Name Tag variables

[JohnR 0]

I can't seem to find a name tag variable to force the use of a married name as in the following sentence construction:

"Possibly the [first name] [married name] whose death was registered in the December quarter 1901"

F1 Help doesn't seem to help me on this occasion.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Hi John,

 

You are actually asking for three separate things, so need to be using three separate features at once. First (assuming you are talking about the married female) you need to have added a separate Name-Marr tag for her that includes her married surname. Next, you must select that Name-Var as the name to use for that sentence for her whether this is a Principal or Witness sentence. Finally, to ensure that you get her full name (both given and surname) the sentence variable (if it is not the first in a TMG paragraph) may need to include a plus-sign, e.g. [P+], [W+], or [R+:rolename].

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

[Terry Reigel 0]

To expand on what Michael said...

 

In TMG the Married Name Tag has no special significance. All Name Tags are considered equal no matter what Tag Type to apply to them, except that one of them is marked as Primary. Initially that is the first one you enter, but you can make any other Name Tag primary in its place.

 

The name variables in event tags by default always take their information from the primary Name Tag. But you can specify that a different Name Tag be used in the Tag Entry screen for Principals, or in the Edit Witness screen for Witnesses (you have to be in Advanced Data Entry mode to do that). When you specify that a different Name Tag be used the name variables then take their information from that Name Tag instead of the one marked as primary.

 

Since the most commonly used name variables - [P], [W], and [R:rolename] - substitute the pronoun He or She in many situations, the actual surname from the specified Name Tag may not appear in narratives unless you force it by use of the "+" variables as Michael describes.

 

In fact I almost never use the specified Name variation feature, in part because I find the use of surnames in the narrative is most often awkward - I either use the pronoun or only the given name.

[JohnR 0]

Hope this gives you ideas,

Self-immolation comes to mind, along with my computer

 

In fact I almost never use the specified Name variation feature, in part because I find the use of surnames in the narrative is most often awkward - I either use the pronoun or only the given name.

In this case I am trying to quote a register in which the person's given and married names are used.

I have never found a use for the Witness system in TMG ever since I tried to have my Godfather and others as witnesses to my birth. The ensuing sentence "A witnessed the birth of B" suggested a rather crowded delivery room.

[Terry Reigel 0]

In this case I am trying to quote a register in which the person's given and married names are used.

You have the tools available to do that, as Michael and I have explained.

I have never found a use for the Witness system in TMG ever since I tried to have my Godfather and others as witnesses to my birth.

In that case you are missing out on one of TMG greatest features, in my opinion. The problem is you are taking the term "witness" too literally. As far as TMG is concerned, a Witness is anyone associated with the event, in any way. There is no need for them to have physically seen it happen. One of the most useful applications is for Census Tags, where you can enter everyone in the household in the same Tag, not only saving a lot of duplicate entry, but also making it easy to see who was in the household, and permitting narratives to list all the members of the household. They are similarly useful for other events shared by family members, such as immigration or family relocations (Move Tag). In a different sort of application they are useful in Will Tags, to include the executors, heirs, and even the actual witnesses in a single tag.

The ensuing sentence "A witnessed the birth of B" suggested a rather crowded delivery room.

In most cases you need to create custom Sentences to make effective use of the Witness feature. Roles are also useful, both to eliminate a lot of manual editing of Sentences, and as tools to refer to groups of Witnesses according to their place in the event.

[Michael Hannah 0]

Sorry, John, if this seems either difficult or unclear, it shouldn't be.

 

In hopes of making it clearer, in your specific case for whatever tag you are using, if you simply want their full name as you have entered for them, you could modify the sentence to be something like:

"Possibly the [P+] whose [M] was registered in the [D]"

Now you could put "death" in the memo, and "December quarter 1901" as the date, and some reasonable Sort Date, and because of the plus sign you get their full name.

 

Of course, even easier is to change the sentence to be simply "[M]" and type into the memo exactly how you want the sentence to read. So you could simply have a memo of:

"Possibly the Frederick Richards whose death was registered in the December quarter 1901"

More typing, but guaranteed to produce what you want.

 

As for your comments about Witnesses, a great majority of my tags have Witnesses, especially with custom roles. I find it one of the most essential features of TMG. Like yourself, I did find many of the default sentences for Witnesses needed customization. However, I believe that creating these custom sentences and custom roles is incredibly easy and simple, thus releasing the power of this Witness feature. Using your example, I think it would be easy to create a custom role of "Godfather" for that Witness with a custom Witness sentence of something like:

"[W] was asked to be godfather of the child [P] born [D]"

Thus no implication that they were in the delivery room

 

Not sure what you find difficult here? Perhaps if you described your problems one of us users could offer suggestions?

[JohnR 0]

Thank you both for your help. On taking down A Primer for The Master Genealogist I find it bookmarked at p.104 had I gone on for another four pages I would have learned about Witnesses without troubling you.

[Terry Reigel 0]

Not a problem, John. I'm glad you found it. :-)