Places - additional information

[dvs 0]

I couldn't find where this has been discussed before, so please forgive me if this is repetitive....

 

I would like to enter more information regarding places (like into the master place record). Information may include the place's history, a description of the locality, maps, pictures. This information would be available for view (or print) whenever a tag for an individual is brought up. Since I have a very large database, putting that info into a note field attached to an individual would be too much work.

 

Does anyone have any ideas on how to do this?

[Jim Byram 0]

You can record such information in the place comment field.

Master Place List / select a place record / click [Edit]

 

However, the information can only be output in the List of Places report and will be clipped after 254 characters.

[Michael Hannah 0]

As Jim notes, if you edit a place record in the Master Place List, you will find where you can add a Comment to that record, and even attach an exhibit such as an image file to the record. But as he says, these are only output as part of a List of Places report.

 

However, you asked: "This information would be available for view (or print) whenever a tag for an individual is brought up." The above fields from the Master Place list are not directly viewable from an individual's tag. A tag will only output information entered into and/or linked directly to that tag.

 

You might consider an unusual alternate method that some of us users have found helpful. You could create a "pseudo person" for each significant location where you wanted to record the place's history, a description of the locality, maps, pictures, etc. All such information could be linked to that "person" using custom descriptive tags. A "birth" tag might describe when this place name (e.g. a state or township) was formed or founded. You could have a series of dated tags describing significant historical events, and anything else you wanted assocated with this place. A report of this "person" could be quite extensive. You might also use some custom role to make this "person" a Witness to an individual's tag, such as a Witness to a household's Census tag, or a Residence tag. I even use the role variable for their "name" in the tag sentence instead of the Location variable, so that Second Site produces a link to that "person".

 

The concept of a "pseudo person" is unusual and very custom, but can be extremely useful. If you decide to do this, search the Forum for "pseudo person" or "dummy person" for many examples, and give your imagination free rein.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

[Michael Dietz 0]

As Jim and Michael say you can have the comment field be printed (displayed) with the list of places report. The problem is that report is a columnar report, not a free flowing or narrative type report where the comment can be any length. So maybe this should be a wish list item.

It would be nice with the other reports, narrative, journal, etc., to have a narrative report of the places in the report, ie., the birth, death, etc., places. This could be similar to the end-notes for sources which does handle large comment fields. An example would be to look at John Cardinal's place listing in second site. It handles text and images from the exhibit database. I have used it with text descriptions of the places many times and works fine. If somebody is interested enough in the locality to read more about it, the information is available. It does not add the comment into the body of the report but does have it in the place listing.

 

Just a thought.

(the other) Michael