Having pledged my troth...

[alysone]

Hi everyone,
I have finally taken the plunge and invested in Family Historian 3.1.2. Not only that, but I have talked my buddy into doing the same. If any other Fam. Hist. users have advice for us as we begin, it would be gratefully received? Pitfalls, strengths, cautions; better to know now rather than later! Thanks, alysone

[LesleyB]

Hi Alysone
There are maybe some members who will be able to help, but just in case not, there seems to be a Family Historian User Group:
http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cgi
with lots of "how tos" & etc....

Best wishes
Lesley

[alysone]

Hi,
The members are very helpful about answering dumb beginner questions. (Almost as wonderful as TS! ) That was one of the reasons I settled on FH. I just wondered if folks who have 'put some mileage' on it might have tips to save us grief down the road? alysone

[AnneM]

Hi Alysone

I use it and have found it easy and flexible. So far I have not found any pitfalls except that it's difficult to change a source if you make a mistake in entering it. So just be careful not to write rubbish for your sources.

Hope you have fun. I find the reports are good and accessible to those who don't want to have the full monty on the computer. The ancestors by generation report is particularly handy for giving random relatives.

Anne

[alysone]

Hi Anne,
I am still very much at the 'getting comfortable with it' stage with FH. So far, I still find using Sources more or less a mystery. I am quite sure I am already in the muddle you describe! But every day more functions do become clearer.
Thanks, alysone

[AnneM]

Sources are probably the least user friendly aspect of the programme. I also have the lamentable tendency to change how I do them from entry to entry to work out what suits me best.

I think it is best to decide how you want to do your source and stick to it.

For example you have 2 places in which you can enter text from source. I tend to do it once I have created the source. That gives me the chance to use different bits of the same document for different pieces of information e.g occupation or date of death.

I would say that it is best to enter your sources as you go along. I've recently taken a look at my own tree and been shocked at how scrappy it is compared to some for friends and rellies that I have done more recently. It's a bore entering every detail but it saves you wondering "Now why did I decide that Jeannie was his mother?" You're probably right about Jeannie being his mother but there's nothing more frustrating than not remembering why you made that decision.

The other snag is that it looks for exact dates and it's not easy to put in approximations, at least that encourages accuracy!

Hope you enjoy using the programme. I do.

Anne

[LesleyB]

Hi Anne

You're probably right about Jeannie being his mother but there's nothing more frustrating than not remembering why you made that decision.

Oh boy...an all too familiar scenario!

Best wishes
Lesley

[AnneM]

Hi Lesley

Glad to know I'm not the only one who does stuff like that.

Recently a friend asked me to do a tree for a friend of hers who was turning 50. I duly obliged (for free needless to say as I'm not a pro at this). As it happens the recipient is or at least should be a very accomplished lawyer so I was painfully aware of the need to justify every piece of information I entered or decision I made so that she could have faith in my work. It was a salutary experience and I realised that that was what my own one and any other I had done should look like too. Anything else is pure laziness and demonstrates a lack of thoroughness on my part.

However it never seems quite so urgent when it's your own. After all the ancestors are not going anywhere!!

Anne

[alysone]

Hi All,
I too, am realizing how unsubstantiated some of my earliest work looks in hindsight. As I learn, I have gotten better at documentation. Like Anne, since I started with immediate family, it is the patchiest part of my whole file. Now I can produce a reasonably well-documented entry. The perfectionist in me wonders if the best & most satisfying way to go forward would be to begin all over again? Believe me, the rest of me (and holding the majority, too!) says, "No way!"
Just curious, has anyone you know had the fortitude to do that, this far along? alysone

[AnneM]

Don't think I'd go as far as beginning all over again. I'm pretty sure of my ground where the accuracy of my data is concerned. What I have started to do is go through making sure there is a source in for every entry at least for my direct ancestors. This in my case involves re-viewing many viewed images on SP and referring to my notebooks. Now I don't need to tell you genie freaks what happens then, do I.

Right again! I either discover a sibling for great granny that I had missed the last time or I suddenly think as I did tonight "I wonder what happened to Helen McLachlan (sister of g g grand-dad)" and spent a happy but expensive hour finding out. For some odd reason I got a mental block about finding her death and it took me ages, which it should not have done. Now all her children are on my tree so it has grown somewhat to include McLeans from Campbeltown, any rellies out there??

Anne