Software available for one-place studies?

[Justin York]

I have an ambitious desire to start a once-place study for Amsterdam, NY. Is there any software designed for one-place studies?

[Louis Kessler]

>I have an ambitious desire to start a once-place study for Amsterdam,

> NY<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam_(city),_New_York>.

> Is there any software designed for one-place studies?

Justin,

The program most one-name www.one-name.org and one-place studiers use is
called Custodian www.custodian3.co.uk

It is not genealogy software, per say, but is more for general family
history research. Although it does import and export GEDCOM.

Louis

[Louis Kessler]

Also check out One Place Studies: www.one-place-studies.org

[Colin Spencer]

Louis

I am a member of http://One-Name.org and on the committee of this organisation and I would disagree the answer that you have given.

From my knowledge of the members of the organisation all of the FH software packages are extensively used. But the most commonly used software for any sized study (other than a small one) is Excel or one of the equivalent free spreadsheet applications. A lot of the larger studies do not reconstruct trees and so do not need a FH type programme. When it comes to web publishing TNG is used by a lot of members and some even use this as their application of choice.

With a one-place study if trees are going to be reconstructed then I would have thought any FH programme that you are familiar with that can handle large numbers of individuals would be the best choice. I have had contact with one one-place studier in Belgium who has over a million people in his bespoke database.

For anything like this there are several questions that need to be asked before deciding on software, some examples below

1: How large will this study be
2: Am I going to publish the study on the internet
3: Am I going to share the data manually or electronically (email or gedom export for example)
4: Am I just going to store names or reconstruct trees

Once you have the answers to these (and a few more I can't think of for the moment) then I think you can get a good handle on the software to use

[Enno Borgsteede]

Justin,

Geves http://www.gevesoft.net/ is similar to the Custodian program
mentioned by Louis.

Further advice depends on what you expect as special features for a one
place study yourself. Some may be supported by Gramps too, like the
spreadsheets Colin mentioned in another reply.

regards,

Enno

[Louis Kessler]

Colin,

I was just relating what was told to me by Helen Smith in a lecture on the
last Unlock the Past Cruise.
http://www.unlockthepastcruises.com/helen-v-smith/
Helen has been doing a one-name study for some time (Quested) and she
specifically said that the program Custodian was the one she and most
one-ers use.

Custodian is NOT a FH type program, but is a data recording program that
is designed to add form and function to what you are doing rather than
just using a blank spreadsheet template. At the custodian website, it
specifically mentions that it is geared towards one-name and one-place
studies.

Enno pointed out Geves. Even though the Geves site does not talk about
one-ies, I think Enno is right and that program is similar to Custodian
and may do the same thing.

As far as genealogy programs go, I'm sure the members of your organization
use all sorts of different ones. But genealogy programs are designed to
record family links and enter info one-by-one, and are not designed to
record en mass the data that one-studies need. I agree with you that most
of these programs aren't suitable.

It sounds like you never checked out either Custodian or Geves. Take a
look.
e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_BXHAihuvc

Louis

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[Colin Spencer]

Louis

All I can say is Helen is not correct.

As a result of this threat I have kicked off a survey for Guild of One-Name Studies members. The answers are still coming in but at the moment with over 170 replies nearly 50% use Excel as their main recording method the rest are split across the various FH programmes including Custodian. At the moment Family Historian and Family Tree Maker are the most commonly used being tied for 1st place in terms of users, Custodian is third and a fair way behind.

What you must realise is that a lot of One-Namers do reconstruct trees as part of their studies and so use conventional FH programmes to do this.

I have looked at Custodian but don't like the way that it works and with an Access engine running it I suspect, for a large study, performance would be an issue. I have not looked at Geves and in fact had never heard of it until this thread. I will take a look at it.

For my own one-name study I use a combination of Excel and Family Historian with some bespoke software that makes the keeping of the 2 in step easier.

Colin

[Louis Kessler]

Actually, Colin, I find that very interesting, especially the early results of your poll.

 

I'll pass on to Helen this information.

 

Louis

[Helen Smith]

Any software choice is dependent on the person and the job they wish to do. The software in use can also vary strongly from country to country and vary by time period polled.(and of course some people still use 3 x 5 index cards) and there is nothing wrong with anyone's choice.

 Excel is used as a flat file database by many people doing both One Place and One Name studies. FH programs of various types are also used by both One placers and One Namers.

There is no one program that will do everything that everyone wants. In 2000 or so when I was looking for software to keep unrelated data for my ONS, a lot of people in the Guild of One Name Studies used Custodian which had been written by a Guild Member. and it was recommended by people on the mail-list. It suited my purposes both for my One Name and for my One place study. Yes it does have an Access back end, for me that was not a problem.  I currently use Custodian, TMG and Excel.

TNG and web publishing was less common at that time. TNG is a very useful program for web publishing of data.

Quite a number of the programs have trial versions that you can try on a limited dataset to see what suits you best. If you are planning on putting your One Place study on the  It is worth having a look at some  One place sites you like  to see what they are using. Thomas Macentee was talking at RootsTech this year about some of the Wiki style programs for a One Place study he was involved in that was published on the web  but I can't remember the exact details but it looked quite impressive.