Sara - As you know, I've privately offered my opinion on how this would be best handled, and I have offered help in setting it up in a true relational database, which has been declined. I also understand that you and Andrea don't feel comfortable using an actual database, and wish to use a static spreadsheet (MS Excel) for storing this possibly massive amount of data. In handling situations similar to this professionally, a couple of questions have come to mind. I hope you don't mind me asking--not only for my understanding, but for everyone's. 1. What are the plans for publishing (in HTML for Web viewing), sorting and searching within the data, and general access for everyone to use? 2. How are you going to handle changes to any documentation? How often will the spreadsheet be updated? 3. What about future requirements to change the format or content of the data? 4. What provisions have been taken to ensure that any changes that might make sense in the future will not impact the current data which has been collected? 5. As all genealogists know, published data is not always accurate, what are the processes for disputing sources and data which have been published in this spreadsheet? Scott E White Computer Systems Analyst Information Systems Security Officer & Workgroup Manager United States Air Force Combined Task Force Lockheed Martin Enterprise Information Systems 6304 Spine Road Boulder, CO 80301 303-581-4644 phone 888-781-5468 pager scott.e.white@lmco.com -----Original Message----- From: SJGreer30@aol.com [mailto:SJGreer30@aol.com] Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 11:15 PM To: AUTRY-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [AUTRY] Sources and Documentation of Autrys Hi everyone; I wish to thank all who responded to me personally and on the list about gathering sources and documentation. After getting a "feel" for what to do, this is how I am planning on initially setting up the database. You can submit your sources and documentation to me at sjgreer30@aol.com. The database should be simple and easy to read so I figured the best way to present them would be like so: Name (of the person the source is for) Source (Bibliography/microfilm, of the source) Documentation of the Source (brief paragraph of documentation. For example - this source was submitted: Autery, Absolam Bulletin of the Genealogical Society of Old Tryon County, Vol. 25, No. 1 (February 1997) page 14 (Rutherford Co., N.C. Deed Book 12:45)] Absolam Autery of "Moor" County, N.C., purchased two tracts of land in Rutherford County, N.C., from John Leatherman on 15 Dec. 1798, paying $300. The land was described as 120 acres on Webbs Creek, joining William Webb and Brens, part of 250 acres granted to John Webb 22 Aug. 1795; also 100 acres on Webbs Creek, joining John Webb and William Webb, which was granted to John Webb 13 Dec. 1767. Witness was David McDow. We are not putting up entire wills and probates, just a brief paragraph on the source. As time goes by, maybe we could provide links to the actual scanned document of public records. Sara J. Greer Clark County, OHGenWeb Coordinator http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohclark ==== AUTRY Mailing List ==== Have you visited the Autrey Heritage page? It's at http://www.autreyheritage.com/