Update

The Fab Four

The latest from the Williams Family Tree Web Site … A little more than usual!

As you are no doubt aware there are a lot of things happening to the web site at the moment. The problem started when the number of individuals in the database crept over the 5000 mark. I have been battling between a number of scripts trying to patch things as best I could but at 5580 individuals the original script just gave up! Also, I am changing over from Family Tree Maker and am now using Legacy to record all the genealogical data. There are a number of reasons for this but mainly it came to my attention that Family Tree Maker introduced errors when saving data in GEDCOM format and often placed data in the wrong fields! The changeover to Legacy is not yet complete and there is still a lot of information that needs to be amended but I hope that, for now at least, my scripts on the web site will ‘correct’ many of the problems.

Shirley Brook got in touch regarding the Redshaws of the family and, armed with the information given to me by Shirley, I started to do a little more research into the Redshaws. This resulted in a lot more names in the database than could be displayed on the web site so I decided to call a halt to the research for now and concentrate on the software side of things.

I now believe that I have succeeded in getting the majority of things working but there is still a long way to go. Also, because of the complexity of the site I am placing HELP icons on all the pages so that users can see exactly what is available.

The INDIVIDUAL page has changed and is now expandable and collapsible by means of Plus and Minus icons. The unexpanded display shows the similar information to previous versions – Birth, Marriage, Death etc. By expanding the display you are also presented with ‘things’ that happened in the persons lifetime – birth of a child, grandchild etc. I hope that this extra information proves useful and informative. If there is a place name on the Individual page it should be presented as a clickable link. This will take you to a page of information about that place and both Individuals and Families associated with it. The idea (from the lads from PHPGedView) was to give an hierarchical display of any location so that you can travel up or down the ‘world’ from a certain place. For instance, clicking on a link for Aberdovey will show a list of people associated with Aberdovey in some way. Hierarchy after Aberdovey would be ‘Tabernacl C.M. Chapel‘ whilst you could also navigate to Merionethshire, Wales or Top Level. As with all the new pages experimentation will see what is involved. In certain instances on the Individual page where a location is displayed there will also be a little tab icon. Clicking this will display a map with that location at the centre. This location information is held in the GEDCOM file created by Legacy – another reason for the change as Family Tree Maker has not yet caught up with the latest technology!

You are probably aware that there is a new RELATIONSHIP Chart. This, along with a few others, is now available from the Individual page and will display graphically the relationship, if there is one, between any two individuals in the Family Tree. I am quite impressed with the results from this page and again thank the lads from PHPGedView for the original idea. The Relationship Chart does so much it is best that you play with it and see for yourself. Full help is available on the page if you need it but if you think there is something missing or not clear enough please let me know. If you have selected ‘Show Details’ (the default setting) you can move your mouse pointer over one of the information boxes and a menu will pop up. This menu will display relations to the individual you hovered over and further links to other charts such as Pedigree, Descendancy, Compact, Fan, Hourglass etc. Not all of these charts are fully working and will not be selectable. Feel free to play with those that are available.

Some of you may have spotted the SOURCES link from the main menu. This gives a comprehensive list of all the resources used to gather the information for the database – including individuals. As you will see, the list is a complete mess and it needs to be re-arranged into some sort of reasonable order. The problem here is that everyone has their own way of recording source information and what is missing is a ‘standard’ way of doing things. As there are so many different types of source material it is impossible to standardise the recording of same. However, I will be amending the Source Database over a period of time in an attempt to bring some sort of regularity in to it. If you click on one of the Source links you will be taken to another page describing the source in as much detail as possible and showing the individuals and families associated with that source. Again, this is by no means complete but will gradually expand over time.

There is a new SEARCH routine that is a lot more comprehensive than the previous one. Initially, you are presented with a fairly simple page where you can enter anything you want to search for and select from any combination of Individuals, Families and Sources. There is also a more complex SOUNDEX Search facility where you can be a little more specific in your search criteria and less worried about the spelling. Again try it and see what you think!

The SURNAMES page has evolved and initially displays all the surnames starting with the letter A. Any letter can be chosen from a list or you can choose to display all the surnames in one go. Also, you can ‘skip’ the surname list and display a full list of names for the chosen surname letter. Again, there is some useful help information on the page.

The TREE View is currently not available as it requires a major re-write but I hope to get it back as soon as possible.

The STATISTICS page has been revamped and shows a little more information than previously – more work needed!

An RSS Feed is now available so that you can instantly see what’s new on the site. For more information about RSS check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format). Users of the Firefox browser or the latest Internet Explorer 7 will be able to subscribe with that. I am not sure about earlier browsers so if you have any problems please let me know.

Finally, there is now a BLOG facility. I will attempt to keep the Blog up to date and you are all welcome to add your comments. This may supercede the Group site on MSN – it may not. The MSN Group page is not used to anything like its full capacity so it may be an idea to keep everything on the one site. Not a lot there at the moment but … Feedback is welcome.

As ever, I hope that you like the new features and will report back to me.

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