Deltadrive Genealogy Research System (GRS) is an event based genealogical software application with lineage-linked database that enables you to store information as you collect it. You can capture all kinds of information extracted from the internet as well as certificates, census returns, wills and other documents, GEDCOM files and spreadsheets as CSV files.
The system enables you to link the individuals mentioned in all these sources to build up a family tree. The big advantage of doing it this way is that you can always find the reason why you assumed that individuals are related and look back to the sources to determine how you arrived at each relationship.
Useful reports such as the census tracker enable you to work out where to look next and to see at a glance what information you already hold.
GRS includes powerful search facilities to help you find relationships and events easily. This includes soundex matching for surnames and automatic matching of maiden and married names.
GRS is designed to be straightforward and efficient to use. It encourages a way of working that is methodical and it is worth spending time entering information fully and accurately, however time consuming and tedious this may seem at the time. It pays dividends (possibly years) later when you wonder where a piece of information came from!
Information is everywhere. It ranges from the indexed records of a central repository to the clutter of letters and photographs that may have lain forgotten for years. The main sources of information for genealogists are well documented in publications on the subject.
The purpose of the Information Tools component of GRS is to provide easy and efficient means for gathering the relevant parts of this varied information. The tools will “capture” the information for the Research Data component, or you can chose to “accept” the information and move it directly to Family Knowledge.
The Information Tools in GRS are tailored to the main genealogy sources, especially:
-The internet
-GEDCOM files from other researchers and the internet
-Documentation such as birth certificates
-Indexes of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials as found in church and civil records
-Census returns
-Wills, gravestones, letters, photographs and other less structured sources
-DNA test results
-Personal knowledge of the researcher and his/her immediate family
An example of a data capture tool is the Scrapbook, into which you can paste text from an internet site and use the “Pick and Pop” feature to extract names, dates, places and other data into the database.
Research Data in GRS is derived from information that has been collected and stored in a structured way so that it can easily be searched, sorted and reviewed as and when the need arises. The data may or may not be relevant to your study – at this stage it may not be clear.
A set of Research Data in GRS is referred to as a “document”. GRS defines a document as a collection of data that contains a group of individuals that are associated by an event, place or in some other way. Associations may be family relationships or can be others such as servants, employees or witnesses for example. The simplest document contains a single individual (such as a photograph).
Examples of GRS documents are:
-A marriage certificate – typically the group includes the groom and bride, their parents and witnesses
-A census household – often contains a family group, and sometimes others such as lodgers, servants and visitors
-A GEDCOM file – which could contain any group of individuals depending on the source of the file
-A photograph – a single portrait or a group of people
-A record from a parish register – usually shows an event at a date and place for members of a single family
-A single entry from a birth or death index, or can be two entries referring to a marriage
-A single search result on an internet page – could be any information on an individual or event
-A DNA signature for an individual obtained from a test
The Research Data component enables you to analyse the data and to decide what is relevant to your study. Each document can be accepted to Family Knowledge if and when you believe it is relevant. Once copied the data is retained in Research Data so that you can carry out further searches and comparisons as you capture more information.
Family Knowledge is the extract from your information and/or Research Data that has been accepted as part of the family or study being researched. The data can be grouped together so that family members and then hierarchical family trees can be created. The Family Knowledge component of GRS provides the charting and reporting capabilities for sharing the results of your research.
“Identification” of individuals is carried out within Family Knowledge. This is where you make an assumption that an individual in one document is the same person as an individual in another. This may be obvious where, for example, you have your parents’ birth certificates and marriage certificate but may not be clear once you have gone back several generations.
“Linking” is a similar process where an individual in one document is linked as a parent, child or spouse of an individual in another document. This is only necessary for documents where individuals cannot be identified, since internally in a document individuals will be linked automatically as you enter them. For example, when entering a birth certificate the child’s father and mother are normally stated.
Once identified or linked, the individuals start to form a hierarchical family tree within GRS, and this forms the “knowledge”.
You can export documents as GEDCOM files from your Research Data or Family Knowledge and pass them on to other researchers or use them in other genealogy software. You can also upload them to internet sites to provide information for other researchers.
Documents can also be exported as “comma separated value” or CSV files which can be loaded into a spreadsheet for further analysis.
