Good morning Norman - your stated reason for joining the Guild is not uncommon - I too joined because I had so much data unrelated to my line of research. Spreadsheets are widely used for gathering data together in a way that can be readily indexed or cross-referenced - and Excel is a commonly used tool. There are many, many members who are experienced in using this approach. Some use the Custodian tool. This was developed by members of the Guild specifically for One-Name Studies and is geared towards enabling easy recording and assimilating seemingly unrelated data from a wide range of sources. Many people use hand-written records and some keep their data in a word-processor (e.g. Word). Others record it directly onto a web-site (e.g. a "blog"). Lots of different approaches - the problem many have is finding one that suits their way of working. Then one needs to recognise that, as one gains more experience of what it is that one is aiming to do and how one prefers to do it, then the original choice of tool can be outgrown. I frequently find that trying to guess what type of tool I may need in the future is wasting my time and I need to plump for a widely used one I feel comfortable with. In my case it was the spreadsheet in Works. I'm now starting to investigate the use SQLserver with an MSaccess front-end - but Excel is still my main data holder. So - choose what you are comfortable with. Chris -----Original Message----- From: goons-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:goons-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Norman Thornton via Sent: 06 December 2014 15:18 To: Paul Howes; goons@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [G] Guild Marriage Index Hi, I am a new member and was greatly encouraged by Mr Howes' thoughts. The reason I joined the guild was because of the wealth of extraneous Thornton data I was collecting as I singlemindly plodded on with my own line of research. To me it seemed sad there was no way of storing all this valuable data that had no direct bearing on my research, this seems to mirror some of his thoughts. I am interested in databases and what form they take. Having hit a brick wall, I decided to continue my own researcher by indexing all the Thorntons or related name variants in the Old Parish Records in Scotland. I did it by eye onto a word page and I doubt it could be readily copied. similarly the related research on all the Thorntons in the 1851 Census in West Lothian is probably not in an acceptable form for copying. I have found some new variants of my name And am contemplating updating first exercise using Excel to sort the whole data base. I would have thought this would be one suitable storage vase, as it is commonly available, and therefore when superceded [as is the fate of all things it seems], the IT community will produce a programme to transcribe it into the latest format. As I am new to the Guild I would be interested in feedback. Norman Thornton