GEDCOM is the acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) to facilitate the exchange of genealogical data among different software programs. A GEDCOM is a text file that is created automatically in a special format from information that is in a genealogical software program's database -- no need to re-key.
Most, but not all, genealogical software programs have GEDCOM capability. Thus I can export a file such as Fred.ged from my Brother's Keeper program, and it may be imported and read by my sister's PAF program. The IGI archive also will export the result of a search as result.ged and I can import the results directly into Brother's Keeper.

Big files can take a long time to transfer from one computer to another, thus some friendly chaps invented a method of squashing those programs into a much smaller space so that they may be sent faster. These files are often referred to as ZIPs and we often say that a file has been "zipped". The most commonly used program is called WinZip. The nice thing about WinZip is that it also unsquashes files and smoothes them out nicely.

Links to both of the above programs are included here. They are both shareware programs, and trial versions may be downloaded from their respective web sites. These are both excellent programs and I endorse them both freely. However, if you want to encourage people to continue using this method of distributing excellent software I recommend that you register your copy. They are both very cheap!

The PAF program is distributed free by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Whilst I have never used it my sister claims that PAF4 is excellent. I have looked at the site and it does not appear that downloading this program will cause two pleasant young Americans in suits to appear at your door. Tell me if they do, and tell me what you think of the program by E-mail

Obviously I have not been able to evaluate all the following programs however, RootsWeb have recently published this list, and, even though RootsWeb also emphasises that they have not evaluated these programs, they should all be worth a try, especially as some of them are for the MAC, an area I am only starting to explore.

BirthWrite 2.1 for Windows, available as shareware.
Cumberland Family Tree 2.5 for Windows.
Fzip Family Tree 1.7 for Windows, available as shareware.
Gene 4.2.1 for Macintosh, available as shareware.
GeneWeb 3.02 for Windows and Unix, available as freeware.
GEDitCOM 2.2 for Macintosh, available as shareware.
Genius Family Tree 1.51 for Windows, available as shareware.
Heritage 3.11 for Macintosh, available as shareware.
Lifelines for Unix, available as freeware.
Personal Ancestral File 4.03 for Windows (PAF), available as freeware under the "Order Family History Resources Section" Previously published by RootsWeb.com, Inc., RootsWeb Review: RootsWeb's Genealogy News, Vol. 3, No. 4, 26 January 2000. RootsWeb

There is a problem with downloading GEDCOMs from the web. They are text files and may appear as text on your browser. If they do click on 'File' in the top left hand corner of this page and click on 'Save as', then save to desk top or temp directory as chamber.ged. It works but it's a bit untidy. I'm looking for a more elegant solution. This does not occur if you use WinZip.

About 3000 persons called Barwise, mainly 16th to 19th century, and mainly in Cumberland, England. However some of the data has been collected from elsewhere and by other researchers.
The main file barwise.ged is about 500k, but I have included here the Zipped file barwise.zip which is only about 80K.

The 1851 and 1881 census are usually reasonably easily available and I append here an index of all Barwis/e in the main family areas of Cumberland in 1851 and all Barwis/e in Cumberland in 1881. The main file is an Excel file, and I have as usual included a Zipped file.

Carl Pearson has done a terrific amount of research in this family and has allowed me to host his data temporarily here, this really is well worth a visit.

Transcriptions of as many copy file Barwise wills as I can lay hand to. Sometimes there is just the genealogical evidence from copy wills.

About 1000 persons called Chambers, mainly 16th to 19th century, and mainly in Cumberland, England. However some of the data has been collected from elsewhere and by other researchers. The main file chambers.ged is about 150k, but I have included here the Zipped file chambers.zip which is only about 25K.

Mainly 16th to 19th century, and mainly in Cumberland, England. However some of the data has been collected from elsewhere and by other researchers. The main file is at harding.ged and I have included here the Zipped file harding.zip

Mainly 16th to 19th century, and mainly in Cumberland, England. However some of the data has been collected from elsewhere and by other researchers. The main file is at harrison.ged and I have included here the Zipped file harrison.zip

Carl Pearson has done a terrific amount of research in this family and has allowed me to host his data temporarily here, this really is well worth a visit.

Mainly 16th to 19th century, and mainly in Cumberland, England. However some of the data has been collected from elsewhere and by other researchers. The main file is at osmoth.ged and I have included here the Zipped file osmoth.zip

There are a number of publications about the family which have been printed in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. This learned society still exists and over many years its members have contributed about 12 articles a year to the transactions. Most of these articles are transcripts of lectures given during the year. Unfortunately I only have transcripts of these items in Microsoft Word format at the moment but I am translating them to Rich Text Format. I also have a copy of part of Joan Handley's book, again only in word. I have made them available here only as a zipped group of .DOC files, but hope to improve on that shortly.

There is, unfortunately, only one publication about the family which I have found printed in the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. This learned society still exists and over many years its members have contributed about 12 articles a year to the transactions. Most of these articles are transcripts of lectures given during the year. The article is by the Rev. Frank Swift, an antiquarian and genealogist of some well merited fame who is, regrettably, no longer with us. His article on The Chambers Family of Raby Cote details a genealogy from about 1272. This item is available here only as a zipped .DOC file, but I hope to improve on that shortly.

This family is found so extensively through so many genealogies of Holm Cultram families that I have added this Ostle link to Peter Ostle's web site. Peter has done immense work on the Ostle family and is something of the expert on Quaker families within the Parish.

Similar to the Ostle family the Holliday family appears in many many genealogies Barry Lawman's CumberlandRoots site has both Holliday and Lawman genealogies, but he also has transcripts of the Holm Cultram Bishop's Transcripts. It is virtually unique for such a basic resource to be made so available.

From "Cumberland Families and Heraldry" by C.Roy Hudleston and R.S. Boumphrey I have extracted the entries for Barwise, both of Islekirk and Langrigg, and Chambers of Raby Cote.

Standards sounds like a kind of pompous idea, after all, I have no right or wish to tell you what to do or how to do it. No, standards here refer to those things that people like me have been doing for the last 30 or 40 years, and unless I put them here you may have a problem interpreting my work. Such standards are things like the Chapman County Codes.
Mr. Chapman came up with 2 letter abbreviations for all the counties in the British Isles so that we genealogists wouldn't get confused when reading each other's work. This was taken up by the British Standards Institute and translated into a list of 3 letter abbreviations. Doubtless now that list now has an EU number. I include it here as an Excel file as a Zipped Excel file and as a Rich Text format file so that you can download whichever format suits you.

I won't labour the hints and tips idea, but during the last 35 or so years I've made some immense mistakes. Correcting these mistakes has cost me, possibly, as much as 5 of those years as I've been forced to go back over ground that I've already covered.

KEEP A JOURNAL.
Sorry to shout but it really is that simple and it really is that important. Every time you make a search preface the results of that search with the following:
What you were looking for. What records you searched, their location, the dates/pages/books that you searched. It takes so little time to do this that we forget it all the time, but 25 years down the line it can become extremely important. For instance: I may have a record of Daniel Smith christened at Carlisle in 1759. 25 years later the questions come up:- Which church's records did I search? Did I search only for Daniel, or did I search for everyone called Smith? Did I search for his brothers and sisters, did I search for his parents marriage? Did I search plus and minus 5, 10 or 20 years?
OK, you've caught the idea. Save yourself years of work.

INDEXES ARE WRONG Ok, they're not all wrong but they were created by humans. Not only that, but even the best of indexes such as the IGI can't list everything from an original record. So you can't distinguish between two John and Mary Smiths in the IGI because it doesn't include the information from the original register that one pair lived at Moor End Farm where John was a farmer, and the other pair lived in London where John was a clock maker.

I was going to include photographs of the various Parish Churches mentioned in the Gedcoms above, however, I must take my hat off to Steve Bulman whose Photo site is basically brilliant.

I will include everything that I believe is important here, however, if there is any way that you think I can assist you in your research e-mail me Fred and I'll try to help. Please use the same address to tell me of any mistakes or to suggest or offer additions that you'd like to see.