Data entry table/form help

[nerdx]

Am fairly new to this site and access in general. I can create a flat table, set up form and use list & combo boxes. Am designing a birth certificate record that will be updated in realtime by different users over a LAN. i have a certificate table(entry no,cert no etc), child table(name,place of birth etc), Mother table(name,address etc), father table and informant table. Am confused with setting up the relationship and will name be proper for a primary key.hoping to hear from you guys

[June7]

Sounds like a family tree db. One of the more difficult to build. Search forum on the topic, here is one: https://www.accessforums.net/access/...ips-50890.html

Why keeping birth info - what is this db for?

Problem with your structure is that children grow up and often become mothers and fathers which means can end up with the same person in multiple tables.

[nerdx]

thank June7 esp. for the links. The db is for record purposes and it will be queried occassionally to verify informations. am thinking of using a flat table, just scared of duplicates

[nerdx]

Note...the db is to record a child birth(name,DOB etc) and the parents information

[June7]

Names make very poor primary keys. Although unlikely in your db, more than one person can have exactly the same name. Also, text field as primary key can be slower to index. If you want to assume no body shares a name, can set the name fields as compound index and this will prevent duplicate entry.

A flat file might serve your needs. In which case the parent info can be in same table as child.