program produces the basic output, and a word processor tidies the pages.

This program differs from most other programs in many ways, please, let me explain some of the things that may help you, as you read the various pages.

The major program difference is that this program is ‘event based’, in other words, I record the events which occur to a person, record enough events, if I can, hopefully with dates, places, plus information sources, then a profile of that person will become apparent.

There is a disadvantage, sometimes, perhaps when programming, some events, usually those without established dates, may appear out of sequence, children's births prior to parents marriage, (no offence intended I assure you).
Births after a mothers death, in this case the record(s) have been shown as I know them,
I simply do not have any better information, merely recording, hopefully accurately, that information which is known to us.

Perhaps, someone has further information, perhaps that person is you, please, just send us a note, so that the tree reflects the event(s) not just some of the record(s).

If there is information known to you, that you do not wish to be known to others, please, just tell us, it simply does not get printed!
If you wish, it also will not appear on the computer screen unless steps are taken to show it.

Other persons do not have access to this computer or program, (sometimes, when things go wrong I do not have ready access either)!

Persons who have an adoption, or extended family in their ancestry should indicate the path their ancestry should take, the alternative path may or may not be recorded, just as the they prefer.

Why do I explain the above? In detail? I was middle aged when we were approached by a person asking, 'did we know her mother?' 'Yes we did' was the reply.
Her next question was. Did we wish to know of her? Of course we did!
My sibling, stepsiblings, and I now have a sister and stepsister. Our questioner now has a family.

For half a century while she searched for us, we did not know of her birth.

She is shown, with her family, in our combined tree, with our ancestors, that is her wish. I also research those that sustained her life, that is a wish of mine.

As a general principle the names, and or, details of persons who may living are not printed, nor, sent to others, unless it seems prudent for that person, and us to do so.

A statement, regarding your own information, or information that you may wish to send to us, whether to show, or not to show, those persons who are, or may be living, would be appreciated.

Sureties.
A small explanation of this important set of numbers;
When evaluating the evidence for a particular event, it is helpful to assess the quality of each information source against some scale, in this case from best value = 3, to hearsay or source not known = an empty space.

These scaling indicators are usually shown at the end of references, within the square brackets, the value a surety is shown by indicating numerals, the absence of a surety value is shown by an 'x' 'dot' or word space e.g. [2x 1], etc.

The position of the numeral; is an indicator of the data that the numeral, or space is referring to,

[*xxxx] this position indicates the surety value (3 to 0 below) for principle 1 (the first person (P1)) of the reference referred to,

[x*xxx] this position indicates the surety value (3 to 0 below) for principle 2 (the second person, perhaps of a marriage (P2)) of the reference referred to,

[xx*xx] this position indicates the surety value (3 to 0 below) for event date of the reference referred to,

[xxx*x] this position indicates the surety value (3 to 0 or below) for event place of the reference referred to,

[xxxx*] this position indicates the surety value (3 to 0 below) for memo (text) section of the reference referred to, also shown at the end of some text references, e.g. [2xx1], etc.

As much information as can be gathered is recorded within this Rowe - Hall family tree, (possibly to probably also part of your tree, because you are reading this) we ask you to record as much information as you have about the information source itself.
For example, a book you have found with relevant information within, please record the full title, author, publisher, date and place, ISBN number, page number, plus where the book was located, a library perhaps.
Sometimes the bibliography attached to these tree papers does not appear to be correctly typed, for example ‘,,’ (two commas together). The entry has a component of the standard library cataloging format missing (or I do not have it).

For the ‘Surety field’, record how reliable you think this source is generally, according to this scale:
3 = primary source, an original record made at or near the time of an event.
2 = secondary source, one citing a primary source.
1 = hearsay, oral family stories, or other sources less reliable than ‘2’ type source.
0 = guess, assumption, or other unreliable source.

The purpose of the above, I know, it takes time and effort, ensures that others will be able to retrace the research path, perhaps, hopefully adding to the information of all concerned.

The purpose of the text memo is to record and store information, which is not the usual data source.
If you have additions, corrections or variations which you have found, full source details for the new text also please.

Perhaps you have additions, corrections , variations or comments to material that we have, please just sent us a note. Please, also give us a defined connection point, a full name hopefully with a tree number (xxxx) [if these are shown within the document you have, or these numbers are known to you]. Include another identifier, perhaps a birth or death date, the name of a spouse, etc.
Currently in the our tree there are nine persons named ‘John Anderson’ several of which have, of course, have the name of their father.

Brian  and the late C. Raeleen J. Rowe, nee Hall
250 Grahams Road, Burnside,
Christchurch,
New Zealand 8005
Phone (03) 3599 724, FAX (03) 3599 791
E-mail [email protected] (preferred address please). also, Brian Rowe

'Perhaps the end of our ancestral exploring will be to know something of the persons before us,
for the first time, which is the beginning'.

This page was last edited on Sunday, 28 March, 2004 11:58 AM