Family Historian User Group

I'm currently trying to work methodically through an import from RootsMagic to FH and have come across the following issue. It's not specifically related to the import process, which is why I've posted in General Usage. It's also not such a widespread issue for me that I won't be able to deal with it on a case-by-case basis, rather than looking for an automated method.

In RootsMagic I've occasionally found it helpful to be able to attach Notes to Addresses as well as Places: for example, one of my great aunts lived in a house that had previously been occupied by a different great aunt, but an intervening owner had changed the name. In recording the Addresses, it seems to make sense to note that they are different names for the same house. There are other instances where the spelling of a house or farm name etc has changed over time.

Admittedly the RM Address Notes don't seem to be included in the kind of reports I produce, but at least the information is in the database as a comment or cross-reference to help me.

In FH, if locations are stored simply as Places (which I'm trying to move away from), it is possible to include this kind of information as a Note, but you can't attach a Note to an Address, and Address Notes that are imported are marked as UDF.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to store this kind of information in FH, please? The best I can come up with is as a (possibly private?) Note on any Residence Events that the Address relates to, but as a new user I'd welcome any other ideas.

Thanks,
Arthur

Presumably such Addresses appear in various guises in several facts.
So you want to avoid replicating the explanation in every fact.

One option is a shared Note Record linked to every related fact.
I think that can be added via the Notes tab of the Property Box or at least via the All tab.

Another option is a Source Record cited by every related fact.
That is added via the yellow Sources For pane as usual.
It has the advantage of being able to attach a Media picture of the property.

In both cases the shared record explains the reasons for the different names for the same property.

Thanks for the reply. I've now given this further thought, and done a bit of experimenting. First, the question of one house with two completely different names:

The Getting the Most from FH6 book suggests that a linked Note Record is appropriate for information "about a house owned by many family members" (p.72), and I think this could work for me. The Note needs to be attached to the relevant Fact(s), and can have its own Sources. I haven't checked other reports, but it appears in an Individual Summary Report (the one I use most) - possibly a better outcome than in RM where it doesn't seem to appear in reports at all.

The main drawback I can see is that if you select an Address that this applies to, so as to use it for a different person/fact, there is nothing in the address itself to indicate that the Note exists, and that it would be a good idea to create a link to it. However, since it has been established that Privacy Brackets work in addresses, I think I would be inclined to add a reminder such as [[See Note]] to the end of the first line of each address.

The issue I raised in passing, of simple variant spellings of the name of a farm, house etc, could probably be dealt with in the same way, although rather than having separate Addresses it would probably be a case of choosing one variant as the main one and referring to the others in the Note. Alternatively, where a variant is found, it could be referred to in the Source/Citation, or a Note attached to the Fact. This could admittedly lead to some duplication, but if there aren't many variants to deal with, this may not be thought to be a problem.

Arthur

If you are seriously planning to add a Source Citation to your shared Note Record, then why not bypass the Note Record altogether.

Link the Source Citation directly to each Fact that uses the same Address.
A Source Citation is much more visible than a shared Note Record, so less likely to be overlooked when you need to copy it.

Thanks for this - you've stimulated further thought, and I think I've worked out how this will work best for me.

arthurk wrote:The Note needs to be attached to the relevant Fact(s), and can have its own Sources.

tatewise wrote:If you are seriously planning to add a Source Citation to your shared Note Record, then why not bypass the Note Record altogether.

This comment was partly an aside: I was rather intrigued by the possibility of a string of Note - Source - Note - Source... ad infinitum.

In fact I probably wouldn't add a Source Citation to the shared Note Record, but instead attach the Source Citations to the Fact(s) it related to. I'd regard the Note Record as a place to record my own comments or explanation.

I also wouldn't want to use just a Source Citation for this kind of thing. The way I have always worked is to put information into Facts (or general notes), and refer to the documents, people etc that provide the information in Source Citations. Sometimes it's necessary to explain the reasoning etc behind a Fact, or make some other comment; normally I do this in a Note attached to the Fact, though I recognise that some people might include it as part of the Source or Citation. But I wouldn't use a Source or Citation to store information that hasn't also been applied to someone as a Fact or Note.

A Source Citation is much more visible than a shared Note Record, so less likely to be overlooked when you need to copy it.

Could you explain this, please? I'm not sure what you mean by "much more visible". In terms of report output, some people don't read footnotes, especially if there are lots of them!

The bottom line on my original query (two names for one house) is that it applies to just two individuals, and in each case refers to a single Residence fact. So actually it might be simplest just to put a Note on those two Facts, rather than worry about a shared Note Record, but if another situation arose involving lots of people I would then consider using a shared Note Record.

Anyway, thanks for helping me work this out.

Arthur

Regarding visibility of shared Note Record versus Source Citation I was thinking about your proposal to add [[See Note]] to the Address as a Note Record reminder. That is not necessary with a Source Citation as it appears in the yellow Sources For pane, that I almost always have displayed. Also there are techniques for indicating against each fact in the Facts tab that a Source Citation exists, even when the yellow Sources For pane is not displayed.

I am less rigid about Source Citations being explicit documents. I allow any information to be a Source. You must have some justification for knowing that two properties with different names are actually the same property. Whatever that justification happens to be, then that is the Source of your knowledge, and you can cite it.

Although on a slightly different area of PLACe/ADDRess, this topic might give you some food for thought on the use of Sources with PLACes/ADDResses:
Best format of PLACe and ADDRess for Map Geocoding (11937)

Thank you both:

tatewise wrote:Regarding visibility of shared Note Record versus Source Citation I was thinking about your proposal to add [[See Note]] to the Address as a Note Record reminder. That is not necessary with a Source Citation as it appears in the yellow Sources For pane, that I almost always have displayed. Also there are techniques for indicating against each fact in the Facts tab that a Source Citation exists, even when the yellow Sources For pane is not displayed.

I thought my [[See Note]] idea (or maybe just [[N]]) would be a simple way of indicating there was a note wherever the Address appeared, regardless of whether there were any sources or whether the Sources For pane was visible. Anyway, since the number of addresses this issue relates to is fairly small, I may keep on experimenting a bit in case I can come up with anything else.

jimlad68 wrote:Although on a slightly different area of PLACe/ADDRess, this topic might give you some food for thought on the use of Sources with PLACes/ADDResses:
Best format of PLACe and ADDRess for Map Geocoding (11937)

I had seen that topic, and was planning to revisit it and other related ones when I start working on a consistent Place/Address scheme.

Arthur

I am not saying the [[N]] 'signal' won't work.
However, it relies on a manual process you must remember to perform in addition to linking the Note Record.
That is mitigated by using Tools > Work with Data > Addresses to add [[N]] to all instances of the Address in one go.

Whereas, simply adding the Source Citation automatically provides its own 'signal' in the Sources For pane.
Also you can 'signal' in the Facts tab that a Source Citation exists even when the Sources For pane is closed.
See how_to:understanding_expressions|> Understanding Expressions under Override Templates near the end.

Similarly, you could automatically 'signal' in the Facts tab that an Address has a Note Record, which personally I prefer to the manual [[N]].

BTW: I use a similar argument against using manually added Record Flags, and for using Expressions to automatically signal conditions.