Can I link entries in a table?

[ParishSec]

Hello, I've just joined and I'm feeling a bit intimidated because I don't understand the jargon - but never mind. I'm trying to design a database for a church containing parishioner information but I don't know how to link individual entries to each other. I need to be able to do this where family members all have different surnames and sometimes don't all live at the same address. Can anybody help please?

[Robeen]

Don't worry about the jargon.
You'll get used to it.
Unfortunately - it is the best way to know what we're talking about in Access.


Let me see if I understand you correctly.

You want a way to connect the different members of one family to each other in your database even if they don't live at the same address or have the same last name.

Is that correct?

[ParishSec]

Yes, each family member has its own entry.

[Robeen]

The way to do this would be to create a new table [let's name it FamilyID for this example] with the following fields:
FamilyID
FamilyName

For the FamilyID - You can use a Number [Eg: 20110001 - for the first new family to join the church in 2011] - or any other ID you want to assign to a family.
For the FamilyName - perhaps you could pick the Name [or Last Name] of the family member who first joined the church - or you can just have something like 'John Robertson Family'.

Next, in the table you already have, add a field and name it FamilyID.
Against each name in your main table - type in the FamilyID that you have assigned to that family in your FamilyID table.

Once you have a FamilyID for each member of your congregation - then you will have a way of linking all members of your families in your main table to each other - regardless of their last names or addresses.

Let me know if this helps - or if you have any other questions.

[ParishSec]

Many thanks. We're still gathering Census Forms so I won't get the chance to implement it for the moment but it sounds like just what I need.