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^C^1Family Tree
^Cby
^CDaniel Tobias

   Genealogy, the study and charting of one's ancestors and other relatives, 
has been a popular pursuit of mankind for thousands of years.  The long lists 
of "begats" in the Bible establish the lineages of the characters, going all 
the way back to Adam and Eve.  The royal families of several countries are 
proud to trace their ancestry to a variety of famous conquerors of the ancient 
and medieval eras.  The Mormons (Latter Day Saints) have a great interest in 
genealogy, and have been intently charting lines of descent for church members 
and others for over 100 years.  More recently, Alex Haley's "Roots," a popular 
book which formed the basis for an even more popular TV miniseries, has many 
people searching for their own roots. 

   This program will help you chart your own family tree.  You can enter all 
the relatives and ancestors, living or dead, that you know of, and show their 
relationships to one another.  Then, you can use this data to browse through 
the tree of your relatives, stepping back and forth; or you can output the data 
to a printer in several different formats. 

   ^1Family Tree^0 can hold data on over 3000 people on a 640K system; this number
will be somewhat less on smaller-memory systems, but even a 256K system will be 
able to hold at least 600 people's records.  The exact number will vary 
depending on how much information such as marriages, children, and comments is 
added; these things take up additional memory space.  These numbers should be 
sufficient to chart the average family's tree.  However, if you're part of one 
of the families that has charted several different lines of descent in great 
detail going back to Adam and Eve, you might run out of room. 

   When you start the program, you will get a main menu with the following 
options:

   ^1(A)dd new entries^0:  This allows you to enter new records.  Each record 
corresponds to a person in your family tree.  Each person has an I.D. number, 
assigned automatically by the program as the record is entered.  These I.D. 
numbers are used to uniquely identify a person even if there are several people 
with identical names. 

   When you select the (A) command, you will be told what I.D. number is being 
assigned to the record you are entering.  These will be assigned in order, 
beginning with 1, unless a record is deleted; in that case, the numbers of the 
deleted records will be re-used for new records entered after.  This is done to 
save memory and disk space since data files are indexed by I.D. number.  Thus a 
vacant number means that its space is wasted in the file. 

   Now fill in the information on the new person as prompted.  First, enter the 
person's name (or press ENTER to abort if you really didn't want to add a 
record).  In general, the established genealogical practice is to use the name 
under which the person was born; this means the maiden name in the case of 
married women.  However, it is up to you what name you use.  Just try to be 
consistent.

   Next you are asked the person's gender (or sex, if we are allowed to include 
that word in a family magazette).  Press 'M' or 'F'.

   Next is the date of birth.  Enter the date in the format MM/DD/YYYY, like 
04/01/1987.  You can omit leading zeroes; 4/1/1987 would also work.  Two-digit 
years default to 1900 + year; 4/1/87 is identical to the above two dates.  To 
enter dates prior to A.D. 100, make them into three- or four-digit years by 
preceding them with one or more zeroes, like 1/1/0087.  Years from 1 to 9 are a 
special case; if you enter them as single digits, they represent A.D. 1 through 
9.  If you precede them by one zero as 01 through 09, they are two-digit numbers
and hence represent 1901 through 1909.  Make them 001 through 009, however, and 
they are once again early A.D. years; same with 0001 through 0009.  Enter B.C. 
dates as negative numbers; -1 represents 1 B.C.  There is no such thing as the 
year "zero"; 1 B.C. was immediately followed by A.D. 1.  (Because of this, the 
year 2000 is actually part of the 20th century; the next century does not begin 
until 2001, since the First Century began with the year 1.  Just a little 
calendar trivia to further confuse you.)

   There are a few other options when entering dates.  A question mark in any 
field means it is unknown; 4/?/87 means an unknown date in April, 1987.  A date 
preceded by 'c', as in c4/1/87, means it is approximate.  If you type the letter
U instead of a date, this indicates that the date is totally unknown.  Typing N,
or just pressing ENTER with no input, means that it is inapplicable.

   Next is the place of birth; usually a city and state or country is sufficent;
it is probably not necessary to name the exact room of the maternity ward.

   Next is the date of death, entered in the same syntax as the birthdate.  
Obviously, if the person is still living, this item is not applicable; just 
press ENTER.

   If you entered anything for the death date, you'll also be asked for the 
place of death.  Like birthplace, this usually consists of a city and state or 
country.  ("In bed" probably isn't appropriate.) 

   Now you are asked for some information that will establish genealogical 
links between the person you are entering and other persons whose data has 
already been entered.  First, you are asked for the I.D. numbers of the new 
person's mother and father.  If the parents have not yet been entered, press 
ENTER with no input; these will be filled in later.  If you don't know the I.D. 
number of a parent, type L to see a full or selective list of the entries with 
their I.D.'s.

   Next you are asked if the person is or has been married.  If you say yes, 
you are prompted for more information on each marriage.  Any number of 
different marriages can be entered, indicating all spouses the person has been 
married to.  (Not generally all at once, although when Mormons are involved you 
never know...)  As with the parents, if a spouse has not yet been entered, just 
press ENTER when prompted for his or her I.D. number.  You will be asked for 
the date of marriage and the date the marriage was terminated (if applicable) -
- use the same syntax as for birth and death dates. 

   Now you are asked if the person in question has any children.  If so, enter 
the I.D. numbers of the kids one at a time.  Any children who have not yet been 
entered into the database should be skipped at this time.

   Finally, there is a line for comments.  You can leave it blank by pressing 
ENTER (this saves memory and disk space).  Or fill in a brief comment of up to 
80 characters.  Entries over 26 characters will "wrap around" on the screen 
when data records are shown in the "browse" phase. 

   All items you couldn't fill in now, because they refer to people who have not
yet been entered, will be filled in automatically later when you add the entries
for the people in question.  For example, if you left a parent blank, that slot 
will be filled later when you enter the parent's record.

   ^1(L)ook up/browse through entries^0:  This lets you see the data that has 
already been entered.  The results of a search by I.D. number or name can be 
output to the screen or a printer .  A search by I.D. number will show the 
single record you selected, while a search by name produces all records 
matching the full or partial name you've entered.  (Case doesn't matter; John, 
JOHN, and john are all identical.) 

   If you select the printer as the output device, all selected data will be 
printed out, then you will be returned to the main menu.  With the screen as 
the output device, you are placed in the more sophisticated "browse" mode. 
After each record is displayed you have several options which let you look 
through the tree.  Typing M and F move you to the mother and father, 
respectively, of the current record.  C gets you the children and S gets you 
the siblings (brothers and sisters, including half-brothers and half-sisters).  
For each of these, if there is only one person of the given relationship, you 
will be moved directly to this person; otherwise you'll get a list and must 
select one to view.  Typing W lets you see information on weddings (marriages) 
of the person, and move to a spouse's record. 

   Typing N goes to the next matched record, or back to the menu if there are 
no more.  For instance, if your original search was for all persons named 
"John," the next John (if any) will be shown.  Typing E exits to the menu even 
if the search is not yet complete. 

   ^1(P)rint a family tree^0:  This choice lets you output a report showing 
lines of descent to your screen, printer, or a disk file.  You select one 
person as a starting point and indicate whether you are charting ancestors or 
descendants of that person.  A descendant graph will show the starting person, 
his or her children (indented into the second column), the grandchildren (in 
the third column, beneath their parent), and finally the great-grandchildren 
(in the fourth column).  That's as far as the chart goes, even if there are 
later generations on file.  Conversely, an ancestor graph shows the original 
person on the fourth column, his or her parents to the left, and grandparents 
and great-grandparents further to the left, each surrounding their child.  
Siblings are not shown on this chart. 

   ^1(E)dit data^0:  This choice lets you revise the data on a person.  You are 
shown the information one field at a time and asked if you wish to change it. If 
you do, you're asked for a new value, entered in the same manner as in the 
(A)dd command.  If you alter such information as who a person's parents, 
spouse, or children are, then all pointers back and forth will be adjusted 
appropriately. 

   ^1(D)elete a person^0:  I'm sure you've got relatives you'd like to purge from
your family tree altogether.  This gives you that chance, as well as letting 
you get rid of entries you added by mistake which don't really belong.  You are 
prompted for an I.D. number, and that person (and all pointers to him or her in 
any other record, as a parent, child, or spouse) will be removed without a 
trace.  Just like in all other places where you're asked for an I.D. number, 
you can type L for a list of names with their I.D.'s. 

   ^1(R)ead data from disk^0:  This lets you retrieve family tree data that has 
been saved to a disk file.  The default file, "FAMILY," contains sample data to 
let you test the program. 

   ^1(W)rite data to disk^0:  This lets you save data to be retrieved by the 
(R)ead command.  Use a filename of up to 8 characters with no extension; the 
extensions for the several different data and index files created for each set 
of data will be added automatically. 

   ^1(C)lear data and start over^0:  This wipes out the data in memory and lets 
you start again.  We all need a chance to start over sometimes. 

   ^1(Q)uit^0:  Finally, this option returns you to ~3|9Big Blue Disk^0.

Disk files this program uses:
^FFAMILY.CHN
^FPASRUN.COM
^FRETURN.CHN
^FFAMILY.FPD
^FFAMILY.FMD
^FFAMILY.FCM
^FFAMILY.FIX
