COMPUTER QUESTIONS

Why does the Society have more than one web-site?

The Society operates a public web-site, the address (www.rayment.org) of which is widely advertised. Intended to give provide prospective members with access to general information about the Society, it carries an application form for membership and none of the site is password protected.

Another of our web-sites (www.rayment.info) is designed to afford members access to the Society’s various databases. This is password protected because it holds very large amounts of data, some of which is private and confidential to members.

In order to prevent transitory overloads at the beginning of each month, a third web-site (www.rayment.biz) is currently used to offer access to the monthly Newsline transcriptions. This ensures that traffic to the other two sites is not adversely affected if a large number of people try to read Newsline at the same time.

Can I contact the Society by e-mail?

Yes, the Society’s main e-mail address is:

The individual officer’s e-mail addresses are as follows:

Chairman:

Vice-Chairman:

Secretary:

Treasurer:

Membership Secretary:

I’ve tried to download a Membership Application Form by clicking the link on the Society’s web-site but have received a message that it’s not available. Has it been removed from the web-site?

No, but it’s in PDF format and so you’ll need to check that an Acrobat Reader has been installed on your computer. If not, it’s an extremely simple matter to install the latest version, free of charge, by visiting the Adobe web-site at: www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

Is access to the Society's database open to the public?

No. Access to the database is available only to members of the Rayment Society and to members of the Guild of One-Name Studies.

Is the list of members of The Association of Genealogists and Record Agents too big to include in the PRO pages of the Society's database?

No. As far as I can recall, AGRA only has a little over one hundred members in the whole of the UK. One of the reasons that we have not listed the members in our database is that their details are subject to frequent change and the Secretary of AGRA maintains the only up-to-date list.

Could you recommend the best e-mail Service Provider to use for transferring large amounts of family history data as e-mail attachments?

Yes, but it's a rather complicated issue. May I suggest that you telephone the Society on 01708-749941, extension 366, for information?

How can I obtain the password for access to the Society's database?

Rayment Society members may obtain the current database password by simply e-mailing a request, together with their membership number, to:

Can any of the Society's database and other parts of the web-site information be downloaded?

Yes, wherever a black square appears, members need only to click on it to download the information.

Can I amend one of the Society's files in which there appears to be an error?

For security reasons, all of the information available on the Society's web-site has been made "read only" and so cannot be modified by the user. Please send an e-mail about any additional information, or suspected errors, to:

Is there an e-mail forum for members to use?

No. Although several members have suggested that the Society should start one, it would probably not be viable until there is a substantial increase in the number of members who have a computer.

Which would be the best computer to buy for my Rayment family history research?

This is a question to which the Society is unable to give a definitive answer, since even the experts seem to be unable to agree. However, there are just three main pieces of advice we would offer:

1.

Try to obtain a copy of the "Which?" report on computers.

2.

Ensure that the company from which you intend to buy your computer does not charge at national or premium rates for telephone calls to their technical assistance and other services. If possible, choose a company offering a free (i.e. 0500 or 0800) telephone number.

3.

Contact the Society of Genealogists, who produce a specialist magazine on the use of computers by Family Historians.

What is the best computer program to buy for a family tree?

Despite this question being so frequently raised, it is virtually impossible to give any specific recommendations, because each of the programs so far tested have been found to have a number of serious drawbacks to them. A list of the various problems associated with each particular program is being compiled, and it is hoped to eventually be able to publish it on Newsline. However, for anyone about to buy a program in the near future, it is absolutely vital to ensure that the program chosen is Gedcom compatible.

Since my computer is not connected to the Internet, what is the best way in which I can transfer information and computer files between the Society and myself?

In the absence of an Internet connection, probably the most convenient method would be to use CD-ROMs or floppy disks. In addition to the normal CD-ROM and 1.44 Mb floppy drives, an increasing number of the Society's Officers, including both the Chairman and the Secretary, now have the new type 120 Mb super-floppy drives on their computers. Since these can handle both the old type (low capacity) floppies and the new type (high capacity) super-floppies, it is now possible for members to use either type, according to the volume of data to be transferred.

Despite your obvious reluctance to recommend any particular computer program for family trees, could you please just tell us which program the Society currently uses?

Most of us are still using Family Tree Maker (version 5) but, as I have explained previously, this is by no means a perfect program. The only reason why we are using it at the moment is that despite some quite serious deficiencies it just happens to be the program most widely used by everyone else.

I've only just looked at your Society's web-site for the first time this morning, and I thought that it was slightly unusual. Have any changes to its layout been considered?

Thank you for phrasing your question so diplomatically! I suppose that what you really mean is that it's obviously a "home made" web-site, not a properly designed one, and the reason for this is simply that almost all of the members of our committee are primarily interested in family history rather than in computers. When the web site was constructed, no-one wanted to spend much of their time, money or effort on it, since they were all far more interested in family history research. If anyone would like to volunteer to help improve it, then we would be absolutely delighted to hear from them.

Have you any idea why I can't seem to gain access to any of the Rayment family tree files on the Society's database, despite being able to access everything else OK?

The only reason that I can think of is that you may not have a GEDCOM compatible program installed on your computer. For some time now, almost all new family history programs have been written in a format that is compatible with GEDCOM. However, some very early versions of many family history programs were not compatible and so, if you have one of these, you really do need to consider updating it with a modern one.

Are the Society's records available on CD-ROM?

No. The Committee has examined the feasibility of producing a CD-ROM containing a selection of the most important Rayment files but has concluded that the expense involved would be too great for the Society to bear, considering the limited initial number that would probably be required. If in the future there proves to be a sufficient number of members interested in obtaining a version of the Rayment records on CD-ROM, then we will gladly look again into the possibility of having one made. However, if the Society were to go ahead with such a venture, it would almost certainly be necessary to raise a charge of around £20 for each disk, in order to cover most of the costs.

Is there a printed list of the records which you mentioned earlier as being available on floppy disk from the Society?

Since the current pace of computerisation of the Society's records is so great, it has not proved practical to have a list printed because any such list would rapidly become out of date. When space permits, announcements regarding the progress of the computerisation of records are normally made in the project reports section of "Newsline".

Would the Society consider e-mailing files to members?

Not without a specific reason because there would seem to be little point in e-mailing individual files, since all of the files suitable to be e-mailed are the same ones that will be appearing on the web-site.

Is the Society registered under the Data Protection Act?

No, it has not so far been found necessary to register, since the Society's core genealogical activities are specifically exempted under current British legislation. This is mainly because we operate as a non-profit making "hobby" type organisation, with records of mostly non-living people.

Why are members of the Guild of One-Name Studies allowed access to the Society's database?

There were two main reasons why the decision was taken to offer all of the members of the Guild of One-Name Studies unrestricted access to our database.

The most important reason was that by doing so it was hoped to encourage other one-name study groups and individual researchers to reciprocate, since this would obviously be of very great benefit to everyone concerned, including our own members. Even if only a few individuals and groups were to reciprocate, and some of these were found to be carrying out one-name studies into a name which had some connection with part of our own research, the mutual benefits would truly be massive.

The other main reason was that, unlike our own members, Guild members would only be interested in one particular connection if any, and would therefore not normally have been candidates for membership of our own Society.

As a result it was concluded that, by unilaterally taking this course of action, we have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Will the Society maintain paper records when its programme of computerisation is completed?

Yes. Computerisation of the records is only being carried out as a means of reducing the cost of their transmission and enabling searches to be carried out at far greater speed than ever before.

Hopefully this will release much more time in which to pursue the Society's basic research, which will inevitably mean that even more information will be added to the database, all of which can then be printed out in paper form for those requiring it.

Would it be possible to include the weekly T.V. Family History Teletext notices on the Society's web-site?

Not at the moment, but only because no-one in the Society currently has access to a Teletext decoder, without which it would take a massive effort to manually transcribe all of the 200 or more entries published on screen every week.

If anyone has a working Teletext decoder and is also willing to supply the Society with the data on a weekly or monthly basis, we will gladly make it available to everyone visiting the web-site, provided that in doing so we would not be contravening any copyright laws.

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