* Defining Census as an attribute instead of event

[shoshk]

Hi All,

First, a little background...

I've recently moved to FH from TMG and I'm in the process of re-thinking how I do certain things.

In TMG, I entered one census event for the head of household and attached everybody else as witnesses. I've been looking at the various arguments for and against and am seriously considering moving to defining a census fact for each member of the household, with everybody connected through the same source. I am already using method 1 for census sources, so if I decide to go this route, I figure I can automate at least part of the process via a plugin (to create individual facts for all the witnesses and delete the witness from the HOH record). I will, of course, need to go back and update details like 'age', unless I can figure out a way to extract it reliably from my census fact notes (which are formatted consistently because they were generated by an external program). Hmm... maybe.

Anyway, I've been thinking about how I might include other data (like role, etc) for the census fact. I would rather leave the note field for entering analysis and research notes.

I know that census is considered a standard event in GEDCOM (CENS), but, if I was to create a census attribute, that would allow me to enter details in the descriptor field, which would be readily visible as I scroll through the fact list for an individual and also easily retrieved in queries.

As far as I know, the only difference (as far as GEDCOM is concerned) is that an attribute allows for the descriptor field and an event does not, but I'm certainly no expert.

I welcome your input.

Shosh

[jbtapscott]

I too have come from TMG, but the difference is that I did not use the Witness approach for Census records there but instead recorded them against each person, cross referencing back to a single Source record (the latter also recorded the Address and Registration District). I used the TMG Note to record a persons relationship to the Head of Family, Occupation and Marital Status.

Within FH, I use AS for capturing my Census data now. Having said this, I have made a couple of tweaks - I have set AS up such that the Relationship, Occupation and Marital Status have a Column Type of "Generic" and I have these auto placed in the Notes against each persons Census Fact (I don't use the AutoText feature as I find formatting is poor on reports). One thing I don't do (and others will probably disagree!) is record the Address and Reg District details in AS (and thus on the individual Fact). The reason for this is that I want this data in the Source record (because it makes some Narrative reports a bit "bulky" if placed in the Individuals Fact, and also I don't want duplication of this data). By adding it to a Note against the Source record, I can also include the date that I found this census date, but perhaps more importantly, only have a single place to change the data if I subsequently find I have made a mistake.

[DavidNewton]

Just a couple of comments to Shosh.
A Census attribute would be a custom attribute and that is denoted in the GEDCOM by an _ATTR tag. This will not always be recognized by other software but a great deal of work has been done by Mike Tate to create the 'Export Gedcom File' plugin which addresses this problem.

Secondly if you want to see the notes in the fact list (or at least the first few characters) then this is possible by using the advanced features of the sentence for the fact:
Tools>FactTypes. Select your fact and click the Edit button on the right. Alongside the Sentence Template there is an Advanced button, Clicking that reveals the possibility of using override sentences.

I use the note field for relationships and recorded birth place (sometimes interesting!) and so my sentence for the Facts Tab override simply reads Cens: {note} {place}.

David

[tatewise]

Some more things to consider.
There are various Reports, Queries, Plugins, and of course Ancestral Sources that rely on the use of the standard CENSus Event. If you use a custom census _ATTRibute then none of those will be compatible with your data.

Likewise, when you export your Gedcom to anyone else, or another genealogy product, then your custom census data will not be recognised.

Yes, the Export Gedcom File Plugin will convert the custom _ATTRibutes (that are unique to FH) into custom EVENts that many other products allow to have a value like Attributes (although that is invalid Gedcom). However, those are still NOT CENSus Events and any Census related tools will not recognise them.

In the vast majority of cases each person you record with a CENSus Event is closely related to others in the household. In those cases the relationship does not need to be recorded in the CENSus Event because it is already their fundamental Family as Child/Parent and Spouse relationship. In any case the usual method is to record all the Census details in the Source Record, but with any special case in the CENSus Event Notes.

Regarding the layout of AS auto-text in Source Records for Reports, I agree it is a bit awkward.
However, with a little customisation it can be made to work reasonably well in most cases.
See how_to:tabulate_multiline_text_in_records_and_reports|> Tabulate Multiline Text in Records and Reports for advice.
Also FH created web pages for such text can be formatted into tidy columns by the plugins:help:improve_html:improve_html|> Improve Website or CD DVD HTML Plugin and using the Hyperlinks / Text tab.

[shoshk]

David,

I didn't realize that GEDCOM doesn't play nice with custom attributes. I was assuming that they behave like custom events. Went back to the GEDCOM spec and, yup, you're right. Sigh. I really try to stick with solutions which will export to "standard" GEDCOM.

I guess I can put the individual census data on the first line of the note, followed by any research notes or analysis in subsequent paragraphs. That way, I can easily pull it out in queries. I haven't found a way, though, to display just the first line (paragraph) of the note in the facts list. Does anybody know if this is possible?

Shosh

[tatewise]

Shosh, even if GEDCOM did support Custom Attributes (Draft Version 5.5.1 does) all the other points about incompatibility with Census related tools would still apply, both within FH and other products you might export to.

I am not sure what you mean by the "facts list". Perhaps you mean View > Standard Queries > All Facts.

However, the functions =GetParagraph(%INDI.CENS.NOTE2%,1) and =GetLabelledText(%INDI.CENS.NOTE2%,"Relationship:") should extract what you need, and have a side benefit of always displaying the full paragraph rather than truncating at 150 characters.

See how_to:display_long_text_like_notes|> Display long text such as Notes for further details.

[shoshk]

Hi,

I'm referring to defining a custom template for displaying in the facts list by using the advanced features of the sentence for the fact:
Tools>FactTypes, select fact, edit, advanced, "Use Override Template for Facts tab Listings."

Shosh

[tatewise]

Yes, those functions can be used there too.
The default Template is effectively Census {place}

But the following are now supported in FH V6 either instead of or combined with {place}
{=GetParagraph(%FACT.NOTE2%,1)}
or
{=GetLabelledText(%FACT.NOTE2%,"Relationship:")}

The first will always display 1st paragraph (or whichever paragraph the 2nd parameter specifies).

The second will only display the paragraph text following the label Relationship:.
So the position of the paragraph is flexible and can even be omitted altogether.

By extending the label concept, you can include whatever <label> details you wish, but only need to include the ones that are necessary, e.g. Research: or Analysis:

Then in Queries, Diagrams, etc, you can use =GetLabelledText(%....NOTE2%,"<label>") to display those details.

[shoshk]

Mike,

Thank you!

I tried using GetParagraph, but didn't think to put it in the curly brackets.

Shosh

[tatewise]

In the Fact Definition windows click on any of the <<Insert Code buttons and choose How to Use Advanced Features... at the bottom of droplist.
Among other details, about halfway down, it explains How to Add Data References or Functions to Sentence Templates although beware that for Witness Sentence Templates some features are not fully working. See Using %FACT% data reference in witness sentences (12367).