Thanks Jan for your acknowledgment to Patricia Caster. What an incredible
job she has taken on.!
Jack K. Castor
-----Original Message-----
From: JCBryan(a)aol.com <JCBryan(a)aol.com>
To: CASTOR-L(a)rootsweb.com <CASTOR-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Date: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 9:28 AM
Subject: [CASTOR] The New Custer Database is a Big Job
To Newer Members like me who have not yet received their lineage: I
too,
have been waiting anxiously for some months now. Perhaps it would help to
understand entirely how long it takes to build a database from ASCII files
on
dozens of diskettes. You sit there hour after hour feeding diskettes
into
the slot, then, sometimes, having to tweak the result so it links properly
to
the data on the last diskette. The finished result will be a single,
modern
database that can quickly search for, organize, and produce a report
on
anyone who is already there. But new members frequently will not be on the
database, yet. Pat will need to search through the database looking for
where this person fits in (not always easy), check any incomplete data on
intervening generations against existing documentation, and update the
database accordingly. Only then can a few clicks produce a lineage report
for the new member. The alternative to building this database is to
continue
to manually assemble lineage reports from multiple diskettes, which I
am
sure
takes way, way longer. If we can all be patient, the forthcoming
database
will provide a much improved resource for all researchers. I wish Pat
lived
in the Chicago area; I'd volunteer to come over to her house and
help.
She's
doing something very important, the right way, and, obviously, as fast
as
she
can. Jan Custer Bryan
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