This section describes the Register computer program, its menus, and its installation. The program runs under Win9x and greater.

The Menus

View Menu

The View menu allows the Immigrant Table to be viewed and printed in various ways, and allows it to be searched. It provides a view of History, Sources, How To (this section), Introduction, Issues, Acknowledgements, and the story of The Big Wind. Choices in the View Menu are:

Sort

The Sort menu controls the order of records in the Immigrant Table.

It extends to offer the following choices:

• Name: A sort by Last Name, First Name, County, ID
• County: A sort by County, Last Name, First Name, ID
• Maiden Name/Gender: A sort by Maiden Name, ID (equivalent to a gender sort)
• ID: A sort by ID, a unique immigrant identifier. ID serves several purposes:

              ·   It makes each record unique

      ·          It is useful in cross referencing.

ID values are in the range 1, 2, ., . There may be missing IDs due to records that have been deleted. Thus the largest ID may be larger than the number of records. IDs appear in records as references to other records. Therefore they must not be changed.

Record entry and editing is reserved for the developer to insure that the same information is available to all. The developer can perform these functions only when the table is sorted in Name order.

See Reports and Locate which are limited by sort order..

Reports

This choice provides reports that can be viewed on the screen or printed. Two of the three reports should be printed in Landscape mode (think of paintings in a gallery, some portraits and some landscapes). The program makes the choice for the user, but the user is able to override the program's choice: Not a good idea.

The Reports menu expands to show available reports. The choices are self explanatory, but there is a possibility of confusion here. The data must be sorted in an appropriate way if the report is to make sense. Choices appear only if the data is sorted appropriately. The procedure, then, is to sort first and then ask for a report. For example: To produce an ID Report, first sort by ID, and then request the report.

Locate

This choice provides a primitive search facility. Let's discuss it by example: Suppose the records are sorted by Last Name, and that you want to find Finnerty. Enter Fi (fi will do as well), and the nearest exact match will be selected. That match might be Finn; if so, use the next record arrow to move down to Finnerty. 'inn' will not match Finnerty or Finn: The match must start at the beginning.

Partial 'keys' such as 'fi' save keystrokes, and solve spelling problems. Enter 'do' if you don't know if it's Doherty or Dougherty.

The search finds the first match in the list, and starts from the top of the list not from the current record. So when you find the first Sullivan, you must use the next record arrow to move to a particular Sullivan.

The field that is searched depends on the current sort order of the records. (Think about it.) Thus:

Name: Search is by Last Name.

Maiden Name: Search is by Maiden Name.

County: Search is by County.

ID: Search is by ID.

I had a choice for the state of the entry line for searches after the first. Whether to leave the entry blank, as is but selected, or as is. I chose 'as is', a good choice if you want to adjust the 'as is' entry. It's arbitrary and unimportant.

Locate also appears on the Main Menu (on the same level as View).

Remaining View menu choices

The remaining View menu choices might be thought of as entries to chapters of a book. They display text.

Acknowledgements This section thanks contributors to the project.

Introduction This choice provides a description of the project.

Issues This choice provides corrections, additions, commentary on the quality of information, and miscellany.

History tells the story of the first Irish settlers in Casper and how their friends and family followed them.

How To presents this program description. How To also appears under the Information choice in the Main Menu.

Notes displays for all immigrants the Notes entries from individual records.

Sources displays a listing of information sources which it keys to the Sources entry in the Immigrant Table. In addition it lists useful resources such as books and websites.

The Last Sheep Drive (by Brigid Schulte) evokes vividly the life of the sheepman.

The Big Wind tells the story of a great wind that that hit Ireland six years before the potato famine (hardly a famine since there was ample food for export!). See Introduction.

Information Menu

How To presents this program description. This choice is also available under the View menu.

About is a traditional menu choice. It provides information about the program and its developer. Here you will find contact information and Version Numbers for both program and data.

Symbols and Abbreviations

Symbols are used, here and there, to comment on the data.

*  The item may not be accurate, but at least is close.

~  Approximately

?  It's a guess.

<  This applies to a date. <1899 indicates 1898 or before.

bp baptized

b   born

m  married

DI Declaration of Intent

7-21,22-1904 (an example) Indicates that the date may be either 21 or 22.

Abbreviations are also used to identify information sources. These abbreviations are described in Sources.

Generalities

The computer program does not allow data to be added, deleted, or edited. The truly resourceful may find a way to avoid this restriction. I encourage you, however, to send corrections and additions to me so that I can include them for all in a later edition or as an updated edition of Issues.

Dates are in MM-DD-YYYY format, or MM-YYYY, or simply YYYY.

Installation of Program (and the reverse)

The program and data may be distributed on either 3.5" diskettes (by request) or on a CD.

The procedure for installing the computer program from the distribution CD or diskettes:

• Put diskette 1 or CD in drive.
• Start | Run | Browse
• In Browse Screen, choose x:\Setup.exe. (x is the drive that holds the disk or CD.)
• You will be given a suggested drive and path where the program will be installed. Accept it (or make your own choice). Remember the drive identity; it will be needed when you install the data.
• Follow instructions.
• You'll find Register under Start | Programs.
• Do not run the program until you have installed the data.

The procedure for installing data from the distribution diskette or CD:

• Put diskette or CD in drive.
• Start | Run | Browse
• In Browse Screen, choose x:\DataLoad.exe (x is the drive that holds the diskette or CD).
• You will be asked for the identity of the drive to which you installed the program.

You may some day need to remove the computer program from your machine. The steps: Start | Settings | Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs | Select Register | Add/Remove, and after the removal process completes, OK. To install a newer version of the program, first remove the existing version.