Potts Database Structure

and data storage format

Structure of the Database and Data Format

No.	Field Name	Size	Contents
1	Given_Names	24	First Name Second Name Third Name or Init. [Surname*]
2	Father	18	First Name Second Name Third Name or Initial
3	Mother	24	Maiden Name, Given Names
4	Birth_Date	12	YYYY MMM DD or Ca. YYYY**
5	Birth_Location	26	State,County,City-Town-Township (for the USA)
			Country,County or Province,City-Town-Settlement (outside the USA)
6	Spouse1_Surname	15	Maiden Name
7	Spouse1_F-Name	18	First Name Second Name or Initial
8	Marriage1_Date	12	YYYY MMM DD or Ca. YYYY**
9	Marriage1_Location	24	see No. 5 above
10	Issue1	6	The number of children, or an indication (Y) that they had children
11	Spouse2_Surname	15	see No. 6 above
12	Spouse2_F-Name	18	see No. 7 above
13	Marriage2_Date	12	see No. 8 above
14	Marriage #2 Location	24	see No. 5 above
15	Issue2	6	see No. 10 above
16	Spouse3_Surname	15	see No. 6 above
17	Spouse3_F- Name	18	see No. 7 above
18	Marriage3_Date	12	see No. 8 above
19	Marriage3_Location	24	see No. 5 above
20	Issue3	6	see No. 10 above
21	Death_Date	12	see No. 8 above
22	Death_Location	24	see No. 5 above
23	Census_Data	20	YYYYSS,County Name - where SS = State abbreviation***
24	Source	12	Correspondent's name, Publication code, Public Record or WFT Vol.
25	Reference_No	8	Publication section or page
26	Other_No	8	Page number, document number or WFT tree number
27	Ancestral_Line	20	Named lines in Thos. Maxwell Potts' The Potts Family, or others
28	Comment	20	Extra info, nickname, census age or location, cause of death, etc.

Notes:

* If the surname is not Potts it will appear in [brackets] after the given name(s).

** Various symbols or letters may follow the date:

+ indicates that the event took place after the listed year

- indicates that the event took place before the listed year

b or c after birth date indicates date of baptism or christening

w or b after death date indicates date will was probated or date of burial

*** For Canadian census information the format is YYYYCan,Province

General:

An * in the Father and Mother fields indicates the information is based solely on census data.

A number following the given name indicates reuse of the name within the family, usually due to the death of the first so-named child.

A question mark folllowing any data indicates uncertainty.

MMM in a date field signifies the first three letters of the month.

If otherwise unused, the Spouse3 fields are used for Spouse1 and/or Spouse2 birth and death data.

The Census_Data field may be used to indicate a known residence and date other than census data.

Comments sometimes appear in otherwise unused fields, especially in the Marriage3_Location field.

The Issue field contains the number of children produced from the relationship. The relationship can be assumed to have been a marriage unless otherwise indicated. Adoptions are indicated in the Comments field.

In the unusual instance where an individual has been married more three times (yes, there are a few), an additional database record is included for the individual and the 4th spousel information can be found in the Spouse1 fields.

To view a sample database record (fictional information) click here.

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