Can any genealogy program do what I would like?

[[email protected]]

I use Family Tree Maker 10. It will produce what it calls an
"All-In-One Tree", which is a family tree that shows all the
individuals in the "family file" that you create with the program.

It will also produce a "Genealogy Report" that provides a narrative of
all the people in any one of your single family lines.

Like most people, I have multiple family lines in my family file (for
instance, Judge, Smith, and Jones). To produce genealogy reports that
proivde narratives of ALL of my ancestors, I have to create three
reports, one for Judge, one for Smith, and one for Jones.

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage? I would buy such a program just for that feature alone.
I will appreciate advice.

[Charlie Hoffpauir]

On 17 Feb 2006 15:00:48 -0800, "[email protected]"
<[email protected]> wrote:

I use Family Tree Maker 10. It will produce what it calls an
"All-In-One Tree", which is a family tree that shows all the
individuals in the "family file" that you create with the program.

It will also produce a "Genealogy Report" that provides a narrative of
all the people in any one of your single family lines.

Like most people, I have multiple family lines in my family file (for
instance, Judge, Smith, and Jones). To produce genealogy reports that
proivde narratives of ALL of my ancestors, I have to create three
reports, one for Judge, one for Smith, and one for Jones.

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage? I would buy such a program just for that feature alone.
I will appreciate advice.

FTM (and just about any other genealogy program) will produce such a
report as an "Ancestor" or Ahnentafel form. Just start with yourself,
and request the Ahnentafel or Ancestor report and enough generations,
and you'll get a narrative including all your ancestral lines.

But if you're asking for a narrative of everyone in your database,
regardless of if they are related to you or not, then I don't think
any program will do that because the report would be a real mess.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

[David]

If I understand this correctly I would answer that Legacy v6 does this.
Download the free version and try it.

[email protected] wrote:

I use Family Tree Maker 10. It will produce what it calls an
"All-In-One Tree", which is a family tree that shows all the
individuals in the "family file" that you create with the program.

It will also produce a "Genealogy Report" that provides a narrative of
all the people in any one of your single family lines.

Like most people, I have multiple family lines in my family file (for
instance, Judge, Smith, and Jones). To produce genealogy reports that
proivde narratives of ALL of my ancestors, I have to create three
reports, one for Judge, one for Smith, and one for Jones.

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage? I would buy such a program just for that feature alone.
I will appreciate advice.

[[email protected]]

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:

On 17 Feb 2006 15:00:48 -0800, "[email protected]"
[email protected]> wrote:

I use Family Tree Maker 10. It will produce what it calls an
"All-In-One Tree", which is a family tree that shows all the
individuals in the "family file" that you create with the program.

It will also produce a "Genealogy Report" that provides a narrative of
all the people in any one of your single family lines.

Like most people, I have multiple family lines in my family file (for
instance, Judge, Smith, and Jones). To produce genealogy reports that
proivde narratives of ALL of my ancestors, I have to create three
reports, one for Judge, one for Smith, and one for Jones.

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage? I would buy such a program just for that feature alone.
I will appreciate advice.

FTM (and just about any other genealogy program) will produce such a
report as an "Ancestor" or Ahnentafel form. Just start with yourself,
and request the Ahnentafel or Ancestor report and enough generations,
and you'll get a narrative including all your ancestral lines.

But if you're asking for a narrative of everyone in your database,
regardless of if they are related to you or not, then I don't think
any program will do that because the report would be a real mess.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

With a bit (ok- a LOT) of tweaking TMG can be made to produce such a
report.. but it won't be a Narrative decendancy report- it will be
individual narratives for each individual that can be sorted by date of
birth, surname, or a reference number that you can assign to each
individual ( that could be used to set the exact print order of the
individuals).

--
The Verminator

[Bob Velke]

Robert said:

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage?

Yes, The Master Genealogist can do that and I don't think that it is nearly
as complicated as "The Verminator" suggests <g>.

For one thing, you can just generate an Individual Narrative Report for
"All People" and that's exactly what it will do. No tweaking necessary.

But you can also do it with a Journal Report which shows the links between
people using the numbering system. You can select either an ancestor or a
descendant variety of the report but in this case I think you'd want
descendants. Normally, this kind of report is generated by specifying the
starting or "focus" person (i.e., the progenitor) and the report will
generate a linked narrative of all of his descendants.

But in TMG you don't have to set the focus to a single individual. The
focus could be two people, for instance. In that case the report will
generate a complete descendancy of the first person and then start another
section and do the same with the second, referring to the previous people
(e.g, "See #289") if and when the two lines intersect.

Expanding that idea, you can set the focus of the report to a _group_ of
people, say, all of the people whose parents are unknown (i.e., end-of-line
people). TMG will start with the first person in that group and generate
his complete descendancy. Then it will take the next person in the group
and do the same (with cross-references as above). Then the third person,
and so on through all of the people in the group.

Since everyone in the project is, by definition, either an end-of-line
person or descended from one <g>, the result will be one huge narrative
report with everyone in it.

Hope this helps.

Bob Velke
Wholly Genes Software
http://www.WhollyGenes.com

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

On 17 Feb 2006 17:31:31 -0800, "[email protected]"
<[email protected]> declaimed the following in
soc.genealogy.computing:

With a bit (ok- a LOT) of tweaking TMG can be made to produce such a
report.. but it won't be a Narrative decendancy report- it will be
individual narratives for each individual that can be sorted by date of
birth, surname, or a reference number that you can assign to each
individual ( that could be used to set the exact print order of the
individuals).

If one first runs some nasty filters on a List-of-People report to
set flags on "end of line ancestors", one can then set it to run the
descendancy report starting with only the flagged individuals.

TMG has one major flaw, in my experience... It only does "back
references" -- that is, lines that start later in the report generation
order will have "continued in XYZ" where XYZ has already been printed.
As a result, say:

male XYZ marries female ABC

and the order of names in the report is ABC, XYZ, then the children of
XYZ:ABC, having the XYZ surname, appear in the ABC surname chapter --
the XYZ chapter has "continued in female ABC".

If you set the flag "follow surnames", the ABC chapter will stop at
the marriage (so far, okay), BUT the XYZ will not continue with the
children -- the report writer sees that the marriage (but not the
children) has been processed in ABC, and stops at that point also!


The defunct Ultimate Family Tree (which was bought up by the same
company that makes FTM, and then decided that UFT was too
complex/powerful/unknown dumped it -- at the time, UFT and TMG were
practically tied as the most powerful programs available)... Uh, where
was I... Oh yeah... UFT had a family journal report which automatically
determined the end of line ancestors and produced a chapter for each
surname -- AND properly (at least for western conventions) put all
children UNDER THEIR SURNAME, regardless of where the surname appeared
in the list.
--

==============================================================
[email protected] | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG
[email protected] | Bestiaria Support Staff
==============================================================
Home Page: <http://www.dm.net/~wulfraed/
Overflow Page: <http://wlfraed.home.netcom.com/

[[email protected]]

Bob Velke:
I downloaded the trial version of The Master Genealogist (TMG). I
imported my Family Tree Maker successfully into TMG. I created an
Individual Narrative Report for "All People" but it does not appear to
be as complete a report as I want. So, I tried to follow your
directions for a "Journal Report." You wrote that I can "select an
ancestor or a descendant variety of the report." But I do not see such
a choice within the Jounal Report format. I can choose "All people in
the project" but there is no choice there for "ancestor" or
"descendant."

I will appreciate further advice. Thank you.

Bob Judge
[email protected]


Bob Velke wrote:

Robert said:

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage?

Yes, The Master Genealogist can do that and I don't think that it is nearly
as complicated as "The Verminator" suggests <g>.

For one thing, you can just generate an Individual Narrative Report for
"All People" and that's exactly what it will do. No tweaking necessary.

But you can also do it with a Journal Report which shows the links between
people using the numbering system. You can select either an ancestor or a
descendant variety of the report but in this case I think you'd want
descendants. Normally, this kind of report is generated by specifying the
starting or "focus" person (i.e., the progenitor) and the report will
generate a linked narrative of all of his descendants.

But in TMG you don't have to set the focus to a single individual. The
focus could be two people, for instance. In that case the report will
generate a complete descendancy of the first person and then start another
section and do the same with the second, referring to the previous people
(e.g, "See #289") if and when the two lines intersect.

Expanding that idea, you can set the focus of the report to a _group_ of
people, say, all of the people whose parents are unknown (i.e., end-of-line
people). TMG will start with the first person in that group and generate
his complete descendancy. Then it will take the next person in the group
and do the same (with cross-references as above). Then the third person,
and so on through all of the people in the group.

Since everyone in the project is, by definition, either an end-of-line
person or descended from one <g>, the result will be one huge narrative
report with everyone in it.

Hope this helps.

Bob Velke
Wholly Genes Software
http://www.WhollyGenes.com

[Bob Velke]

Bob said:

I downloaded the trial version of The Master Genealogist (TMG). I
imported my Family Tree Maker successfully into TMG. I created an
Individual Narrative Report for "All People" but it does not appear to
be as complete a report as I want.

If you'll tell me what else you want in it, I may be able to help you.

So, I tried to follow your directions for a "Journal Report." You wrote
that I can "select an
ancestor or a descendant variety of the report." But I do not see such a
choice within the
Jounal Report format.

On the Report Definition Screen, click on <Options> in the bottom-left
corner. On the Options page, the "General" tab is the first one that comes
up and "Direction" (descendants or ancestors) on it. Descendants is the
default.

I can choose "All people in the project" but there is no choice there
for "ancestor" or "descendant."

The direction of the report determines whether it goes backward in time
("ancestors") or forward in time ("descendants"). That's different than
the starting person(s).

Close the Options screen and go back to the Report Definition
Screen. You'll see that the "Subject(s) of report" can be:

( ) One Person
( ) Filtered Group
( ) Focus Group
( ) Selected People on the Project Explorer
( ) All people in the project.

If you're try to start the report with all of the end-of-line people in
your project, then you'll want to select "Filtered Group" so that TMG knows
who you want to include and who you don't. Click on <Add> and define the
filter as:

Father* Is ID# 0 AND
Mother* Is ID # 0 END

Then save the filter and run the report.

Hope this helps.

If you haven't already reviewed the Guided Tour
(http://www.whollygenes.com/tmgtour.htm), then you should do that. It
provides a detailed review of concepts, terminology, navigation, etc.

Bob Velke
Wholly Genes Software
http://www.WhollyGenes.com

[Sir Creep]

[email protected] wrote:

Bob Velke:
I downloaded the trial version of The Master Genealogist (TMG). I
imported my Family Tree Maker successfully into TMG. I created an
Individual Narrative Report for "All People" but it does not appear to
be as complete a report as I want.> Bob Judge
[email protected]

Seeing as you did not respond to those asking why you want such an
expansive report, is it safe for me to assume you are intent on using
your database as a PUBLISHING tool? It seems to me you want to have a
complete printout of every person in your database, which sounds like a
book. And as others have mentioned, what would probably be a messy and
disorganized (or very hard to follow) book, though if you can pull it
off, fantastic. Otherwise, people generally post information on one
surname at a time in the various websites, which tells me that is not
your desire for this type of work product.

Patrick

[T.M. Sommers]

[email protected] wrote:

I use Family Tree Maker 10. It will produce what it calls an
"All-In-One Tree", which is a family tree that shows all the
individuals in the "family file" that you create with the program.

It will also produce a "Genealogy Report" that provides a narrative of
all the people in any one of your single family lines.

Like most people, I have multiple family lines in my family file (for
instance, Judge, Smith, and Jones). To produce genealogy reports that
proivde narratives of ALL of my ancestors, I have to create three
reports, one for Judge, one for Smith, and one for Jones.

Is there any genealogy program that will import a GEDCOM, and can then
produce a genealogy report in some kind of narrative of some kind that
will incoroporate ALL of the individuals in the GEDCOM, regardless of
their lineage? I would buy such a program just for that feature alone.
I will appreciate advice.

Lifelines (http://lifelines.sourceforge.net/) has a has a report
generation language with which you can create just about any
report you might want.

--
Thomas M. Sommers -- [email protected] -- AB2SB

[[email protected]]

Yes, thank you, you are right, I am looking for a publishing tool, to
create a book. And yes, I am hoping to create a book that includes
everyone in my database, rather than having to do individual books for
individual family lines.

Bob Velke pointed me the The Master Genealogist, which appears to be
able to do the job for me, although the result is indeed a huge and
complicated document.

[wim]

Check out Genbox (http://www.genbox.com) too.
You can produce one narrative genealogy report with the three (or more)
key individuals of your family lines (Judge, Smith and Jones) as
starting points, withhout having to run the report three times.
Depending on your research-type, the report can be an Ancestor
Narrative or a Descendant Narrative Report.
This will not include any individual (or group of individuals) who is
not connected in any way to one of these three.

Genbox can do an Individual Narrative Report for every individual in
your family-file too. This will be a collection of 'short
stories' though and I don't think you'd want that.

[Sir Creep]

[email protected] wrote:

Yes, thank you, you are right, I am looking for a publishing tool, to
create a book. And yes, I am hoping to create a book that includes
everyone in my database, rather than having to do individual books for
individual family lines.

Bob Velke pointed me the The Master Genealogist, which appears to be
able to do the job for me, although the result is indeed a huge and
complicated document.

Well, best of luck, and let us know how the project is coming along. I
understand your desire to 'pile it all together', as it were. But I am
contemplating putting a couple smaller family lines out there in print
some day (read: a decade from now LOL) and will be happy to leave the
rest for others to do with what they will.

Patrick