Hi George, Let me put in my tuppence worth here. The CHAN tag (date and time when the record was changed) IMHO has the following uses: 1) I can see straight away when a record was changed and which records were changed on the same day. 2) I can see in which order the records were changed. 3) It may even prompt me as to *why* I changed a record if I do not have a NOTE tag for that record 4) Those family history programs that automate the process of creating a CHAN tag IMHO are *better* than those that require a (manual edit) update. If I date my (hand written) notes about members of my family I can see whether I have updated my GEDCOM file "properly" Kind regards, Phil. At 06:59 27/02/2004, George W. Durman wrote: >re >than probably any other tag. I receive GEDCOMS where there is >a CHAN tag for EVERY INDIVIDUAL in them. May I ask why >anyone wants that worthless, to me, info for EVERY person in >the database? Member of Kent FHS, NW Kent FHS, DEVFHS,SoG,GOONS,Chairman of the Warnies Ancestral Group (WAG) I use and recommend CD's from ACDB for my One Name Study research http://www.archivecdbooks.org/

At 2/27/04 01:11 PM Friday, Phil O'Phax wrote: *********START OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT********* >Hi George, >(snip) >If I date my (hand written) notes about members of my family I can see >whether I have updated my GEDCOM file "properly" > >Kind regards, > >Phil. >(snip) **********END OF ORIGINAL MESSAGE TEXT*********** I still say the CHAN tag is virtually worthless. In those extreme cases where one MUST (in his/her opinion) include a time and date of editing, and you are talking about Notes, the time and date can be entered right in the Notes. It's not that there's so much of a problem with CHAN in CFTW, it's those other danged genealogy programs that put the tag in EVERY Event, Misc, etc., entry! I have imported GEDCOM's with 10,000+ names and EVERY event included the CHAN tag, with 99.99% of them BLANK!!!!! SgtGeorge -- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 7.0.224 / Virus Database: 261.9.11 - Release Date: 2/28/04

G'day Phil and Ira, > 1) I can see straight away when a record was changed and > which records were > changed on the same day. I was going to ask how but I now realise that it probably stores the information that is used to give the "Last Modified" in the View Modification Date. If this is so I would agree that it is quite useful although as you can see I haven't used it much. Later....Just took another look and see that it really ONLY records when I last opened the Edit Individual window as it assumes todays date even if I do NOT make any actual changes. If so it is really not all that useful :-( Could you confirm that the CHAN tag does this please Ira. Thanks for the explanations. Mike CALDER http://members.optusnet.com.au/mikecalder/