Suggested organization for data

[XP]

Using Office 2003 and Windows XP;

Let me start by stating that this forum is wonderful and I very much
appreciate everyone's input and assistance.

I am presently working on a genealogy database project. I need to develop a
means of defining relationships between people. This ofcourse needs to link
siblings together and children to parents, etc.

I have defined a unique Name_ID for each individual in the DB. However, I
need some guidance on how to link everyone together.

1) Should I set up a separate "tblRelationship" table that has the columns:
Rel_Type (this would contain one of: sibling; parent; child) and Name_ID?

2) Can someone suggest a web site perhaps that might supply suggestions on
building genealogy related DB's (I've google this myself, but did not find
any), or is perhaps anyone out there experienced in this sort of thing?

3) I would like to ultimately build a report that would show the classic
tree chart (hopefully the news reader will display this at least close to
correct):

Father
Father <
Mother
Child <
Father
Mother <
Mother

Is the above possible with MS-Access?

Thank you so much in advance for your assistance.

 

[Jeanette Cunningham]

Hi,
If I remember correctly, this topic has come up in the discussion group
before. I seem to remember that there was some free software to use to do
genealogy that was a lot simpler than building your own database from
scratch. You could do a search on google groups to see if you could find it.

Jeanette Cunningham

 

[XP]

Hi Jeanette,

Thanks, but I have found every "canned" software package I've examined to be
inadequate for my needs.

That is why I have chosen to build my own.

Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[Jeff Boyce]

As Jeannette points out, others have already come up with solutions.
Perhaps you can find something, even if not 100% suitable, that,
nevertheless, resolves the issues you're facing...

Have you searched for templates on-line?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[John W. Vinson]

Using Office 2003 and Windows XP;

Let me start by stating that this forum is wonderful and I very much
appreciate everyone's input and assistance.

I am presently working on a genealogy database project. I need to develop a
means of defining relationships between people. This ofcourse needs to link
siblings together and children to parents, etc.

I have defined a unique Name_ID for each individual in the DB. However, I
need some guidance on how to link everyone together.

1) Should I set up a separate "tblRelationship" table that has the columns:
Rel_Type (this would contain one of: sibling; parent; child) and Name_ID?

Well... a relationship implies two people in the relationship! I'd suggest
having TWO Name_ID fields: First_Name and Second_Name, in addtion to the
Rel_Type. That is, a ReelType of "Parent" would imply that the person pointed
to by First_Name is the parent of the person pointed to by Second_Name. You
would need to decide if you want to enter the reciprocal relationship - i.e.
if Joe is the father of Mary, then Mary is the child of Joe and you could
consider entering a second record in tblRelationship.

2) Can someone suggest a web site perhaps that might supply suggestions on
building genealogy related DB's (I've google this myself, but did not find
any), or is perhaps anyone out there experienced in this sort of thing?

3) I would like to ultimately build a report that would show the classic
tree chart (hopefully the news reader will display this at least close to
correct):

Father
Father <
Mother
Child <
Father
Mother <
Mother

Is the above possible with MS-Access?

A heck of a lot easier if you turn it on its side, but not trivial even there.
I haven't really looked for examples though.

John W. Vinson [MVP]

 

[Bob Doyle]

Have a look at the following reference

http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/genealogy/index.htm

It has further references appended. This may help

Bob D

 

[Fred]

I'm been investigating and working this topic for a long time. 15 years in
databases and 40 years drawing trees.

There are various programs (plus on-line services) that have good storage of
the date plus a good GUI for entry. But I have given up trying to find one
that will do a nice printout of a complex family tree. By "complex" I mean,
for example, showing everybody at once including the sister of the person
that married your second cousin rather than just closely related to lineage.
I have resigned myself to storing the data in databases (Access) and
drawing the tree using drafting software.

Fred

 

[XP]

Actually, that's what I do too. In particular I like a style that shows each
generation on a row with the siblings and spouses spreading left and right;
parents go up and children down. I find I need a rather large palette, but it
looks great!

I was hoping to just draw a decent basic tree in MS-Access, but I don't
think the one I've described above would be practical or feasible in Access.
Have you had any luck drawing the basic tree in MS-Access? If so, how did you
do it? Can you pan, or click to move up and down the tree?

 

[Fred]

Drawing a tree that has only direct ancestors and their full-blooded siblings
is pretty simple, I've seen many softwares that do it, and in my mind I know
generally how I would do it in Access, But I have never had an interest in
doinig only such.

Each person has their own focus on doing these things. Some are intrested
in tracing (a few threads of ) their ancestors back 400 years. Mine is to
record as many people related to me as possible (including interviewing older
folks while they are still around) get it all onto one big piece of paper,
and give copies of it to many many relatives. Some of them will pass it
down to their grandchildren etc. making what I've done something nice for a
lot of people. 25 years ago it was a 30' long scroll. Now it's a 15'
wide by 11" high AutoSketch (which I find to be a very nice and very
economical & suitable light 2D CAD software by AutoDesk. ) document with
over 1,000 people on it.

Trying to keep that down to 15' x 1' instead of ten times bigger than that
takes a lot of clever decision making. After looking I've never seen
software that can draw that. I suspect that if it did exist, it would not
be able to do such creative decisionmaking and would take at least 4-10
times as much paper most of which would be blank.