The problems noted on the selection criteria are left overs from FOW 8. FOW is failing to clear the display when "new" criteria is selected. This is a display problem only. Secondly, the selection criteria remain available for the duration of your session, or until modified. They are reset when FOW initializes after being exited. Now for your actually selection criteria. Start with those living in 1880. Use a selection of Birth Date is before 1880 AND Death Date is after 1880. This will select those born before 1880 and who died after 1880. Those born or died in 1880 will not be selected. If you can use a more precise date (Census date), the number of people excluded is reduced. Add the country selection criteria block with the AND. The individual countries are connected with a OR. Try to just select thos of a specific country first and refine your selection until it does what you want. Then reverse the selection type to exclude them. Remember, to exclude an individual, they first must be selected. Dick ----- Original Message ----- From: <Beldin4@aol.com> To: <FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 10:57 PM Subject: [FO] Defining Custom Search > Dear Listers, > I am one of the fortunate ones who has the 1880 US Census at our FHC (I was > at NGS and was able to buy one of the copies :-) > Now I would like to make a sort so that I can know all the people in my > database who were living in US in 1880. > I tried all kinds of sorts but none seemed to work. > Can I get some suggestions please on how to create a custom report for this > purpose? > > Here's what I tried: > > 1) created custom report with name, surname; birth place, birth date; named > it 1880 US Census--that worked fine > > 2) chose 'select people' instead of all of database > > 3) chose Find and tried to create criteria in search criteria screen; this > is where things did not work > > 4) chose birth place - does not contain - England (since none of my English > ancestors were here in 1880) this did not work. People with England in their > birthplace were marked > > 5) I tried the same with Scotland; same problem. Some of my Scottish > relatives were chosen, others not eventhough the word Scotland was in their > birth place > > 6) I tried clearing criteria, the criteria would disappear until I exited and > then it all came back; I tried clearing and choosing new criteria such as > birth date - is before - 1880. Even people born in 1927 were marked! And my > old criteria remained in the other criteria positions but without any > parameters; I could not totally clear my criteria > > 7) I tried eliminating the report by going to my reports file and deleting > 1880 US Census but when I created a new 1880 US Census custom report, the > criteria had reappeared > > 8) when I typed in birth place does not contain Scotland Or birthplace does > not contain England Or birthplace does not contain Sweden, the criteria 'does > not contain' would disappear from the 2nd and 3rd choices although the birth > place and words England and Sweden remained. > > 9) I finally gave up and decided to rejoin this list. > > I love the filtering system but have always been very frustrated by it! I > even looked in my book on FO, but the example is so ultra simple, it does not > address my problems. > > So, > 1) should I uninstall FO and reinstall? > 2 Are my problems similar to ones other's have been experiencing? > 3) How do I create a custom report that I can take to my FHC to search for my > ancestors in the 1880 census? > > Thanks, > Margie in Washington State > > > > ==== FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS Mailing List ==== > FAMILY ORIGINS - Ordering, UPDATES, books, FAQ, FREE DEMO, Newsletter, etc. http://formalsoft.com For the 8.03 and 9.02 PATCHES and what they fix, go to: http://formalsoft.com/files.htm > > ============================== > Visit Ancestry's Library - The best collection of family history > learning and how-to articles on the Internet. > http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library