Tools
While most one-name studies are conducted as a pastime, rather than as an economic activity, the sheer volume of information to be organized may require semi-professional data-processing and publishing skills.
The data must be carefully structured. An accurate copy of the original indexes must be drawn up, and updated when they are amended. Errors and conflicts in the indexes are noted. Links to those tables appear in the roll of individual persons.
To avoid retyping large volumes of data by hand, one-name researchers are often skilled at data scraping and automated reformatting.
Many one-name researchers keep data tables in computer spreadsheets because it is possible to see hundreds of items on a single screen and use thinking power to detect patterns. Family Tree software is used by many researchers to collate and define family trees. Others employ relational database software.
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