I have over 20,000 names and it is still going strong. I navigate using the last name, first name process Jane described. None of the queries take very long and the whole experience is still very good. I get the feeling it will still be good at the number you talk about. Martin -----Original Message----- From: family-historian-users-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:family-historian-users-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of marianne leonardt Sent: 22 December 2011 16:12 To: family-historian-users@rootsweb.com Subject: [FHU] Very large gedcoms Hello, I would like some advice from anyone who has compiled a HUGE gedcom on FH - in excess, say, of 35 000 names. I've been collecting data for a one-name study - and the name is not a very rare one. I compiled the data in Microsoft Word files, several for each UK county, and I have been transferring them to FH. I really want them all in one gedcom in order to have a single name index. So far, I have transferred just the Devon lines, and I have just over 5000 names. It all works fine, but I'm already aware that the name index is very long and takes a while to scroll down. I'm just wondering whether, when I get to an expected 40 000 names, it will be too unwieldy to be usable. The alternative would be to create a separate gedcom for each county, but the lack of an overall index would be a big drawback. Not only that, but if I then changed my mind and decided to combine them all in a single gedcom, I would then have the problem of multiple entries in the source file for the same titles (and I've discovered that you can't merge duplicate sources without losing most of the citations). My ultimate aim is to create a website, probably using TNG. I haven't fully explored this yet, but I would hope that this would get over the problem of a massively long name index by dividing it into groups (e.g. by first letter of forename). I just wondered whether any other FH user has experience of dealing with this "problem" (of course, hopefully it is not a problem at all and I don't have to worry!). BTW, I'm still using FH3. Would there be any advantage in this case of changing to FH4/5? Marianne ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to FAMILY-HISTORIAN-USERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

If you highlight the first name in your list and then just type the first letter of the surname that you want you will be taken down to the first surname beginning with that letter. Peter E