FHS Extended Options - Jan 93 Update
Perhaps the most useful of the Extra Programs sent to registered users are those which provide ways of processing family information in sorted sequence...for instance, in Birthdate sequence or in Surname sequence. There are also two special Export/Import utility programs.Index Files and Indexed Reports
The way that records are processed in sorted sequence in the Family History System is through the use of Index Files. An Index File is just a list of all Name Record ID numbers placed in a special sequence. A program that needs to process family records in a special sequence will just read a previously created Index File in which the ID numbers are in that sequence. One of the Extended Options allows the user to create Index Files by sorting the records:
The special reports that can be printed using index files include:
- by Surname or Given Name
- by Birth Date (in YYYY-MM-DD, or historical, order)
- by Birth Date (in MM-DD-YYYY order, for birthday lists)
- by Death Date (in YYYY-MM-DD order),
- by (most recent) Marriage Date (in MM-DD-YYYY order),
- or by Gender Code
In addition, the Family Group report programs provide for printing Group reports (either individually or Merged into a single report) in "Indexed Sequence" using an Index File, and Index Files can be used to export records in sorted sequence to GEDCOM datasets.
- Indexes for other Reports and Charts - for instance, one such index would be a surname sequenced listing of all relatives referenced in a Relative Report, with the page and line number of each reference in the Relative Report;
- Lists of information for Selected Records (depending on the information that is chosen to be included and the sequence that is used, these could be Address Lists, Birthday Lists, Anniversary Lists)
- Surname Summary Reports - which show accumulated statistics for records that have the same surname (statistics can include, #Males, #females, range of birth years, range of Death years, etc.)
- Tiny Tafel lists - which is a way of sharing research interests with others
Special Export Options The publicly distributed version of the Family History System includes a GEDCOM Export/Import utility which permits transferring information between FHS family files and family files of other genealogy software. However this program is limited to processing basic types of information, such as names, birth/marriage/death dates and places, and relationships. It does not permit transferring those types of information that are unique to the Family History System family file such as that that is contained in the Address, Medical, Military, Occupation and Education record types.
One of the extended options provided to registered users is another "GEDCOM" utility which was prepared using a very early description of GEDCOM. It is not compatible with any other of the GEDCOM implementations by other genealogy software, but it does process all types of FHS information and so it is suitable for transferring information between FHS Family Files.
Another Export option provided for registered users is one which transfers information to a "mailmerge" or "quote and comma delimited" file. Such files can be used by most word processing and database programs. Information that can be exported includes names, birth/death dates and places, most recent marriage information, and latest residence address.
- FHS GEDCOM - A sample Old Style GEDCOM file created by an FHS Extended Option
- MAILMERG.pdf - A sample MailMerge format file created by an FHS Extended Option