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The Gedcom format
The Gedcom format is "the" standard for the genealogical files, it was created by the Mormons and is natively used by their genealogical database management freeware PAF. It's a rather simple format, built on a tags hierarchy, each record starting with a number indicating the tag level and followed by a tag attribute.
Shown below is the GEDCOM Release 5.5 format description :
INDIVIDUAL_RECORD
0 @XREF:INDI@ INDI
1 NAME {NAME PERSONAL}
2 NPFX {NAME_PIECE_PREFIX}
2 GIVN {NAME_PIECE_GIVEN}
2 NICK {NAME_PIECE_NICKNAME}
2 SPFX {NAME_PIECE_SURNAME_PREFIX}
2 SURN {NAME_PIECE_SURNAME}
2 NSFX {NAME_PIECE_SUFFIX}
1 SEX {SEX_VALUE}
1 BIRT
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 BAPM
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 CHR
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 DEAT
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 BURI
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 OCCU {OCCUPATION}
1 TITL {NOBILITY_TYPE_TITLE}
1 REFN {REFERENCE}
1 FAMC @{XREF:FAM}@
1 FAMS @{XREF:FAM}@
1 NOTE @{XREF:NOTE}@
1 NOTE [{SUBMITTER_TEXT} | {NULL}]
2 [CONC | CONT] {SUBMITTER_TEXT}]
Note : If an INDIVIDUAL_RECORD uses one of the tags NPFX, GIVN, NICK, SPFX, SURN ou NSFX, the compiler uses this information and ignores the {NAME_PERSONAL} and TITL tag.
FAMILY_RECORD
0 @XREF:FAM@ FAM
1 HUSB @{XREF:INDI}@
1 WIFE @{XREF:INDI}@
1 MARR
2 DATE {DATE_VALUE}
2 PLAC {PLAC_VALUE}
1 CHIL @{XREF:INDI}@
NOTE_RECORD
0 @XREF:NOTE@ NOTE {SUBMITTER_TEXT}
1 [CONC | CONT] {SUBMITTER_TEXT}
The GEDCOM Standard - Copyright (C) 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Sosa-Stradonitz classification
The Sosa-Stradonitz classification is commonly used for the ascendants :
- The number 1 corresponds to the first individual of the first generation, or to the root of your ascendant family tree, you for example.
- The father always has a number equal to double that of his son or daughter. Your father will be number 2, your paternal grandfather will be number 4.
- The mother has a number equal to double plus one to that of her son or daughter. Your mother will be number 3 and your paternal grandmother number 5.
- This principle applies in the same way for your maternal side. Your maternal grandfather will be number 2 x 3 (your mother's number) = 6, your maternal grandmother will be number 2 x 3 + 1 = 7.
- All fathers have an even number(except you), and all mothers have an odd number.
If you are only interested in the direct line tree, the agnatic line, you will keep only the fathers in the paternal side, i.e. you, your father, your paternal grandfather, etc... the numbers will then be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, ....
The number of individuals per generation increases to the power of 2, so that under Charlemagne you have the possibility to find about 2 to the power of 40, i.e. more than 1 billion ancestors. The French Social Security system planned well when they adopted a 13 digit numbering system!
The Henry-d'Aboville classifications
The Henry-d'Aboville classifications are commonly used for the descendants :
The Henry classification takes its name from Reginald Buchanan HENRY who used it in his "Presidents families genealogy" in 1935. In this system, the common ancestor receives the number 1. His oldest child, number 11, the second, number 12. The first born child of number 11 is number 111, the next number 112, etc...
In the Henry system, when there are more than 9 children, the numbers are placed in parentheses. Thus the 10th child of Number 111 is Number 111(10) and his first child number 111(10)1, etc...
The system called "D'Aboville system" is similar to the Henry system, except that each digit, (or number higher than 9) is separated by a period ex : 1.1.1.10.2.
The "Modified Henry system" differs from the Henry system by the fact that it uses, instead of 10, 11, 12, .. for the 10th, 11th, 12th, .. children, the letters A, B, C, and so on , ex : 111A2. This allows to count until 35 children for a single individual ( not too bad .. ).
The Geneanet site
Geneanet (http://www.geneanet.org) is "the" ideal site for a genealogist. You upload your files containing the list of names-places that make up your genealogy as a text file in .csv format.
Example : BAQUET;ou BACQUET;1670;2001;Saint-Omer;F62;NPC;FRA;A
And then you become a member. Many genealogists have done it as there are more than 50 million entries in their database! A search engine is at your disposal, with selections on city, area, country, time period, and you get the postal or internet address of all those who share their names-places with you.
Other services were added, like the family tree on line. To contribute to the family tree online, you should upload your data in a Gedcom file.
All that is free but you can help to make it a more worthwhile site, and get additional benefits, by becoming a "Privileged Member" for a small fee.
The Perl language
P.E.R.L. means Practical Extraction and Report Language.
Created in 1986 by Larry Wall, systems engineer, initially to manage a «News» system between two networks.
It's :
- A programming language
- A free software available on internet
- An interpreted language :
- no compilation
- slower than a compiled language
- each « script» requires the Perl interpreter on the computer to run.
Why did perl become popular ?
- portability : Perl exists on the majority of the platforms today (Unix, VMS ,Windows, Mac, Amiga, Atari...)
- no charge : freeware
- simplicity : a few commands do everything that took 500 lines in a C program, or Pascal
- robustness : No storage allocation to manage, strings, piles, unlimited variables names ...
Which use ?
Initially Perl was created :
- to handle files (notably to handle several files simultaneously),
- to handle text (search, replace),
- to handle processes (in particular through the network).
=> Perl was primarily intended to the UNIX world
Why does one use Perl today ?
- to generate, update, analyse HTML files (in particular for the writing of CGI scripts),
- «Universal» access to databases,
- conversion of files formats.
=> Perl is not related anymore to the UNIX world
Perl is not made :
- to write interactive programs (thus there now exists the tkperl module, wich allows it),
- for scientific computation (Perl is not compiled : performances problems).
University of Rennes 1 - DESS TIMH - PERL course - (Pouliquen)
The .csv format
The .csv format or Comma Separated Variables is a very simple file format, making it possible to sequentially arrange tabular data by separating the succesive columns by a semicolon, while respecting the separation of the rows.
The interest in this format other than its simplicity for a programmer, is being displayable with a text editor like Notepad or Wordpad. It is also especially in being identifiable by standard spreadsheet editors, like Excel, which can reconstitute a tabular representation guided by the delimiter ";".
Depending on the Excel version that you have, importing the .csv can be somewhat automatic. If, after importing a .csv file, you note that all the data are settled in the first column, you can do as follows :
- Select the first column by clicking on its title A
- Select the "Data" menu, "Convert" item
- Choose the option "Delimited", click "Next"
- Untick "Tabulation" box, tick the "Semicolon" box, click "Next"
- Verify, specify the particular columns format if required, click "Finish"
If you obtain a message like "Would you replace the content of target cells", it's probably that your data contained tabulation characters. I don't know how to inhibit the "tab" delimiter which can be a default separator. A workaround is to open your file with Wordpad, then do a "Select All", then "Copy, and finally do a "Paste" in the first cell of the Excel spreadsheet where you want to store your data.
When closing the file, you have the choice to save it either in .csv format, which will give you several superfluous messages to handle, or save it in the excel .xls format, which will enable you to keep the form settings.
The Cassini maps
The Cassini maps have been designed in the XVIII° century. They are the results of works of an italian family, whose 4 generations succeed on this wide duty : Jean-Dominique (1625-1712), Jacques (1677-1756), César-François (1714-1784), Jacques Dominique (1748-1845).
They were quite finished before the french revolution, some adds have been made until 1812. It exists 181 maps at the 1/86400 scale for the whole France.
Display Cassini maps with the cassini.jvs script sample provided with gedail :
NB Display by places is available by departements int the placelinks directory.
CSS2 -- Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2
- Introduction
- Font
- Color and Background
- Text
- Box
- Classification
- Compatibilité
- Ressources
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