Historical document info entry

[melzieb]

Hello Howard / all:

I found PAWriter about a year ago and use it for working on my family's geneaological information. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful program for MAC!

I also attend University and was considering using it for a student project. This project would involve deciphering very old historical documents and creating a family tree from the genealogical information found within. (Would this be allowed under the licensing agreement?)

I have a couple of questions:
1. Would PAWriter allow for entry of inter-family marriages? Such as a daughter marrying her uncle? This was common practice in the culture that I study.
2. Are there any restrictions on how far back we can go in years? Some of these lines may extend as far back as, say, 900 AD.

Many thanks in advance for any information and/or advice!

Best,
Melanie

[Howard Metcalfe]

melzieb said:

Hello Howard / all:

I found PAWriter about a year ago and use it for working on my family's geneaological information. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful program for MAC!

I also attend University and was considering using it for a student project. This project would involve deciphering very old historical documents and creating a family tree from the genealogical information found within. (Would this be allowed under the licensing agreement?)

I have a couple of questions:
1. Would PAWriter allow for entry of inter-family marriages? Such as a daughter marrying her uncle? This was common practice in the culture that I study.
2. Are there any restrictions on how far back we can go in years? Some of these lines may extend as far back as, say, 900 AD.

Many thanks in advance for any information and/or advice!

Best,
Melanie

Hi Melanie,

The licensing agreement ("The Usual Disclaimers") allows PAWriter to be used however you see fit. Be careful of entering copyrighted text into the notes. But any publication before 1923 is in the public domain. Also, facts (or supposed facts) cannot be copyrighted, just the means of expressing them. So a birth date or place in and of itself cannot be copyrighted.

Yes, a person in PAWriter can marry anyone of the opposite sex -- uncle, brother, father, son, whatever. I have entered some ladies who married their uncles. (However, if she marries her father or son you will get an "ancestral loop" in her pedigree -- not to mention other genetic problems!)

Dates in PAWriter cannot go back farther than 1 January 100 A.D, as was true with the old Mac PAF. The list of possible problems will, however, note dates earlier than 1 January 1000 A.D., but that affects nothing -- just a reminder that maybe you missed entering a digit.

Best regards,
Howard