* Tools or Tips for Patterns in Research Data

[David Potter]

Evening Forum
Does anyone have any special techniques for looking at patterns in their research data once in FH? I'm talking moreso about places and address. I know there is data available for what event occurred at each of these and Mapping can assist with this also. But are there any wizards who have constructed queries or other techniques to aid this analysis further?

I have used Gensmarts in the past but didin't really find any benefit it what it produced.
Curious as to what can be done really.

Many thanks,

[E Wilcock]

What do you want to discover?
I have never tidied up my place list but yes I do query my data. Regularly. I was helped by tuition from Mike Tate when I began and I use no tools or tips except for using fh Query.
To select a place in a census or a b.m.d. involves one line of the query.
I keep some query results in named lists. Which provide an overall count.
For me the whole point of massive data entry in fh is to be able to query it. So I save custom queries to use again.

Due to user error I regularly seem to close fh by accident, and then get cross that my query results in the left hand margin have vanished.

[Ron Melby]

a couple of things that I have done, is to (for whatever event) compare place and address to insure they are not 3981.65 miles from one another, which has helped me correct places and addresses for internet GPSing. One thing that has helped me, is to create a plugin that lists who is buried in what cemetery, and another that lists burials or cremations by family in cemeteries, it has helped me find a few people who were sort of missing info in my gedcom.

Something I would like to do, (there is not time or ability however) is create a mapped timeline following lets say one of my oldest families and as the children grow and marry and have children of their own be able to select those people and include them in the view, or not.

One thing that is sort of a warning: I live in Yankshire and my Ancestors are Norwegian (father) and English (mother) which is to say 100% Norwegian. And due to the force of history, the originals first appeared in the 13 colonies (mostly NY, and RI) and over time the descendants have moved west. That is hardly a groundbreaking insight.

[E Wilcock]

I dont know your personal or family situation.
I have only twice been asked by grandchildren for any fh tree information. First World War and Migration.
All primary schools in London seem to do FWW and in Inner London State Primaries they may do migration.
Your mapping would have come in useful for that?

[David Potter]

Sincere apologies for the late response. Thank you everyone who replied. I'm digesting your comments now.

I guess what I was asking is if there is any software tools or manual techniques that might look for and spot patterns of behaviour like being born at an address that coincidently other linked ancestors may have resided at. Therefore offering a further level of evidence supporting that specific part of research.

I know there are lists available in FH by Place and Address but I do like software solutions if they exist.
I'll take a fresh look at Gensmarts and FT Analyzer to see what they offer.

Thank you once again.

[Gowermick]

David,
I utilise addresses separately from places, but ensure the street name precedes the house number. e.g. “High Street, 56”, or “Long Lane, 12”. Then, as I enter an address, the autocomplete mechanism in FH reminds me if the street name and number has been used before, so I can investigate further.

Similarly, when working with data ‘addresses’, the streets names are listed alphabetically, so similar addresses are placed next to each other and can be more easily spotted.
I think you’ll find both methods useful for the sort of research you want to do.

[tatewise]

The Tools > Work with Data > Addresses... dialogue gives you some useful clues.

On the right is a Used column that indicates how many times that Address has been used in your Project.
Now it might be that it is used multiple times by one Individual, but the Records... button lists every record for you, and the Where Used... button produces a detailed Result Set of every usage.

Assuming you have logical comma separated Parts to your Address field, clicking on any Part column heading sorts them and brings similarly named addresses together, which can show clustering in certain locations.

[David Potter]

Thank you Mick, I can see how switching number and street details can assist with sorting and 'prompting' for further analysis. I will adopt that method going forward.

@Mike, thanks Mike for the reply, I have recently reviewed how useful those features are and will make better use of these going forward.

Thanks all for your comments.

[dbridge276]

Have you looked at using Family Tree Analyser?

It takes a gedcom file and has a multitude of options to look at the data.

It’s also FREE and well worth investing some time to play around with, the author is also very receptive to suggestions for enhancements and quick to implement them.
He added a suggestion from me within hours.

[tatewise]

It is advisable to use the Export Gedcom File plugin in (FTA) Family Tree Analyzer mode to create the GEDCOM file for import to FTA.

[David Potter]

Have you looked at using Family Tree Analyser?

It takes a gedcom file and has a multitude of options to look at the data.

It’s also FREE and well worth investing some time to play around with, the author is also very receptive to suggestions for enhancements and quick to implement them.
He added a suggestion from me within hours.

Thank you - I'm looking at this now.

[David Potter]

It is advisable to use the Export Gedcom File plugin in (FTA) Family Tree Analyzer mode to create the GEDCOM file for import to FTA.

Thanks Mike - will do...

[dbridge276]

It is advisable to use the Export Gedcom File plugin in (FTA) Family Tree Analyzer mode to create the GEDCOM file for import to FTA.

Mike
Thanks for that advice, handy to know.