* Format of calculated dates in Reports

[Ricardus]

When entering census information via Ancestral Sources a year of birth date is calculated and appears in the Family Historian Focus window or Property Box as (for example) 1860 (cal), which is fine by me.

However when I run Individual Summary reports or Family Group Sheets the year of birth appears as (for example) (1860?-). I would prefer that these reports show the year of birth as c.1860, abt.1860 or even 1860 (cal) rather than with a question mark after the year. I've looked through the Report Options tabs to try and find some way of changing this but for the life of me can't figure out how to do it. What have I missed?

[tatewise]

I'm not sure if it is the same in FH V6.2 but in FH V7 the Report > Options > Format tab has Format for Dates at the bottom.
The default is Compact which should display what you requested.

[Ricardus]

Thanks Mike,
That's half-fixed it in that now the dates shown in the 'Individual Events and Attributes' section show as 1833 (cal) rather than 1833?
The remaining problem though is that when someone's years of birth and death are shown in brackets in the report then I still get the 1833? as you can see from the screenshot below.
Of course it would look pretty awkward for this to appear as (1833 (cal)-1914), with brackets within brackets as it were. On the other hand I don't like the question mark appearing with the year as it implies doubt or speculation whereas in reality we have some decent evidence that the year of birth is on or around 1833.
I suppose what might solve it for me is if estimated dates from Ancestral Sources could show in FH as c. 1833 rather than 1833 (cal) but there doesn't seem to be any way to configure this...

Screenshot 2023-05-29 212510.jpg (88.91 KiB) Viewed 476 times

[tatewise]

I think the reason AS uses calculated is to indicate that it is derived from calculating the Date of Birth by subtracting the Age supplied in the Census from the date of the Census, i.e. it is calculated.
Ages recorded in Census records are notoriously unreliable so there is some doubt and the evidence is often dubious.
It is far less reliable than say a Birth Certificate, GRO Index, or Baptism record.

I cannot think of a way of easily improving those Life Dates other than by researching for a Birth/Baptism record that supplies a more reliable Date of Birth.

You could make the suggestion in the AS forum that Approximate rather than Calculated could be used for those Birth Dates.

[BillH]

Have you tried selecting this setting in FH? Does this give you what you want?

image1.jpg (70.97 KiB) Viewed 442 times

I haven't tested this so I don't know it it will give you what you want.

Bill

[Ricardus]

Have you tried selecting this setting in FH? Does this give you what you want?

image1.jpg

I haven't tested this so I don't know it it will give you what you want.

Bill

Thanks Bill,
I've checked and I already had that box ticked so it doesn't seem to impact the presentation of 'cal' dates in the Individual Summary Report.
I then looked in some more detail at the effect of that box: When it is ticked and you input a date as 'approx 1841' or 'about 1841' it shows in the focus window and property box as 'c.1841'. When it is unticked and you make the same input it shows in the focus window and property box as '1841 (app)'. But in neither case is there any impact where the input is '1833 (cal)'...
Regards,

[tatewise]

Simple dates may have one of three qualifiers: Approximate, Calculated, Estimated.
They represent the three GEDCOM DATE qualifiers.
The option to Use 'circa' for approximate dates only applies to the Approximate qualifier and only affects the Date displays within FH. It has no effect on the underlying database.