OUR LADY OF TRIALS PARISH - A SAMPLE DATAFILE FOR TRAINING
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File: OurLadyOfTrials_DATA.PRK

Every person in this datafile is fictitious; any likeness to a real person is chance. It is built on the
structure of a real parish datafile (accounts, lay groups, contribution targets, lists), so everything in
Parish Record Keeper works on it as on a real one. Use it for training sessions and to try things out:
nothing you do to it can harm a real register. Keep an untouched copy to start again from.

The datafile has its own Backend ID and is NOT linked to any workspace on parishrecordkeeper.com.

WHAT IS IN IT
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     230 family files (6 of them obsolete, 3 isolati)
    1053 persons in the church files
     500 entries in the BaptismBook (1985 - 2026)
    4866 individual contributions (2022 - 2026)
     150 entries in the parish ledger (1 January - 26 September 2026)

The parish has three ZONES, six PRAYER CENTRES and sixteen SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES (SCCs)
(in the program: Order 1, 2 and 3):

    Northern zone
        Kalulu prayer centre        St Johns, St Paul, St Mary
        Katuishi prayer centre      St Kizito, St Athanazio, St Annes
    Central zone
        Main Church                 St Patrick, St Bernard, St Daniel
        Chimwemwe prayer centre     St Maurice, St Veronica, St Francis
    Southern zone
        Kasongo prayer centre       St Thomas, St Bartholomeo
        Kulelwa prayer centre       St Philip, St James

The village of each family file is in its Residence field (Kapata, Mwase, Nsanje ...).

Wherever a family file below has a TRAINING EXAMPLE, its CARD REMARKS explain it too - open the family
file and read them.


1. AN ORDINARY FAMILY FILE
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Family file 5: Michael Nyirenda and Theresa Nyirenda with 4 children. The two adults are the husband and the wife; everybody
else on the file is a child of it. A child is recognised by its CARD OF ORIGIN (Pcard) being this very
file. A family file holds at most one husband and one wife.


2. GROWING UP AND MARRYING: THE CARD OF ORIGIN (Pcard)
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22 young people who grew up in the parish have married and have a family file of their own. Their
record moved to the new file; the file of their parents stays their CARD OF ORIGIN (Pcard), so the
program still knows whose child they are. For example:

    Dominic Mtonga (family file 178) - grew up on family file 2
    Simon Mtonga (family file 179) - grew up on family file 2
    Emmanuel Nyirenda (family file 180) - grew up on family file 5


3. THE BAPTISMBOOK AND THE CHURCH FILES
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The BaptismBook is the register of baptisms celebrated in this parish; the church files describe the
people who live in it. The two overlap, but they are not the same:

  LINKED (402): the church file and the baptism entry are the same person, and the program knows it -
  both records carry the same GUID1 (which is what LINK BB TO CR sets). For example:
      baptism no. 1/1985   Regina Zimba (family file 53)
      baptism no. 2/1985   Ignatius Mtonga (family file 35)

  NOT LINKED YET (18): the church file says "baptised in Our Lady of Trials, no. ..." and the entry is
  in the book, but the two have not been linked. LINK BB TO CR -> LINK ALL links them where the baptism
  number is unique on both sides. Look at them first:
      baptism no. 8/1987   Kondwani Njobvu (family file 45)
      baptism no. 9/1988   Getrude Nkhoma (family file 214)
      baptism no. 8/1990   Grace Njobvu (family file 45)
      baptism no. 13/1994  Mphatso Mulenga (family file 83)
      baptism no. 2/1995   Anna Kamanga (family file 185)
      baptism no. 9/1997   Patrick Zimba (family file 169)
      ... and 12 more.
  In two of them the book spells the name differently from the church file, as often happens:
      baptism no. 8/1987   church file: Kondwani Njobvu (family file 45) - BaptismBook: Kondwane
      baptism no. 9/1988   church file: Getrude Nkhoma (family file 214) - BaptismBook: Gertrude
  Linking goes by the baptism number, so they are linked all the same - check them afterwards.

  ONLY IN THE BAPTISMBOOK (80): people baptised here who do not live in the parish (any more) - families
  that moved away, children who married elsewhere, some who died. They have no church file, and that is
  correct. The NOTES of the entry often say why, for example:
      baptism no. 6/1987   Chikondi Ngoma - "Went to the Copperbelt."
      baptism no. 3/1989   Kondwani Lungu - "Moved to Lusaka with the family."

  A NUMBER THAT IS NOT IN THE BOOK: Brenda Mtonga (family file 2) was baptised here in 1982, no. 7/1982. The book in
  this datafile begins in 1985 (the earlier register was lost), so there is nothing to link to.

  BAPTISED ELSEWHERE: many adults were baptised in another parish (St Mary Chipata, Katete, Lundazi...).
  Their church file names that parish; they are not in this BaptismBook and never will be.

  The margin notes of the book are there too: MARRIED TO / ON for those married in church, the
  confirmation number, and the date of death.

  THE INDEX (BAPTISM BOOK PANEL -> INDEX PANEL): every entry is indexed under its CHRISTIAN NAMES,
  never under its surname. What an indexed surname does (Christian name Mulenga, surname Maria):
    - indexed Maria, spelt exactly as in the Surname field: filed under Maria, missing under Mulenga;
      no other name is added (the program sees that Maria is part of this entry's surname)
    - indexed with a word that is not exactly part of the Surname field (a slip such as Mariya, or a
      surname typed into the Christian name field): filed under that word AND Mulenga becomes its
      Other Name, i.e. an alternative name for it - and ADD TO SYNONYMOUS NAMES offers it as a synonym
      when nobody is indexed as Mulenga.
  Other Names come only from entries with ONE Christian name indexed under a different name
  (Yohane -> John); several Christian names (Paul Richard) never add Other Names.
  Examples built in (all of them people who no longer live in the parish):
      baptism no. 5/1989   Paul Richard Soko       index: Paul, Richard  (found under both)
      baptism no. 13/2001  Paul Richard Lungu      index: Paul           (not under Richard)
      baptism no. 12/1997  Christine Mary Lungu    index: Christine, Mary
      baptism no. 3/2003   Maria Goretti Phiri     index: Maria
      baptism no. 7/2012   Martha Chikondi Tembo   index: Chikondi       (the name she goes by)
      baptism no. 9/2018   Andrew Peter Joseph Mbewe  index: Andrew, Peter, Joseph
      baptism no. 1/2002   Anne-Marie Siame        index: Anne-Marie     (one hyphenated name)
      baptism no. 11/1996  Yohane Nkhata           index: John       -> Yohane is an other name of John
      baptism no. 9/2006   Elizabeti Mbewe         index: Elizabeth  -> Elizabeti is an other name of Elizabeth
      baptism no. 8/1987   Kondwane Njobvu         index: Kondwani   -> Kondwane is an other name of Kondwani
  Not indexed yet (SHOW NON-INDEXED RECORDS finds them): 5/2020 Ireen Sakala, 1/2025 Priscilla Tembo.
  The tutorial indexes 1/2025 first as Tembo (filed under Tembo, missing under Priscilla), then as
  Tembe (Priscilla becomes the Other Name of Tembe), and finally as Priscilla.


4. PAST MARRIAGES: OBSOLETE FAMILY FILES
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When a marriage has ended - by death, or because a partner left - its family file is kept as OBSOLETE.
It keeps the history: the partners of that marriage and the children born of it (whose card of origin it
stays). The surviving partner lives on a NEW family file and is linked back to the old one through the
SECONDARY CARDS (Scards). Obsolete files are shown in their own colour.

    old file  new file  case
         200       201  Joyce Mbewe - widow remarried
         202       203  Mphatso Tembo - widower remarried
         204       205  Catherine Kalaba - separated, new union
         206       207  Clara Lungu - widow remarried
         208       209  Benedict Moyo - widower remarried
         210       211  Memory Daka - widow remarried

Try: open the new family file, look at the Scards of the surviving partner, and follow the link back.


5. POLYGAMOUS HOUSEHOLDS
------------------------
A family file holds one husband and one wife. A man with several wives therefore has his OWN family
file with his first wife, and each further wife heads a family file of her own with her children. He is
linked to those files through his SECONDARY CARDS (Scards) and appears on each of them as the husband.
ATTENTION on the records says what applies (for example "not admitted to the sacraments").

    husband                  own file  wives  files of the other wives (his Scards)
    Gabriel Mwale                 212      2  213
    Daniel Nkhoma                 214      2  215
    Isaac Siame                   216      3  217, 218
    James Mtonga                  219      2  220



6. ISOLATI: CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS ARE NOT CATHOLIC
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ISOLATI are children of about 7 to 14 years who come to church although their parents are not Catholic.
They have no Catholic household to be registered in, so each has a family file of their own, marked
ISOLATI and shown in its own colour. An adult is never an isolato; the lay group of an isolato is the
Holy Childhood (or the Youth), never an adult group such as the Catholic Womens League.

     225  Regina Kalaba (12)   Baptised here (no. 13/2022); her parents are not Catholic.
     226  Felix Mbao (11)      Orphan living with a guardian who is not Catholic.
     229  Mary Mbewe (9)       Her parents belong to another church.

SINGLE ADULTS. An adult who lives on their own simply has a family file with one adult on it - an
ordinary family file, not an isolati one:

     221  Esther Nyirongo      Elderly widow living alone; her late husband was never on file.
     222  Luka Njobvu          Young man working in the parish on his own; his parents live in Lusaka.
     223  Elizabeth Soko       Student nurse boarding at the rural health centre.
     224  Joshua Mumba         Single catechist.
     227  Bertha Chanda        Widow living alone; needs a home visit.
     228  Andrew Soko          Divorced; baptised in another parish, recently moved here.
     230  Luka Zimba           Teacher posted to the parish school.


7. WHAT HAPPENS IN A LIFE
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    died (date of death filled in):     Isaac Daka (family file 34), Kondwani Nyirenda (family file 39)
    left the parish (OUT):              Mercy Tembo (family file 42), Martha Ngoma (family file 52)
    lapsed:                             Agnes Chanda (family file 3), Dorothy Njobvu (family file 6)
    adults preparing for baptism:       Joseph Kamanga (family file 4), Raphael Nkhata (family file 15)
    children in Sunday school:          Clement Daka (family file 17), Rose Moyo (family file 51)
    needs a home visit:                 John Daka (family file 12), Charles Zimba (family file 53)

Categories (Adult, Youth, Holy Childhood, Infant) follow from the age and update themselves. More than
half of the adults belong to a lay group (Catholic Womens League, Mens League, Choir, St Anna...).


8. FINANCES
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INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNTS (2022 - 2026). The contributions of the parishioners, each on the person and the SCC:
    Church tax the yearly church contribution; earlier years as one total on 31 December, 2026 as the
               receipts came in. Some members pay nothing - they show up in the reports of who has not paid.
    Harvest    the harvest offering in TINS of maize - NON-MONETARY: counted, but not money.
    Tithe      paid by a few salaried members, for example Brenda Mtonga (family file 2).
    Aff Women organisation, CWL   affiliations of the members of the Women organisation and the
               Catholic Womens League (2026).

THE PARISH LEDGER (2026, the current accounting year). Opening balances on 1 January (cash and bank),
Sunday collections every month by prayer centre, the special collections of Epiphany, Lent and
Communication Sunday by zone - and forwarding them to the diocese -, rent, the bookshop, the guest house, the
parish-day fundraising, the sale of the harvest maize; allowances, salaries, NAPSA/NHIMA, ZESCO and water,
the sacristy, transport, repairs, meetings, the diocesan levy, and two deposits of cash in the bank.
Cash in hand on 26 September 2026: K 24,400.


IDEAS FOR A TRAINING SESSION
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- Find a family and add a newborn child; then record the baptism.
- Record a death and a remarriage, and compare with the finished examples in section 4.
- Run LINK BB TO CR -> LINK ALL and check the two linked entries whose names are spelt differently.
- Enter a baptism in the BaptismBook and link it to the church file of the child.
- Enter this month's Sunday collection for a prayer centre, and a church-tax receipt for a parishioner.
- Look at the contributions of one SCC for 2026: who has paid church tax, and who has not.

