Alexander - my preference has always been to use FT programs that run on non-proprietary database formats. I migrated onto Family Origins a long time ago because of the standard dBase file structure and have followed them to RootsMagic (now at V4). I highly recommend the program (and this group of programmers) for 1 - already having a pretty good selection of reports, and 2 - for being quite responsive to user suggestions. One of things that the dBase format easily allowed me to do was to import the whole FT database into Access and run my own reports. No need to write a GEDCOM parser. One of my favourites was a list of all (or selected) events sorted by date. I could look at any day of the year and see that my 5th cousin 2 times removed was married that day (for example). With 45k names in the database I think have every day of the year as a birthday or anniversary of some sort. I never figured out the easiest way to limit the events to only direct ancestors, but that's just a little more fiddling with it if I had the time. I haven't seen that kind of report anywhere, and have not suggested it to the RM4 programmers, but if you were looking for ideas .... <grin>. Regards - Glen C. Bodie Web http://Bodie.CA Home mailto:glen@glenbodie.com or mailto:Glen.Bodie@gmail.com Cell mailto:TyTN@Bodie.ca (no attachments) Snail Mail: 76 Strathcona Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4J 1G8 -----Original Message----- Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:42:07 +0000 From: Alexander Bisset <A-Bisset@aberdeen-harbour.co.uk> Subject: Re: [ABERDEEN] Family Tree Software To: "aberdeen@rootsweb.com" <aberdeen@rootsweb.com> <snip> I have however got a "treetops" report on my list of things to add to my FT Analysis program I'm writing. This little program takes a Gedcom 5.0 or 5.5 file and produces various reports. At present they are lists of "loose deaths" (people who you know death information for but their death entry hasn't got that data explicitly recorded), lists of locations sorted by country, region(county/state), parish etc. Lists of people at those locations. Lists of people who according to your Gedcom may have been alive at a specific date but for whom you have no census info. This is particularly useful for remembering to add people to http://www.lostcousins.com etc. A "treetops" report is on my to do list this is a list of all the people who are direct ancestors at the top of your tree. Effectively a treetops report would list all of your most distant direct ancestors you have found for every branch of your tree. This would not do what the original poster asked but it might at least make the process of producing the manual reports somewhat easier as you'd have a list of who to start your reports from. -- Alexander Bisset IT Administrator Aberdeen Harbour Board