How to use this website
How was this website produced?
The presentation of this web site is rather different from most other one name study sites. The principal reason for this is that it is based on the Pedigree family history program which was developed, and continues to be very well supported, by Murray Kennedy. Murray launched Pedigree, a DOS program, before the Web was released to the public, or anyone had thought of family history websites. He later adapted it as a Windows program, re-named PediTree.
PediTree is exceptionally well suited to the needs of a one-name study, the facility to add additional fields making it very adaptable to individual users’ needs. However, the use of this feature can make it very difficult to use a GEDCOM to transfer all the details of a database into a web creation program or other family history program. This website would not have been feasible without the recent, very valuable, addition of a HTML website creation facility by Colin Liebenrood, who faced a number of unique restrictions, arising from the long history of PediTree.
How to find a person in the website
To use the site, first select “Index to people and charts” in the Menu. Find the alphabetical index line which might include the Surname and Christian name of the person you are looking for, and left click on it. If there are a number of persons with identical names in the c.50 entries which then appear, they will be listed by ascending dates of birth or christening. If you have difficulty in finding the correct MORCOM in a long list of individuals with the same forename, try looking for the non-MORCOM spouse, if known. Note that each person is given a unique reference number to reduce the possibility of confusing individuals with similar names. Please always use this reference number when naming a person in correspondence about this website.
Living Persons
In charts the later generations, mainly after c.1930, include many "Living Persons". It is not easy to decide if some individuals are still alive e.g. I may have no birth or death information and can only guess their age if relatives have been identified. Please let me know if your living relatives have been inadvertenly named, so that I can mark them as "Living Persons" in future editions of this website.
How to use family codes and charts
Related persons in families of more than about fifty individuals are given the same family code, which appears under their name in the detailed entry for that person. If there is a family code there will, in most cases, be a corresponding chart. Smaller families will have a single chart e.g. “GWINEARjohn”. The name is based on the parish of origin followed by the forename of the MORCOM/BE who heads that tree. Families larger than about 1,000 persons will have one code for the whole family e.g. "GWENNAPhercules" followed by a sub-code for the line of the family to which the particular person belongs e.g. “GWENNAPhercules St ENODERrichard”. Most of these sub-codes refer to family lines which start in the early 19th century. If two charts are listed under a person's entry, the longer and shorter trees can be distinguished as follows:
Note the family code which appears under the person's name. If, for example, it was "ILLOGANarthur CONSTANTINEwilliam". then the "Descent Chart for Arthur MORCOMB (05926)" will be the tree which contains all generations of that family including all the more recent branches. If you only want to view the smaller sub-code chart, then select the other Descent Chart which will be the one containing only one of the later lines descended from ILLOGANarthur".
Small families which do not have charts
Charts are not provided for most individuals belonging to families of fewer than about 50 persons. You can trace their ancestors or descendants by left clicking either on the names of their parents or on their children.
Viewing trees
Trees are best viewed in full screen mode. The person you selected will then appear on the top visible line of the chart. To save space, middle names are omitted in chart entries. The parents of Morcom/be spouses are not shown in trees but, if known, will appear in the individual entry for the spouse.
You will need to scroll the screen to see the later generations in some of the larger charts.
Hovering the cursor over a name in the charts will show full forenames and other information.
You can return to viewing a person’s full details by left clicking on the name in the chart. If you want to view again the details of the last person you were checking, you can also use the last page facility in your browser.
If you are only interested in one MORCOM/BE family, make a note of the relevant Chart name and reference number, so that you can, if you prefer, open the tree directly from the Charts list in the Index.
You can learn more about the families, denoted by these codes, by selecting “Morcom/Morcombe family codes and Charts” in the Website Menu.
NB: I have found that occasionally when you click on a person's chart, the individual cannot be found in the top line of the chart. If this happens, try clicking on the second chart for the person (if there is one) or, alternatively, search for a husband, parent or child.
Colour coding in charts
The following colour coding of individuals is used in charts:
Grey = Spouse
Blue = Male in line of decent
Purple = Female in line of descent
Green = Unknown
Red = Duplicate
A key to this coding is also available, when viewing a tree, if you scroll down to the bottom left hand corner of the chart.
Links
Links are provided within and between sections, and to external sources, where it is thought that this will be helpful. Because each revision of the database, however small, is generated by the Peditree program, it is not practical to create links between the "Index to People and Charts" and other sections of the web site.
You will find that each section you read will have a link at the top and bottom of the account back to the Main Menu. Each section also has a link to the next section. If you wish to return to a section you have recently visited, you can use the back arrow in the top left hand corner of your browser
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