Witnesses?

[strathglass 0]

Another very basic question: when should I add witnesses/how are witnesses used?

Obviously for things like weddings, we know what the witness is.

But in what other less obvious ways would you use a witness? And how would this be output?

Someone suggested using witnesses for the names of the subjects in a photo that was attached to a special tag for the photo - would this ever be output in reports?

 

Thanks,

Strathglass.

[Terry Reigel 0]

There is a whole chapter about use of witnesses in my book.

 

The most straightforward use for Witnesses is for events that involve a family or group of people. Immigration, Moved, and Census are some tags in which I most commonly use Witnesses. I also find them useful in Will tags, to record the witnesses, executors and heirs. At the most basic level, using Witnesses allows you to create the tag, and its citations, once and then enter all the people involved.

 

The next step is to have the various people entered as Witnesses be mentioned in their correct roles in the narratives for the Principals, and even for each other. Doing so requires custom sentences, as Witnesses are not mentioned in any of the default sentences.

 

I find Witnessess most useful for narrative output - I seldom use other types of reports and can't speak to the utility of Witnesses for them.

[Jim Byram 0]

'Witnesses' are simply other individuals involved in the events. For a Marriage tag for example, those witnesses might be the minister who performed the ceremony, the best man, the bridesmaids, etc. In a census tag, the head of household would be the Principal1 and the other household members would be the witnesses.

 

Witnesses can be included in the principals sentences and have their own unique sentences. You need to look through the sentences variables to see those available.

 

The sentences determine what about witnesses are output in reports. Witness sentences are output under their data in the reports.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

I just use witnesses for the extra people in a tag. TMG only allows two primary people. If I am doing a family reunion of 200 people, who gets to be P1 and P2. I pick one at random, who is P1, and everyone else becomes a witness.

 

One thing I wish TMG would do is allow witnesses to have primary tags. For tags like census, only P1 and P2 can be primary, yet the tag is equally important to their 14 children.

[Terry Reigel 0]

One thing I wish TMG would do is allow witnesses to have primary tags. For tags like census, only P1 and P2 can be primary, yet the tag is equally important to their 14 children.

Teresa,

 

What difference does it make whether the tags are primary or not? Primary has nothing to do with the importance of the event to any person - it's used only to select which events appear in certain charts that have limited space.

[GenerationGoneBy 0]

Terry,

 

Because I would very much like to:

 

Have exhibits show for people in their exhibit log (they only show for primary events)

Ditto research tasks.

 

ANd I would like to be able to do a census tag in the charts, but can only do if if the tag is primary, which it can only be for two of the people. I have three (sometimes more) direct ancestors in each census tag. <G>

[Jim Byram 0]

Have exhibits show for people in their exhibit log (they only show for primary events)

Whether an exhibit shows in the person Exhibit Log has nothing to do with whether the event is marked primary or not. It does have to do with whether the person is a principal in the event.

 

Ditto research tasks.

A task shows for the person linked to it. And has nothing to do with whether a tag is primary or not.

 

And the discussion has gone way off topic. Please go start a new topic if you want to discuss something that has nothing to do with the question originally asked in the topic.

[strathglass 0]

Thanks all. This helps clarify.

 

But Teressa's comment raises another question I was just about to ask anyway (and which may be related to Teressa's issue):

however it is more about exhibits, so I'll start it in another thread!

 

Regards,

Strathglass