* Churching

[mezentia]

I have recently come across a parish register that contains entries for baptisms and churchings. The entries simply state that a child of someone (the father) was baptised on such-and-such a date, and gives what appears to be a fee for the service. The child's name is not given and so needs to be found by consulting other documents. The other entry is for a Churching, and has the date followed by "wife of John Foxton Churched" and again the fee for the service.

I'd like to record these events using FH but can't see how to create an event that will allow the capture of the fee element. I'd like the sentences to read as something like this for a Churching, and the Churching event associated with the woman:

Ann Foxton, the wife of John Foxton, was Churched on 26 September 1795 at Ripon Cathedral in Ripon, Yorkshire, for a fee of 1s and 4p.

I would like to add the "wife of" as this is what actually appears in the PR entry, and it is therefore an assumption as to who the wife actually is, although generally supported by other facts.

The sentence for a baptism I'll leave as is, and simply add the image of the entry to the event's source record as I normally do via Ancestral Sources and where I can be sure of the identity of the child being baptised. In this case, the fee can be added as a note to the event.

Any advice on how best to set up an approprtiate fact would be appreciated.

[tatewise]

A Google Search for churching of women explains it is a blessing of a woman soon after childbirth.

So I would use the standard Blessing Event with a Note and a Source Citation in the same way as for the Baptism Event.
It is simply that you have to create the Source record and add the Citation by hand instead of relying on AS.

Finally, customise the Sentence at the bottom of that fact to use something like:
{individual}, the wife of John Foxton, was Churched {date}< at {address}> {place}< {age}>< for a {note}>
So it reads very similar to your requested Narrative Sentence assuming the the following fields:
Date: 26 Sep 1795
Place: Ripon, Yorkshire
Address: Ripon Cathedral
Note: fee of 1s and 4p

[mjashby]

Just one minor correction for the sentence creation, it's 'd.' for pence pre-decimalisation (derived from 'denarius').

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Well spotted Mervyn!

[mezentia]

Thanks Mike for the suggestion. I've created a new fact type, Churched that goes some way to do what I want. Can I ask, however, how I can insert the wife's first name rather than have the template generate "She"; insert the husband's name automatically; and is it possible the include only the first two elements of place, e.g. Ripon, Yorkshire rather than Ripon, Yorkshire, England?

[tatewise]

Yes, you can do all that.
In Tools > Fact Types > Churched > Edit change the Sentence Template as follows.
Most of the changes can be made using the <<Insert Code button on the right.

To obtain the first name of Principal person use the Data Reference option.
Scroll down and select Principal + Name + :FIRST to insert {%CUR_PRIN.NAME[1]:FIRST%}

To obtain the full name of Spouse use the Data Reference option.
Scroll down and select Principal + Spouse + Name to insert {%CUR_PRIN.~SPOU[1]>NAME[1]%}

To extract the first two parts of Place field use the Data Reference option.
Select Fact + Place + :MEDIUM to insert {%FACT.PLAC:MEDIUM%}
But that loses the automatic prefix of in produced by {place}
So the code must become < in {%FACT.PLAC:MEDIUM%}>
However, you might want to try setting the Use Short Form for Repeated Place Names in Narrative Report Options and keeping the {place} code instead.

I know the Churched Event is only applicable to wives, but in a more general case you would have to use wife or husband of spouse, and the code to produce that uses the =Sex() function:
{=Sex(%CUR_PRIN%,"husband","wife","partner")}

So the whole Sentence Template would look something like:
{%CUR_PRIN.NAME[1]:FIRST%}, {=Sex(%CUR_PRIN%,"husband","wife","partner")} of {%CUR_PRIN.~SPOU[1]>NAME[1]%}, was Churched {date}< at {address}>< in {%FACT.PLAC:MEDIUM%}>< {age}><, for a {note}>

[Jane]

What I do for "unusual" events which I suspect I will only see once or twice is to use a Miscellaneous attribute, which has a simple sentence such as {he/she} {value} {note} {date} {address) {place}, I then simply customise the sentence for each use depending on the requirement.

[mezentia]

Thanks Jane, I'll try and remember that. I had thought that the Churching event was almost a one-off, but after hours spent trawling through the register page by page I've found quite a few, hence my question here. Fortunately, Mike has pointed me in the right direction to create a custom fact that works just as I want.