Chapter 1. Users' Manual

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
INSTALLATION
STARTING LIFELINES AND CREATING DATABASES
INTRODUCTION TO GEDCOM
MAIN MENU
ENTERING THE FIRST PERSON
SCREEN EDITORS AND ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
BASICS OF BROWSING
IDENTIFYING A PERSON OR LIST OF PERSONS TO BROWSE
ZIP IDENTIFYING A NEW PERSON
BROWSE DISPLAY BASICS
PERSON BROWSE SCREEN
LIST BROWSE SCREEN
FAMILY BROWSE SCREEN
TANDEM PERSON BROWSE MODE
TANDEM FAMILY BROWSE MODE
PEDIGREE BROWSE MODE
ADD OPERATION
DELETE OPERATION
CHARACTER TRANSLATION
MISCELLANEOUS UTILITIES
HANDLING SOURCE, EVENT AND USER-DEFINED RECORDS
FAMILY STRUCTURE AND MERGING PERSONS AND FAMILIES
LINKING RECORDS TOGETHER AND USING THE REFN FEATURE
THE LIFELINES PROGRAMMING SUBSYSTEM AND REPORT GENERATOR

INTRODUCTION

LifeLines is a genealogy program that runs on UNIX systems. It maintains genealogical records (persons, families, sources, events and others) in a database, and generates reports from those records. There are no practical limits on the number of records that can be stored in a LifeLines database, nor on the amounts or kinds of data that can be kept in the records. LifeLines does not contain built-in reports. Instead it provides a programming subsystem that you use to program your own reports and charts. The programming subsystem also lets you query your databases and process your data in any way. LifeLines uses the terminal independent features of UNIX to provide a screen and menu based user interface.

LifeLines is a non-commercial, experimental system that is use at your own risk software. I developed LifeLines for personal use and shared it with friends. Enough of a demand arose through word of mouth and internet, that I have made the LifeLines source code and other information freely available under an MIT-style license reproduced below:

"Copyright (c) 1991-1999 Thomas T. Wetmore IV Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE. "

The source code, documentation and a collection of report scripts are located at http://lifelines.sourceforge.net/. You can also find binary kits for some platforms. If you are a developer and wish to contribute enhancements, please sign up on sourceforge and contact Marc Nozell who is currently managing the project.

Note: Prior to 1999, Lifelines was available on the ftp sites, ftp.cac.psu.edu and hoth.stsci.edu. Please use sourceforge instead.