Family Historian User Group

Hello, I am a new user of FH, having migrated my tree from FMP. FH has shown up all the inconsistencies in the way I have entered data and sources in the past (which included a migration from Ancestry to FMP) so I am trying to tidy up my current tree before researching or entering anything new. This is my first post here, though I did earlier post a query to the f-h@groups.io site, which Mike Tate kindly answered.

I’ve looked through quite a few posts on this site and the knowledge base (including the advice for newcomers) and think I have discovered the advice I want, but would be grateful for confirmation on the following points.

1. I presume it is generally best to search for answers and if necessary post a query on this forum rather than groups.io (which I discovered first), as it seems much more comprehensive (if not overwhelming sometimes!)

2. The advice seems to be to enter UK 1939 Register information as a Census fact. I had been using the UK 1939 Register event fact in the Extended set of facts (and was actually looking for ways to make this fact type more easily accessible when I came across this advice). I’m fine with this (and many of my imported 1939 facts imported as Census facts) but wanted to confirm this before I got any further. Presumably for any I have already made UK 1939 Register facts I will need to either re-enter them manually (not too bad as only about 20 individual entries in this form to date) or use the Change any Facts tag plugin (when I have paid up for the program and can use plugins).

3. I’ve just come across the first individual in my tidying up where I have various information on their WWI service. I was thinking of using the Military Service fact type from the Extended set but was wondering if this was best practice. Although from what I have seen so far I envisage keeping my tree in FH (with a periodic backup using Gedcom into FMP (as read only, not to edit) so that I have a fairly recent version available online too) I am keen to use a standardised and easily transferable system just in case. For now I am just adding their dates of service as between x and y and summarising info from the batch of papers (which I have saved as a pdf) in the note field and want to keep if fairly simple rather than using multiple fact entries.

4. Finally! - is there a definitive list of census dates? I had produced a crib-sheet of the dates so that I can add in the actual day and month while tidying up census facts as in some cases it is relevant whether another event in a census year was before or after the census. However, on looking at the Family Tree Resources link from the FHUG Knowledge base on Census Records I find that several are one day out from my list (can’t remember where I cribbed it from now - probably some book), and also the Wikipedia list differs once again in places. I know in most cases the odd day or two won’t make much difference, but again I would prefer to start as I plan to go on and use the ‘official’ dates.

Hope I am not asking too much at once and that someone is able to fairly easily guide me in the right direction.

Welcome to the FHUG Karin, and hello again.

I will do my best to answer your points.

1. You are free to use the FHUG and groups.io resources in whichever way you prefer. They operate slightly differently, but most of the regular contributors monitor both. It is slightly easier for us to link any appropriate Knowledge Base articles to the Forums here than via groups.io and there are reverse links from Knowledge Base to Forum postings.
2. Yes, all your observations are correct.
3. There is no definitive best practice for recording military service. There are a number of popular alternatives that largely depend on how you intend to use the data. Do you want reports in a particular format, want easily searchable data, want compatibility with other products, etc. Probably best if you post a specific question and review the replies.
4. Yes, there are definitive dates for most Census records for most countries. Have you discovered the free companion program ancestralsources:index|> Ancestral Sources which has the ancestralsources:tutorial:tools:census_flag_date_tools#census_date_check|> Census Date Check tool.

On census dates, a one day difference can be down to whether you use the Monday date (when the forms were presumably completed, referring to the previous night) or the Sunday date.

I used to use the Monday dates, as it seemed more logical, but I'm sure I was in a minority, and when I discovered that the National Archives' list uses Sunday dates I slightly reluctantly decided to change.

The National Archives' list is at

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hel ... s-records/

Thanks to you both for your comments.

Re 3. Military entries, I mainly envisage using the facts as a reminder that I have found papers relating to their military service so would put the dates of signing up and discharge and a Between type entry under dates and anything else (e.g. their regiment and service number) in the fact notes. I would then refer to the saved pdf of the documents if/when I wanted more information. It would be useful to be able to search - e.g. if I had a vague memory that some relative had served as a 'gunner' but I presume a search including notes would pick this up if I had used the term there. Report-wise, at present I mainly plan to use reports to produce timeline type summary sheets (including my fact notes) for individuals to help me see what information is missing as well as what inferences I can make. (I know I can sort-of see this information by clicking down the facts list in the individual's properties window but I find it easier to get an overall picture from a paper version and can also take it with me when doing research.) I don't, at least at present, have any plans to publish detailed reports and even if I did I would probably envisage saving it as an rtf file to provide the basis for further editing (so for example in the case of military service could add more information at that stage). So, does this information affect what type of fact you would suggest I use?

Re 4. I have discovered my list I was working from was a mixture of Sundays and Mondays! In the light of the two sources you have quoted (which both seem to use the Sunday date) I think I will standardise on that, even though unfortunately I had more Mondays than Sundays. However, it will be easier to change at this stage before I have two many specific census dates added rather than later on. By experimenting I see I can Find instances of, for example, 31 Mar, though not 31 Mar 1851 (which I will need to change to 30 Mar in the case of 1851), but as long as I go carefully this should help me to find the instances that need changing unless you can suggest a better way of changing the dates.

Thanks again - I do feel I am slowly getting there, and already my tidying up is making me aware of things I had overlooked in my previous more haphazard recording of information.

Your military fact solution sounds fine for you.

As I suggested the ancestralsources:tutorial:tools:census_flag_date_tools#census_date_check|> Census Date Check tool will correct the dates, and the Search and Replace Plugin will also alter Dates.

For military service, I have a single Military Service attribute. The value is the branch of the armed forces and if known any detail about regiment, ship etc. The date is a period (the period in which they served), the place is the place or places they served, and the Note covers the 'interesting details' that I've gleaned from whatever sources I could find -- which may just be a medal card from WW1 or a whole military service record from later in the 20th centrury.

For example:

Hi Mike
Thanks for that. Although I had downloaded and looked at Ancestral Sources that had been in the light of Sources rather than dates and I had forgotten (or not noticed) that there was a separate Census date checker separate to the source template type aspects (which I am not using at present for tidying though may do when I get back to adding new census results). I've now corrected all the dates to the Sunday dates, though I still have a few occupation facts to do likewise for as I have entered those as separate to census facts even though they are the same date. However, as I said, I am not that far into tidying as yet so that will be fairly easy to do.

And I think I had better get on with paying up for the program even though I have 19 days of trial left so that I can start investigating the plugins too.
Once again many thanks
Karin

Thanks Helen for your reply too. Your examples are more or less what I was thinking of doing too, so it's good to know it is a sensible approach for the kind of use I want to make of the information. Your 'scarpering' ancestor seems to have had quite a life!
Karin