Victor,

Too funny...when I started working on my family tree in 1998, I did 
create my own program, which I still use today.  But my program 
doesn't do all the fancy charts and reports.  So I was going to add 
that to my program when I found the PAF program.  I liked the reports 
and tools in that program so instead of adding that functionality to 
my own program, I created a tool to convert the data in my program to 
a GED file and I then import it into a PAF file.  All this probably 
sounds confusing but it works for me.  The reason I haven't gotten 
rid of my own program is cause it still does things that PAF doesn't 
do...and besides it has sentimental value...jk... :-)

Talk to you later,
Angie Godina


--- In ranchos@yahoogroups.com, "v.h.villarreal" <raices_regias@y...> 
wrote:
> Angie,
> 
> So we have one more thing in common, eh?  Our interest in databases
> and programming, besides having ancestors in Colotlán, Totatiche and
> Tlaltenango.
> 
> I have PAF 5 but I use it mainly to export my Gedcoms to a Palm 
Pilot.
>  The software that I'm currently using for my genealogy is Legacy 5,
> which I believe is a very complete application.  When I started
> compiling my genealogical data I considered creating my own data
> tables and user interface in Access, but after trying Legacy I
> realized that it would be an enormous time investment to create an
> application from scratch with all that functionality so I changed my
> mind.  
> 
> What I'm storing is Access are the batch numbers of the church 
records
> I'm currently researching, which at present include only a few from
> the State of Nuevo León. 
> 
> Regarding the information at FamilySearch, actually there are 
several
> databases, of which the IGI is just one.  But their databases are 
not
> Access based, that's why the Access default wildcard does not work. 
> The wildcard for the IGI database is the percentage sign (%) but you
> have to use it just by itself as a substitute for a whole word, that
> is, not as a substitute for single letters within a word. For 
example,
> 
> First Name: %
> Last Name: Raygosa
> 
> You can apply other filtering criteria as usual.  I've tried using 
the
> wildcard in the Father, Mother and Spouse fields but it doesn't 
always
> work; I think it is better to fill those one at a time in each query
> if you have available data or just leave blank.  Play around a 
little
> bit and you'll soon be doing wonders.  Like I said previously, for 
me
> the easiest and most productive way to search the IGI is entering 
the
> batch number for the locality and date period and then run a lot of
> queries changing the filtering criteria, trying different spellings,
> using the wildcard, etcetera, etcetera, until I exhaust all 
possibilities.
> 
> Just imagine how great it would be if we were able to obtain all 
batch
> numbers from the Family History Library Catalog, instead of having 
to
> run a generic search and then guessing them by trail and error.  
That
> is one of the other things that I don't understand about the 
thinking
> behind the designers and/or administrators of Familysearch.  But I
> guess we can't have it all, can we?
> 
> Un Saludo Cordial
> Victor Villarreal
> 
>