I have found some more information on the Chapman line, but first I need to find a new genealogy program. I have been using The Master Genealogist, but the owner/developer has decided to suspend the product. That is a real shame because I have not found another genealogy program that is as detailed and configurable. The owner has had some health issues, and after 25 years has decided to retire. Another reason is, TMG appeals more to the professional genealogist, and so has a smaller customer base than other programs by big organizations like LDS or ancestry.com, which cater more to the hobbyist genealogist.
My plan right now is to find a new program, and then start entering my data into it. That way, I can double-check everything as I go. After using a program for so long, and entering data that is not always definite but I enter it anyway so I don’t lose track of it, the data tends to get messy. And because I’m pretty much starting over on the Chapman line, it makes sense to enter the new data into the new program, rather than enter it now and then all over again when I get a new program. No doubt I could export a GEDCOM file of data and import that into a new program, but I would lose all my exhibit links, so finding and entering all those exhibits of sources would take as much time as entering them the first time. And before entering them in the new program, I can organize them a bit better. And if I did an export/import, I would have to first find all the people still in the file that we are really not related to, especially in the Chapman line.
I’m not sure there is another program that can seemlessly take all my data and exhibits and create a website, like TMG and its plug-in Second Site, which is what I use to create the family tree part. I still want to keep all that data and supporting source exhibits available to everyone in the family, but I also want to keep the rest of the background-type information that I’ve been putting on these WordPress pages.
Whatever program I end up with, the tree will have a lot fewer people in it then, mostly because of removing those non-family Chapmans. I have also added in unrelated people, or maybe peripherally-related is a better word. These are people I add in as I am actively researching, to try to keep track of similar people and families in the same area, so I can make sure I’m tracing the right people and not someone else with the same name. I need to remove those people too, now that I have determined they are not related.
Anyway, I have found William Chapman’s family (who married Sarah Jane Allen), his parents and 13 siblings. This information is mostly from online indexes, but the actual church register images are not online yet, they are only on microfilm, and unfortunately the film is not at the local FHC here in Mesa. I’m getting all the data together so it will all be handy when I rent the film, have it sent to the FHC here, and go scroll through the film. Should be fun (not). I thought that I was going to have to do that for the Hungarian records for Pósa, but a few years ago they put those records online so it’s much nicer to look through the records in the comfort of my own home. At least the microfilm I have to scroll through at the FHC is in English! But the nice part about the Hungarian records is that women kept their name throughout their lives in the church records, makes it much easier to find the women.
I will be adding the Chapman info I know so far to the Chapman page soon (I actually made a new William Chapman page), but remember that I still need to verify the data with the actual church registers. And we’ll see how far back I can get 🙂
Also–forgot to mention, some free records at ancestry.com this weekend. I didn’t look into it so I’m not sure exactly which records are free, but it looks like international records. So if you don’t have a subscription, or only a subscription for US records, now’s your chance to see if a world subscription might be worthwhile for you.