July 12, 1997

Cousins, Fellow Researchers … Beginners and Experienced, Current and Future:

Hello to All,

About a month ago I posted a survey regarding the record keeping habits of those who would respond. I posted this survey originally on the BUMP List, my most active list, then I decided with certain modifications to post the survey to the LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS List and the CARSON List.

My original thought on this was to extract ideas from others in order to revamp my own record keeping system. While I pondered the questions for this survey and the initial responses after the first posting, I decided that this would be a worth while survey for all to see the results. Therefore, I am notifying all the respondents of the results with this posting and, since this is a rather lengthy issue, I am adding this file and what I will call the respondents file in two ways; 1) attached to this posting as .doc file, and 2) by adding the entire file to my web page for future reference.

I received 36 responses to the survey. I would like to thank all those who participated in this survey. Below is a copy of the final version of the survey as it was posted with a brief summary and/or editorial of the responses to each question:

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Researchers,

How are all of you doing?! I would like to take this opportunity to ask some survey questions; partly in hopes of generating activity on the subject; but mostly to satisfy curiosity about certain methodology:

Naturally, all of us use our computers for a myriad of tasks and more than likely we all have some form of computer program that we use to store our family information in and to document certain information and communicate with others. Ah, but then there is the hard copy documentation ... we must do something with this ...

So on to the Survey ... I will write the questions and even give my own response just to start the discussion: [editorial: I will now post my comments in this fashion and post the results below my own response.]

1. What computer program(s) do you use to store your information?

I use Family Tree Maker. (I even have another relative that uses Ancestral file but uses Family Tree Maker to print trees and certain other reports)

1. [This generated some interesting results. I found that many respondents had tried several programs and in fact have used as many as two or three programs at the same time for the different results that they desired. I, therefore, split the question into part 1 and part 1a. Part 1 refers to the Main program of choice, while part 1a refers to any and all secondary genealogy programs used by the respondents.]

PART 1 - MAIN PROGRAM
Family Tree Maker  11
Brothers Keeper 7
PAF 4
Reunion 3
The Master Genealogist 3
Family Origins 2
Roots 2
Kith & Kin 1
Lifelines 1
None 1
Visual Roots 1

PART 1a - SECONDARY PROGRAM
PAF 5
Family Tree Maker 3
Roots 3
Brothers Keeper 2
Corel Family Publisher 1
Family Ties 1
Kinpublish 1
My Tree 1
The Family Edge 1
The Master Genealogist 1

2. Do you use any other program(s) to store or record information?

I have used Dbase III and Excel

2. [The results here are not really surprising because generally, ones main program will cover your needs. However, as you can see some people like to expand there horizons. Some of the additional programs also relate to those who use scanners as we will see in another question below.]

No 12
Word 6
Wordperfect 4
Excel 3
Adobe Photoshop 1
Dbase V 1
Documagix 1
Dynonote 1
Editmaster 1
Emacs 1
Filemaker Pro 1
FoxBase 1
Gen. Book 1
Paintshop Pro 1
Sesame 1

3. What program(s) do you use to Communicate with others?

I use Netscape but to a lesser degree I have Compuserve.

3. [As it turns out, many respondents use more than one form of communications software and access. I did my best to categorize the responses by including the software as well as the ISP’s and FTP’s that were mentioned.]

Netscape 17
AOL 8
Eudoro Pro 8
Juno 8
Explorer 7
Microsoft Mail 3
Prodigy 3
Compuserve 2
cc:Mail 1
Fastfind 1
Fidonet 1
Pegasus Mail 1
Pine 1
Procomm 1

ISP's Mentioned
Att Worldnet
Mindspring
IDT.Net

Ftp's Mentioned
Ewan
WS_FTP

4. Describe your Record Keeping System. (Include, if any, number assignment procedures and types of categories used along with special "piles", if any.)

I use what I started with in the very beginning when my information was still small ... When a source comes to me I assign it a numerical sequenced number and record a brief explanation of it and who/where it is from on an index paper. Then when I refer to it in my computer program I used its assigned number and who/where it is from. Then I file it away in the numbered order. At this time I do not use any categories, however I do have several "get to" piles!

4. [Since this is really the heart of the survey and the responses are not really something you can tally, I have attached files that can be downloaded. Please use the file of your choice to view the answers to this question].

5. Do you own a scanner or photocopier? If so, what make and model?

No. But I plan on it in the future. I am looking at an HP Scanner

5. [As you can see below, most who responded to this question do not own a scanner or photocopier. No one appeared to own a photocopier, but all have access to one in some way. Scanners that were mentioned are as follows: Microtech Scanmaker II sp; Cannon PC-3; Visioneer Keyboard Scanner; Microtech Scanmaker E3; HP Scanjet II cx; HP 5p; Envisions 6600S Flatbed Scanner.]

Yes 11
No 19

6. Do you have a special E-mail address to be used for attachments? (Some attachments are so large that they cannot be sent via regular E-mail, however, certain E-mail providers will accept large files such as jpg, gif, bmp)(I suppose one could think of it as UPS vs. US Mail. ;0))

I do not have this?

6. [This question was generated by an initial respondent. With the results, one can see that it really depends on the Internet Service Provider(s) that is used. Most respondents claimed that any attachments, large or small, that they may have received have been received with no problem at all. A small amount of those who responded do have a special address. It appears that not all ISP’s allow for large attachments.]

Yes 6
No 25

I would like to thank you all in advance for participating in this survey and I hope that you all do participate. I must admit that my goal is somewhat personal ... I am looking to redo my record keeping system and I am looking for different ideas that you all will generate, in addition, I am making the assumption that this information can and will be useful to others, especially beginners, as well, thus through the idea of sharing, we can all benefit from this topic in some way. If not from a new idea on doing something, then from satisfying curiosity.

When I have gathered enough information I will provide a summary of the survey.

If you do not wish to respond back to the "LIST", then you may respond directly to me at mailto:bwl@gate.net

Again, Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Sincerely,

Bryan

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In closing, thank you all who participated. It did indeed help me and now I hope it will help others in the future. In fact some respondents mentioned their curiosity as well about the results of this survey.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Bryan W. Lane

Go to Part 2

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