Family History System Basic Programs September 1988 Update The Family History System was written to provide a simple means for creating files of personal information including family relationships, and for producing standard types of genealogical reports from information in those files. Information for up to 3500 individuals may be stored on a single DS/DD floppy diskette (or up to 9999 on a hard disk). There are no limits on the numbers of relationships (parent, child or spouse) that an individual may be involved in. Reports produced by the basic set of programs include: ancestor report, descendant reports (in list or "chart" format), relative reports, complete sets of ancestor charts, and family group reports. The basic documentation (a 64 page manual) and two utility programs (a PAF GEDCOM export/import program and a file validation utility) are found on a separate diskette. The programs on this diskette have been compiled using Microsoft's QuickBASIC (version 3.0) compiler. Requirements for running these programs are: an IBM PC, XT, AT, PCjr or compatible computer at least 256k RAM PC or MS DOS version 2.0 or later at least 1 DS/DD floppy drive and an 80 character monitor (monochrome or color, no graphics required) (a printer is recommended for making full use of the system but is not required for creating the files or displaying information on the monitor). You may create as many copies of these programs as you need for your own use. Further you may share the system with others, provided you only give them a complete DISKCOPY of the distribution diskette as you received it and you ask no fee beyond that required to cover the cost of media, postage and handling. You are free to use these programs without any feeling of obligation for payment to the author, however if you are interested in receiving an extended version of the system supporting additional options you may consider becoming a registered user of the programs by sending a $35.00 registration fee to: Phillip E. Brown 834 Bahama Drive Tallahassee, Fla. 32301 Registered users receive the most recent update of all programs and documentation in the system and are notified of the availability of additional enhancements (a $12.00 fee is required for subsequent updates to the system). Currently the extended system provides the following additional options: a program for creating index files based upon combinations of 1 Surname, Given name, birthdate (YMD or MDY), Deathdate (YMD), most recent marriage date (MDY), sex, & ID#; this program can also produce indexes which place related individuals in the order they would appear in an ancestor, descendant or relative report; a program for producing printed indexes for ancestor, descendant, relative and family group reports and sets of ancestor charts; a program for searching the files and producing listings of information for selected individuals (including comments, latest residence address and relationship); this program also produces a Surname Summary Report which can be used to evaluate the completeness of certain types of information for groups of records; another program for exporting information for selected individuals into a GEDCOM format ASCII (standard character) file; the same program will import information from a GEDCOM format file into another family file, allowing you to create "subset" family files for others. All family relationships between transferred individuals are maintained across the export/import process; an option for producing a Mailmerge format file of latest residence addresses and phone numbers; this can be used with database managers (such as the publicly distributed PC-FILE III) to print mailing labels, and can be used with many word processors to print form letters; All programs are (C) Copyright 1985,1986,1987,1988 by Phillip E. Brown TRYING OUT THE PROGRAMS: You may try out these programs by placing this diskette in the "A" drive of your PC and entering: A>faminit You should be greeted by the system's "Title Screen" which should soon be followed by a display of the system's "MAIN MENU" of program options. If you instead see a message such as: "Cannot run as a child of BASIC" then you will first have to enter: A>zero and then: A>faminit (NOTE: even though all programs in the system are .EXE files, the system should be entered through program FAMINIT. All other programs are selected from the MainMenu of system options.) Once you get to the "MAIN MENU" you may want to try one of the utility options: F3-A Change File Name Table F3-B Change Colors & Error Tone or F3-C Change Printer Control Table Or you may consider trying to print out blank family group worksheets (using F2-C, F5) or printing blank ancestor charts (using F2-D, F5). If you get a message like "Unsupported function in line" when 2 requesting MainMenu option F1, the problem is probably insufficient available memory on your machine. Even those with 640k of RAM installed may face this problem if large RAM disks or many resident routines are used. If you get this message, try rebooting without some of your RAM resident routines to see if the message goes away. While it is best to look over a copy of the system documentation to find out how the system is intended to operate (the manual is found on a second diskette with the validation and export/import programs), you may be able to figure out how it all works by investing a little time (and patience) while taking note of the following: 1. Options are usually single-key selectable from a "menu" that appears on the screen. 2. Errors and "illegal" key-strokes are usually greeted by a soft tone and occasionally by an error message on the bottom line of the screen. If an error message has a trailing "..." then the program is waiting for you to press any key before continuing. 3. The ESCape key is (almost) always used to terminate an operation that you do not wish to continue. Some operations such as the creation of some workfiles are not interruptible, and at other times you are given another means (usually pressing a function key) for ending an operation. 4. When updating a multi-field formatted display, use the TAB and SHIFT+TAB keys to move forward (or backward) to the next (previous) updatable field. (The HOME key moves you to the First updatable field and the END key to the Last updatable field on the screen.) 5. If you are updating a formatted display and there is not shown an option for letting the program know that you are through, then you should press the ENTER or RETURN key to tell the program that you wish to continue. 6. Reports may be paused by pressing any key. A message such as "Waiting..." should appear at the bottom of the screen. You may then terminate the report by pressing the ESCape key, or continue it by pressing any other key. 7. There is a DATECALC utility which performs a number of useful date manipulations. If you boot the system from the diskette created by the INSTALL procedure (described below) then the utility has been made RAM resident and may be called up at just about any time by pressing the ALT and CTRL keys at the same time. If you are using DOS 3.0 or later and have enough free memory, you can also call it up from the MainMenu by pressing the F7 key. The calculator "window" may be moved around using the cursor control keys. When a calendar is displayed, it may be scrolled backward and forward by months and years by using the cursor control keys also. CREATING WORKING COPIES OF THE PROGRAMS The diskette which has the documentation for these programs has an INSTALLation procedure which can be used to create working copies of these programs on either a floppy or hard disk. On a hard disk, the programs are placed in a separate sub-directory (\FAMILY) and a batch file (FHS.BAT) is created in the main directory of the hard 3 disk to make it easier getting into the system. To find out more about the procedure, place that diskette in the "A" drive of your PC and enter: A>GO INSTALL NOTE: When running from floppy diskettes, the program diskette only has to be in the default drive when starting the system, when selecting an option from the MainMenu, or when returning to the MainMenu from one of the option processing programs. At all other times you may remove the program diskette and replace it with a data diskette. The system will let you know when it is necessary to put the program diskette back on that drive. When you are using the file update program, MainMenu option F1, you should be careful never to remove a data diskette from either drive until you have closed the files, or returned to the MainMenu program, or have been told by the system to put the program diskette in the default drive. I hope you enjoy using the programs. Please let me know if you have any problems or if you have suggestions for improvement. 4