                               RDF

What is RDF? It is the abbreviated term for Research Data
Filer. It contains all the information that you have
researched on individuals not yet entered into Family Records.
If you have a large amount of research material, you will
definitely want to use RDF to keep track of your information. 

If you have done little research or are just starting out,
it's best to begin using RDF now, before you know it you'll
have more research material than anticipated. Think of it as
a electronic holding file or index for your file needs.

THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCH DATA FILER ARE AS DEFINED:

1) A place for individuals you research and who do not connect
at the present time.

2) Access to every name, date, place in your notes instantly
with few keystrokes.

3) Organize data in any way or category you wish and have a
printout of the results.

4) Easily maintain a list of your information to update with
a few keystrokes.

5) Ability to cross-reference your data with sources found and
extracted.

6) Help identify unknown individuals by gathering all sources
that would refer to them.

7) A place to keep connected individuals handy, if so desired.

8) A place for non-essential genealogy files.

To understand the concept of RDF, in pure basic & simple form,
it's a 2 file companion, consisting of a DOC & DAT file. For
example, if you have a correspondence folder you would
probably name it LETTERS.DOC. This is your electronic folder. 

Next, you have letters that have data in them, so it would be
filed as LETTERS.DAT. These are the pages that would go into
the LETTERS.DOC (folder). 

Copy the same data to other data files electronically without
touching your original filed away in the drawers. The copies
could be cross-referenced, if desired.

There may be single files of data without a companion file.
These could be test files of how you want your information to
look. Files copied onto a floppy disk (GEDCOM) from Family
Search CD's are a good source of examples. 

HOW RDF DIFFERS FROM FR IN PAF (Personal Ancestral File):

 1) Must create and name your own files.

 2) Two type of files: DOC (folder) and DAT (info for that
folder).

 3) Unlimited amount of document and data files.

 4) Each file can have unlimited amount of entries. Although
it's best to limit yourself to 20 pages (equals to 220 records
at 11 per page) for better filing management.

 5) Entering in unconnected individuals or bits of unconnected
information.

 6) Enter in name changes, spellings, aliases, hyphenated
surnames, or adoptive names.

 7) Can indicate relationship of individuals (step-child, no-issues, in-laws, cousins, etc).

 8) Each event can be a separate entry (birth, obit, wills).

 9) RDF uses command entries, Family Records uses menu & hot
keys. 

10) RDF is event orientated, FR are relationship orientated.

11) RDF doesn't show pedigree or family groups.

12) Can't backup your files in the program as you would in
Family Records upon exiting out.

13) Can copy data into other files instantly, Family Records
have to GEDCOM before using.

14) Could use unlimited user-defined events and be able to
sort on them (wills, censuses, etc.).

15) Split screens in RDF, none in Family Records.

16) Can't GEDCOM files to Family Records.

ORDER OF PRIORITY

The order of priority of records in PERSONAL ANCESTRAL FILE is
the same applied to Research Data Filer.

 1) Civil records (government kept birth, death, marriage,
social security deaths, military war files).

 2) Church records (baptisms, confirmations, blessings, etc.)

 3) Family records (bible record entries, personal knowledge).

 4) Other sources giving specifics (immigration records,
cemetery records, wills, etc.)

 5) Multiple sources giving minimum information (published
family history, medical records, obituaries, county
histories).

 6) Census records (lists name, age, and place of birth of
person).   
 7) Probate records (land records, deeds, homestead records,
etc).

FACTORS

Figure out your overall plan to file alphabetically,
numerically, or a combination of both. This will help you
tremendously and someone else figuring your system.

Determine if you want the page numbering field to left justify
or zero fill. This is a factor in how you sort the field.

EXAMPLE:        Left Justify       Zero Fill

                1                  0001
                10                 0002
                11                 0003
                2                  0004

Determine which way you are going to enter data in the place
field. Are you going to enter smallest to largest, or vice
versa. A difference is noted when using an RDF shareware
program.

EXAMPLE:
               IA, Montgomery, Villisca
               England, London, London, Buckingham Palace

Determine how you will enter relationships for the
relationship field. It depends on which method you're using
required for the RDF shareware.

EXAMPLE:
               F-Doe, John M-Smith, Mary
               S-Adams, John Q.

Determine if you're going to put in unknowns or a combination
of unknown & known individuals.

Determine if you want to configure RDF to it's own directory.
This is useful when you backup data using the DOS command or
other backup software such as FASTBACK or PC TOOLS.

EXAMPLE:
               C:\PAF\RDF\
               C:\PAF\RDFDATA\
               C:\RDF\DATA

GETTING STARTED

To begin RDF, (depending where you are) at the prompt
[C:\PAF>] type RDF, or select 3 from the PAF menu. Use the get
command to begin a file. If one is started, you still need to
retrieve it, regardless if you have not started one. You will
get a similar screen to fill in the blanks as shown in the
next two panels.



 C:\RDFDATA\LETTER.DOC   ENTRY:1
 -------------------------------------------------------------

 Document No: C-LETTER001

 Source:
 YOUR NAME                                                
  |
 YOUR ADRRESS                                             
  |
 ANYTOWN, ANYSTATE ANYZIP                                 
  |


 F1 SAVE THIS ENTRY   F2 QUIT WITHOUT SAVING THIS ENTRY




 C:\RDFDATA\LETTER.DAT  ENTRY: 1
                             Document No: C-LETTER001 
Pg:0001
 Name: SURNAME, First Middle       |       Sex: M   
ID:000001
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 Event:letter    |   Date:20 Apr 1995  |
 Place:IA, Story, Ames                 |
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 Rel:F-SURNAME, First M-MAIDEN, First  | 
000002/000003/000004
 -------------------------------------------------------------
 Comments:data from letter into the folder


 F1 SAVE THIS ENTRY   F2 QUIT WITHOUT SAVING THIS ENTRY


Do you want a split screen with two files on the monitor?
Press the F4 key. To toggle between files (forward or
backward) use the F3 key. You can only be in one active screen
at a time. You can tell by the number displayed in the upper
right part of the screen.

The main command entries that you will use are: GET, ADD,
EDIT, QUIT & UPDATE. Later on, the COPY and MATCH to copy to
other files. These are the more frequently used commands than
the others.

At any time you feel you need help, type HELP for the menu or
HELP COMMAND_NAME to get on-line help. Each of the commands
are self explanatory.

EXAMPLE:        help sort
                help keys

After learning how to use RDF, it can be used for tracking
personal papers to just about anything on which you want to
keep records on. This is a good storage retrieval system on
any level.

WHICH VERSION OF RESEARCH DATA FILE TO USE:

There are some problems encountered in different versions. If
you have one of the following:

PAF 2.2 - Cannot have FOSTER.DOC or FOSTER.DAT in any
directory except in C:\PAF directory. Match command does not
work.

PAF 2.3 - Sort command doesn't work (will lock up). Can't use
the F8 key (dittoing). Can't configure RDF to it's own
directory. Can't use dual dates in the date field.

PAF 2.0 or 2.1 (early versions) or 2.31 (Dec 1994) are free of
problems.

DELETING

To delete a RDF file, it could be done in one of 3 ways. One
is to shell out to DOS with XDOS command.

EXAMPLE:        XDOS DEL A:\CENSUS.DOC 

Exit out of RDF program to the RDF directory that has the file
to delete at the DOS prompt.

EXAMPLE:       C:\RDFDATA> DEL WARFILE.DAT

Or use file manager menu from WINDOWS.

BACKING UP

To back up RDF files you must be at the DOS prompt to use
BACKUP command.

EXAMPLE:       C:\> BACKUP C:\RDFDATA\*.* A:

You could use other backup software such as FASTBACK, PC
TOOLS, INTELLIGENT BACKUP, etc. If one has a tape drive one
could back up to the tape if desired. One method is to backup
all DOC files to one disk, DAT files to another if you have a
lot of files to deal with.

THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE FOR IBM COMPATIBLES:

There are a few RDF sharewares that will make a GEDCOM to
import to Family Records. They are RDF2GED, RDFConvert (RDFC),
GIPSI. Keep in mind each entry is a separate family record
upon conversion to family records.

RDF2GED asks if surnames are entered first or last. Another
question asked is the place entered from smallest to largest
location or reversed. In the relation field, if it finds F-,
M-, or S-, it will link records pertaining to a father,
mother, or spouse.

RDFC will do RDF to GEDCOM and vice versa. Place events is
from smallest to largest. Nothing is entered in the document
field. All events converted from a gedcom file are a separate
entry. The F-, M-, S- in the relation field have no space
between that and the name. GEDCOMs from Family Search such as
Ancestral File, IGI, Social Security Death Index, Miltary
Index can be converted.

GIPSI can download GEDCOMs from Family Search to RDF and to
other similar formats. Surnames must be first. Events must
match to current gedcom documentation to Family Records format
(birth, christening, death, burial levels).

It has an event filter to select certain events to be
converted. This includes standard FR levels plus divorce
entries as wells as the LDS sealing fields.

FINAL NOTE:

If you need further help in getting started, plan on getting
Joan Lowrey's PAF 2.3 Users Guide for Beginners. It is item
#1991331 from Deseret Books (price is $29.95 plus P&H, subject
to price change). It could be charged to Visa or Mastercard.
This is a useful stepping stone for the beginner.