* Best way to cope with "objects"?

[JoopvB]

A lot of older records record transactions between people involving property (land, houses etc.), hereafter called objects.

Usually these objects are of serious interest to genealogy research (e.g. to determine relationships and find out if different names apply to the same person). Also the object itself may very well be worth having it's own place in history.

Last but not least it is sometimes very sensible to have the object as the "principle" and all related the persons (in their different roles) as witnesses.

I consider making the object some kind of person and in that way store the info in FH but it seems a bit odd. So my question is: have any of the forum readers "solved" this issue and if so, how?

[LornaCraig]

In a case like this I create a Source record, with a title like 'Documents relating to the sale of...'. Then attach images of the document(s) to the Source record, and sometimes a transcription of the text (or extracts) in the Text from Source field.

People mentioned in the document can be linked to the source in various ways: for example it might be cited as a source for a name or for an alternate name. It might be a source for their residence fact. It might be a source for a custom fact such as a purchase or sale of property. Each citation can refer to a different page in the source, if necessary, by entering that detail in the Where within Source field of the citation.

[JoopvB]

Hi Lorna,

Thanks for your ideas.

I also started off with the source record approach, but...

It would be so nice to have e.g. a sale of some land as a sentence in the narrative of the people related to the sale. And, of course, dated and located correctly for all related people in their respective roles. I could not make that happen. What did I miss?

Regards, Joop

[tatewise]

Mostly the Narrative Sentences are derived from the Sentence Template of the associated Fact.

Some refinements you may have overlooked are:

• An Attribute fact (as opposed to Event fact) has an extra Value parameter that can be incorporated into its Sentence Template using the {value} code. See Inheritance fact (12766) as an example.
• Every fact has a Note field that can be incorporated into the Sentence Template using the {note} code. This could hold Name and Date and Place details not available any other way.
• As an override for any specific instance of a fact you can put your own text into its Sentence box.

In your 'sale' case have you tried a Property Sale custom Attribute with Witnesses?

Could you post more specific examples of the Narrative you are trying to create.
How are the people, the dates, and places inter-related?

[LornaCraig]

If you keep a fact definiton very basic it can be tailored for use in a variety of situaions. For example, along the lines suggested by Mike above, I have a custom fact called Property Purchase. As this is an event rather than an attribute it cannot take a value, so the definition is simply {individual} purchased property {place} {date}. The narrative sentence for the particular individual can then be edited or even re-written completely, if necessary, in the Property box.

This custom fact was created before FH supported witness roles, so I created a reciprocal Property Sale fact for use with the seller. However you could now add a witness role to the Property Purchase fact, with sentence template like {individual} sold property to {principal} {date} {place}.

[JoopvB]

I have now come up with this solution:

1. I use a dummy unrelated person with the name equal to the fact type (in this case Sale).

2. The principal sentence is:
Sellers: {role=seller}<br>Buyers: {role=buyer}<br>Neighbours: {role=neighbour, neighbours}<br><br>

3. The Seller sentence is:
<para><{date:LONG}:>< {role(single)=seller} sells>< {role(plural)=seller} sell> <( {=GetParagraph(%FACT.NOTE2%,2)})> <to {role=buyer}> <({=GetParagraph(%FACT.NOTE2%,3)})> <for the amount of {=GetParagraph(%FACT.NOTE2%,1)}> {value} {place}<; neighbour: {role(single)=neighbour, neighbours}><; neighbours: {role(plural)=neighbour, neighbours}><para>

4. The buyer sentence is something alike (the other way around).

5. The Neighbour sentence is:
<para>{date:LONG} {individual} owns land bordering {value} {place} sold by {role=seller} to{role=buyer}<para>

6. The Neighbours sentence is the same... owns --> own. This is used when the source says something like "the heirs of yyy" (I input that as an unrelated person, to be researched further at a later date).

7. the GetParagraphs are:
1) the amount paid for the sale;
2) extra info regarding the seller(s);
3) extra info regarding the buyer(s);

8. {value} is the land (or whatever) being sold.
9. {date} is the date of the transaction.
10. {place} is the location of the property.

Results of my test:
- all narratives seem to produce correct results;
- the narrative for the "dummy" produces a neat compact overview of the use of this fact type (including source references);
- the GetParagraphs are still a problem due to some FH bug (see previous posts of Mike and me). I count on that being solved in one of the next updates.

[Shelley]

Thank you for posting your solution. I found this post while thinking about doing much the same thing and your solution post is very helpful.

Is this solution still working for you? Have you had to manage more complex situations than a transfer by sale? eg the various trust arrangements that can occur with an inherited property?

In my mind the things I want to manage are more "entities" than "objects". "Entity" being a broader term that also takes in the abstract. Businesses, for example, can have various owners and employees and have multiple locations that change over time.