Family Historian User Group

Ive recently received my late fathers Army Records and discovered he we evacuated from Dunkirk. Also contained in his records were details of convictions for Drunk and Disorderly and Assaulting a police Officer for which he was fined £2 at Lichfield magistrates courts in 1937 when he was 21.

Is there a better way of recording such events apart from just creating a note?

ID:1062

What I have done is to create custom events, for example Conviction for criminal records. Posting for Army Postings. That way each event can be used in a time time of events rather than in a 'lump' which happens if you record the whole army history in a single note.

I would create a source for your dad's army records and type in as much detail as you want into that source. You might even scan the records and attach them to the source.

Then as Jane suggests create appropriate custom events/attributes and link these to the source via  source citations. For my army ancestors I have a 'stationed' event, 'promoted' attribute, 'enlisted' event and a 'discharged' event. Note that a custom attribute rather than a custom event can be used in cases where you need to say something more about the thing that is happening. I use a custom attribute for 'promoted' so I can record the rank the soldier was promoted to, e.g. Corporal.