Everybody engaged in family history research goes through the process at some time of asking themselves the following questions;
  • Where did I read about that?
  • I have it here somewhere, but where did I put it?
  • What did I put it under?
  • I am sure that I have seen that name before?
  • ... and the list goes on.

Many family history software packages on the market today will allow the recording of references to external documents specific to a person. These external documents are often stored in filing systems which are usually accessed through manually maintained indexes, or by the application of a referencing system with inherent significance in its structure, sometimes very complex.

What do you do with the tidbits not directly associated with individuals or families? For example, articles on convict living conditions; Ships arriving into Moreton Bay in 1875; Items that catch your eye on one of the many discussion groups that you subscribe to; The mounting collection of e-mails surrounding a person or family but where there is still insufficient information to confirm your suspicions; A letter from Aunt Mary, etc.

Genota allows the user to create notes pertaining to individuals, events or in fact any subject matter and to each note link documents, associate individuals, record research efforts and results and log correspondence. Notes can be organised in Notebooks, each specific to an area of research. Persons using either Legacy Family Tree® or Relatively Yours 3® can link their family files, making their contents visible with a Notebook.

Genota comes into it's own in that it can handle all of these types of information and much more, irrespective of the format, including Items stored on a computer network linked to the computer where Genota is installed. Genota managed information stored on your computer may be readily retrieved and viewed without leaving Genota using standard internal file associations, as can information stored in family history software packages. In addition, Genota provides the capability to search and view information across notes thus providing a powerful analysis tool.

Genota is available in 2 versions; 

  • Standard Edition -
        Free lifetime use 
        Limited functionality

  • Premium Edition -
        License required 
        Full functionality 
Some of the key features of Genota include
  • Create unlimited notebooks for each family group, subject, etc.
  • Ability to link to Legacy® Family Tree and Relatively Yours® software packages (Premium Edition only)
  • The number of notes that can be stored is only limited by computer resources
  • Centrally managed categories accessible by all notebooks
  • Supports user defined file numbering system as well as system generated references
  • Centralised address book accessible by all notebooks
  • Facilities to record unlimited contact points for each address book repository
  • Facility to record all resources stored by an address book entry, together with call number and storage location
  • Ability to record all persons, their roles and events related to a notebook entry
  • Provision to analyse all occurrences of a name across a notebook
  • Fully featured correspondence log with the ability to store full details of the correspondence
  • Facility to record and report on items requiring additional research
  • Full text search capability across all primary note and address book fields
  • Transcription modulle with the facility to extract text from PDF files or images (Premium Edition only)
  • 24/7 e-mail support with guaranteed 24 hour response (Premium Edition only)

Correspondence Log

The Correspondence Log will allow you to keep a detailed list of all correspondence related to your research efforts in one place. Details that can be included are:
  • The direction of the correspondence, ie. inwards or outgoing
  • The name of the person to whom the correspondence is directed to
  • The method of correspondence, eg. E-mail, post, conversation, telephone call, etc
  • Date received and date replied
  • Details of the correspondence

Included Persons

By entering all persons associated with your research you can:
  • Readily identify all occurrences in which they appear within a notebook
  • Group and sort persons on a maximum 8 parameters to enable ready identification of relationships and events
  • Link a person to a family file all information on that person is available at your finger tips when analyzing research information without having to jump between applications.
 

How do you use Genota?

Genota users are a pretty resourceful lot in the ways they have adapted Genota for alternate uses such as:

  • Capturing information on model train collections
  • Organising high school assignment notes
  • Organising poetry collections
  • Software company support tasks register and to do list.

At Ausgen it is also used for recording error logs, and general programming notes.

Handling Census Information in Genota

Genota is the ideal tool for capturing census information and making it available to all research efforts.

To records census information:

  • Create a new note Assign a Category of Census
  • Input a title for the census e.g. USA 1930
  • Input the source of the census information
  • Under Note Details list any information relative to the census, eg. Month, localities encompassed, irregularities found. etc
  • Use included persons to record all persons of interest appearing in the census, eg:
    • Surname /Given Name : < name of the person>
    • Date Type / Date : < date of the census - use January 01 as a default to represent the year>
    • Event Type
    • Location of event
    • Role
    • Age

Keeping Track of Research Interests

Can you readily identify all of the persons with whom you have contacted in researching a single family line.

With Genota it is easy to keep track of fellow researchers by creating a new Address Book entry as follows;

  • Organisation/Surname [name of the research subject or line]
  • Other Names/Address Information [not required/optional]
  • Report Name [as for the Organisations Surname]
  • Type : [input 'Researchers'] Add a new Contact Point for each researcher.

Alternate method Create a new Address Book entry for each researcher, inputting information as indicated on the form,except for;

  • Type, where the name of the research subject is input.

Don't lose research emails

Worried about viruses infecting your e-mails, unable to find an e-mail related to your research, etc?

Do you know that the contents of e-mails can be copied and pasted into the correspondence log with the first 5 lines viewable without the need to access the full details.

Thought of yourself as a Repository?

Over time all researchers of family history amass large numbers of:

  • Books
  • Documents
  • Manuscripts
  • Journals
  • Photographs, etc.

These items, in addition to supporting their own research, may be of assistance to others; the problem being:

  • Do you know what there is,
  • What does it cover and
  • Where it is?

By listing yourself as a repository in the Genota Address Book, all items such as those above may be recorded as Resources held by yourself thus enabling them to be linked to research notes and be available for inquiries within Genota.

Genota 5 has been totally redesigned from the ground up resulting in improved performance and flexibility and includes many new features.

New Features

  • Redesigned interface resulting in improved access and functionality
  • A transcription module facilitating the transcription and extraction of information from images and PDF files (Premium Edition only)
  • Automatic extraction of text from PDF files (Premium Edition only)
  • Ability to create a Note directly from Transcribed information (Premium Edition only)
  • ADD SOURCE option to the Source pick list facilitating the creation of new sources on the fly
  • Menu options ADD NOTE, ADD SOURCE, ADD CONTACT, ADD LOCATION, and ADD CATEGORY providing a quick access for creating new records
  • MAPPING module providing a quick look-up for locations on Google Maps
  • The module is also accessible from within the Location module
  • Geolocations facility added to the Locations module enabling the retrieval of the latitude and longitude for a location from the internet
  • Facility to bookmark URLs visited within the Browser module
  • Selection of Notebooks from a drop down list eliminating the need to visit the Notebook manager to open them
  • Ability to open multiple Notes allowing for comparative analysis as well as copying and pasting between Notes
  • Note Header form displayed when creating Notes so that multiple Notes can be added without the requirement to add any Note Details
  • Date Calculator to facilitate the determination of a persons age at a given date, or when born
  • Backup On Exit function added to the configuration module (Premium Edition only)
  • Real time filtering of all list information based on user defined search criteria
  • Date editor added to Included Persons allowing consistency in date formatting
  • Option to set the Default Data location
  • Direct access to Repositories and Resources in the Address Book from the main menu
  • Popup windows to display Correspondence and Research Results