* Military History for Property Box Tab

[imac_boy]

Hallo All and I hope everyone is enjoying this rather dark and dismal day!!

This query may already have been raised and if so I apologise in advance! However, the reason for posting is that although I have read the posts I am still very confused!

First let me explain:- I have (like a lot of Family Historian) a grandfather who had various stints in the military - firstly in the Militia from 1898 to 1907 and then the reserves and then WW1 with all the numerous facts that accompany the records found!

When using the facts I end up with a rather boring list of entries especially when I read the narrative report for him!

So guessing that other users would have encountered this, I found fhugdownloads:contents:military_history|> Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab

However, before I go ahead and click on the Downloads, can any kind sole please, please give me some sort of idiots guide so that I do the installation correctly.

I must admit that I am somewhat confused as the Description in the Fact Set above really confuses me and that makes me think something is bound to go wrong because of my ignorance!! I can also see that there are other tabs that I can add for Census & Wills?? Pray can someone tell me if these will make my Family History easier to perform?

As you can see I am really confused so I am hoping someone can explain - in the simplest of terms PLEASE??

Thanks to all.

[tatewise]

Yes, recording Military History poses some interesting problems.

It is not entirely clear, but it sounds like you have created your own Custom Facts to record your grandfather's military stints.

All that fhugdownloads:contents:military_history|> Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab installs is some 30+ Custom Facts dedicated to Military History such as:
Campaign Medal Attribute
Demobbed (Military) Event
Enlisted (Military) Event
Gallantry Medal Event
Military Dispatches Event
Military Service Attribute
Wounded (Military) Event
etc...

So the Narrative Reports will still "end up with a rather boring list of entries".

Those Military History Facts can easily be selectively deleted later on if you do not like them.

Adrian Bruce has said:
As a rule, I now tend to deal with most things military in the note sentence for the Military Service attribute. Creating separate events or attributes is most useful if you want to search on the particular facts that they describe. But if you're content to just write the stuff for reading later, then there's no virtue, to my mind, in creating separate facts. This was brought home to me when I printed someone's details - the Military Service fact printed out his service from 1914 to 1918 in the report, but the report then promptly when back to 1916 to cover Wounded and Gallantry Medal events of that year.

If, on the other hand, you want to compare lots of things military across lots of soldiers, you'll probably want separate facts beyond the Military Service attribute for ease of access to the data. (An alternative is "labelled text" but I'm never keen on what it does to the reports. Personal preference again. And lack of time to write real, free text narratives).

Since FH V6 you can get the best of both worlds. Most of those Military facts can have their Sentence Template set to {blank} so they contribute nothing to the Narrative Reports, and your descriptive narrative can be in the Note field of just the Military Service attribute. See how_to:narrative_report_fact_sentence_templates|> Narrative Report Fact Sentence Templates for technical details.

Topic Military History (6631) gives some other ideas, that include putting the details in Source records.

As you can see there are various options in FH to record complex details such as Military History.
It is probably best to experiment with the Family Historian Sample Project to decide what combination of Facts and Sources produce what you want in Reports and Queries, etc.

I hope that has not confused you too much more! Please do ask for more advice if necessary.

[imac_boy]

Thank you tatewise for replying.

That certainly confirms that I am not alone in finding Military facts a more challenging aspect for family historians! However, I was most interested in this link fhugdownloads:contents:military_history|> Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab as that seems to add extra tabs to the Property Box? I just wondered if that was a useful way to deal with Military facts as I can see that it seems to allow multiple military service periods including such things as height, chest size, which are reported in the military attestations that are found in the WW1 records.

Maybe I am trying to put in too much information but your thoughts would be very much appreciated on the use of this download and whether this is a straight forward enough process to complete? Thank you

[tatewise]

To create the Military tab for the Property Box you must also install the appropriate download from fhugdownloads:contents:property_box_tabs_military_census_wills|> Property Box Tabs: Military and Census and Wills.

But that is still only an overview of the underlying Military Facts in the same way the Main tab is an overview of the Standard Facts.

There are also complications with the tab if there are multiple periods of service as in your granddad's case, and you actually need multiple tabs. See Military Service multiple Enlistments (13889).

Nevertheless, regardless of tabs, it still makes no difference to Narrative Reports that will still "end up with a rather boring list of entries".

The only way to discover what is best for you is to experiment with the Family Historian Sample Project.

[DavidNewton]

My father joined the Navy pre-WW2 and was killed in action. I obtained his service record which is informative in a skimpy way with lots of dates and abbreviations. I found it difficult deciding how to enter the information. In the end I decided, like Adrian Bruce, to write my own narrative, however, I also came up against the problem of entering it as a note to the Military Sevice event. I think this material comes under the broad heading of Research and I have already created a Post-Death custom Research attribute for material I have found which doesn't fit comfortably elsewhere. So I rewrote his service record as a timeline with explanations of the abbreviations, the locations of the named shorebases and contextual events such as the sinking of vessels on which he had served. Any form of narrative that you prefer will do. In the event list I entered his Military Service as a period with his age at entry and initial place of entry and included a note referring to the Research.

I tend to use the Individual Summary Report rather the Individual Narrative Report and this method ensures that information of this sort comes after the main lifetime list of facts and the attribute values create useful sub-headings .

David

[imac_boy]

A big thank you Tatewise and David Newton for your replies. That Is excellent and have installed the Knowledge Base > Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab Version 2. I had already written a narrative to put in my Grandfathers records and will experiment with how to include this in my family tree - I particularly like the idea suggested by DavidNewton so thank you for your input! The multiple tabs idea seems a bit cumbersome, especially as I run Family Historian on an iMac and I prefer to keep it as simple as possible! As suggested by tatewise I will use the sample project for my experiments.

[tatewise]

You don't have to use the Military tab, which can easily be deleted via the Menu > Customize Data Entry.

Just add Military Facts directly via the Facts tab using the Add Fact button, as you would any other facts.

Whether you use the tab or not, you must still install the fhugdownloads:contents:military_history|> Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab to create the actual Fact Definitions within Tools > Fact Types.

If you have been creating facts via the Military tab, they cannot be customised without those Fact Definitions.

[imac_boy]

Thank you tatewise - I have done all that and will try it out on the Sample Project. Much appreciated!

[David Potter]

Hi Mike

Would these additional Tabs work retrospectively with already created Military and Census data. IE, if install these will the Military and Census facts I have already entered (mostly using AS) being visible in these new tabs?

David

[tatewise]

Yes David, providing you use the Military Facts from fhugdownloads:contents:military_history|> Fact Set ~ Military History for Property Box Tab and have standard Census Events. If you have used different Military Facts then the tab can be easily adjusted to suit.

BTW: The tab only shows the 1st instance of each Fact and there are complexities if you want extra tabs to show more instances.

There is nothing magic about tabs. They just use simple Data References to access fields associated with the record, and usually allow them to be both displayed and edited, exactly like the Main tab, which you can also customise.

FYI: There is a neat variant fhugdownloads:contents:property_box_tabs_census_uk|> Property Box Tabs: Census UK that uses the [year=1891] style index to give a clearer picture of which Census Events exist for which year, but is display-only.

[David Potter]

Hi Mike

Thank you - I'll look deeper into, sounds like a nice solution to separating out Facts to see more clearly.

David