This section covers the more technical background as to how the NSSAR Patriot Index Project was handled. It is included especially for those who like to know what goes on "behind the scenes."

The genealogical lineage was keyed, either directly or indirectly, into Personal Ancestral File (PAF), a computer genealogy database program created, and copyrighted, by the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. PAF v2.31 was selected for a number or reasons. It was DOS-based which meant that anyone with a PC could work on the Project (when the project was started, Windows was not as pervasive as it is today) and, of all the genealogical programs tested by the Patriot Index Committee, PAF was determined to be an almost ideal vehicle for pure data entry of the type encountered on an SAR Application.

In preparation for the publication of Edition III of the Patriot Index all the PAF v2.31 files were converted to PAF v5. No problems were encountered with this conversion and it has been found that PAF v5 has materially speeded up the data entry process. In addition PAF v5 has the capability of not only storing pictures but exporting them to a GEDCOM file which has permitted the inclusion of the tombstone pictures found in Edition III.

A user manual was written outlining how the data was to be entered into PAF v2.31 in order to provide necessary data and format consistency between volunteers within the NSSAR Patriot Index Project.

For Primary or Supplemental Applications the keying was done from photocopies of the actual application. These copies were assembled into batches and sent to an individual volunteer who keyed the lineage directly into PAF. After each batch was keyed, a floppy disk together with the source documents was returned to the Project Coordinator.

The Ancestral Cards required a different approach. In this case the first step was to convert microfilm of the Ancestral Cards to graphic images that were stored on five CD-ROMs. A program was then written that displayed the graphic image of the Ancestral Card at the top of a computer screen with provision to capture key keyed data below this image. Batches of 150 graphic images were transferred to floppy disks which were sent to volunteers to key the source material directly to the floppy. The floppy was then returned to the Project Coordinator where it was processed though another program that created a PAF database directly from the keyed data. This second program was created by Jack Chandler of Utah as his contribution to the Project. Other specialized programs for manipulating the data for this Project were written by Ann Turner of California - we give them both our grateful thanks.

Once the data was in a genealogical database, the merging operation commenced. The merging operation attempted to reduce the number of duplicate entries as far as possible. This process required a great deal of patience and genealogical skill as well as time. In those cases where there was a doubt, the rule is to not merge.

After the merge operation the PAF database on each floppy was transferred to an intermediate file where a second merge operation was performed. When the intermediate file contained about 5,000 individual names it was merged into a final file. This last file was limited to 25,000 to 30,000 names which was determined to be a practical size for data handling. A final merge was then performed on this file. Unfortunately, the goal of no duplicated names in the final product was not practical without delaying the entire Project for years.

Eventually all these files were converted to GEDCOMs and sent to the CD publisher where they were merged into the single database found on the CD.

7/1/2002