The folks uploading Texas vital records are Gina Heffernan, Lawrence Oliver, Lola Withrow, Tina Vickery, Sonny Hall, Gene Phillips, Gloria Mayfield, Cynthia Samples, Charles Gassiott, Lee Nave and Chuck Mahaffey. Thanks to all! David Morgan birth records from http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/bvs/registra/index.htm ********* From: Lawrence E. Oliver Recently, I have been asked by several people as to how I do the conversion of the Texas State Birth Records to the format which shows well on the TXGenWeb County Websites. This document is a small attempt to explain. This document is easier to read if you expand it to full screen. Larry METHODOLOGY: **************************************************************************** NOTE: (I) There are two different types of birth file - 'general' & 'summary'. (a) The general file is larger and has seventeen fields in it. This includes the individual's name, birth date, gender, county of death, mother's maiden name and father's name. (b) The summary files are smaller and only have nine fields in them. The summary files only have the individual's name, birth date, gender and county. The mother's maiden name and father's name are not included. (II) In addition to my Web Browser (IE 5.01), I use 4 programs: (a) MS Access2000 - database program - used for data management & manipulation, (b) MS Excel2000 - spreadsheet program - used for primary formatting & standardization of columns in files, (c) NoteTabPro - text & HTML editor - used for final formatting & the addition of additional text, (d) LeechFTP - FTP program - used for uploading files to the county websites. (III) While I use the programs listed above, most database and spreadsheet programs have the same or similar functions and can do the job as well. **************************************************************************** First, the file for one of the years is downloaded from the Texas Government Website. This is done by simply clicking on the year (this is a live field and your web browser will institute an ftp download session). To expand the files downloaded - you place them in the sub-directory where you intend to work with them and double-click on the downloaded executable file - this will then expand the information and give you a text file. This text file is a 'tab-delimited' text file and is 5 - 10 times larger in size than the downloaded file. To do the formatting, I use the 4 programs in the following manner: (I) MS Access2000 - (This is used since most of the files are much too large to be imported into Excel2000.) (a) The large birth file (after expansion) is imported into the database and saved as a table - i.e. 'Texas Births 1943'. This import is for a 'Tab-Delimited' text file. (b) The table is then formatted and the title set for the headers of each field in the table using similar headers to those listed on the Texas Govt . website - the ones I use are [Last Name] [First Name] [Middle Name] [Suffix] [First Name Mother] [Middle Name Mother] [Last Name Mother] [Suffix Mother] [First Name Father] [Middle Name Father] [Last Name Father] [Suffix Father] [Birth Month] [Birth Day] [Birth Year] [Gender] [County]- all told there are 17 fields. All are 'text' fields except for the Birth fields which are numbers. (c) Then I add 4 new, empty fields to the database - [Name] [Birthdate] [Mother] [Father] - these are added as 'text' fields. (d) An 'Update Query' is then used to consolidate the information fro m 15 of the original fields into the 4 new fields. They are: (1) [Last Name]&", "&[First Name]&(" "+[Middle Name])&(", "+[Suffix]) >>> [Name] (2) [First Name Mother]&(" "+[Middle Name Mother])&" "&[Last Nam e Mother]&(", "+[Suffix Mother]) >>> [Mother] (3) [First Name Father]&(" "+[Middle Name Father])&" "&[Last Nam e Father]&(", "+[Suffix Father]) >>> [Father] (4) [Birth Month]&"-"&[Birth Day]&"-"&[Birth Year] >>> [Birthdate] (e) Then I use 'Make-Table Query' and make a new table for each county - using the counties name for the table, i.e. 'Smith County Births 1943' . This new county table only has the following fields in it - [Name] [Birthdate] [Gender] [Mother] [Father] - I use the [County] field to do the extracting of the records, but don't have it imported into the new table as a separate field. (f) I then format this new table, save it & then 'export' this table in the format of MS Excel2000. At this point, I also make sure that the names are in alphabetical order - if not, I sort them before exporting them. (II) MS Excel2000 - (this program is used to set the standard font: Courie r 10, and also sets column spacing). (a) The saved file is then opened into Excel2000 and each column is set to fit the largest entry in any of the cells in that column by double-clicking on the right-column-line of each column. I also set the [Birthdate] & [Gender] columns to a width of 12 & 10 spaces, respectively. I 'right-justify' the [Birthdate] and 'center' the data in [Gender]; however, I 'center' the 'titles' in both columns. I then change the title of the Gender column from [Gender] to [Sex] - actually, I do this only because it was recommended that the title be [Sex] instead of [Gender] after I had already mad e the large State Birth file. (b) Then the file is 'saved' as an Excel2000 file (this file is not used again unless I foul something up). (c) Next, I use 'save as' and save this file as a 'space delimited *.prn file'. - this is a specially formatted text file. This lines the columns up in the final document. (III) NoteTabPro - (this is an excellent Text & HTML editor - also a good replacement for Notepad) (a) Open the *.prn file, which you just saved in MS Excel2000, (b) 'Select All' of the file, (c) Use 'Modify' 'Text Case' 'Ca Capitalize' - this will convert all of the words into upper & lower case with the words capitalized - also converts the lower case Sex 'f or m' into upper case. (d) Add the GenWeb Copyright Notice & 'save as' a *.txt file (text file) (IV) LeechFTP -Upload that saved text file (*.txt) to the appropriate directory in Rootsweb. I use a program called 'LeechFTP' for this, but there ar e many others as well. I specifically use 'LeechFTP' instead of other 'file transfer' programs because it does not bring along 'SpyWare' programs onto your computer. **************************************************************************** NOTE: For those of you wondering what 'SpyWare' is, use your newsreader and go to "news.grc.com" and lurk for awhile - I guarantee you will be upset at what some software companies are doing to your computer. You can also use your web browser and go to www.grc.com and read "ShieldsUp" for information on how to make your computer safer from hacking. **************************************************************************** > Thanks to Gina! You've got the extraction process down to a science. > Perhaps you can provide some of us slowpokes with some suggestions or > shortcuts. :) From: Gina Heffernan To: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [TXARCHIVE] well... Resent-Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 06:31:20 -0700 That's an easy one, I just have lots of TIME. Seriously, I followed the instructions to the letter. It took me 25 hours to produce my first file. Then I looked in the HELP files. Just in case YOU'RE serious: I do at least 10 files at a time, (10 in Access, then follow through in Excel and NotePad Pro.) I set my preferences (options?) to go automatically to the folder in which I work (in all three programs.) In Access, I name my tables countb31 (where count is the abbreviation for the county.) If I know there are over 900 names in the table, I just name it cou - no "b", no year. There is a check box in each column of the query form, uncheck the county and any other columns you don't need. When you have all the tables made, go to the Table tab and open the first table. Click the top left gray box to select the entire table. Click the ascending sort button (A-Z). Click save, then save as/export, I get lost after that. You can double-click the right side of the columns in Excel (in the very top row - the gray part above row 1) to set the column width. Sometimes you have to drag it out to the right first (depends on your version) but, when you double-click, it goes right to the end of the longest entry. I try not to put over 850 lines in a file. I align my date and gender columns BEFORE I split the bigger files. When I save the bigger files "As" prn files, I give them the two letters for the alphabet, the b, and the year (dal ac b 31). On the smaller files I: open the file, drag the right side of the farthermost right column way out to the right, double-click the gray box, go to the column next to it, drag, double-click, go to the first column, drag, double click, highlight the date column, right click, Column Width, 12, right alignment button, highlight date column, right click, Column Width, 10, center alignment button twice, save, save as. In Notepad Pro, I have the buttons for "Select All", "Capitalize", "Close All Documents", and "Save As" on my toolbar so I don't have to open any menus. The top lines from the final page are saved in a txt file. I open it (in NotePad), copy, paste, and then double-click and change the county. Everything else is already there. I open the county file, click Select All, click Capitalize, Ctrl-Home to the top of the page, Enter-Enter for two blank lines, Ctrl-Home, Right Click, Paste (the USGenWeb notice), double-click the county name, type in the new county name, Save, Save As, type in .txt, Save. It's done. I do 6-8 files before I close the files. For anyone who's wondering - NotePad is definitely worth 19.95. The emails are also saved in a txt file. (I'm sure you've noticed they're all the same format.) I copy the text file to the email, change the county names and file names (http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/galveston/vitals/births/1931/ is already there). When I have all my emails ready, I get online and open the FTP program. (I can't find a fast way to get the emails done.) I copy and past the URL into my browser, upload the file, go back to the browser and download the page. I use Navigator and it tells me at the bottom that it is downloading XX % of XX KB. I use that number to put in the email. If I miss it there, I delete the file name from the URL and look in the index. (By the way, I didn't know the Archives had TOCs until I started this project. I've always gone to the directory indexes. We need to advertise the TOCs more.) If anyone has a better way of getting the true file size, I'm open to suggestions. A bit of O/CD helps, but there are a couple of things I do that save just a second or two each. When you multiply that by 20-30 files and 4 programs, it adds up. I'm an awful teacher and I haven't slept yet so I hope you all can understand my short cuts. Gina From dala@eastex.net Fri Aug 4 18:24:46 2000 Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 11:53:57 -0500 From: Gina Heffernan Reply-To: ginagale@bigfoot.com To: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TXARCHIVE] Another Short Cut Resent-Date: Thu, 3 Aug 2000 10:00:56 -0700 Resent-From: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com I remembered another way to save a lot of time in Excel. Use a Macro to do everything except the "Save As". It's simple to do and saves a lot of time. If you have never recorded a Macro before, it might take a couple of tries but is well worth the effort. Make backups of your two experimental files before you do this and READ through before you try it. Open one of the birth files in Excel that needs to be formatted. Click Tools - Record Macro - Record New Macro Click Options Check the box by "Menu Item on Tools Menu" Type in "Format Births" or something similar in the box below it Make sure you check "Store in Personal Macros" and use "Visual Basic" Language Click OK Now go through the steps of formatting the file. MAKE SURE you use the double-click method to set the column widths for the NAMES, and the BUTTON to save. If you use any other methods for these two actions, the Macro will use exactly the same column widths and exactly the same filename. You cannot use the Macro to "Save As" (At least I can't figure out how to do it.) When you are done, click the Visual Basic Button that should be in the top right corner of the spreadsheet (to stop recording). Now make a button on your tool bar to run the Macro. Click View - Toolbars Click Customize Click Custom Drag One of the buttons off the menu to your toolbar A window will open with your Macro's name in it. Click the Macro and Click OK Do a "Save AS" on this file. Now open another birth file. Click your new button. Do a "Save As" Space delimited file and you're done. You will have a menu option on your Tools menu to run the macro called Format Births. Before you go any farther, I suggest you close Excel, SAVE the Personal Macro options, and then reopen Excel. You sometimes get a fault when using Macros and Excel shuts down and you lose the new ones. Email me personally if you have trouble. -- Gina Heffernan - researching ARMSTRONG BRAZZIL DISNEY FORREY HEFFERNAN HOLDER MCKINNON MELLEN MILLS O'NEAL PUCKETT RICKERT SENN SHEPHERD SPARKS WILLS and related lines. My genealogy site: http://members.xoom.com/ggah/ My GenLists: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genlists/ My personal site: http://members.xoom.com/lovedarlin/ My dog site: http://members.xoom.com/mannananm/ I may not be the BRIGHTEST crayon in the box, but I'll get the job done. From lola_w@pacbell.net Tue Aug 8 19:21:38 2000 Date: Tue, 08 Aug 2000 23:04:09 -0700 From: Lola Withrow Reply-To: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com To: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [TXARCHIVE] TX Births 1929 Resent-Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 22:07:48 -0700 Resent-From: TXARCHIVE-L@rootsweb.com David, No, I could not figure out how to use MS Access, even with Larry and Gina's directions. (I spent days trying it) I am using TextPad. you can use tabs and it will save them in text format. I wasn't able to save tabs in Word. I am bringing in the large Birth files. and separate them right in TextPad, and save each county in a new file. After I separate the file, I run sort. (Those files that I had to delete days ago, I forgot to sort them first) My files do not look as good as others do, but they are in columns. Without office skills, I can handle files in TextPad, it's made for simple folks like me If you are interested here's the link: http://www.textpad.com/ It's shareware but I bought the program for about $10. Lola ----- Original Message ----- From: David W. Morgan To: Sent: Tuesday, August 08, 2000 9:06 PM Subject: Re: [TXARCHIVE] TX Births 1929 > Great! Are you doing it the fast way, now? Or still using the Rootsweb > search engine? > > David >