Listed here are some of the concepts I have developed over the years that I believe are wanted by genealogists. These concepts have been guiding the development of my program Behold. Future development will be heavily influenced by my users' feedback and desires.

Why Behold?

Behold will give you the edge you need, letting you get your data in quickly like a word processor, while simultaneously providing you total access to all your data however you may want to view or filter it.

1. The Everything Report

Number one on the list, is to have a single report that contains all your genealogical data. This includes all details about every individual, all source references and repository information, all pictures and descriptions of multimedia and external files, and anything else you have documented. This should be organized logically, so you can find anything easily, with a Table of Contents, and several indexes (a Name Index, Place Index, Source Index, etc.). Everything should be cross referenced to everything else so you can easily find your way around the report. And any one piece of information should only be in one place in the report so as to keep its size down to something manageable.

2. Output Based Design

The Everything Report should be the central focus of a program. The important thing is to be able to get your data out again and use it. Too often in genealogy programs, the reports are an afterthought, and only the "standard" ancestor, descendant, and family group reports are available. To print info on a whole family is often impossible.

3. Compact Printouts

Once you have a very large report with all your genealogy data in it, you are going to want to print it out and take it with you when you do your research. You should be able to hole punch it and place it in a binder. If you have info on 10,000 people in your data file, you cannot print out 3,000 family sheets. They would never fit in a binder and you would never be able to use it. But if you could have a 400 page Everything Report printed, complete with contents and indexes, that would be perfect. Add in a few powerful print options, such as two-sided printing, or printing 2 or 4 pages on each page, and you can get that down to an even more manageable 50 pages.

4. Standard User Interface

Any Windows program that follows standard conventions for how it looks and operates, will feel natural and be easier to learn to use.

5. Modeless Windows

A "modal" window requires that you close it before you can return to the program. Never force data entry windows or report entry windows to be modal - but allow switching between such windows.

6. Full Extended GEDCOM Compliance

A genealogy program should be able to read and output standard GEDCOM 5.5.1 format. Better yet, the capability could be extended to allow input of earlier versions of GEDCOM and some of the strange constructs certain programs produce. Best of all, the program could have its own data structure based on this "extended GEDCOM".

7. Organize and Select By Family

When you are looking at genealogical information, you are always looking at it from a specific person's point of view. Usually, you are looking at your own genealogy from your own point of view. Then doesn't it make sense to center the report around yourself and all your ancestors and all your relatives? You should be able to include and organize your report around specific individuals. If your third cousin calls you and wants a copy of the family tree, all they really want are the people they are related to. A genealogy program should make it easy to do this.

8. Auto Organize

When you get a genealogy file (in GEDCOM format) from someone else, the most difficult thing is getting a handle on what is in it. A genealogy program should make this easy and should be able to "Auto Organize" and figure out who the likely subjects of the file are and produce the reports around them.

9. Instant Organize

Select any person and with one click, a new report is created centered around that person.

10. Displaying Families in a Meaningful Way

If you are including everyone in a report, you need flexibility in choosing your families, identifying them, and deciding how to order people within the families depending on your needs. An ability to instantly include or exclude non-relatives or those related through marriage is icing on the cake.

11. Useful Numbering

Genealogy has standard numbering systems, such as Ahnentafel, Register, NGSQ, Multi-surname, etc. The trouble with all of them is that adding a sibling can cause a major numbering change to many people. If numbering is in flux like that, it serves no useful permanent purpose. Also, just try to locate person 2.1.3.2.3.1.4 in your descendant report and see how easy that is. Therefore, it's best to have a simple flexible numbering system to make it easy to identify and locate people.

12. Multiple Files at Once

If you have several different families that you want to keep in different family files, but you also want to be able to view or edit them together. Or ... you just received someone's family file (in GEDCOM format) and you want to see if you might have connections. Or ... you are a Genealogical Society and you want a way to view many of your members' family files at once, then you want the capability to load and view and maybe even edit multiple files at once.

13. Never Merge Again!

Most genealogy programs have a merging function, to allow you to merge someone else's data into yours. This is very bad! It is leading to a world of "junk genealogies" because people are merging them and are assuming that the data they get is correct. My concept is to never do this. Keep other people's data separate.

14. "Virtual Merging"

The reason most programs have put in merge functionality is because they don't have the ability to input multiple files. By inputting multiple files, the report can be displayed with the data for identical people merged, while keeping the files separate.

15. Maiden Names

A genealogical standard is that people be listed by their maiden names. The problem is that it is difficult to identify many people just by their maiden names, because they are often only remembered by their married name. I believe it is best to include all surnames that a person is known by though their life in their name.

16. Dates

When no estimate of the date is known, the program should be able to estimate the date for you. Some prefix (e.g. "est.") should be included in all estimated dates.

17. Places

Places are people, too! Places have never got top billing in genealogy. But getting information on the places and specific buildings your ancestors lived and schooled and worked reveals a lot about the life they led. And the place itself has its own history and events that may be worthwhile to record. Programs should have the ability to include detailed information about places, even though standard GEDCOM 5.5.1 does not provide for it.

18. Unicode

Genealogy programs must support Unicode everywhere. This will allow different languages wherever desired.

19. Source-Based Data Organization

Do you have a filing system for all your source material yet? I have read 20 books with 20 different recommended filing systems, most of which tell you to put all info about each family together. Wrong! That's what your genealogy computer program is for. If you're already organized that way, or if you're not yet organized at all (everything still in boxes?), then start all over and organize your data by where you got it. Make files for information you got from people or correspondence with individuals. Make files for each repository you go to and get info from. Make files for each cemetery, or government office. Put your source data into these files. Give each "file" a prefix and number each item sequentially within each file. For example, you might put all newspaper death notices and obituaries in one binder and number the items ND1, ND2, ... The prefix (ND) tells you immediately the type of source data it is, and the sequential number will allow you to find it easily in your file. A properly designed genealogy program should allow custom source reference numbers such as these. If not, prefix your source description by this number.

20. Efficient Free-Form Editing

You're sick and tired of entering data into forms. You always have to look up to see where you are and use your mouse to move around or click buttons to get to other forms. A form to enter this and a form to enter that. Then to see your data together have to run a report and when you see a mistake, go back to the form and correct it, and run the report again. Isn't there a more efficient way? The problem is that these programs are designed to allow you to enter your data "their way". You get the data in and then try to get it out again. There is a much better solution. You should be able to edit your data directly in the Everything Report. It should be like using a word processor designed for genealogy. We all have mounds of info to enter, and easy and efficient data entry is an absolute necessity. Good typists want to want to spend their time typing - not mousing around.

21. Source-Based Data Entry

Recording your sources is very important. Many people fail to take this seriously or do this rigorously, mainly because their Genealogy program makes recording sources so hard to do. Genealogy programs should help and make it easy for you to enter all your data on a source-by-source basis. Then each item will be automatically linked to the source, and I guarantee you will be indebted to that program many times in the future when it tells you where you got the info from so you can recheck it.

22. Privacy

You must be allowed to hide certain things in your data, at different privacy levels.

23. Charting

Do the data handling first. Charting is a frill, only of use for the rare family get-together.

Summary

I do hope these concepts make some sense to you. Think about the genealogy program you use today. Is it designed to help you do your genealogy? Or is it just a black box that you endlessly enter your data into and wonder how you can get it out?

I've looked at almost all the genealogy programs out there today and they all do a basic job and each has some outstanding features in them that are worthy of note. But none works as well as does a simple Word Processor, that allows no-thought data entry where the results are right in front of you. I see this as my ultimate objective for Behold - something that will dramatically improve the way genealogists work. With Behold, there is a bright future ahead for genealogists.