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Forum Writer
 
Group: Customers
Last Login: 10/11/2006 10:23:37 AM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.1
Posts: 59,
Visits: 102
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This program is magnificent. Magnificent, I say!
Anyway, I just got interested in family tree type stuff a few weeks ago and tried several types of software before finding GenoPro. This stuff rocks.
Anyway, enough sunshine...
After using the 2.0 beta for a little while, I've come up with a couple suggestions, one of which I'll drop here...
I've often been interested in my ethnic heritage. By ethnic heritage, I mean, generally speaking, how much of me is German, how much is Irish, how much is Martian... that type thing. If My dad is 100% Irish, and my mom is 50% German and 50% Martian, that would make me 50% Irish, 25% German, and 25% Martian. If I marry a pure-bread Eskimo and have a daughter, she'll be 25% Irish, 12.5% German, 12.5% Martian, and 50% Eskimo. Catch my drift?
I was thinking this would be a good addition to the GenoPro software. Part of the Birth tab could include a field for Ethnic Heritage, and could either be entered manually, or calculated from the parents. Probably a lot harder than it sounds... but it's a wishlist! And I'm wordy.
Thanks for a wonderful product!
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Forum Member
Group: Customers
Last Login: 6/26/2007 6:01:37 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.b14
Posts: 26,
Visits: 20
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Forum Master
  
Group: Customers
Last Login: Yesterday @ 8:17:58 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 720,
Visits: 6,071
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To have a field for the ethnic heritage may be a good idea, but to calculate whether I am 50% or 25% is a little bit too far fetched. I am not a specialist on this topic, but I do not think that using a simple formular makes me 50% of that or 25% of this.
When my son was alive (mother japanese, father german) we always tried to tell him that he is not half, but more than that, since he inherited un unknown percentage of identities/qualities/etc. from both.
Since a lot of customers of Genopro are in the medical field, may be Genopro can give us an answer to this idea?
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Forum Member
Group: Customers
Last Login: 6/26/2007 6:01:37 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.b14
Posts: 26,
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After reading maru-san's post and thinking about it.. it's not a very good idea..
Like maru-san says, we don't know how much we inherit from our parents.
But, moreover, I may be 50% of my (french-Canadian) mother and 50% of my (Italian) father but, my maternal grand-father is already 1/8th american-indian, 1/4 scotish, 1/4 something else and 1/2 french-canadian..
That would make me... 1/16 american-indian, 1/8 scotish, 1/8 something else and 1/4 french-canadian and 1/2 italian (that's if my father is pure italian).
And that's just going back 2 generations.. when you go back 10 generations.. I bet I'm 1/32768 african, 1/16384 japanese, 1/65536 german, and so on..... to make my full self.. :!: :!: :!:
More over.. what makes you german? italian? canadian? american? japanese? chinese?
Is it the country where you were physically born :?:
Is it the country where you live :?:
Is it the heritage of both your parents :?:
Is it the way you are brought up :?:
or
Is it a little of all of the above :?: :?
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Forum Writer
Group: Customers
Last Login: 10/11/2006 10:23:37 AM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.1
Posts: 59,
Visits: 102
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Eh... Just food for thought, I guess.
I was thinking that this could be largely user-defined... much like the places, sources, etc are user defined. So I could define this however I please, as broad or as narrow. I could base it on the continent my ancestors came from (which would eliminate the 1/32k portions, etc).
Further, I could decide how I want to categorize my oldest ancestors. If I search back and find someone in Germany (or Poland or Alsace or some other place of Germanic heritage) in 1650, I can put them down as German. If I then find their dad is from Egypt, then I update it rather easily.
It would be a very customizable field, just like the others... especially considering the "what defines origins?" question... about heritage or country of birth or whatever... Just like locations or sources are handled, the definition can be as wide or narrow as appropriate or desired.
I have locations that are countries, and I have locations that are buildings in cities in counties in states.
I really don't think this isn't a good idea... it could be a very useful one for those interested, a very customizable one, and a very ignorable one if you don't want to use it.
Granted... that doesn't really change the fact that our valiant developers still won't find it worth implementing. 
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Forum Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/16/2008 9:19:06 PM
GenoPro Version: FTPClient1
Posts: 146,
Visits: 395
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| I think the fact that would make you German, French, Irish, African, or any others, would have to be the races father. For example all Poles are decendents of Polex, and all Irishmen are decendents of Gomer. If you aren't decendents of the father of the race, thanyou aren't of the race. Plus, I think it'd be a great thing to include percentages, but then I would run into a problem, I can make the percentages go to the 1/1,000,000,000 or beyond. If this would be added, which I think would be good, it'd need to be super huge for me!!
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Forum Member
Group: Customers
Last Login: 9/11/2007 11:25:49 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.0.1
Posts: 30,
Visits: 50
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At the risk of not being politically correct, why not have a tag for Race or Ethnicity? I have a custom tag set up for Race since GenoPro does not provide one.
Here is what some of the census records have used:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/helps/Search/Ancestors/census_household.htm
1880 United States Census
Race: The 1880 U.S. census had a place to record an individual's race. Enumerators, however, were not always consistent in recording race. For instance, a Mulatto may be indicated with just an M, rather than an Mu. A person of Mexican descent could be identified with an M, Mx, or I (meaning Indian). In trying to account for some of the discrepancies, FamilySearch Internet uses the following standardized terms: White, Black, Mulatto, Asian, and Native American.
1881 Canadian Census
Ethnic Origin: The origin was usually interpreted to mean the father’s ethnic origin. In some cases, a person's origin does not match his or her place of birth. In such instances, the information was extracted (transcribed) exactly as it appeared on the original census record.
1881 British Census
nothing shown for race or ethnicity
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Famous Writer
Group: Customers
Last Login: 10/21/2008 4:23:47 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.1.6
Posts: 437,
Visits: 2,572
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| And how race should be named? I know that there is just a few main named races, and whole bunch of different names for mixtures of them, but how to describe someone who is 12,5% 1 race, 25% 2nd, 12,5% 3rd, 50% 4th... And other problem, i.e. how to describe nationality or ethnicity of a person born in one County, part of a Country that if part of a Kingdom that is part of a Empire, and his (her) birth Country changed at least five names and roulings within it's lifetime (and several more after), and he (or she) is of ethnicity of Other country that belonged to other Empire, spent most of his fruitful life in the other parts of the world, and gained their citizenship as well... I know that many americans have similar heritage :D Problem is not about how someone feels or describes himself, but how factual data might be entered...
- "εν οιδα οτι ουδεν οιδα" (Σωκρατησ) - "The only thing that I know is that I don't know anything" (Socrates)
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Forum Member
Group: Customers
Last Login: 9/11/2007 11:25:49 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.0.1
Posts: 30,
Visits: 50
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I thought this program was mostly for genealogical record-keeping, covering the span of recent generations, some going back 10 or 20 generations or more. Most such records have RACE included... why are we being so sensitive about this? If you don't want to fill it in, then don't... but in my opinion, a genealogy program that includes EMOTIONAL relationship, which is as subjective as it gets, and not RACE, which is copied right out of census records... is just plain SILLY. I believe I speak for the silent majority here... doesn't anyone want to speak up on this?
Food for thought:
"Race & Genes" by Ruth Hubbard
http://raceandgenomics.ssrc.org/Hubbard/
It is beyond comprehension, in this century which has witnessed holocausts of ethnic, racial, and religious extermination in many parts of our planet, perpetrated by peoples of widely different cultural and political affiliations and beliefs, that educated persons—scholars and popularizers alike—can come forward to argue, as though in complete innocence and ignorance of our recent history, that nothing could be more interesting and worthwhile than to sort out the “racial” or “ethnic” components of our thoroughly mongrelized species so as to ascertain the root identity of each and everyone of us. And where to look for that identity if not in our genes?
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Forum Guru
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 10/16/2008 9:19:06 PM
GenoPro Version: FTPClient1
Posts: 146,
Visits: 395
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| Race in my mind is if you're Polish, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Chinese, etc., and this could be complicated, especially if you think you are to an end of a line, then discover you're four more things or something, then it screws you up. That would be a good thing to add, only if, you were 100% finished with your tree, which, nobody ever is!
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Forum Member
Group: Customers
Last Login: 9/11/2007 11:25:49 PM
GenoPro Version: 2.0.0.1
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