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Narative Report Sentence Structure

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A question about how sentence structure affects the resulting sentence in an Individual Narrative Report (Gold Edition, version 9.05).

I use the narrative reports to generate individual information from the database for research papers I am writing for the family.  I have modified the BIRTH tag sentence structure (based on some good advice I found on this forum) to include the parents name in the sentence:

[P] [PAR] was born <[D]> <[L]>

The resulting sentence, for this particular individual comes out as "Charles Richard Skinnerdorfer, son of Franklin Melburn Hagerdorfer and Mary N. Fraleydorfer, was born on 1 January 3000."

The surnames are different because this is a foster son, but I haven't really had a whole lot of success getting this to generate as "foster son."  The best I have come up with is :

[P] foster [PAR] was born <[D]> <[L]>

 The sentence generated is "Charles Richard Skinnerdorfer foster, son of Franklin Melburn Hagerdorfer and Mary N. Fraleydorfer, was born on 1 January 3000."  Which is not quite right. 

I was wondering if anyone would have any ideas on how to get this to generate as ", foster son" instead of "foster, son"

 

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Sorry, that PAR variable will always output a leading and trailing comma.  The versions of the variables MOTH or FATH produce only the name. However, while you can customize sentences using MOTH and FATH to avoid the automated relationship and commas, the PAR variable automates the handling of all the cases of only one or both parents defined. Notice that all versions of the parent variables output only the primary full names. To obtain other versions of the names Witness roles must be used, which would also have the problem of cases of only one or both parents defined.

Thus the only way I know to reliably do what you want is to have the sentence template only the [M] variable and manually type in the output appropriate for that person directly in the memo, possibly using Witnesses.

Hope this gives you ideas,

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As a second comment, if these are Foster parents, your use of the PAR variable suggests that you have assigned them as this child's Primary parents.  Since TMG always assumes that Primary parents are the genetic biological parents this can lead to problems.  I would not choose to do this.

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It sounds like this is a one-time occurrence. If so, I'd just create local Sentence like:

[P], foster son of [FATH] and [MOTH], was born <[D]> <[L]>

If you actually encounter it enough you could create a Role for that in Birth Tag Type. If it every occurs in your database when only one parent is entered you could create a Role for that too, with a Sentence like:

[P], foster son of <[FATH]><[MOTH]>, was born <[D]> <[L]>

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Thanks for the ideas, I think they will be very helpful.  I would like to add a follow-on question to Mr. Hannah's second comment, if I might.

I have assigned the foster parent's as this child's primary parents, using the Foster Parents tags, so that he will show up on the list of children for Family Group Sheets and similar reports.  His is kind of an unusual situation and I didn't want him to get lost.

Charles, wasn't really a foster son, at least not legally.  In the mid1920s he was kind of informally "adopted" by this family because he was abandoned by his own.  He lived with them, went to school with their children, and was recorded in the census as part of the family (in one census with the family surname, instead of his own).  I didn't want him to get lost, so I have listed him as a foster child.    Maybe there is a better way of accomplishing this?

 

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I would do as you have, then add a FamilySection Note tag (for Second Site) and a NarrativeChildren tag (for TMG reports) that explains he was a foster child (or whatever language you like). This will leave him with their own children in the list of children for the parents in narrative output, but correctly note his status. I'd add other tags to him identifying his birth parents and the circumstances. 

Note that using the foster child relationship tags has no useful effect except when you are looking at him or the parents in TMG. In all other respects you might as well use the standard parent/child tags. You need to create other tags, such as I suggested above, to explain the relationship in any output. Note that my suggestions offer no help in Family Group Sheets for charts, but I never use them so have no suggestions for them.

Michael has dealt with adoption on like issues more than I have, so will probably have other suggestions on how to deal with this.

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Since my main output is Second Site and has settings to display non-Primary parents of a child, I use the Foster relationship tag type but do not set these parents as Primary.  Then I also create a custom NarrativeChildren tag for these parents and link the Foster child as a Witness to that tag with a custom sentence template  (with separate parts for TMG and SecondSite output) so that the family list of children makes it clear which are biological and which foster children. (I choose to use the one NarrativeChildren tag type with an appropriate complex custom template rather then two tag types so I only have to create/use one type of tag for this.)

This way one will see the foster parents listed in the child's SS page as foster parents, and the child listed in a parent's SS page as a foster child.

I only assign biological parents as Primary, as even for foster children I want to link them if I can find them.

Quote

In the mid1920s he was kind of informally "adopted" by this family because he was abandoned by his own.

I would include information about this situation in custom "adoption" event tags which link the child to both sets of parents so this information is not lost.

I am still adding notes to the "Adoption" section of my on-line TMG book, especially dealing with the NarrativeChildren tag and its custom templates, but you might look at what I have currently described as ways to record such events.

https://www.mjh-nm.net/TAGCUSTM.HTML#Adoption

Hope this gives you ideas,

Michael

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Thanks for all the ideas; I adopted to suggestion for the changed sentence structure and the additional note explaining the circumstances ideas.  It works exactly as needed.  FYI, I generate these reports (primarily the narrative report and family group sheet report) as a means of getting database information into a word document.  I then organize it into a research paper (such as the one I have been working on about how my grandparents met), add photographs and additional notes (e.g. family relationships, historical notes, etc). and then email the document to my daughter in Colorado (I am in Kansas).  We pass the draft back and forth by email, writing and editing until we get to a final form).  Most recently we completed a family history on the Bolzau family of Arizona.  Too bad, TMG is no longer supported, it is a great program, and incredibly versatile.  Unfortunately, it requires some effort to learn all the stuff it can do.  Thanks for the help.

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