Database problems are hard to explain and even harder to understand, so
forgive me if I have got it all wrong.

What I would do is have one table using the following fields:
Title, Initials, First Name, Surname, Address1, address2, Address3,
City,  State, ZIP, Birthday, TitleW, InitialsW, First NameW, SurnameW,
BirthdayW, TitleC1, InitialsC1, First NameC1, SurnameC1, BirthdayC1, .....
The initial name would be for the husband, the fields ending in W would
be for the wife and those ending in C1 would be for the first child. Add
more fields for more children C2, C3 etc.

Create a form that enters data into that table. List the fields for the
husband. Then list the fields for the wife. Use queries so that when the
wife's title is entered (Mrs) the surname of the husband appears in the
SurnameW field. If the pair are partners and not married you can
overwrite a different surname. Do the same for each child, once again
using a query.

When entering the fist name use a query to fill in the initial field.
Set the field so additional initials can be entered.

Display the table in list view. I think you can display each record on
more than one line which means that each individual can have a line.
Inset sublines slightly to make it easier to view records. Make the list
view the view normally seen when opening the database.

Use queries to search for data such as birthdays and when one is found
that matches your criteria extract the relevant data for printing cards,
envelopes etc. Display this information in a report and use a query to
print each entry as separate items.

Breaking the address into 3 fields gives greater flexibility in
addressing envelopes and having separate fields for city and state make
searching easier.

Hope this helps,

Orf Bartrop

Peter Shkabara wrote:

>I understand relational database design, but hope to find a solution simpler
>than the one I am developing. The application is using Microsoft Access
>2003. It requires keeping names and addresses of parish members. What I
>would like to do is to have one table contain the the first and last name,
>and the birthday of each member. There would also be a key field. Another
>table would contain the address, phone, etc.
>
>The approach I started with is to use a unique ID field for the address
>table, and to use the same ID value in a field within the names table. In
>addition, the names table has an additional filed to identify the member as
>being the husband, wife, or child. The combination of ID and Type filed form
>the key for the names table. To extract the information, I create a query
>with the appropriate criteria to identify the husband, wife, and child. This
>works for retrieving the information, but to change it, I need to create a
>form which would accept the changes and then has a routing to update the
>appropriate table as needed.
>
>Since this would seem to be a fairly common type of requirement, I am asking
>the list for a possible solution that is already available. Note that I
>don't want to include the wife's first and last name as additional fields in
>the address table since I also need to have lists of committee members. If I
>retype the names in new tables, I might make errors in retyping, and the
>idea of a relational database is gone!
>
>Thank you for any help.
>
>Peter
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