From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Tue May 30 10:58:09 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k4UGw9jb013639; Tue, 30 May 2006 10:58:09 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k4UGw7ws007561 for ; Tue, 30 May 2006 10:58:08 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k4UEN2FI025947 for ; Tue, 30 May 2006 10:23:02 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k4UEN2ul025946 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Tue, 30 May 2006 10:23:02 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k4U3LhFI024283 for ; Mon, 29 May 2006 23:21:43 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k4U5uaIR026652 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Mon, 29 May 2006 23:56:36 -0600 X-Envelope-From: ChristieTrapp@aol.com Mon May 29 23:56:36 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k4U5uajb026641 for ; Mon, 29 May 2006 23:56:36 -0600 Received: from imo-m27.mx.aol.com (imo-m27.mx.aol.com [64.12.137.8]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k4U5uZE7028964 for ; Mon, 29 May 2006 23:56:35 -0600 Received: from ChristieTrapp@aol.com by imo-m27.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r7.5.) id e.479.1fdf9a4 (57341) for ; Tue, 30 May 2006 01:56:28 -0400 (EDT) From: ChristieTrapp@aol.com Message-ID: <479.1fdf9a4.31ad388c@aol.com> Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 01:56:28 EDT To: ROOTS-L@rootsweb.com MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" X-Mailer: 9.0 Security Edition for Windows sub 5300 X-Spam-Flag: NO X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] Splitting databases : Heck, that's barely touching the number of lines you have possibilities for. In a 4 generation pedigree chart you should be following, at a minimum, 16 separate lines. So you are a long way from having a complete page of names with vitals before you even start going back beyond 4 generations. I have many lines that go back 14-16 generations and some even farther than that. I not only follow the main lines back, but also all the collaterals. If one thinks they are through when they tie all the lines together in one straight line, they are not done. Following collaterals will also lead you into interesting directions and you find all kinds of interesting people along the way - some good, some bad. You will also come up with dead ends that stops your search in its tracks, but that shouldn't stop you. Just switch directions and come back to it later. Sometimes you can go past these dead ends by coming in through the back door - that is, by tracing a collateral line that just might have published a genealogy and happens to mention that person's name as being an ancestor or they managed to find something that provides a clue as to where to start your search anew. If you split your database, you just might hide these clues. As with another member of this list's comments - keeping track of separate databases became a problem and they ended up putting it all back together again, something like humpty dumpty! So, bottom line, it is not necessary to split your data into separate files. I've got almost 65,000 names in my database. No all of them are direct line, but with my research, I've been able to help others on this list and others because I have researched their problem and with all my names in one file, I can quickly check to see if I have that individual in my files or not. Yes, I have created duplicates along the way, but that is quickly resolved when the discovery is made about the duplication. It's called merge names. There will be times when you are researching a person and you come across information about a parent, you enter it but aren't sure if the person with the same name in our database is one and the same. It could be because you don't have both sides. Then, later, you find the other half and a clue comes to light to lead you to know that you now have a duplicate. It is so simple to delete or merge the names. If you split your files, you may or may not end up with duplicates and as the person said, it took them a long time to put all the pieces back together again. I hope this helps the person who asked about splitting files make their decision. I would recommend that you don't split your files. Christie Trapp