KIMBALL FILES TEMPLATE
GOVERNING BIOGRAPHICAL/BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATAFILE ENTRIES

Each entry in KIMBALL FILES [KFiles] begins with a right angle-bracket ">" and is terminated with a left angle-bracket "<".
As a visual convenience, the terminal and initial angle brackets dividing one entry from another appear together and are usually colored = <>

Occasionally an entry will contain sub-entries that begin with ">", most frequently in the r-field ("bibliography by").
But "<" always signals the end of an entry.

A standard bio/bbl entry will open with this look =

<>FamilyName,FirstName(or initial) SecondName(or initial)|>CODE for name| a{}
NB! ">" preceding the subentry "CODE for name"
NB! "|" (the "pipe") follows without a space after the full name and name code field, then follows a space before the a-field begins. See above= "| a{"

Effort has been made to enter “.f.” after main-entry names of all females. This serves not only as a flag to identify female entries but also, when appropriate or possible, to divide married name from maiden name. EG=

<>Engel’gardt,Anna Nxi*.f.Makarova|>EgtAnna| a{835}b{}c{}d{}e{903}n{PBL6}o{vnt pbl ddd| She=model for Trg’s Marianna Sinetskaia in Nov’ [BWG:43-4]
NB! Abbreviated or coded patronymic “Nxi*” [Nikolai*] above is identified as patronymic by “*”
“Nxi*” as female patronymic is “Nikolaevna”, as male patronymic Nxi* = “Nikolaevich”
All Russians in this way bear the name of their father as their second name. In fact, Anna's father's name was Nikolai, and so was her husband's father's name Nikolai. She was Anna Nikolaevna while he was Aleksandr Nikolaevich.

These coded patronymics are based on standard abbreviations throughout KFiles for common given names. They are easy to interpret with a little practice =
Axr [Aleksandr]
Axi [Aleksei]
Dmt [Dmitrii]
Nxi [Nikolai]
Mxl [Mikhail]
Kxt [Konstantin]
Ptr [Petr]
Pvl [Pavel]
Vxi [Vasilii]
Vxr [Vladimir]
etc.

NB! also the right angle-bracket and code name ">EgtAnna" in the entry line above. Major family names are given 3-stroke codes which are identified in the master code glossary. Egt=Engel'gardt. Anna's husband is coded throughout KFiles as EgtAN. When Anna appears as a part of other entries, she appears as EgtAnna. When the code is used as part of her formal entry, it is given the ">". A FIND search for ">EgtAnna" will always take you to her bio-entry. A more general F/EgtAnna/ will take you to every point in the data file where she appears.

The family name Engel'gardt is of German origin and does not change in accordance with the gender of the bearer. Anna and Aleksandr are both "Engel'gardt". Most Russian names are different. They take a feminine form when born by women. EG= The myriad Golitsyn family presents a challenge to the prosopographer. KFiles assigns the coded abbreviation "Glc" to that family. But there is a need, for example, to distinguish Aleksandra Nikolaevna from Aleksandr Nikolaevich among the Golitsyns. The fact that one bears the feminine last name "Golitsyna" and the other the masculine last name "Golitsyn" allows KIMBALL FILES to follow a standard practice of abbreviating such Russian feminine family names by a standard 3-stroke code plus the letter "a". Therefore, we are not apt to confuse GlcaAN with GlcAN.

FIELDS within each ENTRY, as you see above, are delimited by an "alpha-brace" system in which a lower-case letter of the alphabet is followed by a left-brace "{". The field is terminated with the right-brace "}". These alpha-brace fields usually follow on the same line just after the name data, but sometimes take up on the next line, flagged by the name code. The Anna Engel'gardt entry could appear in this form =

<>Engel’gardt,Anna Nxi*.f.Makarova|
|>EgtAnna| a{835}b{}c{}d{}e{903}n{PBL6}o{vnt pbl ddd| She=model for Trg’s Marianna Sinetskaia in Nov’ [BWG:43-4]

Within any field, sources for preceding information may be indicated within brackets, as with [BWG:43-4] above. These are often coded according to a master code glossary

The first field, “a{}”, follows directly after the "pipe" at the end of the name data and indicates "birthdate"
Birthdate is here presented in the following form =
YearMonthDay, EG= | a{823ap15} or | a{844ap02}
Months are abbreviated thusly = ja fe mr ap my je jy au se oc no de

Then follows the second and subsequent alpha-fields, here grouped with the "}" terminator of the previous field =
}b{ Where born [MVA=Moscow; SPB=Petersburg; etc.]
}c{ Where died
}d{ Circumstances of death
}e{ Deathdate [same format as birthdate]
}n{ Special or essential interpretive coded tags
}o{ Briefer, perhaps coded ID, sometimes followed by a slightly extended general characterization

}f{ Father's and mother's names and other info when available
}g{ Brothers, sisters and wives or husbands, and other things that follow from the previous f-field
}h{ Nationality (IE= ethnicity)
}i{ Confessional affiliation (rlg chx)
}j{ Financial or budget status: EG= wealthy [wlt] or poor [bdn] etc
}k{ Social and service "classes" = (1) soslovie (ID), abbreviated dxv, dvr, kpq, mww, or krx, and (2) service rank
}l{ Educational or formative experiences and institutions

}m{ Payroll, livelihood, employment, institutional affiliation or "assignment"
}p{ Social group or "volunteer" associations
}q{ Chronology of events. Important entries throughout will take the following form =
       EG= *1861fe19:SPB| Serf emancipation announced
       Often crn lines exclude the first number of the year ("861" -- or even "61" when the century is clear -- rather than 1861)

}r{ Bibliography of writings BY entry person, IE=publications or other creations
      DOUBLE-PARENTHESES “(())” after a bibliographical entry delimit misc. notes and other info about the particular item
}s{ Bibliography of writings ABOUT entry person

}t{ Bibliography with no mention of entry| “etc” here means thorough search of standard bbl range
}8{ Misc., terminated with "}"

<>Next Entry.....

As you see above, alf-brace FIELDS "b" through "t" may be presented between the previous terminal "}" and initial "{"
To make matters even clearer, these alf-brace field indicators may stand on a line of their own. EG=

}q{
": TIME:PLACE|(Who,what,how,why) [Source] GO-guide
*1861se25:SPB.unv std disorders began [Wdnv] G/61oc14
}r{
Etc..........

There are two signals in KFiles to indicate the need to hop somewhere else to expand meaning =
(1) A "GO-guide" may be presented as "GO" or "G/", followed immediately with specific place to "go".
(2) A search for multiple keyword entries is indicated by FIND or F/, followed immediately with the specific keyword(s) to discover.
Both of these signals can be performed with the computer's FIND function [ID].
A rough distinction between "GO-guide" and "Find" is this =
GO-guide is to a single point where a main entry about the item searched explains matters.
FIND is a way of locating several points where keyword(s) appear, moving in a full circle through the electronic page you are on.

Not every field in every entry contains data. Some fields contain expressions of puzzlement rather than data. The sources are often incomplete or confused and contradictory. KFiles records those confusions and contradictions, and flags them with a double question mark = "??".