Tools
While most one-name studies are conducted as a pastime, rather than as an economic activity, the sheer volume of information to be organized may require semi-professional data-processing and publishing skills.
The data must be carefully structured. An accurate copy of the original indexes must be drawn up, and updated when they are amended. Errors and conflicts in the indexes are noted. Links to those tables appear in the roll of individual persons.
To avoid retyping large volumes of data by hand, one-name researchers are often skilled at data scraping and automated reformatting.
Many one-name researchers keep data tables in computer spreadsheets because it is possible to see hundreds of items on a single screen and use thinking power to detect patterns. Family Tree software is used by many researchers to collate and define family trees. Others employ relational database software.
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Famous quotes containing the word tools:
“At the utmost, the active-minded young man should ask of his teacher only mastery of his tools. The young man himself, the subject of education, is a certain form of energy; the object to be gained is economy of his force; the training is partly the clearing away of obstacles, partly the direct application of effort. Once acquired, the tools and models may be thrown away.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. “Authorities,” “disciples,” and “schools” are the curse of science and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its enemies.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“No man is born into the world, whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will:
And blessèd are the horny hands of toil!”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)