JimDavis79

When royalty reuses the name of a monarch, the number of the use of the name is appended to the name, despite there being intervening Generations. If you need to distinguish between two people with the same name, this might help.

Jesper, I do exactly what you are planning to do.  I connect the two computers over my home network, then use Free File Sync (https://freefilesync.org/) to move files from desktop to laptop.  When I finish working on the laptop, I re-synchronize back to the desktop.  This is very fast and easy.  I also backup all files to the cloud (I use OneDrive for genealogy stuff) just to be sure all files are safe.  This does not require the use of RM backup or restore.  I use many of the same actions to back up my photography files (>22k images) and all important files to my various backup drives and cloud repositories.

 

Cautions:

1.  always remember which is your authoritative copy, so you don't inadvertently overwrite important files.

2.  synchronize from the one you've been working on BEFORE you start working on the other.

 

Hope this helps!

If the line is correct except for the relationship attachment to yourself, why not just break the link and leave them in the database?  If there is even a minuscule possibility that someone in that line may end up being a distant cousin, you'd have to reenter all the data.  I have many people in my database that are not related, but the data is there.  Most frequently they get entered when i'm trying to decide which "John Smith" or "George Davis" is my relation, so all the data is true but the relationship is speculative.

 

My opinion only, you should do what makes best sense for you.

"Miams"/ Michael, well said! 

 

Some years ago I forced a users group onto a software development organization (abeit a Navy-only program), and watched the quality of the product increase greatly within a year.  I have been on software configuration control boards many times for federal and State programs.  I've spent lots of time developing ship control software as an acquisition manager, and have watched the "big bang" development theory fail repeatedly.  I like your idea of point releases and RAD for beta releases.  I worry that after RM8 releases that the passion being shown now by users will ebb, that users will sort themselves around the new product (some leaving) and that the RM company will continue as before.  I really worry about succession planning, so the idea of open sourcing the product after sunset truly appeals.

I'm just wondering what the advantage of having sub folders, vs one media folder, would be? Everytime you change the location of a file, this creates a requirement to change the link in RM. It also creates a problem with new media added by say Ancestry Tree Share. You would have to not only rename every file, but also manually move every file from the RM default directory to a different folder.

 

Rick, no telling if my answer will be satisfying, but here goes.  I never use Tree Share to bring down media items, but rather download separately and manually link.  I do the same with Family Search, Find My Past, and all the rest of the paid repositories.  I separately maintain my Ancestry tree, and ne'er the programs shall meet!  Lots of extra work, to be sure, but I'm insulated from programming decisions made by Ancestry and indeed, Roots Magic.  My manual implementation of repository connection ensures data and filing integrity and avoids the problem you've mentioned of finding and renaming files brought in by the various APIs.

 

To answer your folder question, here are a few things:

 

1.  In the case of Ancestry, there is significant file name reuse and meaningless file names.  For example, in the Ancestry media folder, I have nine files labeled "1880 United States Federal Census," with eight of them differentiated with trailing numbers in parentheses.  Impossible to know what they contain without opening and reviewing each one.  I think having a single media folder will eventually lead to this, especially if you use the automatic connections between your RM files and the paid repositories.

 

2.  I wrote my own genealogy program in the 1980s.  When devolving the data structure for the program, I realized that genealogy revolves around the individual and connections to others (duh!) and created the relational database accordingly.  I carried that data structure into my file folder structure and collect all media items into a single subfolder for each person.  The format of each subfolder name is "Last First Middle RIN."  (In the case of shared items, like marriage licenses, I file with the primary person.)

 

3.  Having the RIN in the folder name is pretty important to distinguish common/ reused family names; the RIN lets me look at the folder structure to pick out the particular John Smith I want.  It also lets me do speculative data collection and separation as I bust through brick walls.  Having all files for all persons in a single folder would be problematic for this work.

 

4.  I have other subfolders below the root for anything else I want to keep separate from the people folders, such as a collection of photographs of a single cemetery; copies of letters that don't seem to belong with any particular person; extracts from books and sources; files for various genealogy programs and organizations; etc.  My most important non-people folder is titled "Gen files to process," and everything new goes straight in there to be worked on as I can.

 

The reasons for any particular subfolder structure (indeed, even having one at all!) lie with the desires and processes of the individual family historian.  Use what works for you, not only in filing, but also in source lumping, citation format and every other aspect of this fantastic pursuit!  Hope this helps, I'd be delighted to explain further.