Steve Hayes wrote: > I'm posting this on a number of newsgroups, but have set follow-ups to > soc.genealogy.computing, where I think it is most relevant. > > In the past I know that some family history societies have collected indexes > of "strays" - people whose records are found in unexpected places, without any > local links. So, for example, someone who died or was buried far from home, or > a family that stayed in a place for only a short time and then moved on, would > be listed as a stray, and the index might help people in other places with > "missing" family members. > > I am involved in a number of genealogy mailing lists hosted by Yahoogroups, > and one of the facilities they offer is the creation of databases by members. > > I am thinking of creating a database for people to record strays on these > sites, and thought I would ask for advice on what to include in such a > database, especially from those who may have had some experience of strays > indexes. > > The Yahoogroups databases are limited to 10 fields, so one needs to give some > thought to what should go in them. I am thinking of the following: > > 1. Name of the principal person (Surname, Firstnames) > 2. Date (of record or event, in YYYY-MM-DD format) > 3. Place (of record or event) > 5. Place of origin of the person (if mentioned) > 6. Relations of the person (if mentioned) > 7. Source (newspaper, tombstone, church record etc.) > 8. Notes (any other information about the person or record) > 9. Informant (name of person who entered record, and contact info) > 10. Date record entered. > > But people who have more experience of strays indexes might have better ideas, > and that is what I am soliciting now. > > The data from Yahoogroups databases can be downloaded in comma-delimited > format, for importing into other databases, spreadsheets etc. It can also be > filtered, so that only records meeting certain criteria can be downloaded. > This would make it possible to combine data from strays lists in different > Yahoo groups into a central database, or to be sent to strays coordinators in > various places. It seems worthwhile. An additional category would be baptisms with no obvious connection with other baptisms. For the most part they're probably in the bride's original parish. -- Ian The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang at austonley org uk