Ancestor Tree Manager

Maintenance

There are a number of functions available for maintenance of the database. Material related functions are discussed on the Material - Tools & maintenance page. This page discusses the data related functions.

Data check

Checking for various deviations and (possible) inaccuracies. A distinction is made between warnings and errors by showing the errors in red.

Loop error

A loop error is a serious error in the database which is also displayed immediately after loading a file because it affects the behavior of ATM.

Name

Shows persons without a name or with a name that deviates from the standard. For example a name that contains 'incorrect' characters, see page Name or unusual use of capitals and lowercase letters.

Sex

Shows persons with sex M/F en persons with the same sex as their partner.

Age

Shows persons who are not explicitly marked as deceased and whose (estimated) age is higher than the maximum age specified in 'Mark as deceased'. By default, this is set to 105 years.

Events

Shows persons whose events may conflict with each other or with family members' events. For example, a child cannot be born after the mother's death and someone cannot marry after his/her death. Events that are less likely are also reported, so that it can be investigated whether there is a typo or an exceptional situation.

Facts

Shows persons to whom facts are linked with a (start) date that falls before the person's birth/baptism or an (end) date that falls after the person's death/burial date.

Witnesses

Shows persons who are witnesses linked to an undefined event (for example, to birth when only baptism is defined) or where the event occurs before birth/baptism or after death/funeral of the witness.

No connection with other persons

Shows persons who have no connection with any other person in the database. This therefore concerns persons without parents, partner and children who do not act as witnesses anywhere and where no witnesses have been specified at their own birth/baptism and death/funeral.

Duplicate persons

Shows persons who may be identical.

Duplicate material

Shows persons associated with the same material in multiple places. This can be rather annoying for the 'reader'.

Place names

Shows place names that contain 'incorrect' characters.

Also check persons excluded from data check

With the personal options you can indicate whether that person should be excluded from data check. This is useful for suppressing notifications that have already been verified. By checking 'Also check persons excluded...', all persons are included in the data check.

Maintenance per field

After selecting the type of input field, all entered values for that field are shown in the left-hand table.

Double clicking in this table shows in the right-hand table all persons with the selected text in the relevant input field. This is also possible with the button on the toolbar.

By double clicking in the right-hand table, the relevant person can be selected in the main window. This is also possible via the context menu under the right mouse button.

The selected text can be changed throughout the database for that type of input field with the button on the toolbar. This is possible for all types except 'Address' and 'Material': an address in fact consists of 3 fields, material concerns the connection to a file. See Portrait and Event material for information about handling material.

It is also possible to delete the text, with the exception of type 'Category'.

Only the left-hand table can be searched via on the toolbar.

Mark as deceased

The possibility to mark all persons over a certain age as deceased. The age is adjustable, with a minimum of 100 years. After executing this function, a table is displayed with all modified persons.

Find text

With this function you can search for notes, facts, sources and/or portrait-captions containing a specific text.

Enter the search text and choose the desired search method:

Literal	plain search for a partial match
Partial wildcard match	wildcard search (? and *) for a partial match
Full wildcard match	wildcard search (? and *) for a strict match

If desired, you can search with case sensitivity.

Overview of ancestors

This function provides a graphical overview of several generations (3-7) ancestors, either horizontal or vertical. This overview can be used for navigating: clicking on an area shows the corresponding person in the main window.

Kinship

With this function you can find the shortest route from the currently selected person to a (potential) relative. You can choose between different options:

After selecting the relative and route type, a graphic overview is displayed with the requested information (if available).

Below are the results when selecting first cousins, married and with a child.

Via shared ancestor


Via blood relatives


Unrestricted

Overview of not-deceased persons

An overview of all persons who are not explicitly marked as deceased. Such a person is considered to be deceased for the purpose of reporting:

• 110 years after birth
• 95 years after the marriage or the birth of a child
• if the person has at least 4 generations of offspring

Overview of unrelated persons

This function is enabled when a reference person is set.

Shows the persons who cannot be traced in any way as a (distant) relative of the reference person (blood relative or by marriage).
Note that linking to a witness does not make this witness related. In the table there is additional info about whether there is a witness connection. If 'Witness connection' is checked, this indicates that the person (either/both):

• witnessed an event of (a family member of) the reference person
• is the 'owner' of an event witnessed by (a family member of) the reference person

Excess persons can be removed via the context menu under the right mouse button.

Overview of witnesses

An overview of all witnesses to events and their family relationship to the person(s) involved.
Persons who have been entered solely because of their function as a witness, without having parents/partners/children are indicated with '(stand alone witness)'.
Possible errors:

• For a witness that is linked to a non-existent event, the data is shown in orange
• For a witness who has not yet been born or has already died at the time of the event, the data is shown in red

The most common mistake is linking a baptismal witness to the birth.

Overview of relationships

An overview of all relationship data. See Tab 'Family' for the meaning of the different types of relationships.
Under the right mouse button there is a context menu with the function Change relationship type with which the type can be adjusted if necessary. The change to No relationship cannot be done from the table but only in the main window, because this can have greater consequences.

Overview of uncertain relatives

An overview of all persons with an uncertain parent, partner or child.

Overview of manual sorting

An overview of all persons where the partners or children are sorted manually.

Overview of options

An overview of the person-related options:

Overview of hidden prefixes

An overview of all persons who (presumably) have a surname with a prefix, where the prefix is not entered in the available field but in the field for the given name or surname.
Below the right mouse button is a context menu with the function Adjust name which can be used to rectify this.

Overview of event sources

You can select both the event(s) and the source type(s) you are interested in.

When collecting scans it can be useful to see which sources are missing for a particular place, therefore it is also possible to enter a place name.

To compile the list of place names, all names found are normalized: they are stripped of any question marks and data placed in parentheses.
In the table of results, the place names are shown as they are entered in the database.

If sources with material are collected, material data can also be shown if desired:

Black and white	Whether the image (or: at least 1 image) is in black and white. N.B. this check is rather time consuming.
Number of images	Only relevant for a scan page
Contains text	Only relevant for a scan page

Overview of fact sources

You can select the source type(s) you are interested in.

If sources with material are collected, material data can also be shown if desired:

Black and white	Whether the image (or: at least 1 image) is in black and white. N.B. this check is rather time consuming.
Number of images	Only relevant for a scan page
Contains text	Only relevant for a scan page

Update ID numbers

It is annoying if ID numbers of persons are unnecessarily large because that causes poor readability. When searching for persons with similar names, those numbers can come in handy. In addition, ATM uses the ID numbers of individuals and families for the naming of folders in which scans are stored.

With this maintenance function, the numbering of persons and/or families can be adjusted, so that the numbering starts at 1 and there are no gaps in the numbering.

After changing ID numbers of persons, the reporting must be created again so that page numbers match the person IDs and the correct navigation bar is used: Reporting Create complete reporting.

When material was linked to events or facts, changes in de ID numbers can result in folder names deviating from the file conventions. If desired, this can be adjusted via Material Check file conventions. See also page File conventions.