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Precision Genealogical Tools
Announcing a different way to record, chart and share genealogical information ...
There are many different programs that set out to record your family tree and present it in an attractive format. But how accurate is that tree? If someone were to check your tree, how certain can you be that there are no glaring discrepancies lurking in there? If there was such a discrepancy, how much work would need to be done to rectify the problem?
Precision Genealogical Tools is a researcher's toolbox. It enables you to enter in from scratch a variety of genealogical information - primary, secondary and miscellaneous, which can be used to produce family trees, but also analyse and check a family tree for accuracy in a far greater variety of ways than is possible with other products.
Precision Genealogical Tools is a product that aims to take the problems out of sharing data, should you wish to share it. Apart from using cryptographic techniques to encrypt data before sending - which we feel is a critical issue that is not sufficiently addressed by other programs; the program has the ability to identify data that has been exported elsewhere, modified, and then brought back in.
The program can be used also for family reconstruction projects, and for one-name studies where collaboration is important. There is no predefined structure within which Precision Genealogical Tools tries to constrain your data, and there is no necessity to enter data that relates to existing data. The program can be used to test Multiple Candidacy theories you may have, and to reverse and reapply the links if further research proves a theory to be false - without disturbing the Primary data that you have collected.
Precision Genealogical Tools can also be used to import GED format files and present your data in a way that is much more relevant to researchers than is possible with other programs.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the program in finding errors, the Royals GED tree is included as a Tutorial within the program. This GED has been circulating on the web for many years without amendment, and many sites seem to treat it as being correct. This is a fantastic piece of research by Denis R Reid, but it was never intended to be treated as finished by its author, by the look of correspondence embedded in the GED. I have no wish to pick holes in this work - at the time it was compiled, the tools available to check voluminous data such as this were not available. With the advent of Precision Genealogical Tools I hope that many will feel inspired to work on this project and correct the anomalies. I think the reason why nobody has attempted to update it is the difficulty of finding where the errors are. By running integrity reports on the data, Precision Genealogical Tools is able to pinpoint those errors and to help you correct them. Such things as people who live to well over 100 years old, were born before their mother was, married before they were 10. Things such as this are easy to spot with Precision Genealogical Tools.
Some of the reports available in Precision Genealogical Tools give a fresh perspective to your data.
The Individual Event Diary can be a very vivid portrayal of a person's life. The complete collection of Diaries for this tree are indexed here. There are over 3000 of these on-line for you to view. The complete collection was generated by Precision Genealogical Tools within an hour, together with the associated indexes. Click on a link to display. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.
The Family Event Diary shows how the Bride and Groom align together in terms of age, and tying in their children and any events that impact on the family as a whole, such as the death of anyone in the family, and any subsequent remarriages. Though the Royals data does not show Census information, this can be added. Also external events that are not part of the family tree, but impinge dramatically on family life - such as the Great War, can be added to the data. The format of this report overcomes the problem of multiple marriages, and clearly displays from which marriage any offspring belong. Again, a complete set of Diaries for the entire Royal's Family tree was constructed within an hour once the data had been imported into PGT from GED format. The complete collection of Family Event Diaries can be found here. There are over 600 of these on-line. Why the small number? Many Family Event Diaries are not produced simply because the program deduces that the data is too inaccurate to be useful. In these cases, the relevant Individual Event Diaries would be checked, the underlying data amended, and then re-generated.
To show how Precision Genealogical Tools deals with multiple marriages, have a look at Henry VIII's Family Diaries here. There are six of them to view (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Catherine Howard, Catherine Parr). One for each of his marriages. Note the differences between them, and how the children are identified to be from a particular marriage.
Sometimes there is no substitute for a diagram. Ask someone to produce a diagram which shows the hereditary relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and they will find it difficult to do without resorting to using some kind of graphics package. PGT has the facility to build a chart with no chance of making a mistake: if the data has been correctly entered into the program then the information on the chart mimics that data. See the Victoria related to Albert chart. I have also produced a rough chart for Henry VIII which shows his marriages and children.
Another chart, this time from my own family tree is the Timeline of Lydia Jane Wakefield who was born in Northfleet, Kent 1858. This Timeline shows her birth record (birth records are in pink) and who her parents were (Thomas and Elizabeth Wakefield ). She was aged 3 at the 1861 Census and this is shown in the Census record (Census records are in blue). The next box is of the 1871 Census when she is recorded as being of age 13. I have been unable to find her in either the 1881 or 1891 Censuses. In 1884 she married Samuel Coffee (marriages are in green), and they had a child by the name Lydia Jane Jubilee Coffee. Samuel Coffee died at some stage after this and Lydia Jane Wakefield married George Webster in 1891. They had 3 daughters: Elizabeth, Daisy and Alice Louisa. All children appear in the same household in the 1901 Census. I think you will find that everything in this chart is self-consistent.
These charts are encapsulated in PDF format, but within the program they are dynamic. If you produce a chart which highlights an error in the underlying data then, in many cases the chart you are working on will automatically update once the underlying data is changed.
The program has Educational potential, Charts bring history to life, for example, by enabling children to pick out Henry VIII, and to then create boxes representing his wives, and his children. All those with an artistic flair who wish to submit charts generated by the program for publication on this site, please send in your examples.
Yes there is the possibility to produce Pedigree charts in the normal way, but the free-format nature of PGT charting means that you can arrange your data in the way that you want. I have to admit that the format is not nearly as polished as other programs, but we are happy to collaborate with Software Publishers of other programs to come up with ways to bring your data into their programs for the best presentation.
I could carry on and on explaining the benefits of Precision Genealogical Tools. Why not see for yourself? A download of the program is available here. The download is currently about 8Mb in size. It has been tested on Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows XP, and is designed also to work with Windows ME and Windows 2000.
The program you will be downloading is a Lite version of Precision Genealogical Tools. It is not time restricted, but there are certain features which are disabled, and printouts have an "evaluation" watermark on them. Please feel free to distribute this free version to friends and colleagues within the terms of the Licence Agreement. Please be aware that the program is constantly being improved and updated.
To receive the latest version and to receive updates for a period of a year you can purchase the software, which will unlock the disabled features and remove the watermark from printouts. If you wish to purchase the software (£20), please click on the Buy Now button below. Once your payment has been authorised we will send a Serial Number and Activation Key to unlock the software so that all facilities can be used.
Purchasers of the software can extend their software update period without charge by means of a contributory bug reporting scheme, the details of which will be notified to you. Purchasers can also become agents to sell the software - If you run a family history society or you are a retailer of genealogical products or services then please contact me to receive details of our agency scheme.
If you are a user of the unrestricted version of Precision Genealogical Tools, you are welcome to submit data for publication on this website, or to Link to your data held elsewhere on the web.
If you are a developer of genealogical products or services: software, web site, genealogical data, research, etc and wish to extend the scope of your existing products and services, then please contact me to discuss methods of collaborating in ways that will benefit everyone. We are in the course of preparing a Genealogical Resources section to the site which will be ready soon.
Precision Genealogical Tools is a product of Moorhouse Software Services. Ken (the proprietor) can be contacted at ken@precisiongenealogicaltools.com or by phone in the uk 020 8567 7817. We are members of the Guild of Master Craftsmen.
P.S. Want to find this site again? What was the name of it? Precision geonology? genology? geanology? geneology? Do not despair, just remember www.pgt123.com.