GENBOX-L Archives

Archiver > GENBOX > 2004-01 > 1074970463


From: "Cheri Casper" <>
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Genbox FAQs
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 10:54:42 -0800
In-Reply-To: <LJECKLFMNLFFEIMDFGGDKEHMEEAA.w.prange@chello.nl>


Wim - After I finally grasped Boolean logic it made sense to me and I liked
the ability to do either-or searches.

For example, I know how to do a Boolean search for anyone who meets *any* of
these criteria, but not a SQL search:

Alive between 1850 and 1930 OR
Had any non-death event that occurred between those dates

I suspect that trying to find such people using a SQL search is going to be
quite a challenge, yet it just this search that those of us in the US need
to do census work. While our censuses began in 1790, only heads of
households were recorded until 1850 at which time they started enumerating
everyone. So the years of 1850 to 1930 are pretty significant in terms of
finding families, birth information, etc., and this query is almost
imperative for serious census work.

CheriC



-----Original Message-----
From: wim prange [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 10:02 AM
To:
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Genbox FAQs


> Wim - What would be really helpful to me is an explanation of the "logic"
> behind how queries work. I can do some basic ones, but it it the
> "either-or," "and-or," and "is not" types that I can't grasp. I *think*
> these are two steps queries but I'm not even sure about that.
>
> CheriC

Hi CheriC,

I'm afraid this will be quite difficult: the "logic" I use is mostly trial
and
error. After I got the correct results I sometimes can explain why the query
wasn't correct the first time and the logic behind the correct query. In
general I do think too that when there is an "or" in the query, it will be a
two-step-query but will have to experiment with that.

I'll see what I can do.

Gr. Wim


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