* Birth/Death Registration Dates

[NigelBrown]

I have been trying to construct a fact to record the date of birth or death registration, where there are two parties, the Informant and the person recently born or died. After trying countless sentences, generally with Informant as {individual} and the born or deceased as a witness, and failing miserably to achieve both sentences to read properly, I have come up with a novel solution. This is that both parties are witnesses, one as Informant, the other as Child or Deceased. For example, Sentence Template = "{date} {role=informant} informed the Registrar of the birth of {role=child}"; Witness Role Sentences = "{date} the birth of {role=child} was registered by {role=informant}" and "{date} {his/her} birth was registered by {role=informant}".

This works, it produce two perfect sentences, as far as I have tested. However, I am only too aware that this is odd in that there is no {individual}, and must be very non-GEDCOM compliant, with consequences.

I wonder if I am missing something simple here? Can anyone tell me a satisfactory set of Sentences of a more standard type? I have seen Lorna Craig say, in an old thread, that she simply adds an appropriate sentence into the note accompanying the Birth and Death event, and of course this works just as well without my sentence contortions (and this is how I did it for 15 years with TMG). In fact, unless someone can advise me of another sentence construction that achieves the same for both parties, I may well adopt Lorna's solution and just "keep it simple".

[arthurk]

I don't use Witnesses, but I've devised my own Registration attribute which I use for the person who reported the birth or death. The Value I use is a phrase such as:
death of his father John Smith (1 May 1910)
where the date in brackets is the date of the event. (Note the use of lower case "d" in death.)

The sentence I use is: {individual} registered the {value} {date} {place} {age}

which gives an output such as:
He registered the death of his father John Smith (1 May 1910) on 5 May 1910.

I don't always use the {place}, and should probably remove the {age}. I don't actually use it for this fact, and if it was used, the sentence could easily appear ambiguous.

For the person who died or was born, I put the registration information in the Fact Note.

It's a relatively simple method and seems to work for me, though I don't know if it technically breaks any protocols etc.

Arthur

[dewilkinson]

Being a recent convert from TMG I have this week set up a custom death registration Fact with the sentence :-

{his/her} death was registered< by {%FACT._SHAR[1]>NAME[1]:FULL%}> {date} in the {_place}<, {note}>

eg Her death was registered by Harold Eric Wilkinson on 12th December 1874 in the Linton "Registration District", Cambridgeshire, England.

which picks up the informants name recorded as a witness with a custom role of Informant. My Registration Districts are set up for example as Linton "Registration District", Cambridgeshire, England (I know some registration districts cross county boundaries but many don't and where they do I use the principal county).

I still record cause of death etc under the Death Fact.

There are many ways to do this sort of thing, I think it just depends upon what suits you, as long as you recognise the limitations and consequences, Gedcom for example.

Hope that is of some help.

[tatewise]

I have created two versions of Birth/Death Registration Events :

1. Informant as Principal and Child as Witness (this is the most likely way round)
   Principal Sentence Template: {date} {individual} informed the Registrar of the birth of {role=child} {place}
   Advanced Override Template: {label} of {%FACT._SHAR>NAME%} {place} {role=child} did not work here
   Witness Sentence Template: {date} the birth of {role=child} was registered by {principal} {place}
   Advanced Override Template: {label} by {principal} {place}
2. Child as Principal and Informant as Witness
   Principal Sentence Template: {date} {role=informant} informed the Registrar of {individual's} birth {place}
   Advanced Override Template: {label} by {%FACT._SHAR>NAME%} {place} {role=informant} did not work here
   Witness Sentence Template: {date} the birth of {principal} was registered by {role=informant} {place}
   Advanced Override Template: {label} of {principal} {place}

Note the symmetrical similarity between to two versions with {principal} and {role=...} being swapped and of and by adjustments.

[NigelBrown]

Thank you Arthur, David and Mike. Plenty of ideas there, and I am clearer about how to go about creating these records.