Re: Genealogical evidence and data model

On Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:16:19 -0500, singhals <singhals@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>Ian Goddard wrote:
>
>> singhals wrote:
>> 
>>> But, I'd venture to suggest that out of any 100 genealogists at least 
>>> 51% _still_ want a program to record their conclusions so they can 
>>> print it out.  
>> 
>> 
>> If that wish were properly implemented things wouldn't be so bad.  But 
>> when I get back to the mid C18th the only conclusion for quite a number

>> of lines is "A or B" or even "A or B or C".
>> 
>
>Those aren't conclusions, IMO.  Those are possibilities.
>
>> S/W which assumes that pedigrees can always be resolved unambiguously 
>> won't handle this situation.  I can't believe that the situation is 
>> uncommon so how do users of such S/W cope?  Do they simply stop
entering 
>> their results when they get back to an ambiguity?  Do they allow their 
>> S/W to dictate to them that they should choose what might at the time 
>> appear to be the most likely ancestor and discard the rest?  Do they 
>> generate parallel universes of databases to handle all the alternative 
>> combinations?
>> 
>
>Generally, when I have _serious_ ambiguity and no way of 
>selecting which I think is most likely, I put all the 
>choices in the NOTES of the person who is the child of the 
>ambiguous party.
>
>Paper charts, and prose annotations, had the same limitations.
>
>What makes it more a problem in a computer database than in, 
>say, an index-card file or a letter?
>
>Cheryl

I think your last statement indicates a disconnect we're seeing.
"Most" of the people commenting in this thread have probably never
done genealogy any other way than using a computer.

-- 
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/