> > I would like to know what specific items in software do you need for > > slave genealogy. I am currently working on a slave family. > > > > "L.L. Scott" <llscott2000@bellsouth.net> > > I want to see genealogy software that's capable of recording certain > events related to slavery. > > For example, my 3rd great-grandfather was freed in 1838 in KY. > That's the 2nd time he appears in documents -- the deed of > emancipation recorded in the county court. He was willed to the > woman who freed him by her father in the early 1800s. He was in her > father's will. > > I need to record these two events: the slave in a will, and the deed > of emancipation. And I need to record when he was freed, to > document where he lived. Next I have to find out if he stayed in > the area after he was freed. > > I don't have a documented slave sale, but it's a way to trace the > location of a family member. > > As you can see, I need to record the connection between the slave > and the slave owner. This is the way to trace my ancestors, even > the free ones, because their parents may have been slaves. > > The slave owner's family isn't related to me but they are connected > to me, so it's required that I research the slave owning family > besides my own. This includes tax lists, wills, importation > records, etc. The two ways to free a slave were in a will or in a > court, so those events should be part of my research notes too. > > As it is now I have to put any information I find in my notes with > the slave family. I have also created timelines for the ancestors > who I know were slaves. > > Most programs provide ways to record immigration records, but none > have standing categories related specifically to slaves -- unless > someone here knows of one? > > Kdberr1@aol.com I've long considered that genealogical S/W should be able to express different kinds of relationship of which descent would be just one. Such relationships might include employment, joint military service, sporting and feudal. The last clearly has some similarities to your requirement. In some cases it would provide the kind of indication of where to look a genealogical relationship that you indicate. In others it would be part of the records needed for a wider view of family history than the purely genealogical - again something that concerns you. I use Gramps. I know from past experience that when I enter an event I don't have to take Gramps list of event types as limiting - rather than choose one from the pull-down list I can type in my own. In the example you quote you'd be able to type in the event and then enter the document -- deed of emancipation or will - as the source. I wondered if it might be possible to override the relationship in the same way. I set up a test database and then created an individual. I then created a family and went to add a "child", selecting the individual I'd just created and overtyped the default relationship of "Birth" with "Slave" and found that this was accepted. This may not be the ideal way of recording what you need and a little experimentation might find others. It's also worth bearing in mind that Gramps is open source so there would be a possibility of working with developers to add features which better represent the data you need. In the meantime it might be of some use as it stands and, being free at http://www.gramps-project.org/ it will only cost you the time to experiment with it. -- Ian Hotmail is for spammers. Real mail address is igoddard at nildram co uk Ian Goddard <goddai01@hotmail.co.uk>