I’m not really happy with this spreadsheet that I’ve started for Anson Butler.

So before I spend more time on it, I’m going to think about it. I know based upon previous experience that I don’t want to spend an inordinate amount of time creating a spreadsheet only to realize later that I wish I had done something different. As a result, I’m going to let it set.

The illustrations have been split into two images for this post. The “birthplace” column has been repeated in both images.

Like any chart, I need to think about what information is contained in the records I am using, what information I need to solve the problem I’m working on, and how I want to use that information.

Knowing what information is in the records is pretty easy. My problem (in this case) is trying to separate out the various records on Anson Butler into their separate identities. I’d like to be able to sort these entries by:

• name
• record year
• location
• age
• year of birth
• birth place
• father
• mother
• children
• wife

The problem with this is that not all of the records provide all these details. I’m not certain how sorting by name is helpful in this case since the records are all on the same person, but the other categories may help to separate out identities.

What I will do on this spreadsheet eventually is assign different colors to the different Ansons–once I’ve tentatively decided how the identities fall out.

But I’m not linking these records to any Ansons in my database. Not yet.

Suggestions or comments are welcome.