Copyright: Copyright 1996 by John Steed


Brother's Keeper for Windows
Brother's Keeper 6.2

For information about the menu choices on the main screen, click on any underlined word below.  To search for a topic, pick search from the menu above.

   File

   Edit

   Descendant

   Ancestor

   Lists

   Other

   Help

If you are just starting out with Brother's Keeper 6 for Windows, there are three ways to get your data into Brother's Keeper 6.

1.  You can convert data from version 5 of Brother's Keeper (see File, Convert 5 to 6)

2.  You can import Gedcom files from another genealogy program (see File, Gedcom, Import), or

3.  You can pick Edit and type in your data.

If you have previously used any Brother's Keeper 6 version, this program will open your BK6 data files.

See pages 2-6 in the printed manual for more help with starting out.  If you can not find what you need in this help file or the printed manual, pick Help, Technical Support.


File (main screen)
File

These are the File menu items from the main screen.  Click on a line below to see more information.

Open database

Open list of databases

Database statistics

Quality check

Backup data files

Restore data files

Location

   Change Location globally

   Delete unused locations

Sources

   Change Source globally

   Merge duplicate sources

   Delete unused sources

Repositories

   Change repository globally

         Merge duplicate repositories

 	   Delete unused repositories

General 'To Do' items

Convert Date Format

Convert BK 5 database

Gedcom

Split database

Merge databases

Utilities

   Convert Name to Upper / Lower case

   Global Search and Replace

   Add Back a Deleted BK number

   Remove Carriage Return from text files

   Add a Source to a Range of People

   Create Palm Database

         Flag a group of people

Printer setup

Options

Exit Brother's Keeper


Descendant reports

When you pick Descendant from the main screen, you will see these choices for reports.  Click on any underlined word for more information.

      Tree chart

      Box chart

      4 family box chart

      Descendant

      Register book

      Indented book

      Count of descendants


Ancestor Reports

When you pick Ancestor from the menu on the main screen, you will have the following choices for ancestor reports.  Click an underlined word for more information.

      Ancestor chart

      Collapsed ancestor

      Timeline

      Ahnentafel book

      Ahnentafel custom list

      Ancestor Fan Chart

      Ancestor Box Chart


Lists (menu item main screen)
Lists

When you pick Lists from the main screen, the following menu items will appear. Click on any line for more information.

      Alphabetical report

      Numerical report

      Reference order report

      Word search report

      Birthday/anniversary

      Missing information

      List of Surnames

      Alphabetical display

      Numerical display

      Reference order display

      Unconnected people display

      Locations

      Locations with events

      Sources


Other reports (main menu)
Other Reports

When you pick Other from the main screen, you will see a list of other reports that you may print.  These reports are not ancestor, or descendant, or list reports.

Click an underlined word below for more information.

      Group sheets

      Compute relationship

      Reasonableness check

      Graphic charts

      Tiny Tafel

      Picture summary

      Unlinked Branches


Help

When you pick Help from the main screen menu, you will see the following choices:

Table of Contents

This will show you the main menu choices for Brother's Keeper

Change language

This will let you change to another language such as French, Danish, Norwegian, etc.  The languages that are available are the ones that you installed when you ran the BKSETUP6 program.

set to 640 x 480

If you have Windows set up for 800 by 600 or higher resolution, this will reduce the Brother's Keeper main window (and all other BK windows) to 640 by 480.  This may be useful if you want to see other programs on your screen.  To always start in 640 by 480 pick File, Options and set the option there.

How to register

     	Lets you fill out a registration form and print it

Enter registration number

Technical Support

Displays ways to contact the author for help

About BK

Displays the version of Brother's Keeper you are using and where it is located.


Ancestor Chart

When you pick Ancestor and then Ancestor chart from the main menu or when you click the ancestor button on the Edit screen, you can display a 5 generation ancestor or pedigree chart.  If you click on the main person, it will jump to the Edit screen.  If you click on any other name, it will make that person the main person.  To go to a spouse of the main person, double click on the spouse name (in the spouse box.)  To go to a child of the main person, double click on a child name (in the child box.)  If a person has multiple spouses, click on the spouse one time to see the children of that spouse.  The spouse that is highlighted is the spouse that will print on the ancestor chart when printing.

To print the chart, click on Options to set the margins and other options and then choose File and Print.  When printing, it will also include the locations for the events.

Also under Options, you can choose to show for each person either the BK code number or the standard ancestor number or no number.

You can print your personal message at the bottom of each page.  For example you may want to give your name and address.

You may also set the option to include Baptism dates when the birth date is unknown and the Burial date if the death date is unknown.

When printing multiple page linked charts, it will print 4 generations per page and you have the option to have each page start with person 1, or have the numbers continued.

To save this ancestor chart to a file, pick File, Create RTF file.

Press the Save Options button if you want to save the current options for the ancestor chart.  Then the next time you return to ancestor charts, it will have those options as the default.


Locations Lists
Locations

When you pick Lists from the main screen and then Locations, it will display an alphabetical list of existing locations in your database.   There is also an option to print the alphabetical list of locations.  To change any existing locations, pick File, then Locations from the main screen.


Reports (book)
Register, Indented, and Ahnentafel Reports

The Register, Indented and Ahnentafel reports will print in a book format with an alphabetical index at the end of the book.  The Register and Indented reports will print the descendants of the starting person, and the Ahnentafel report will print the ancestors of a person.

Here are some of the options that all three of the reports have in common.

There are four tabs you can select when setting the options for the report.  On the first tab you can set the heading, margins, page number, and select all or odd/even printing.

Include message lines.  If you have entered message lines for people, you may have them included in this report.  Currently all message lines will print except for the ones marked "never print" in the "print where" column.  In the future there will be options to printing selected messages.

Print spouse messages also.  If you indicated that you wanted to print message lines, you may indicate if you also want to print the spouse's messages.  You may also indicate that you want the spouse message lines to start on a new line.

Show code numbers.  You probably will not want to print the person's BK code number on the register or ahnentafel report, since it may be confusing to people when also printing the register or ahnentafel number.  However, if the report is for your own use, you may wish to see the code numbers that were assigned when the people were added to the database.

Show baptized date and location.  You will be asked if you wantthe date below the birth date also to print if it is not blank.  You may also choose to only print the date if the birth date is blank.  Sometimes a person's birth date is not known, but the baptized or christened date is known.  If you want this date printed, then enter in the text box the word or abbreviation to use when printing.

Show reference field.  You may print the "Ref:" field after the date fields.  You may enter what word to use when printing.  If you enter "]" then the reference field (if not blank) will be printed after the name with the reference field enclosed with brackets [   ].

If multiple spouses, do you want to show which spouse produced which kids?  If you have cases of multiple marriages, this will allow you to show which children came from which marriages.

Print source footnotes.  You can print footnotes to show the information that you entered in the source lines for each date or location.  (The source lines are the lines that were entered by pressing F6 while entering a date or location for a person or by pressing the source button.)  The footnote numbers will print in superscript and the footnotes will print at the end of the report.  (If you are creating a rich text format file, you can have the footnotes at the bottom of each page.)

Press the "save options" button if you want the options to be the same the next time you print the same report.

Pressing the print button will cause the report to print on your printer.

Press Preview if you want to display the report on the screen.  See Preview.

Rich Text Format

If you want to send the report to your word processor, then on the fourth tab pick your word processor and then pick File from the top menu and then pick Create RTF file.   If you have the same word processor set up as your default word processor in the Options area, then after the report is created, your word processor will open the file automatically.  If the report does not look correct, then try making the report again and use 0 (zero) for the left and right margins. The names of people in the RTF file are invisibly marked for the index.  To create the index, go to the end of the file in your word processor and pick the menu item in your word processor to create the index.  (Do this after you have made any additions or corrections in the file.)

If you have Microsoft Word, here is how you create the name index after you import the RTF file:  Move to the end of the document.  Then select INSERT from the top menu bar, then select BREAK and then OK for a page break.  Then select INSERT from the menu, then select INDEX and TABLES, then pick the format you want, then pick OK and the index will be created.

If you have Word Perfect for Windows, here is how to create the index after you import the RTF file:  Move to the end of the document.  Put the cursor about two lines below the last person's information.  Then select INSERT from the top menu, then select PAGE BREAK.  Then select TOOLS from the top menu, then select INDEX (If you have WP 8 or 9 pick Tools, then Reference, then Index).  That will display a new index toolbar.  Select from the new toolbar the DEFINE button, then OK.  Select from the new toolbar the GENERATE button then OK and the index will be created.  If you want two columns for the index, go to the top line in the index after it is created and pick Format and Columns from the menu.


Descendant Box Chart

To start this report, pick Descendant from the main screen and then pick Box chart.  The descendant box chart program will print a descendant chart that has each person in a box and has lines connecting the boxes.  The oldest person is at the top, and the person's children are below, and the grandchildren are below them, and so on.  When you display the chart, you may use the arrow keys to move around the chart.

If you want smaller boxes, pick Options and make the name length shorter.  You will also get smaller boxes printed if you change the printer font to a smaller font size.  To find the width of your chart, click on Start and then click on the Size menu item.

This report currently will print up to 18 generations and up to 1200 boxes wide.

The 4 Family Box chart is similar, but it has the descendants of four families and not just one family. For the 4 family box chart, pick a starting person and it will find the great grand parents of that person and then all the descendants of those four families.


Descendant Tree Chart

To start this report, pick Descendant from the main screen and then pick Tree chart.  This routine will print a tree chart showing the descendants of any person with the parents and children connected with lines.  The tree report will print up to 40 generations at a time.

When printing the tree chart, you have the option of having names at 40 characters long, or shortening them to fewer characters.  (Names are shortened if necessary by removing the middle name.)  The shortened name version will be able to print more generations on each page, thus condensing the size of the chart.  You may include spouse names, and you may include dates or code numbers.

For a large report, you may want to have the margins set to zero so that you can get the most names per page.


Group Sheets

To print group sheets, pick Other from the main screen and then pick Group sheets.  A group sheet is a one or two page report showing a family with the basic information about the father and mother and the children.  When printing a group sheet, you may choose from several formats for the children's data.  For example if you ask for All data for the children, then it will print the same information that it prints for the father and mother.  If you ask for birth and death only, then it will not print the other events for the children.

If you select the option to print pictures, it will print one picture for the father and one for the mother and optionally for the children.  If you are printing All information for children, you may also select the option to print pictures for the children.  It will print the first picture attached to the person, or it will print the picture marked Group or Primary in the Print Where column after the picture name.

Normally the routine will print a group sheet for one family.  However, you may choose to print group sheets for the families of all the ancestors or all the descendants of a person.  You may limit the number of generations when printing the ancestors or descendants.  You may also print group sheets for a range of BK code numbers.  When printing a range of numbers, you may select the button for "each spouse only once" and then it will not print a group sheet for a person if that person has already been printed as the spouse of someone else.

Set other options by picking the tab that says Fields to Include.

Click the Preview button if you want to display the group sheet.

Click the Print button to print the group sheet.

To send the report to a disk file, pick File from the menu and then Create TXT file file.

To create HTML files, pick File, then Create HTML files.  You will then pick a folder where the HTML files will be created.  You may then upload the html files to your web site or open them with your web broswer.

Click the Save options button if you want to save the current options for the group sheet.  Then the next time you print a group sheet, it will use the options you saved.

If you select the option to show ages it will compute ages for people (if birth dates are in a valid format.)  If a death date is blank, it will compute the age to the current date.  See date types.

There are several options for how much information to show for each child.  You can try the different options and preview the group sheet to see the different formats available.

If you chose the option for an alphabetical index, it will print the index when you are finished selecting the people to print.

If you are printing a batch of group sheets (such as ancestors or descendants or range) you can have the page numbers start over with page 1 for each batch, or you can select to have the page numbers continue to increment.

On the last tab is an option to let you print your personal message at the bottom of each page.  For example you may want to give your name and address.

To print a blank group sheet, type the word BLANK when it asks for the name of the person to select.


Edit

When you pick Edit from the main screen in Brother's Keeper, a screen will display that shows a family with a person at the top, the parents of that person, the spouse and events, children, notes, etc.  If the screen is blank, you may pick Find to find an existing family or you may pick Add to add a new person.  When a family is displayed, you may click a button to move to another person or family.  If you want to change information about a person, such as a date or location, you may click on the field to change and type the new information.

To add new events for a person click the Add Events button at the bottom and then click the first blank field in the new line and pick the type of event to add.  The list of events is long, but if you know the one you want, you may type the first letter when that box is selected.  Type the same first letter again to move to another event starting with that letter.  For example, to add an occupation line to the grid, click Add Event, then click the first column.  Then press O O and it will say occupation.  Then press Tab

If a person has two sets of parents, there will be a 1 after Father and Mother.  To see the other parents, pick Find, from the top menu, then pick Secondary Parents.

If a person has more than one spouse, there will be a down arrow next to the spouse on the right.  Click the  down arrow to see the other spouse.  It will also display after the spouse name a number showing which spouse is being displayed.  For example, 1 of 3 means the first spouse of 3 spouses is showing.

If the spouses are not in the correct order of marriage, pick Edit from the top menu and then pick Rearrange spouses.

To add a spouse to a person pick the Add Spouse button or else pick Add from the top menu then pick Spouse.

To add a child to a family, you can click the Add child button or pick Add from the top menu.  You can add a child to a couple or to a single person.

If you are looking at the Child tab information, you can double click on a child name to move that child to the top so that you may view the information for that child.

If you click the Father or Mother or Spouse button it will move to that person.

If the children are not in the correct order of birth, pick Rearrange from the bottom of the child grid.  Then pick Move up or Move down until they are correct.  Then pick the button to save the changes.  If a child is attached to the wrong parents, click the Delete Link to Child button at the bottom of the child grid.

To the left of the name of the child there will be a + sign if that child is married.  That way if you do not see the + sign you will not need to double click that child to see whether or not that child has descendants.

If you have selected the option to display the date of last change, it will be displayed above the Events grid.

When adding the name of a new person, type it in the normal order of first name then middle name then last name. Enter the name the person was given at birth even if the person's name changed due to a name change or marriage.  If you type a name that is already in the computer, you will be shown that name and asked if it is the name you want.  If you are adding a new person that has the same name, just press ESC to continue adding the new person.

If the person is female and is married, the program will automatically change the name to the last name of the current husband when printing the Birthday and Anniversary report.  If you do not want the program to do that, you may turn off that option on the Options screen.

If a person is currently known by a different name, and it is not just the married name, you may enter the current name by going to the Names tab.

The only fields that are required for each person are the name field and the sex field.

When entering the dates, it is usually faster to just enter numbers in the MMDDYYYY format (or the DDMMYYYY format if you have options set that way.)  The program will automatically convert the date to the format you have specified in the Options area.  For example, type 12301996 in a date field and the program will convert it to 30 Dec 1996 automatically.  See also date types.

To enter a date range, double click the date field.  Then a windows will open where you may enter a beginning and ending date.  For example, a person may have had a certain occupation starting at one date and ending at another date.  You can also use that window to enter a date range because you are not certain of a date.  For example if you know a person died between 1980 and 1985 you may enter it in that window.

In addition to the date and location fields for each person, you can press F6 or click the column below S and enter a source for the event.  This source will print as a footnote on several of the reports.  If several events need the same source, you can pick the source from the list of existing sources. When you select the master source, you may enter details about the source.

If a person has a source attached to an event, an S will show in the source column.  Click the S to enter or view a source or press F6 while in a date or place field.

If you have general notes about a person, go to the Notes tab.  To enter a new note, click the Create button and then type in the note.  Then click the Save Internal button to save the note in the BK data files.  You could instead pick the Save as file button if you want a separate text file on your disk that can be edited by a word processor.

If you want to enter a note that is only about one certain event, you can click the column below the N on the event line.

If you click the column below the W on an event line, you can enter a witness to an event.  For example you may want to document who was at a marriage event.

The event called "Reference number" is also used as an index by the program.  So if you have your own numbering system for people, you may enter that number into the description for the Ref field and then you can find that person by using that number.  To find a person by the Ref number, type / and then the number whenever the program asks for a name or number.  (Do not type / in the Ref field, only type / before the number when searching.)  For example, if you type 123 in the Ref field for a person, then you can find that person by typing /123 when the program asks for a name or number.

Marriage information:

All marriage information will be placed below all individual information.  You can change the order of events on the grid with the Move up and Move down buttons, but the marriage information must remain below the indivual information.

If you are entering a couple that is not married, add the event called Not Married.  Then the printouts will not refer to this couple as Husband and Wife.

If you have accidently changed a person's data, and you want to put the data back the way it was before the changes, then pick Edit, Cancel Recent Changes.  That will undo any changes since the last time the person was updated.

If you want to enter more specific information about one location, you can double click the location name on the event line and a new window will open where you can enter specific information about that location.

You can enter a mailing address for each person or family.  This address can be printed on the group sheets and on the custom reports (such as the Lists, Numeric Report or Alphabetical Report).  If you want the phone number to print also, then go to File, Options, Other, and set it to also print line 6.  To the right of the mailing address you can set options for Holiday, Birthday, Reunion, etc.  If you have those options set for certain people, you can select certain groups when printing addresses on custom reports.  If you ask for a custom report of only addresses, and you add field 92 also, then when you click the Print button, it will ask which group of addresses you want.

Click for information about adding pictures.

Click for information about media files.

Click for information about 'to do' items.


Picture

If you have a scanner, you can use the scanning program that came with your scanner to scan pictures and then save them as picture files (.jpg .pcx .png) on your computer.  If you have a digital camera, copy the pictures to your C drive.  You can put the pictures into any folder, or you may want to put them in the Picture folder which is below your BK data folder.

To attach a picture to a person, go to the Edit screen and then click the Picture tab then pick the Add Picture button.  Then select the picture file you want to attach.  If most of your pictures are in a certain folder, then be sure to set that folder under File, Options, Pictures.  BK can read many picture file formats such as .bmp .pcx .png and .jpg.

The BK program will connect the picture to the person.  It makes a link to the picture file on your hard drive.  Do not delete the picture file which is on your C drive and do not move the picture file after it is attached, or else BK will not be able to show the picture.

To view a picture that is already attached to a person, click the column to the left of the picture line.  The picture will be displayed in the upper right corner.  Then you may click on the picture to view it on a screen by itself.  To print the picture, pick File, Print Picture.  The picture may also be printed on the Group sheets and the Ancestor chart (pick Options on the Ancestor chart) and on the Descendant Box chart and on the book reports like the Indented Book report.  To print a small sample of all your pictures, pick Other from the main menu, then Picture summary.

You can attach 100 pictures to each person.  You can also attach pictures to a husband and wife by setting the Individual/Family column to Family.  Currently the printed reports will print 1 picture for each person.  They will print the first picture or else the one marked "primary" in the Print Where column.  You may find that a "head shot" or passport type photograph will look best when printed on the reports.

There is a "size" column that can be set with the picture.  That is used on the book reports to increase or decrease the normal size.  When you print a book report, you can set the picture height to 1.2 inches or whatever size you want.  Ifyou want a certain picture to be larger than the normal size, you can put a number in the size column and it will add to the normal size.  If you put 5 in the size column it will add 0.5 inches to the normal size.  If you type 8 it will add 0.8 inches and so on.  If you type -3 it will make the picture 0.3 inches smaller than normal.


Source

You should always enter a source when you are adding information about a person. The source indicates where you got the date or location or information about this person.  Even though you know where you got the information, if you do not document the source, you will forget sometime in the next 10 years and then it will take you a long time to document the source in the future.

The source might be a book, a letter from a relative, a birth certificate, or even a phone call with someone.  Put enough information in the source fields so that another person reading your work will be able tell where you got the information and also would be able to find that source themselves.

When you click the column below the S on the events grid, a window will open where you may view or add sources.  To add a source for this event, click Add Source.  Then you may pick from a list of existing sources or you may add a new source.

The source lines can be printed as footnotes on several reports.

If the source is a book, you can use the same source for several people and indicate the page number for this person.  Include the word "page" so that the word "page" will print with the footnote.  You can use the page field for the "reel" number if the source is referring to microfilm.

You may optionally use the quality field to hold a number which indicates the quality of the information.

If a source is attached to an event, the letter S will appear in the S column for the event.

If you have a general source for the person that does not apply to just one event, you may pick Source from the top menu, then General Source for person.


Select Person

At the start of each report, or when you pick the Find button on the Edit screen, a window will open where you can select the person you want.  Type a name of a person or the BK code number of a person and then click Find.  If you type a name, it will show you a list of matching names and you may select the person you want.  If you type a number, it will find that person and return.

You may type the first five letters of the first name then a space and the first five letters of the last name to find anyone.  If there are a lot of people with similar names you may type the first 10 letters of the first and last name.  You may also type a / followed by whatever is in the Ref: field to find a person.  For example, if you have 123 in the Ref: field for a person, then you may type /123 to find that person.

If you do not know the first name of the person you are searching for, type a ? for the first name.  For example type: ?  Smith  to find everyone with a last name of Smith.

If you do not know the last name of a person you are searching for, type a ? for the last name.  For example type: John  ?  to find everyone with the first name of John.

If you know part of the name, you may type what you know and substitute question marks for the part you do not know.  Type five letters or question marks for the first name and type five letters or question marks for the last name.  For example type: James  St???  to find everyone with a first name of James and a last name starting with ST.  Or type:  ?OB??  Steed  to find everyone with the last name of Steed and with a first name that has OB is the second and third letters.  That would find Robert Steed and Bob Steed.  Note that if you type a ? for the first letter of both the first and last name, it will take a long time to find all the matching names since the program must read every name in the database.  So type the first one or two letters of the last name to speed up the search.  Remember to type five letters or question marks for the first and last name.  Because if you type:  J  Steed  it will find only people with the one letter J  for the first name, whereas if you type:  J????  Steed  it will find all people that have the first name starting with J and followed by other letters.

If you want to find someone by the middle name or by soundex code you can use the Word Search routine instead.

If you turn on the option to also search by alternate name, it may require two or more seconds additional time for the search.  It will do the normal search, then do a search of alternate names (the names entered on the Names tab such as Nickname, Also known as, and Adopted name.)  If you change the option for alternate names, you must click the Find button again to restart the search.  If you want to save the default setting, click Options and then Close and it will remain at that setting each time you start the program.   It will not search alternate names if you entered a partial first or last name that contains ??? characters.  It will search alternate names if you entered both a first and a last name or you entered one ? for the first or the last name.  The alternate names will appear at the bottom of the list of names with the * character before the name.

If a person has a two part last name, or if the last name is not the last word in the name, then see Last Names.  If the last name is a two or three part name, you can search for it by putting [  ] around the last name.  For example, search for:  John [Van den burg]

If there are several matching names, click the name you want then pick Select or else double click the name.

If you come to the Select Person screen and it is showing a list of names from the previous search, you may select a person from that list, or you may enter a new name to search for.  The name field will be highlighed and if you press any letter, it will erase the name that is in the field.  You do NOT need to erase the previous field.  When you press any key, it will erase the old name.  If you only want to edit the name in the name field, then press the right or left arrow key before any other key.

Choose Cancel if you do not want to select a person.


Descendant Report

To start this report, pick Descendant from the main screen and then pick Descendant report.  The Descendant report will print all the descendants of a person.  Each generation will be indented more than the previous generation.  This report prints the birth, marriage and death dates for each person.  If you pick the option to include locations, then set the font to 9 or 8 points to make room for them.  Or there are other descendant reports that can print locations and the other fields.  See the Register or Indented reports.

If you want to see how every descendant in the report is related to one person, then type that person's name in the "As related to" field.  The person related to must be either the starting person for this report, or someone that is a descendant of that person.

If you want to show the direct lineage between two people, put the older person in the top box and select the option for direct lineage.  Then click on the second name box and type in the name of the descendant.  It will then print only the direct lineage from the top person to the second person.  There is a similar type of report available in the Compute Relationships report.

This report may be previewed on the screen or printed or sent to a disk file.  To send the report to a disk file, pick File from the top menu and then pick Create TXT file.


Rearrange Children or Spouses
Rearrange Children/Spouses/Parents

To rearrange the order of children in a family, display the children tab on the Edit screen then pick Rearrange at the bottom.

Then pick Move up or Move down or pick the Sort button to sort by birthdate.

Then you must click the button to save the changes.

To rearrange the order of spouses, pick Edit from the top menu, then rearrange order of spouses.  This menu item only shows up if the person has 2 or more spouses.

If a person has two sets of parents and you want to rearrange the parents (change the primary parents) then when the person is showing on the Edit screen, pick from the top menu Edit, Rearrange Parents.

The Primary parents are the one that show on an ancestor chart.


Fonts

When choosing a font, the Windows common dialog screen will be displayed.   The font you select will only be used for the printer unless you are selecting a font for the ancestor screen.


Custom Reports

If you pick Lists from the main screen, and then pick Alphabetical report, Numeric report, Ref order report, or Ahnentafel report you will be taken to the custom reports routine.

The first tab will let you set the margins, page numbers, etc.

The second tab is where you pick the people for this report.

When printing an alphabetical report or a birthday/anniversary report, you can choose to include everyone in the database, or you can pick the ancestors and or descendants of a person.  You can select multiple groups such as the ancestors of a person plus the descendant of another person.   As you select each group, it will display the number of people selected.  If you make a mistake, you can pick the Clear button to start the selection over.

When creating an alphabetical list, you may choose to print each person's birth name only, or you may include the birth name plus the married name plus the alternate name for each person.  That will cause many people to appear more than once in the report (once under each name.)

On the third tab, you can pick which fields to print on the report.

On the left side of the third tab you may pick from the list of existing custom reports that you have previously saved.  (To save a report format that you create, pick File, then Save report.)

On the right side of the third tab is a list of fields that you can add to your report.  You may create or modify reports by double clicking on the field you want.  That field will be added to your report.  The fields will print in the order that they appear in the center area of the screen.

The center area shows the fields for this report along with the number of characters in each field and the printed width.  You may click in the first column to change the field number, or you may click in the second column to change the number of characters to print for that field.  For example, when you are printing a name, you can set the number of characters to 30 instead of 40 and it will shorten any long names by changing the middle name to an initial.  You should then also change the width to 30 or it will print 10 spaces after the name.  If you want more space after a certain column, you can increase the width for that field.

The total width of your report will show at the bottom, along with the width of your paper.  The width is based on the average width of letters.  To print more than what will fit on one line, pick a smaller font or reduce the number of characters and the width for certain fields or else print multiple lines for each person by including field number 31 at the point where you want to start a new line.   You may also want to change the printer from Portrait to Landscape to print more on one line.

If you pick, as one of the fields to print, the spouse name, or marriage date, it will normally print the first marriage for the person.  If you include field 98 also, then it will print the last marriage for the person.  If you include field 99, it will print all marriages for each person.  Note, to show a person and all the spouses, you need to include field 2 or 3 to show the name of the person and also field 19 for the spouse's name and also field 99 which means all spouses.

To print addresses on laser labels, pick field 97 as the only field.  In the column for number of characters, put the four digit number for the labels.  The following numbers will work with Brother's Keeper:  5260, 5261, 5262, 5263 or for European paper sizes pick 7036, 7037, 7042.  Often the first two digits will vary depending on the quantity of labels in the package you purchased.  So if your package says 5160, then it is the same size labels as 5260.  Print a sample sheet of addresses on plain paper to be sure you have the top and left margins set correctly.  (To test on plain paper without printing several sheets, pick Lists, Numeric Report and set the starting and ending BK numbers to something like 1 to 30 to only print one page.)  Then when you are sure it will print correctly, print on the actual label paper.  To pick which address lines will print (for example if you want to add the Phone number to the label) go to the main BK screen and pick File, Options, Other, and set which of the 10 mailing address lines to print for each person.

To print 3 by 5 cards (index cards) pick a field number of 93 as the first and only field.  Then when you click Print, you will be given a screen to select if you want one card at a time or a group of 3 cards for laser printers.

The custom reports may be printed (pick File from the top menu and then Print) or previewed on the screen (pick File from the top menu then Preview) or sent to a text file (Pick File from the top menu then Create TXT File.)

You may also have the custom report sent to a disk file as a comma-delimited file.  Then a database program can import that file.  To make a comma-delimited file, include field number 91 along with the list of fields that you want.  Normally a comma-delimited file ends with the extension .CSV which stands for comma separated value.  Pick File, Create TXT file to save as a CSV file when field 91 is included.

If you want to save the report so that you will have it available in the future, pick File from the top menu, then Save Report Format.

Press the Save Options button on the first tab if you want to save the current options (such as font size and margins) for this report.  Then the next time you print a custom report, it will use the options you saved previously.  The options are saved separately for the different types of custom reports (alphabetical, numeric, etc.)


Select Location

Since many events happened in the same locations, there is an easy way to select a location for an event.  When you are on the Edit screen and want to enter a location, type the first three or four letters of a location that was entered previously and then press F8 or click the Location menu item at the top of the screen.  You will then get a list of existing locations that start with the letters that you typed.  Pick the location you want and press enter or click Select.

If you want to enter a location that is the same as the location showing for the event above on the grid, you may type " as the first and only character in the location field.  Then press the Tab key and it will copy the location from above.

Another shortcut when entering locations is = (the equal sign).  When you enter = in a location field, it will make the location equal to what that same field was for the last person you entered or displayed.  For example, if you are entering data for a wife, and she was born in the same city as the husband, you may enter = for her place of birth.  When you push Tab, it will display the same location that you entered for the husband.  This is handy for times when  "  would not work because there are other locations directly above that are different.  If several children were born in the same location, you may enter = in the birth location and it will duplicate the location for the previous child that you entered.  You may use = to duplicate any of the main five location fields from the previous person entered (birth, baptism, christened, died, buried.)  Remember that " will copy whatever is currently above on the screen at the time, whereas = will duplicate from the same location field from the previous person you entered.

To change the spelling or capitalization of a location, see change location.

See also Locations


Select the source you want
Select Source

Many events may refer to the same master source.  When you are adding a source, there will be an alphabetical list of existing sources.  Pick the source you want and press enter or click Select.

To change the spelling or capitalization of a source, see change source.


Printing

When a long report is printing, a small window will display showing what page is being processed.


Editor

When you create an RTF file for a report, you have an option to open the RTF file with the editor or word processor of your choice.

You can change the default editor by going to the main screen and picking File, Options, RTF Editor.


Print Preview

You can preview the Register, Indented, Ahnentafel, Descendant, Group sheet, and Custom reports on the screen before printing.  The preview pages will show you what information will print.  Currently it will display the first 200 pages of the report.  You may then print the report or return to the report screen and change some options.  While it is loading a long report, click on the first page with the mouse to start viewing the pages already loaded.

Press + or - on the zoom control to enlarge or reduce the page. You can also set the default zoom percent on the Options screen (under File on the main screen.)

Press + or - on the page control to change which page is being displayed.

The preview screen will show you what information will print on each page of the printed report.  However, you may notice that with certain fonts or with bold names or superscript numbers there may be some overlap or gaps on the screen. This might be corrected if you change the zoom to 100 percent.  In any event, the report should look correct when actually printed.

While the report is being built for the preview, you should not close the preview window.  You may click the cancel button first and then close the preview window.

Press the Page Down key to view lower sections of a page.  Press Ctrl+N for the next page.


Error

If an unexpected error occurs while the program is running, the error screen will be displayed.  It will give the error number and a short description of the error.  It will also show what part of the program it was in and it may show what button was clicked last.

If this happens, you should either print the error screen (with the print button) or else write down the error information.  Then click the close button.  If you still have an hourglass for a mouse pointer, go up to a menu and pick File and Close and the screen should close.

If you wish to send the error report to John Steed, please include the date of your program (Pick Help,About.)  Also include any other helpful information, such as the error only occurs if you pick certain options or it only occurs if a person has multiple spouses, etc.

See also Btrieve errors in the printed manual.


Gedcom

     Definition of gedcom

     Import gedcom file

     Export gedcom file


Parent type/Child type

When you are on the Edit screen, you can set the parent type by picking Find from the top menu and pick "Show parent type" from the drop down menu.  You can specify that the parents of this child are not the natural birth parents.   You may indicate that the mother and father are:

      Natural

      Adoptive

      Step

      Foster

      Other

If the parents are not the natural birth parents, then the word Father and Mother will be in italics on the Edit screen.


Options for BK

When you pick File, then Options from the main screen, you will be able to change the options for Brother's Keeper.

The first tab has the date options that you can use.  Click here for information about date types.

If you change the date type in Options, it will affect the new dates that you type in.  If you want to change existing dates, see File, Convert date format.

The second tab in Options will let you change the folder names for storing Text and Picture files.

The Other tab has these options:

 Label size (lines top to top)

 Which address lines to print   If you print labels using custom reports field 95 or 96 or 97 this tells which of the 10 address lines to print.

 Character meaning never print messages  #  Any message line starting with this character will not print on any report. (this is for BK5 - BK6 uses "never print" in print where column)

 Character before BK code numbers

 Zoom percentage for preview screen

 Wife keeps her maiden name    If most women do not use their husband's last name, check this option.  Otherwise, the birthday report will assume that a married woman is using her husband's last name.  You can override this option by entering an alternate name for a woman on Names tab of the Edit screen.

 Right justify Ref field    If this is checked, whatever you type in the Ref field will be right justified in the field.  This will affect the way the sorting is done when you pick Lists, Ref order report.

 Put changes in BKAUDIT.TXT file     With this option turned on, changes you make to an existing person will be written to the BKAUDIT.TXT file.

 Start BK as full screen (with taskbar showing in Win95)   Normally Brother's Keeper will start up as a sizable window.  You can click the up arrow in the upper right corner to make it a full screen with no border.  If you have the main window as a sizable window, and if you change the size to a smaller size, then the other screens will be the same size as the main window.  However, most screens need to be at least 640 by 480 so changing the size of the main window will only affect other screens if you are in 800 by 600 mode or higher.  You can change Windows to 800 by 600 if you use Control Panel, Display.

 Start BK in 640 by 480 size.  If you have Windows set for 800 by 600 or higher, then this option will start BK as a smaller window.

               Start BK in 800 by 600 size.  If you have Windows set for higher than 800 by 600 then this

               option will start BK as a smaller window.

 If the second page of all printouts have a problem, such as the top line is in reverse print, or the lines or words are missing, then set type option.  It will make every page a new print job.

 If you pick the Cancel button when printing, and you get an error message from Windows, then set this option.

 If your system can handle it, then the Portrait/Landscape option will automatically change your printer setting for each report based on what you have set when you pick Save options for that report.  It will also restore the printer back to normal after the report.  If your system gives an error after the report, the turn this option off and change your printer from Landscape to Portrait manually.

The RTF Editor tab in options will let you specify which word processor you want to use for viewing or editing RTF files that you create with BK (using File, Create RTF file from a Book report for example.)  When you choose one of those, Brother's Keeper will attempt to find the correct folder and program name.  If it is not able to find the correct information, you can type in the correct path and program name.  The last choice is for any other editor that is not listed.  This RTF editor can also be used when you edit external TXT files that are attached on the Notes tab.

The Edit screen tab will let you choose how the Edit screen will start.  Each time you pick Edit from the main screen, the Edit window will open the way you have specified in Options.  The choices are:

 Display first person in the database.  (Person 1 or the lowest BK code number.)

 Display last person in the database. (Highest BK code number.)

 Display the person which was showing the last time you used the Edit screen.  (The first time, it will display the person number you can enter below.)

 Display the person most recently printed in a report in this session.  (The first time, it will display the person number you can enter below.)

 Display person number:  (Pick the BK code number of the person to show.)

 Have the screen blank and prompt for a name to find.

 You may set an option to have BK start with the Edit screen instead of showing the main menu.

 Show date of last change    This will display the date of last change on the Edit screen.  The date will show above the Events grid.  It will show the date the person was entered or last modified.

 If you are using a language that contains accented letters that are not part of the MS Sans Sarif font, then you may change to a different font in options.  Before you do this, go to the Edit screen and press ALT+F2 to see a list of foreign characters.  You may have problems if you use a different font, but if you need a different font, you may select it here.

After you make any changes to your options, you can pick File then Save and exit.


Creating Index File
Creating File

When the program is creating an index file, or reading all names, it will display a gauge on the screen.  To cancel the procedure, click on the cancel button.


Sources list
Sources

When you pick Lists from the main screen and then pick Sources, it will display an alphabetical list of all the existing sources in your database.  You may also print this list.

To change an existing source, see change sources.


Save Ctrl Key as a String

If you find yourself repeatedly typing the same name or city, you may use a simple procedure to save time and reduce errors.  You may define any of the alphabet keys (A-Z) or numbers (0 to 9) to be any name, city and state, or word.  After you define what the key will be, you just push and hold the SHIFT and CTRL keys and then press the alpha key and the name or word will appear on the screen.

Use the following procedure to define a CTRL key.  While you are on the Edit screen, hold the CTRL key and press F10 (function 10).  A new window will open and you can type in a word or phrase and assign it to any alpha key (A-Z) or a number (0-9).  Then click Save.  That key sequence (SHIFT+CTRL+key) is now programmed.  The next time you want to type that name or city or word in any field, just hold SHIFT+CTRL and press the same key.  You may program all of the alpha keys to be a different name or word.  These programmed keys will be remembered each time you restart the program.  You may change what a key is defined to be by simply redefining using the above procedure.

Example:  Suppose you are going to add several people who were all born in Rockford, Kent County, Michigan.  On the Edit screen press and hold the CTRL key and press F10 (function 10).  Then on the pop up window type R for the letter and also type Rockford, Kent County, Michigan in the text box.  Then press Save.  The next time you want to type Rockford, Kent County Michigan in any field, just hold the SHIFT+CTRL and press R and it will appear.

Example:  Suppose you are going to add several people who all have the last name of Winchester.  Hold the CTRL key and press F10.  Then on the pop up window type W for the letter and type Winchester in the text box and then press save.  For each person that you add, just type the first and middle names and then push SHIFT+CTRL+W.

Note that there are other ways to repeat locations or names:

When adding a child, press  CTRL+-  or  CTRL+Enter  to copy the last name of this child's father.

To find an existing location, type a few letters in a location field and press F8.  Then pick the location from the list that is shown.  Also type " to duplicate a location that is showing above the field you are in.


Collapsed Ancestor Chart

To start this report, pick Ancestor from the main screen menu and then pick Collapsed ancestor chart.  The collapsed ancestor chart will show all the ancestors of a person up to 99 generations.  There will be one line for each ancestor.  It is called "collapsed" because there will not be blank lines or space where ancestors are unknown.  This chart will display on the screen when you pick Start, and will be printed if you pick File, Print.  You may set options for the number of generations to print, and whether you want to display no number, the BK code number, or the standard ancestor number.  Also, you may choose whether or not to show duplicate names caused by cousin marriages.

If you display a small chart and you want to copy the screen to another program, you can hold ALT and press the PrintScreen button.  That will copy the screen to the clipboard.  Then open your paint program or word processor and use Edit and Paste to insert the chart.


Register Brother's Keeper for $45

Brother's Keeper is a shareware program.  After you try it out for a while, you need to register (pay for) the program.  You may have obtained a copy from a friend or from the Internet or from a shareware dealer.  The author is not paid until you register the program.  When you register, you will receive a printed manual and a registration number and a password and technical support from the author and discounts on updates.  The password will turn on some extra features such as the ability to make RTF (Rich Text Format) files in the book reports, the ability to print a 6 generation ancestor chart, to print pictures of children on Group sheets, the ability to do a soundex search in Word search, and the ability to print one page of a report from the Preview screen.  Also the Picture Summary report is only available to registered users.

To register the program, pick Help from the main menu, and then pick How to Register and fill out the registration form.  Print the form and mail or fax it to John Steed.

Note: If you purchased the registered version from a dealer, then please notify John Steed of the registration number that is inside your printed manual along with your name and address. You may send a letter with that information, or email it.  (See Help, Technical support.)  Then you will be notified about once a year about updates that are available.


Time Line

To start this routine, pick Ancestor from the main screen menu and then pick Timeline.  The time line report will print or display the ancestors of a person showing a line for each person with the year of birth and death.

You can also include other events or other famous people on the chart by putting the information in the file BKEVENTS.TXT.  The events in that file will print at the top of your chart, provided some of the ancestors that are printed also lived during that time period.  The format of the BKEVENTS.TXT file is: beginning year, ending year, and a name or event.  For example: 1770 1827 Beethoven.  Put the most recent events at the top of the file and the oldest events at the bottom of the file.


Word Search

To start the Word Search, pick Lists from the main screen menu, or pick Search from the Edit menu.

There are three types of Word searches.   All three types can be used to either find a person to edit or to print custom reports.

The first type of Word search is individual field specific, which means that it searches for a word only in a particular field.  It also can search for people with several fields that match.  This type of Word search will let you find all the females who were born in Chicago in 1950.  Enter what you are searching for in the appropriate field.  If you enter information in more than one field, a person will have to match ALL fields in order to be a match.  Some of the fields (name and locations and message lines) will allow you to enter two words and you may specify whether it has to match both words or either word in order to qualify as a match.  Some examples are given on the input screen.  If you press the F3 key in a field, then it will say <not empty> and it will match any person that has something in that field.  You can use that feature to find everyone with something in the burial date or to find everyone with something in a message line.  If you press F4 in the name field, you may enter a last name for a soundex search.  The soundex code is used in the U.S. census records and English names that sound the same will have the same soundex code even when spelled differently.  To search for a range of dates, go to a date field and type a year then == then a year.  For example, in the birth date field type 1920==1939 to find everyone born from 1920 to 1939.

The second type of word search is like the first, except it searches the marriage file which contains the marriage dates and locations and sources.

The third type of word search will let you enter one word or name and will search all fields of each person for a match. If you type "Chicago" it will find all people who were born or died in Chicago, or have the word "Chicago" in one of the message lines, or even have "Chicago" in their name.  Note that this type of word search is looking for an exact match to what you type in.  So if you type "Joe Doe", it will not match "Joe Q Doe".  However, the search is useful to find all relatives who were born in, or died in, or were married in, a certain city.  You also may match people who share a common date.  For example, if you matched "1954" you would find all people who were born or died in that year.

If you pick the Create Report button, it will search for the matching people and then let you pick what fields you want to print for those people.

If you pick the Make List to Edit button, it will make a list of names on the screen and let you click one to jump to the Edit screen.


Word Search - Select Person to Edit

If you are using Word Search and click the button to Make List to Edit, any matching people will be displayed.  Click a name to see more information, or double click to edit.  If you edit a person and then want to return to the list of matching people, click the Close button on the Edit screen.

     .


Quality check

To check your database for link errors, pick File from the main screen and then pick Quality check.

The quality check routine will read your database and check the links between people to look for errors.  Each person normally has a link to parents, spouse, events and sources.  Each family record has links to husband, wife, children, events and sources.  If the database gets corrupted, this routine will let you repair or delete invalid links.  Your database should not get corrupted unless your disk has a bad sector or unless the power goes off while data is being written to the disk.

You should make a new backup of your database before you let Quality check fix any errors.  If you are having errors, keep any old backups you have and make a new backup unto new disks.


Index

If you are printing an index for a report, you may choose to have the index of names printed in two or three columns per page.

If you are sending a report to a RTF (rich text format) file for your word processor, then the index is invisible and it is created in your word processor by selecting the menu items to build the index.  See book reports.


Change Location Globally

To globally change locations, pick File from the main screen menu and then pick Locations, change.  Type the existing location or locations in the top boxes, and type the new location in the bottom box.  When you click Start it will change all occurrences of the top locations into the bottom location.

The best way to find existing locations is to type the first few letters and then press F8 to search for the location.  Pick the location from the list.  You may also use this technique to find a location to change to.  You may find an existing location to change to, or you may modify an existing location after you find it.


Convert date format

If you want to change all the dates in your database from one format to another, then pick File from the main screen menu and then pick Convert date format.  You should have a backup copy of your database before running this routine.

See also: Date types

The new dates you type in Edit will be converted according to the format you have chosen in the Options area, but this routine lets you convert dates that were previously entered.


Delete Unused Locations/sources/repositories
Delete Unused Locations or Sources or Repositories

At the main screen pick File, then Locations or Sources or Repositories, and then pick Delete unused and the program will search your database for locations or sources or repositories that are not attached to any person or marriage.  These unused records will then be deleted.

This routine is useful if you see sources or locations that you think are not being used showing up on a list.  If you run this routine and the sources or locations still show on a list, then a person or marriage is still attached to that source or location or repository.  To find out who, from the main screen pick Lists, then Word search and search for the location or source.

To find to whom a certain source is attached, pick Lists, Sources, then select the source and pick the button at the bottom to "Show everyone that this source is attached to".

For information about merging duplicate sources or repositories, click here.


List of Databases
Open List of Databases

If you want to have several different databases that are not connected to each other, then you can create several folders to hold the data.  To make it easier to switch from one database to another, you can create a list of the folder names and then just click on the one you want to change to.  To create the list of folder names, select File from the main screen menu and then select "Open list of databases."  Then click on the Edit button.  It will open an editor and you can then type one folder name on each line.  After you have added the folder names, select File and Save and exit the editor.  Then whenever you pick "Open list of databases" you will see the list of folder names and you may pick the one you want to work on.

For most people, it may be best to keep all the data in one folder.  The program can handle 10 million names in one folder and if all the people are related to you (or to your children) then keeping them all in one folder will give you the results you want for the ancestor charts.  If you have data in more than one folder, you can not print a chart with people from two folders.  Some people want more than one folder because they are working on data for other people, or because they have data that they do not want to add to their main database yet because they are not sure if the names are really related.

If you want to open a database without adding it to a list, then instead pick File from the main screen and then Open database.


Date types

All date fields are 15 characters long.  You may type any information into a date field and it will be accepted.  However, if you do not use one of the date formats listed below, the program will not be able to compute ages for people.  If you type a date in the form MMDDYYYY where MM is the month, DD is the day, and YYYY is the year, then the program will convert the date into a standard format.  If you enter MMDDYY (i.e. you only enter 2 digits for the year), the program will convert the year to 19YY. Each date will be converted to whatever format (1-12) you have set in the options area.  (To set the date type, pick File from the main screen and then pick Options.)

Format type 0 (zero) means no change from the way you type it.  The other date formats (1-12) will do a conversion on the date you type (provided it is typed as MMDDYY or MMDDYYYY).  If you wish to include /'s around the day you may, e.g. 5/4/1954 is acceptable for input.  The following is an example of how the dates will be changed based on the format you have set.  If you enter 05041954, it will be changed as follows (based on the date type you have chosen):

Type 1    04-MAY-1954

Type 2    04 MAY 1954

Type 3    05/04/1954

Type 4    05-04-1954

Type 5    MAY-04-1954

Type 6    MAY 04 1954

Date types 7, 8, and 9 are only used when you want to ENTER dates in European date format (DDMMYYYY).  Using the European date input, if you enter 04051954 you would get:

Type 7    04-MAY-1954

Type 8    04 MAY 1954

Type 9    04-05-1954

Use date format type 10 or 11 if you will be entering the dates in the format YYYYMMDD.

Type 10   1954.05.04

Type 11   1954-05-04

Type 12   04.05.1954

If you do not use one of the above date formats, the program will not be able to compute ages for people.  If you type in your own dates using letters, use the first three letters of the month name and do not use a comma.  If the day is less then 10 then use a space or a zero before the day.

You may change the option called "Months capital or lower case" on the Options screen so that the months will appear as May instead of MAY and the day will appear as  4 instead of 04.  If you have already entered dates in one format and wish to change to another format, you may use the Convert Date Format routine to change all dates.

Generally, if you type in less than 6 digits or more than 8 digits or type any alpha characters (A-Z), then no date conversion will take place no matter which date format type you have set.  You may, however, type either a ? or a _ for parts you don't know and it will still convert. For example if you don't know the day of the month you could type 05__54 and it will convert to __-MAY-1954 if you are using type 1 dates.

Most dates will require 10 or 11 characters when converted. However, the field is 15 characters long to accommodate the exceptions.  If you are not sure of a date, you may add additional information.  The program will automatically recognize certain 3 character abbreviations such as ABT for about, CIR for circa, BEF for before, and AFT for after.  For example, if you know a person died before March 15, 1920 you may enter BEF 031520 and the program will convert it to BEF 15-MAR-1920 if you are using type 1 dates.  The abbreviations (ABT, CIR, BEF, and AFT) may be in upper or lower case.  You may also enter dates with dual years such as 15-MAR-1680/81


Last Names

All names should be entered in the normal order of first name then middle name then last name.  The program is designed to automatically find a person's last name when it is needed for an alphabetical listing.  Certain suffixes such as Jr and Sr will be ignored by the program while it is looking for each person's last name.  If you put a suffix after a name, and the program thinks that the suffix is the last name, you may add a period after the suffix and the program will skip it and find the correct last name.  For example, if you put MD after a person's name, you could put a period after it so that it will not be alphabetized under the M's.  You could end the name with MD. or M.D. and then it should print correctly. The program also will attempt to place two part last names in the proper order.  If you come across a last name that does not alphabetize correctly, then click on the Names tab in Edit and enter the correct last name in the last name field and enter the correct sort name in the sort name field.  You do not need to do this for most names. For example, if you enter a name as John Steed of Kent, the program will alphabetize using the name Kent, but if you enter Steed in the last name field and enter Steed in the sort name field, then it will be alphabetized under Steed.  The program automatically looks for many two part names such as those starting with Van, or Vander so the name Jack Van Ek should alphabetize correctly under V.  But if a person's middle name is Van, then the program may assume it is a two part last name.  So if a name is John Van Brown and the last name is Brown then put Brown in the last name field and the sort name field.

In some countries such as the USA, a name like James Van Stensel is sorted under V.  In other countries, like The Netherlands, the last name is sorted under S.  The program is set up to treat Van Stensel as the last name and as the sorted last name.  However, if you want the name sorted under S and not V then type Stensel in the Sort name field.


Locations info
Locations

The location fields each hold up to 100 characters.  Since many locations will be repeated, there are a few shortcuts to speed up your work.  If the location has been entered previously, then type the first three or four letters in the location field and then press the F8 key.  A list of matching locations will pop up and you may use the up and down arrow keys to pick the one you want and then press enter.  This will guarantee that you are consistent in the spelling of the locations and that will result in a savings in disk space.  Some disk space is used for every unique location, however, once a location has been entered, it does not take any more disk space to have several people use the same location.  (To modify an existing location, see below.)

Another shortcut is to use the CTRL keys to have the program remember commonly used names or locations.  Using the CTRL key routine, you can enter a location by pressing just CTRL+SHIFT plus 1 key.

Another shortcut is that you may enter a quote or ditto mark in a location field and the program will copy into that field whatever location is shown in the field above.  For example, if you enter the birth location as Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan, and then move down to the place of death, you may enter either  "  or  '  as the first and only character in that field and when you push enter, the field will show Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan.  When you use either the  "  or  ' , the program will duplicate the closest non-blank location field above the one you are entering.

Another shortcut when entering locations is = (the equal sign).  When you enter = in a location field, it will make the location equal to what that same field was for the last person you entered or displayed.  For example, if you are entering data for a wife, and she was born in the same city as the husband, you may enter = for her place of birth.  When you push Tab, it will display the same location that you entered for the husband.  This is handy for times when  "  would not work because there are other locations directly above that are different.  If several children were born in the same location, you may enter = in the birth location and it will duplicate the location for the previous child that you entered.  You may use = to duplicate any of the main five location fields from the previous person entered (birth, baptism, christened, died, buried.)  Remember that " will copy whatever is currently above on the screen at the time, whereas = will duplicate from the same location field from the previous person you entered.

To modify an existing location for everyone that uses that location, go to the main screen of Brother's Keeper, and then pick File, Locations, Change globally.


Shareware

BROTHER'S KEEPER is a Shareware product protected by Copyright.  It is NOT public domain or free software.  Shareware is a method of distributing software, whereby copies may be passed around and each user may determine whether or not the program is suitable for him or her. After you have tested this program for yourself, and if you find it to be useful for you, you are requested to send the registration fee to the author of the program, John Steed.  The author of the program is not paid any fee when you buy a disk from a user group or company selling Shareware.  The only way the author gets paid is when you register.  If you want to encourage programs of this type, please register by sending $45 and the registration form which can be printed from the main screen by picking Help, then How to register.

Registered users will be sent the current version and a printed manual and receive technical support, a password to turn on all features, and they are entitled to use the program, and all future upgrades to the program.  They will also receive substantial discounts on future versions.  The extra features currently include the ability to create RTF (Rich Text Format) reports of the book style reports, to do a Soundex search in Word Search, to print a 6 generation ancestor chart, to print pictures of the children on the Group sheets, to print a single page from the Preview screen, and the ability to print or display a Picture Summary from the Other menu.

If you have purchased the registered version of Brother's Keeper, then the bottom of the main screen should say "registered version".  If it does not, then pick Help, Enter registration number and type in the numbers that are inside the cover of the Brother's Keeper manual that you received.

Minor upgrades are made frequently to the program, so you may wish to check to see if a new feature you desire has been added.   You can read about recent changes and download the current version from the Internet at:

 http://www.bkwin.com

 or

 http://www.bkwin.net

If you share this program with others, please give them the BKSETUP6.EXE file.  If you also want to share your data files, you may pick File, Backup data files.

If anyone sells copies of Brother's Keeper or offers Brother's Keeper "free" with the purchase of any other product, they must explain to the buyer that they are getting the shareware version of Brother's Keeper and that there is a $45 fee to be paid to John Steed if they wish to register the product to get the manual and technical support.  They may explain that shareware is a "try before you buy" system.  Anyone that sells copies of Brother's Keeper and does not notify the buyer in their advertising or on the diskette that it is shareware is violating the copyright. Anyone that advertises Brother's Keeper for sale on a web page must indicate on their web page that Brother's Keeper is shareware.  No one may charge more than $10 for copies of Brother's Keeper without permission from John Steed.  No one may give or sell their Brother's Keeper password or any valid password to another person.

There are a few companies that buy directly from John Steed and sell registered copies of Brother's Keeper.  They will provide you with a printed manual (a white and blue paperback book) with the registration number and password inside the cover.  Those companies currently include S&N Genealogy Supplies, Testware Publishing, Ancestral Computer Company (Phil Young), Carl Miller, Michael Pahlow, South Australian Genealogy Society, and Appleton Books. When you purchase the program from them, please send John Steed your name and address and registration number and you will be added to the mailing list to be eligible for discounts on updates. The German version of BK is also sold by Walter Kolzer and he does not provide the English printed manual.  He will provide you with a registration number and password.  If you need to contact John Steed, please include your registration number and address.

If anyone else sells you Brother's Keeper and gives you a password, please notify John Steed of the registration number and who sold you the program.  They might be a new dealer, but if they are not authorized to be giving out passwords, John would like to know about it.  There is no reason for you to give your password to any other person.  If someone asks you for your password, please notify John Steed.

This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP).  ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you.  If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help.  The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products.  Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 157-F Love Ave., Greenwood IN 46142  USA,  FAX 317-888-2195, or send email to

omb@asp-shareware.org

If you have any problem with the program, contact John Steed directly.   (use phone or email for fastest response.)

   John Steed

   6907 Childsdale Ave

   Rockford, MI  49341

   U.S.A.

   Phone (616) 364-5503

   Email  75745.1371@compuserve.com

   Internet web sites:

      http://www.bkwin.com

      http://www.bkwin.net

   FAX  (616) 866-3345


Registration number

When you register the program with John Steed by sending the fee, you will receive a registration number and password from John Steed.  When you receive the registration number, go to the main screen of Brother's Keeper for Windows and pick Help, and then pick Enter registration number.  Type in your registration number, password, and your name.  That will turn on all the features of the program and the main screen will indicate that you have the registered version of the program.  When you share the program with someone else, give them the BKSETUP6.EXE file, but do not tell them your registration number or password.  They will then have the shareware version of the program.  See also shareware.

If you get a password from someone other than John Steed, click here.


Register Report

The register report will print all the information about all the descendants of a person and will optionally print an alphabetical index.  If you intend to publish a book and use the register style report, you may set the output to go to a disk file in Rich Text Format and then use your word processor or a desktop publishing program to enhance the book.  (To create a Rich Text Format file, set the options on the RTF tab and then pick File from the top menu and then pick "create RTF file."  See more information about RTF here.)

The register report uses a numbering system where the first person is number one, and the children are numbers two, three, four and so on. Each person is given a number if they have children.  If a person does not have children, they are not assigned a number unless you choose to print the "modified register system" (see below.)  To see more information about a person who is listed as a child, look for the same number in the next generation.  To see who a person's parents are, look for the same number in the previous generation.  The names are printed one generation at a time.  If you select the Modified register system, then everyone gets assigned a number, and people that have children are given a + in front of their number so that you know to look below for more information.

Children's names.  Pick how you want the children's names to print the first time, if they will be printed more fully later.  If a child has no children and will not be printed later, then the full name will print in any event.

Show lineage from each descendant back to starting person.  This option will put after each descendant's name the name of the person's parent, grandparent, etc. back to the starting person in this report.  Before each name in the lineage will be the register number of that person.  After each name in the lineage will be a superscript number showing the generation of that person.

Label the generations.  You may choose to have the header between the generations say "Second Generation" and "Third Generation" and so on, or you may choose to just have it say "Next Generation" each time.  You may also choose to label the generations, but start each new generation on a new page, or you may choose to have it say "Next Generation" and have each new generation start on a new page.

Click here for common Options for reports


Merge databases

If you pick File from the main screen menu and then Merge databases, you will be able to combine two databases.  If you have two Brother's Keeper databases that contain different names, you may merge them by adding all the people in one set of files to the other.  You should make backup copies of both databases before you do a merge.  As the files are merged, the code numbers for one of the files will be changed so that they do not conflict with the existing numbers in the other file. Currently, the program will not check for duplicate names, so do not merge two files that have several identical people in both files or else you will have to do a lot of deleting to clean the file up.  See Duplicate people.

If you have a case where you want to merge two databases, but there are several identical people in the two databases, then do the following:  Use the Split  Database routine to split off the different people into a temporary folder. Then use the merge routine to merge the people from the temporary folder into your other database.

After you merge two databases, you may have a few duplicate people, and by removing the duplicates, and then linking one person from the old database to someone from the new database, you will end up with one linked database.


Split database

To split off some people from a database into a smaller database, pick File from the main screen menu and then pick Split database.  The routine to split off part of a database is useful if you want to send information to another Brother's Keeper user.  Often, the other person is only interested in some of the information that you have, and this routine will let you pick certain people and create a new database of just those people.  For example, you may select all the ancestors of a person, or all the descendants of a person, or any combination of ancestors and descendants of several people.  The normal mode is to select people.  However, you can select a group and then press the de-select option and de-select some of the people you have selected.  For example, you could select everyone (using the range of numbers routine) and then press de-select and de-select all the descendants of one person.

After selecting the people, pick the button that says "Copy" to copy the people to the new folder.  The program will run much faster if you create the new data files in a temporary subfolder on your hard disk as opposed to creating the new data files on a floppy.

After creating the new database, you may pick File, Open database and open the new database.  (Before doing this, remember where your regular database is located so that you can return to it later.)  You may then copy the new database to a floppy (using File, Backup) to send to someone else.  If the other person uses a different genealogy program that can read GEDCOM files, then use the GEDCOM routine to create a GEDCOM file from the new data files and send the other person the GEDCOM file.

This split routine creates a new set of Brother's Keeper data files.  It does not delete people from your existing database or change your existing database.  However, you could use the routine to in effect delete people.  You could select the people you want to keep and copy them to a new temporary folder.  Then, after you are sure you have the correct people, you could stop the program and COPY the data files from the new folder to your regular folder and then you would only be left with the people you selected to keep.

When you split a database, if a person has an external text file or a picture file attached, the split program will create a file called BKSPLIT.LST with a list of the text files that you should copy to the new folder.  If you are sending your data files to someone else, you should copy those message files to the diskette also.  If you are creating a gedcom file from the new split database, then those text files will still be included in the gedcom file.


Import gedcom file

To import a GEDCOM file, pick File from the menu on the main screen and then pick Gedcom, Import.  If someone else has given you a GEDCOM file, do not add it to your BK database until you know what is in it, otherwise you may not want the data and you will have to revert to your most recent backup copy of your database or else do a lot of deleting.  You could create a new folder and import the GEDCOM file into a new BK database.  Then use BK to look at the data.  If all looks correct, then you can import the GEDCOM file into your main database.  Always do a new backup of your BK files before importing a GEDCOM file.  The BK gedcom import routine will add everyone in a gedcom file to the BK data files in your current open folder and it does not look for duplications.

If you already have a GEDCOM file from another program, skip to the next paragraph.  To transfer data INTO Brother's Keeper, you first must create a GEDCOM file that contains the data in the other genealogy program.  For example, if you have data in the PAF program, follow the directions in PAF for creating a gedcom file.

The next step in importing is to run the Import GEDCOM routine so that the data can be changed into BK format.  Pick File, then Gedcom, Import from the main screen.  If there is already data in a Brother's Keeper file there, then it will show you how many names are in the existing file.  The new data will be added to any existing data.  The program will not check for duplicates - all the data will be added as new additional data.

It will then ask for the name of the GEDCOM file to read.  Select the correct drive, folder, and file name for the file to read.

When finished importing, you can use the quality check routine to be sure all the links between people are correct.  You can then use Brother's Keeper to look at the file, and print all the reports.  If you are importing a gedcom file that was created by ROOTS III, you can run the BK quality check routine and it will put the children in the correct birth order.

The Brother's Keeper gedcom routine will only read gedcom files that are not split into separate files.  If you have a gedcom file that was created by another program, and if the file was split into two parts by the other program (one continuous gedcom file in two parts) then make the two parts into one file before reading it with BK.  Normally, if the other program splits a file it will call one .GED and the other will have an extension with a number, such as .G00.  So if you have SMITH.GED and SMITH.G00 on two diskettes, then put them on the hard disk and use the MS-DOS COPY command to make them into one file again.  For example,

COPY  SMITH.GED+SMITH.G00  SMITH.GED

That will attach the .G00 file onto the end of the .GED file so that BK can read it as one file.

If the gedcom file you are reading contains long NOTE lines, you might see an option on the screen to "add a space between CONC lines".  If you see that option, read this:  If a message or note is too long for a gedcom line (over 250 characters long) then it uses a CONC tag meaning Concatination.  Two or more lines are stuck together during the import to make a long line. The gedcom rules say to split a word in the middle of the word and not at a space when doing that. However, the FTM program splits the line at a space.  So when importing a FTM gedcom file, you should pick the option to add the space.  But for other gedcom files, do not add the space.


Export gedcom file

To create a GEDCOM file, pick File from the main screen menu and then pick Gedcom, Export.  Note: when you create a GEDCOM file, you now have a choice of either exporting all the names in your file, or selecting which names to export.  If you want to transfer only part of your file, then you will be taken to a routine just like the split database routine.

The export routine will ask for the name of the GEDCOM file you want to create.  Type the name for the file followed by .GED.

If you are making a GEDCOM file that will be placed on the Internet, be sure to set the option to Exclude data for living people.

If you are making a large GEDCOM file, create the file on the hard disk and then later copy the file to a CD or use a program like WINZIP to compress the file and copy it to floppies.

After the file is created, you may use another genealogy program's GEDCOM reading routine to move the data into that program (see the other program's directions on how to read the GEDCOM file.)


Birthday / Anniversary

When you pick Lists and then Birthday/anniversary from the menu on the main screen, you can create a birthday and/or anniversary list of everyone in your database, or selected people.  If this report does not turn out correctly, be sure you have the Options set correctly for your date type.

To print the report, pick File and then Print or to display the report pick File and then Preview.

If you do not have Calendar Creator, you can pick File, Calendar and Brother's Keeper can print a calendar.

If you do have the Calendar Creator program from Softkey® (any version since 1995) you can create a file to import into Calendar Creator by picking File and then Make Calendar Creator file.  It will make a file called BIRTHCC.CSV in your data folder.  Then you can run Calendar Creator and pick File, Open, and change the "files of type" box to "comma separated variables" and change the folder to the folder that contains your BK data files.  Then select the BIRTHCC.CSV file.  It will then shows the columns of names and dates with the word "unassigned" above each column.  Click the word "unassigned" above the names, and then pick "event description".  Then click the word "unassigned" above the dates and then pick "start date" and select the date format that is used.  The other columns do not need to be assigned.  Click OK to import the dates.  Note that the year will be the current year unless it is July or later, and then it will be the following year.  If it is a calendar for the following year, then at the bottom of Calendar Creator, click the arrow to advance to the next period to get to that year.  After you import the file, the names should show on the correct dates on the calendar.


Open Database

To open a Brother's Keeper 6 database, or to create a new Brother's Keeper 6 database, pick File, then Open database from the main screen.  You may then pick the drive and folder for the database.  You can also create a new folder.  The Brother's Keeper data files will then be opened or created in the folder you specify.  If you want separate Brother's Keeper databases (you do not want the people connected between the databases) then each database must be in a separate sub folder.  See also, Open list of databases.  Note, you do not need to pick Open Database unless you want to open a different database.  When you start Brother's Keeper it will automatically open the database you were working on previously.

It is strongly recommended that you keep your normal BK database on the C: drive or another hard drive.  You should not have your regular database on the A: drive or it may be damaged.  You should keep your database on your hard drive, and then make frequent backups to the A: drive for safe keeping.


Database Statistics

When you pick File from the main screen, then Database statistics, you will see a window that tells you the number of people in your database and the number of families, locations, sources, and addresses.  The highest BK code number may be higher than the number of people in the database if some numbers have been deleted.


Printer Setup

When you pick File, then Printer setup from any menu, you will see a list of all printers that you have added to Windows using Control Panel, Printers.  You may pick the correct printer, or you may change from portrait to landscape, or you may change the paper size or other features of your printer. This version of Brother's Keeper will make whatever printer you pick the "default printer."

Any changes you make will stay in effect until you pick Printer setup again.


Backup data files

When you pick File then Backup from the main screen, a window will open and you can copy your Brother's Keeper data files to a diskette in the A: drive of your computer.  Insert a diskette that is already formatted and then click on A to start the backup.  This routine will copy the nine main data files.  This routine also has the ability to copy any external text files you have created and attached to notes and can also copy any picture files you have attached.

If your database is large, you may pick the choice to create a compressed file.  This will allow you to copy your database to a diskette even when the files are larger than 1.44 megabytes.  The compressed file is called BK6DATA.ZIP.  If your data files are very large and even the compressed data will not fit on one diskette, then the option for multiple diskettes will become available on the screen.

If your computer has a CD writer, you can backup to the CD drive.  The way to do that depends on what version of Windows you have.  If you have Windows XP, then follow the directions at the bottom of the backup screen and then pick your XP user name.  Then there will be a new button that says "Backup to CD with XP".  When you click that button, it will copy the BK data files to a temporary staging area on your computer.  Then XP should prompt you to finish writing the files to the CD.  If you are not prompted to finish writing the files to the CD, then you should stop BK and go to My Computer and open the drive letter for your CD drive.  It should show the files "ready to write to the CD" and then on the left will be a line to "finish writing these files to CD".  Click that line to complete the transfer.  If you do not see any files ready to write to the CD, then you may have picked the wrong XP user name.  In that case, go back to the BK Backup screen and press F6 and pick the correct XP user name.

If you do not have Windows XP and you want to backup to a CD drive, you must have a program like "CD Direct" running or you must run a special format program on the CD.  Then in BK on the backup screen, you can click "Pick a different drive" and type the letter for your CD drive.  When you click the button to do the backup, if you get an error, then you might not have the correct CD programs running.  As a test, go to Wordpad and type a few words then pick File, Save As, and try to save the file on the CD drive.  If it does not work, the CD is not ready for programs like Wordpad and BK.  If you still can not get BK to write to the CD then make a note of where your BK data files are located (see the bottom of the main BK screen).  Then stop BK.  Then start your CD writer program and use it to copy that entire BK data folder to your CD drive.  Also copy any text or picture folder if you are have external files attached to people.

The backed up data files are only to be used by the File, Restore data files routine.  You can not view the data files by clicking on them.  Do not try to view or open the data files with any word processor or the files can be damaged.

To restore data from a floppy or CD to the hard drive, use the Restore data files routine.


Change Source Globally

When you go to a source for a person from the Edit screen, you can change the top part of the source which is the master source.  When you leave that screen it will ask if you want to change the source just for that one person or globally.  If you change just for one person, it will create a new source with the changes, and leave the old source in the master file also since it may be used by other people.  If you pick the choice to change the source globally, it will change the source for everyone that uses that master source.

Also, if you pick from the main menu File, Sources, Change Globally, you will get a list of all master sources and then you can pick one and Edit it.

When you edit a master source, it will change the source for every event that cites that master source.

An example of editing a master source is if you need to fix the spelling of the name of the author or add information about the title or publisher.  Those are changes that you would want to be applied to any event that cites this source.

An example of when you should NOT edit a master source is if you want to cite a different source.  For example, if you have a book cited as a source, do not change the title to a different book.  If you want to have one event cite a different book, then add a new source with the new book title.  Then delete the wrong source citation (delete the S link to the wrong title.)


Exit Brother's Keeper

To stop the Brother's Keeper program, pick File, then Exit Brother's Keeper from the main screen.   That will close the data files and close the Brother's Keeper window.

Each person you add to the database is saved to disk automatically when you view another person, but you should still exit the program correctly before you turn off your computer.


Indented Report

To create an Indented report, pick Descendant from the main screen and then pick Indented.  The indented report will print all the information about all the descendants of a person and will optionally print an alphabetical index.  If you intend to publish a book and use the indented style report, you may set the output to go to a disk file in Rich Text Format and then use your word processor or a desktop publishing program to enhance the book. (To create a Rich Text Format file, set the options on the RTF tab and then pick File from the top menu and then pick "create RTF file.")  For more information about RTF see Options for reports below.

The indented report uses a numbering system where the first person is given the Roman numeral I and the first child of that person is given the letter A, the second child is B and so on.  The first child of A is 1 and the second is 2.  There is also an option for using the Henry numbering system.  With the Henry system the child of each person has the same number as the parent plus one additional digit.  With this system, you can look at a person's number and see the numbers of the parent and grandparent, etc.  For example if a person is the 12th child of person one, the child's number is 1.12.  The 5th child of person 1.12 is 1.12.5.  And the 8th child of person 1.12.5 would be 1.12.5.8.  There are three options for the Henry numbering system.  One uses a period between each number.  The second option uses no periods, but uses ( ) if the number is 10 or more.  The third system uses no periods, but uses A instead of 10 and B instead of 11 and C instead of 12 and so on.

Click here for common Options for reports


Ahnentafel Report

To print an ahnentafel book style report, pick Ancestor from the main screen and then pick Ahnentafel book.  (For an ahnentafel list, see Custom reports.)  The ahnentafel report will print all the information about all the ancestors of a person and will optionally print an alphabetical index.  If you intend to publish a book and use the ahnentafel style report, you may set the output to go to a disk file in Rich Text Format and then use your word processor or a desktop publishing program to enhance the book.  (To create a Rich Text Format file, set the options on the RTF tab and then pick File from the top menu and then pick "create RTF file.")

The ahnentafel report uses the standard ancestor number for each person.

Click here for common Options for reports


Duplicate people

If you have a person duplicated (the person has been assigned two code numbers by the program) then you will need to delete one person in order for the printouts to print correctly.  Each person must be entered only once and then linked to the father, mother, spouse, and children.  Let's assume that you have entered yourself twice into the computer and that you have two code numbers, 5 and 21.  On the Edit screen call up number 5. Suppose it shows you with a father and mother, but no spouse and no children.  Then call up number 21.  Suppose it shows you with no father and no mother, but it does show your spouse and children.  In this case, you should delete person number 5 who has no spouse and no children. Here is the procedure:  On the Edit screen, call up number 5.  Pick Delete from the top menu and then pick Delete Person to totally delete the person.  Then call up your father and mother.  Click on Add Child and type 21 for a child's name (this is the non-deleted you).  If you are not in the correct birth order, you can Rearrange order.  See Rearrange.  Note, if a person has the wrong spouse, do not delete the person, just pick Delete Link to Spouse.  If a child is attached to the wrong parents, click the Delete Link to Child button at the bottom of the child grid.


Display List

When you pick Lists and then choose Alphabetical Display, Numeric Display, or REF Order Display you will get a quick list of names and code numbers.  If you want more information about each person, pick the choice for Report instead of Display from the Lists menu.

The Alphabetical Display is quick because it does not sort the whole name, but instead uses the index that is in the file.  The index only uses the first ten letters of the last name and the first ten letters of the first name.  Therefore, this quick display will not be accurate for names which are similar and have the first ten letters the same.  For an accurate display or printout, pick the other choice for Alphabetical report.

When you pick Unconnected people you will get a list of all people that have no parents, no spouse, and no children.  This can help you find people that need to be connected or people that you have unlinked from your database.

When the list is showing, you can double click a name to jump to the Edit screen.


Convert BK 5 database

If you have data files in Brother's Keeper version 5.0 to 5.2 then you can convert the data files into the BK6 Windows format by picking File from the main menu and then pick Convert BK5 to BK6.  It will ask you where your old data files are located.  It will convert those data files into the new format and place the data files in the folder that is currently open.

There are several options so take your time and set them correctly before doing the conversion.  The text or picture files can be moved to a new folder.  To pick a different folder name for text or pictures, pick File, Options from the main screen before doing the conversion.

If you have several BK5 databases, such as: C:\BK5\SMITH and C:\BK5\JONES then you will need to run the convert routine one time for each database.

If you have data in Brother's Keeper 4.0 to 4.5 then contact John Steed about a conversion program.  (Or if you have the CD, the Convert5 program is on the CD - see the ReadMe file for help.)


Compute Birth Date

If you press F2 on the Edit screen, you will get a pop-up window where you can enter the death date of a person and the age at death.  It will then compute the birth date.  This is useful if you see a tombstone with the age at death.

Note: You may need to be in a non-grid field when you press F2.  For example click on the name field for a person and then press F2 to bring up the date calculator.

Type the death date using the date format you have picked in Options, or else just enter numbers and press Tab to convert the date.

Type the number of years, months, and days and it will compute the birth date.  Then if you want you can pick Copy to Clipboard and then go to a date field and Paste in the date.

Note: The computed birth date will be wrong if the information is invalid.  For example, if you say a person died on March 31 and was born 1 month before, then  it will say February 31 which is invalid. There is no valid date exactly 1 month before March 31.


Compute Relationships

When you pick Other from the main screen, and then Compute relationships, you will be able to enter the names of two people and the program will compute the relationship between them.  It will only find blood relationships and not marriage relationships.  It will find the relationship if both people have a common ancestor.

When you click Compute it will find the relationship.  You may then Preview or Print the conecting people.  If you click on the button for other relationships, it will check to see if the two people are related in more than one way.

This routine uses the ENGLISH.REL file for English, or the file ending with .REL if using a foreign language.  For example, FRENCH.REL.


Restore data files

To restore data files that you have previously backed up, pick File from the main screen and then Restore data files.  Then insert the diskette or CD with the data files and click on the drive letter for the diskette or CD.

The program will then show you the date and size of the files on the diskette or CD

If you are sure you want to restore those data files, then click on the Restore button.

NOTE:  Any data files currently on your hard drive in the selected folder will be written over (erased.)  So if you do not want to erase the data currently on your hard drive, you must select a new or empty folder before doing the restore.  To make a new empty folder, go to the main screen and pick File, Open database and type a new folder name at the bottom and pick Create.  The main screen will then show 0 names and 0 families.  Then you can restore the data files from the diskette or CD to that new folder without writing over your current database.

If you also copied the text files or picture files to a diskette or CD using the BK backup routine, then you can also restore  those files from the diskette back to the correct folder on your hard drive.


Reasonableness Check

To check the data files to see if the dates are reasonable, pick Other from the main screen and then Reasonableness Check.  This report will let you set minimum and maximum ages for certain events.  Then when you pick Print or Preview it will find people that are not within the range you specified.  This will help you find incorrect data, such as when you accidently enter the wrong century for the death of a person.

If this report shows wrong ages for people, then check to see if the date format you are using is the one set under options (see Date Types.)


Calendar

To print a calendar showing birthdays and/or anniversaries, pick Lists from the main screen and then pick Birthday/Anniversary.  Then select the people you want and then pick Preview to view the list on the screen.  After you preview the list, close the preview screen and then pick File, Calendar.

You can print the calendar for one month or a whole year.  You can print the calendar in Portrait or Landscape mode.  To print the calendar on 1/2 of a sheet, pick Portrait and set either the bottom or the top margin to 6 inches.

If the birthday list and the calendar are missing some people, or if the dates do not look correct, then see Date types.

If you own a program called Calendar Creator for Windows, you can export the birthday information to a file and then import it into Calendar Creator.  For more information, click here.


Locations with Events

If you pick Lists from the main menu, and then Locations with Events, you can display or print a list of all locations with the events that happened there.  It will show the place name and then the births, deaths, and marriages of people.

You may either have the events listed in chronological order (by date) or by BK code number.  (You may want it by BK code number if there were lots of events in one location and you want to see if the same person had more than one event there.)

If you do not want to print all locations in the database, you may select just the locations related to the descendants of a person.

You may choose to print all locations, or just certain matching locations.  For example, you may want to print only locations in Michigan or only in a certain county.

There is also an option to put the = symbol before any event that you have a source attached to.


Missing Information Report

To print a list of people that are missing certain information, pick Lists from the main screen and then pick Missing Information Report.

On the first tab, select if you want to search the entire database, or just search the descendants of a person.

Then on the second tab, select the fields that you want to search and it will print the people that have no information in those fields.


Count of Descendants

To find out how many descendants a person has, pick Descendant from the top menu on the main screen and then pick Count of Descendants.  Then type the name of the person and it will show you how many descendants that person has.


Graphic Bar Charts

To display or print Graphic Bar Charts, pick Other from the main menu of BK and then pick Graphic Charts  Then pick Type from the menu and select the type of chart you want.  You may print charts showing the lifespan of people (age at death) or the number of children per family, or the month of birth, marriage, or death.  If the charts do not work correctly, then check your date type that is set in Options.


Tiny Tafel

To create a Tiny Tafel file, pick Other from the main menu in BK and then pick Tiny Tafel.  Then select a person such as yourself.  It will then let you create a tiny tafel file for all the ancestors of that person.  The tiny tafel file can be used by some computer systems to match your ancestors with the ancestors of other researchers.


List of Surnames
List of Surnames or List of Witnesses

To make a list of surnames, pick Lists from the main menu (or the Reports menu) and then pick List of Surnames.  You may select everyone or just the descendants of a person.  Then it will make a list of the surnames (last names) and tell you how many people have each name.  You may print the list alphabetically or have it sorted by the number of people.

To make a list of witnesses, pick Lists from the main menu or the Reports menu, then pick List of Witnesses.  You may print all witnesses or just one witness.  It will show all the events that witness is attached to.


Ancestor Box Chart

To display or print an ancestor box chart, pick Ancestor from the top menu of the main screen and then pick Ancestor Box Chart.  Then pick the starting person and set any other options you want.  Then click the start button and it will display nine generations of ancestors (511 people.)  If you want to print the chart, click File, Print.  It will print the first 6 generations on one set of pages, and then it will print the last 3 generations on another set of pages that you can tape to the first set.  When printing, you should pick a printer font that will allow the first 6 generations to fit on one page width.  For example, it should fit correctly if you use Times New Roman 10 point.  The last 3 generations will print at one half of that font size.


Picture summary

When you pick Other from the menu and then Picture summary, you will be able to display or print pictures files that are in a folder, or you can display or print pictures that you have already attached to people in your database.

If you display the pictures, it will show 6 pictures at a time.  If some pictures are in color and others are black and white, you may see the colors change on the screen while displaying the pictures.  To avoid this effect, go to Control Panel, Display, and set your video card to millions of colors.

If you print the pictures, it will print 35 pictures on each page.  When printing, the pictures will be a little over 1 inch in height.  If you want larger pictures on this report, pick Options from the top menu and you can pick 24 or 12 or 6 pictures per page.  There are also options to show file names and the BK code number.

This picture summary report is not available to unregistered users.


Select folder or file

When BK is asking you to select a folder name, it will show you the select folder box.  It will show a drive letter at the top of the box and a folder name below that.  To move to a lower folder that is showing, double click on the folder name.  To move to a folder that you can not see, double click on the C:\ line at the top and it will show you all folders below C:\   Then select the folder and subfolder that you want.

To change to a different drive letter, select the down arrow in the drive box.

If you are making a new database, there will be a box where you can type in the new folder name.  For example: C:\BK6\SMITH    and then you can click the Create button.

If you are on a screen where you can select a file name, then the file list box will show all files of a certain type in the selected folder.


Odd, Even, Start with

On many of the report setup screens there will be an area on the Page Setup tab that says Print Pages.  In that area you will see All, Odd, Even, Start with.  If All is selected, then all the pages of that report will print.  If you select Odd then only the odd numbered pages will print.  This may be useful if you want to print on both sides of the paper.  You can select Odd and print the odd pages, then turn the paper over and insert the printed pages back into your printer and then select Even and print on the back side.  You may also want to adjust the left margin differently for the back side.

The "Start with" option is useful if your printer jammed near the end of a long printout.  For example, if you were printing a 100 page report and the printer jammed on page 87 you could print the report again and tell it to Start with page 87.  Note, you should leave the "Call first page" set to page 1.  The "Call first page" box is only used if you want the first page of the report to not be page 1.  For example, if you are printing two different reports and you want to put them both into one book you may want the first report to be pages 1 to 50 and the second report to be pages 51 to 100.  In that case you would set the "Call first page" box to 51 when you print the second report.

The odd/even option is not used if you Preview a report.

If you have asked for a printed index also, then the index can be printed out after the report is finished printing.  It will prepare the index no matter which option you have selected (All, Odd, Even, Start with.)  You will only need to print the index one time since the index will be the same each time.   If you want to print the index in a different size font or with different margins, then you can go to the Register report screen and pick File, Index only and it will reprint the last index with the currently selected font and margins.

Note that the option to print odd or even pages is not available unless you have registered the program.


Output to TXT File

Many of the reports have an option to send the report to a TXT (text file) on your disk.  In other words, instead of printing the report, you may save it as a text file (to be opened in a word processor or attached to an email message.)

To use this option, set up the report just as if you were going to print it, and then pick File from the top menu and then pick Create TXT file.  Then it will ask for a file name and the report will be sent to that file.The graphic reports (like the Tree chart and Box chart) do not have an option to output to a text file.

The Register, Indented, and Ahnentafel Book reports have an option to save the report in Rich Text Format (rtf) which includes formatting information.  The Ancestor chart also has an option for RTF output.

If you send a report to a file, you could then email someone and attach that file to the email.

On the Group sheet report, there is also an option to output to HTML file.


Repository

When you are on the Source edit screen, there is a button to click to show the repository.  The repository is the name and address of the place that has posession of the source.  If the source is a book, the repository might be a library or an individual.  Basically you want to identify where someone could go to find the source that you used.  If the repository is a library, you can also enter the call number with the source.  The call number is what identifies the source at that repository.

If you link a repository to a source and later want to delete that link to the repository, you may do so while on the Source screen.  Pick from the top menu, File, Delete link to repository.


Notes for Event

If you want to enter a note that only applies to one event, you may click the N column after the event.  That will open a screen where you can enter the note.  That type of note is not a general note for the person.  Currently the Notes for Event will not print on the reports, however, there will probably be an option to include those notes on reports in the future.

General notes about a person should be entered instead on the Notes tab on the Edit screen.


Convert Names Upper/Lower Case
Convert Names Uppercase/LowerCase

This routine can be used to change the names of each person to or from UPPERCASE or lowercase or to change to Normal Case where the first letter only is uppercase.

If you import a gedcom file from someone else and the names are not in the format you prefer, then this routine under File, Utilites can change all the names.


Global Search and Replace

This routine which is on the main menu under File, Utilities can be used to make global changes to all the names of people or the dates and places or else the text file path or picture file path for existing files that are connected.

Be very careful when using this routine because it can make changes that can not be undone.  It is important to have two good backups of your data before using this routine.


Notes Utility

This utility is used to fix text files if the lines are short and have hard carriage returns.  This utility will make the short lines into a paragraph with wrapped lines and that will cause the notes to print the width of the paper when printing reports.

In BK5 the hard carriage returns were ignored, but in BK6 hard carriage returns will cause the printing routine to start a new line.

Only use this utility if the notes do not print correctly in BK6 but they did print correctly in BK5


Add Back Deleted BK Code Numbers

This routine is on the main screen under File, Utilities, and can be used to add back a deleted BK code number.

This routine does NOT add back the name or information about a deleted person.  It only adds back the number and give the person the name AVAILABLE.  Then when you are adding children to a family on the Edit screen you can type the word AVAILABLE and press enter and it will find one of these numbers and then you can change the name to the new child name and continue.

You do NOT need to use this routine, since the program is designed to work correctly without all numbers being used.  Remember the BK Code number is NOT a genealogy number so it is not important to use every number.


Add Source to Range of People

If you want to add the same source to a group of people, pick from the main screen File, Utilities, Add Source to a Range of People.

This routine is useful if you have received a Gedcom file from someone and you are adding it to your database.  You will then be able to add a source to everyone in that group to show that the information was received from a certain person.


Function Keys

F1	Help (on all screens)

On Edit Screen

F2	Calculate birth date based on death date

F3	Find a Person

F4	Add Spouse

F5	Add Child

F6	Show Source

F7	Family View

F8	Search for Location

F9	Do not show matching names when adding

CTRL+F5	Add New Individual

CTRL+S	Go to Spouse

CTRL+N	Next Person

CTRL+P	Previous Person

CTRL+O	Older Sibling

CTRL+Y	Younger Sibling

CTRL+F	Go to Father

CTRL+M	Go to Mother

ALT+F2	Foreign Letters

CTRL+- 	Give a child the father's last name

CTRL+F10	Save Text as CTRL Key

Tab	Go to Next Field

Shift+Tab	Go to Previous Field


Merge duplicate sources/repositories

If you have duplicate master sources or duplicate repositories, you can pick from the main Brother's Keeper screen: File, Sources or Repositories, Merge duplicate.  Then it will search for duplicates and combine them.


General 'to do' items

There are two types of 'to do' or research items.  One type is attached to a person on the Edit screen.  The other type is the General type which is not attached to a person.

When you want to add a general 'to do' item or change one, go to the main Brother's Keeper screen and pick File, General 'to do' items.

You will see a grid where you can add or change 'to do' items.  These items can be printed from that screen, or for more printing options, go to the main screen and pick Lists, 'To Do' Search/Report.

For more information about the 'To Do' grid, click here.


To Do items

There are two types of 'to do' or research items.  One type is attached to a person on the Edit screen.  The other type is the General type which is not attached to a person.

The 'to do' items are on a grid which contains columns for the following items:

Date

The date column can contain the date you entered the item or the date you started reseach.  You can also double click the date column and enter two dates, a starting date and an ending date.

Status

The status column is a drop down list which can be blank, plan, started, progress, or completed.

Description

The description column can contain up to 120 characters describing this 'to do' or research task.  If you need to have a longer description, put a short description here, and put the longer one in the textbox at the top.  The top text box can contain 22,000 characters.

Location

The location column can contain a place or location.  To find existing locations in your database, type the first few letters and press F8   If you are going to visit a certain town, you can print a list of all 'to do' items for that town.

Repository

Instead of, or in addition to the location, you can enter a repository.If you click the repository column, it will jump to the repository screen where you can pick an existing repository or add a new one.

Type

The type column is a drop down list containing blank, research, correspondence, or other.  If you want to designate the type of 'to do' or research item, you can later search for certain types and print only those.

Priority

You can set the priority of each item to blank, low, medium, or high.  This is useful if you want to print a list of all high priority tasks.

These items can be printed from the same screen, or for more printing options, go to the main screen and pick Lists, 'To Do' Search/Report.


Media files

On the Edit screen you can click the Media tab and attach files such as video, sound, html, pdf or any other type of file that Windows knows how to handle.   These files are linked to the current person or family, and you can click a button to the left of the file name to launch the program that can handle that type of file.  These files are not printed on any Brother's Keeper reports.  If you have picture files that you want to print on reports, then attach them on the Picture tab instead.

The files that you attach are not moved into the BK database.  The BK database just points to those files on your computer.  So do not delete or move those media files or else BK will not be able to show them.

If you click the button on the left to show the media file, then just close that media program when you are done and you will be returned to Brother's Keeper.


To Do Search/Report

When you pick Lists, 'To Do' Search/Report you can pick which 'to do' items to print and which fields of those items to print.

On the middle tab, select in the top half if you only want to match certain fields.  For example you might want to only print High priority items or you might only want to print items that have a certain city name in the location field.

Select in the bottom half if you want all 'to do' items or only general or only those attached to people.  You can also pick selected people.

Then go to the Fields to Include tab and pick which fields to print for the matching items.  For example you may only want the Date, Description, and Location fields printed.

Then click Preview or Print or File, Create TXT file.

If you set up a certain set of fields to include you can save that set for future use by picking File, Save Report.  You can give a name to the report.  If you want to print the 'to do' items on the Group sheets, then you can save a report with the name GROUP and that report setup will be used for the Group sheets.  In other words, the fields that you pick and the size of those fields will be used when printing 'to do' items on Group sheets.


Family Edit

If you are on the Edit screen and pick View, Family Edit or press F12 it will take you to the Family Edit screen.  The Family Edit screen is similar to the Family Edit screen that was available in Brother's Keeper version 5.2 for Windows.   Users of BK 5.2 may prefer this screen when viewing and navigating a family.

You may press F12 to return to the normal Edit screen, or you can pick Edit, and pick which person to Edit (Husband, Wife, Child.)   You may also click the name of a person to jump to the Edit screen for that person.

Some of the Editing features from BK 5.2 are not available on this screen, and you will need to click a person to go to the normal Edit screen to do those functions.


Palm
Create Palm Database

If you pick from the main BK screen File, Utilities, Create Palm Database, you can make a list of names to move to a Palm handheld.

You can select everyone (Range of Numbers) or the ancestors or descendants or a combination.

When you pick Copy it will copy those people to a file and then you can HotSync them to your Palm handheld computer.

On the Palm computer when the Brother's Keeper handheld program starts you will have an alphabetical list of names.  When you click on a name, it will jump to a Group sheet where you can then jump to the Parents, Ancestors, or to a child.  If you click List it will return to the alphabetical list.  If you have a large number of names, you can search for the starting letter by entering the letter in the Find location, and then click Find.

If you want to load a new database to your Palm computer, and have trouble doing so, you can delete the Brother's Keeper program from the Palm, and then load a new database.  When you load a new BK database to the Palm, it will reinstall the program.


Ancestor Fan Chart

When you pick from the report menu Ancestor, Ancestor Fan Chart you will be able to print a 5 or 6 generation ancestor fan chart.  Pick the starting person and the other options you want.  When you click Start, it will show a 5 generation chart on the screen.  When you pick File, Print it will print with the options you have picked.  It is designed to fit the chart on one page of paper.  Try printing with a printer font of 9 points.  After looking at that output, you can then try 8 points or 10 points if you wish.  When printing a 6 generation chart, you may need to pick a printer font of 7 points.


Flag a group of people

When you pick File, Utilities, Flag a group of people, you can pick a group number from 1 to 5 and then pick who you want in that group, such as the ancestors of someone, and then pick the button to flag that group of people.   Then when you are on the Edit screen, anyone that is in that group will have a flag (a button) on the events tab and when you place the mouse over that flag it will show what group they are in.  If you then click that button, it will jump to the main person in that group.


Unlinked Branches

When you click from the main screen Other, Unlinked Branches, the program will determine if everyone is in one large connected group, or if there are unlinked branches in your database.  You might have different groups intentionally, or you may have been doing some changes to some links and accidently left some people unconnected.  People that are connected either with parent-child or spouse links will be in one group.  If you have some people that are not connected to the main group in any way, they will be shown as a different group.


Glossary

A

ahnentafel

B

BK code number

G

gedcom

S

standard ancestor number


ahnentafel

The word "ahnentafel" is a German word meaning ancestor table or ancestor list.


BK code number

The BK code number is a number assigned to each individual when the individual is added.  This code number is used by the program and it is not a "genealogy number".  Genealogy numbers are computed and printed for certain reports, such as the Register report or the Ancestor charts.


gedcom

A GEDCOM file is a file with names, dates, locations, and notes that is in a special format that can be read by other genealogy programs.  GEDCOM is from GEnealogy Data COMmunications.  It is pronounced like JEDCOM.  Not all information from one program will transfer to another. Some information does not transfer well in a gedcom file, but all of the basic information should transfer ok.


standard ancestor number

When printing an ancestor chart or ahnentafel report you can let the program compute the standard ancestor number for each person.  The starting person is assigned number 1.  The father is number 2 and the mother is number 3.  The father of each person is double the child number and the mother of each person is double the child number plus 1.  These numbers are used in the report, but they are not permanently assigned.