Family Historian User Group

This may be simple but I don't know the right way to do this. I have my fathers Honorable Discharge certificate and want to record it. Was wonder how you do it. I have events for his enlistment and discharge and the HD has a date 4 years later so do I crate an Honorable Discharge event with the HD date or add it as a citation to his discharge date.

rcpettit wrote: ↑

30 Aug 2022 19:06

This may be simple but I don't know the right way to do this. I have my fathers Honorable Discharge certificate and want to record it. Was wonder how you do it. I have events for his enlistment and discharge and the HD has a date 4 years later so do I crate an Honorable Discharge event with the HD date or add it as a citation to his discharge date.

I don't see any real reason to create a new HD event. You already have a Discharge so the certificate is simple a source for that date, and possibly for any other data that you may have extracted or even have taken from other sources.

rcpettit wrote: ↑

30 Aug 2022 19:06

This may be simple but I don't know the right way to do this. I have my fathers Honorable Discharge certificate and want to record it. ...

Well, there's nearly always several ways to do it - just depends on what you want to achieve.

I have to ask firstly (as a Brit) - what exactly is an Honourable Discharge Certificate, when is it normally produced and what does it say? And what does it say in relation to the "original" discharge event?

For instance (and there's every likelihood I get this utterly wrong), was he discharged in year Y and then 4 years later, he simply got a certificate that says, "We certify that he was Honourably Discharged on the [original] date"? (In which case, do you know why the HD came 4 years later?)

If this is the case (basically, a delayed certificate, sort of), then I'd agree that the HD certificate can be recorded simply as a source-record and cited against the original discharge event.

If you want to make a big splash of it, then as well as recording it as a source-record, you could scan it and add it as a media item against the original discharge event so that it's easily visible. (It's not usual to have images of sources added against the events, but if it's important to that person's story, then it makes sense to do so.)

I think that may be the correct way to do it by just posting the image to the discharged event. The Honorable Discharge is usually issued 4 years after discharge date at least for the Navy. You get it at discharge if retired.

I'm assuming this is in the United States?

Teresa

rcpettit wrote: ↑

31 Aug 2022 13:48

I think that may be the correct way to do it by just posting the image to the discharged event. The Honorable Discharge is usually issued 4 years after discharge date at least for the Navy. You get it at discharge if retired.

rcpettit wrote: ↑

31 Aug 2022 13:48

I think that may be the correct way to do it by just posting the image to the discharged event. The Honorable Discharge is usually issued 4 years after discharge date at least for the Navy. You get it at discharge if retired.

OK, thanks.

So effectively, in my head, it's all one process that (unless you retire) simply happens to take 4y. So yes, I'd have one event for the discharge dated with the "actual" date of discharge. Add a note to that event saying that 4y later, he was issued with his Honorable Discharge certificate. Then scan the Honorable Discharge and attach it to the actual discharge event so it comes out on reports. I'd also create a Source Record for that Honorable Discharge certificate, link the scan to it and cite it against the actual discharge event. Then you've covered it all, in my view.