* User-defined events/facts from RootsMagic

[arthurk]

I haven't so far found anything here on the following issue, and I thought it was distinct enough to warrant its own topic.

In RM I resisted using shared events and witnesses, mainly because of murmurings about them not being well-supported in GEDCOM or about the information not always being displayed for non-principals. Instead I created a few user-defined events such as Registration (eg for the person who goes to register a death) and Mention in Will (for beneficiaries, executors etc). These appear in the RM GEDCOM export as follows:

1 _ATTR death of his father Samuel Bxxxxx (28 May 1937)
2 TYPE Registration
2 DATE 29 MAY 1937
2 SOUR @S261@

1 _ATTR his mother Elizabeth Bxxxxx
2 TYPE Mention in Will
2 DATE 26 JUL 1937
2 SOUR @S190@

At this stage I haven't yet created a FH project out of that GEDCOM, merely opened it and looked at it. What I see is that these items are correctly showing in the person's list of facts, but I can't see them as FH Fact Types that I could add to other people. I'm therefore wondering:
(a) do I need to look for them somewhere else,
(b) would they be there if I imported this as a project,
(c) can I create new Fact Types out of these existing facts, or
(d) if I had to recreate them from scratch, would the ones that are already there be automatically recognised as having the same Fact Type?

Thanks for any help,

Arthur

[tatewise]

FH only has Fact Types defined for Standard GEDCOM Facts such as Birth, Death, Marriage, etc.

Valid custom Facts such as your _ATTR are imported correctly, are listed in Tools > Fact Types, and can be added to other Individuals, but there is a trick!
In the Event/Attribute List window ensure the buttons on right are shown by clicking More>> if necessary, then tick Show Hidden.
Click the column heading for Fact Set and your custom facts are listed as <none> and Visible is <undefined>.
You can add them to other Individuals and click Edit to define them fully just like any Standard Fact.

[arthurk]

Valid custom Facts such as your _ATTR are imported correctly, are listed in Tools > Fact Types, and can be added to other Individuals, but there is a trick!
In the Event/Attribute List window ensure the buttons on right are shown by clicking More>> if necessary, then tick Show Hidden.
Click the column heading for Fact Set and your custom facts are listed as <none> and Visible is <undefined>.
You can add them to other Individuals and click Edit to define them fully just like any Standard Fact.

Thanks for the tip - I've now done a bit of playing around and I think I can see how it works. It seems you can add custom facts from that list while they are still undefined etc, but before you can edit them you have to add them to a custom fact set.

Having now started a custom fact set with a temporary name which I may not want to keep long term, is the only way to rename the set to overtype the temporary name against one of the facts in it with the name I'd like to use instead, then change all the others, and eventually delete the unwanted empty set? It also seems that once a custom fact has been put into a fact set, it can't be taken out and made undefined again, so I can't actually undo that little experiment and start again from scratch.

Arthur

[tatewise]

You never need to delete an empty Fact Set as it will automatically vanish.

To undo your Custom Fact definition use the Delete button above the Edit button.

Click the Help button in the Event/Attribute List dialogue for full details.

Perhaps it is worth clarifying that the GEDCOM holds your custom EVENts and _ATTRibutes, but NOT the Fact Sets/Definitions which are one of the many FH customisations. These are mostly stored in the glossary:family_historian_program_data_folder|> Family Historian Program Data Folder, and are mostly plain text files. So just like the GEDCOM file, they can be edited outside FH as long as you know the file format. For further details see how_to:understanding_scope_of_features|> Understanding the Scope of Features.

[arthurk]

Thanks - I'd assumed the Delete button would do something more drastic so had kept well clear of it, but it does in fact do exactly what I wanted.

Arthur