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Memos in Witnessed events

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I've just started using the witness feature and have a couple of questions:

 

1) Is it possible to get all participants (i.e. principal and witnesses) on an equal level? I would like the event highlighted in both the principal and the witnesses' person view, when there is no reason for one person being "superior" to the others.

 

2) I have started to use the witnessed events for census and immigration, and previously used the memo for extra information such as age and occupation. I would like to have a memo which only applies to the principal, just like I can enter memos for each of the witnesses. If I use the tag memo it shows up with all the witnesses as well, and if I exclude it (--) then I haven't got a way to give the principal a memo. Any suggestions of how to solve this?

 

Thanks, Marianne

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1) Is it possible to get all participants (i.e. principal and witnesses) on an equal level? I would like the event highlighted in both the principal and the witnesses' person view, when there is no reason for one person being "superior" to the others.

I don't understand what you mean by some people being "superior" to others. How do you see that happening?

2) I have started to use the witnessed events for census and immigration, and previously used the memo for extra information such as age and occupation. I would like to have a memo which only applies to the principal, just like I can enter memos for each of the witnesses. If I use the tag memo it shows up with all the witnesses as well, and if I exclude it (--) then I haven't got a way to give the principal a memo. Any suggestions of how to solve this?

If the tag memo shows up for witnesses, either you have the [M] variable included in the Witnesses Sentences, or you have set the report Options to include Memos that are not in the Sentence. The solution is to take the [M] variable out of the witness sentences and use only the [WM] variable, or turn of the "memo not in sentence" option.

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I've just started using the witness feature and have a couple of questions:

 

1) Is it possible to get all participants (i.e. principal and witnesses) on an equal level? I would like the event highlighted in both the principal and the witnesses' person view, when there is no reason for one person being "superior" to the others.

 

2) I have started to use the witnessed events for census and immigration, and previously used the memo for extra information such as age and occupation. I would like to have a memo which only applies to the principal, just like I can enter memos for each of the witnesses. If I use the tag memo it shows up with all the witnesses as well, and if I exclude it (--) then I haven't got a way to give the principal a memo. Any suggestions of how to solve this?

 

Thanks, Marianne

 

1) If you enter the participants other than the Pricipal as Witnesses on the Tag Entry Screen, the event will also show on each of the witnesses Person View Screen.

 

2) To enter census information I do the following:

 

Enter date as date of census

 

Enter location

 

Select Role for Principal (HoH)

 

In memo for HoH, enter: He/She was aged? And his/her place of birth was recorded as ……. I then enter the memo information as ||-. The || places the memo as M2 to correspond with my sentence structure and the - allows control over whether or not to print the memo information in reports. To get it to print in reports, use Options>Miscellaneous>Show Excluded Data.

 

Enter other family members present as witnesses and write an appropriate Witness Memo (e.g. He/She was aged ? and his/her birthplace was recorded as …..). Again I use "-" before the sentence (without quotation marks) so I can switch it off in reports if I want.

 

Enter the citation details as required.

 

As far as Occupations recorded in the census are concerned I enter this information via an Occupation Tag, to which I do not usually attach witnesses.

 

Do have a read of Terry Reigel's tutorials - they will give you lots of ideas,

 

Les

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Of course, if you want all linked people treated the same, you could use a History event tag. In that tag there are no Principals, only Witnesses.

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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Of course, if you want all linked people treated the same, you could use a History event tag. In that tag there are no Principals, only Witnesses.

 

Hope this gives you ideas

 

Thanks Michael, this solves my first issue. Is there a way to change the "tag group" without having to re-enter all information?

 

If the tag memo shows up for witnesses, either you have the [M] variable included in the Witnesses Sentences, or you have set the report Options to include Memos that are not in the Sentence. The solution is to take the [M] variable out of the witness sentences and use only the [WM] variable, or turn of the "memo not in sentence" option.

 

 

Sorry should have made myself clearer. After reading some of your tips Terry, I may be able to express myself better ...

 

I have a family who emigrated from Scotland to Australia. The mother Flora is the principal, and her five children plus daughter-in-law are witnesses.

 

 

I have used the following sentence structures:

 

[P] <|and [PO]> immigrated <[D]> <to [L]> <[M]>

 

[W] immigrated with [P1] <and [P2]> <[D]> <to [L]> <[WM]> <[M0]>

 

 

In the descendency narrative this gives me the following sentences (1) for mother Flora, (2) for son Malcolm (correctly)

 

(1)

She immigrated on 4 October 1849 to Port Phillip, Victoria (She was an Assisted Immigrant on the 'Mahomed

Shah'. Her age was given as 57 years, and she travelled as a widow. She was a Presbyterian, could read, and

her calling was Housekeeper. On arrival she left on own accord to Geelong).

 

(2)

He immigrated with Flora MCDONALD on 4 October 1849 to Port Phillip, Victoria, He was an Assisted Immigrant

on the 'Mahomed Shah'. His age was given as 35 years. He was a Presbyterian, and his calling was

Agricultural Labourer. He could read and write and on arrival left on his own accord to Geelong.

 

In the Family Group sheet, however, the output is the following:

 

(1)

Immigratn* 4 Oct 1849 Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia (She was an Assisted Immigrant on

the 'Mahomed Shah'. Her age was given as 57 years, and she travelled as a widow. She was a Presbyterian,

could read, and her calling was Housekeeper. On arrival she left on her own accord to Geelong).

 

(2)

Immigratn: 4 Oct 1849 (w); Flora MCVICKER (20); Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia; He was

an Assisted Immigrant on the 'Mahomed Shah'. His age was given as 35 years. He was a Presbyterian, and his

calling was Agricultural Labourer. He could read and write and on arrival left on his own accord to Geelong

(She was an Assisted Immigrant on the 'Mahomed Shah'. Her age was given as 57 years, and she travelled as a

widow. She was a Presbyterian, could read, and her calling was Housekeeper. On arrival she left on her own

accord to Geelong).

 

The same is appearing in the person view of the details window. Is there a way that I configure these tags

so that only the memo relevant to the particular person appears (i.e. in this case the son Malcolm)?

 

Marianne

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Is there a way to change the "tag group" without having to re-enter all information?

No, I'm afraid not. You can change a tag from one type to another in the same group, but not between groups.

 

But I don't think using a History group tag is the best solution for you here.

 

The way to fix the problem with the Family Group sheet is to:

 

1. On the Miscellaneous tab of Options, check the "Embed Sentence [M]emo."

 

2. On the Memos tab of Options, select None for "Memos that are not included in the sentence."

 

On the Person view, I find that for Witnesses, the Witness Memo is displayed first, followed by the Tag memo. I don't see a way to disable the tag memo if you have Item Tips turned on. You could place it out of sight if you have them off.

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Marianne,

 

I agree with Terry that using a History tag is probably not what you want to do for this purpose. I just wanted to remind you of the existence of that tag type that has no Principals for when it does make sense.

 

Terry has also provided the options that will deal with your specific memo concerns.

 

I choose to do a lot of customization of TMG, and perhaps my custom Immigration tag and sentences may be of interest. I changed the sentences of this standard tag to require the Date and the arrival Location for the immigration so that if I don't enter them I get the "unknown" text. I use the Principal role “Head” for P1, and do not use P2, and the Witness role “immigree” for all others immigrating with the “Head”. I like to use role names since I choose on the Other tab of the Tag Type Definition to display roles to remind me on the Details screen of the relationship of this person to this tag. I use split memos and [M1] optionally provides the name of the Head as listed in the immigration documentation in case it is different than any Name-Var defined for this person, [M2] optionally specifies the claimed departure location, and [M3] has optional comments. Similarly for the immigree witnesses, [WM1] optionally provides the listed name of this immigree, [WM2] the listed relationship to the Head (e.g. “son”), and [WM3] has optional comments specific to this immigree. The optional listed departure location [M2] is also included in the immigree witness sentence which avoids the need for [M0] since you now have referenced the main memo.

 

Head (P1) sentence:

[P] immigrated to [L] [D].

 

immigree (W) sentence:

[W] led by [P1] immigrated to [L] [D].

 

Hope this gives you ideas,

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Thanks Terry - that solves the FGS problem. Shame about the Person view, I'll just have to indicate that the tag memo is for the principal only.

and Thanks Michael, I'll try your sentences out.

Marianne

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Marianne,

On the Person view, the witness memo (if their is one) will be listed before the Memo IF the person is a witness to that tag.

 

Like heir: John Adams PLACE She was to receive 800 acres of land.; The following is a transcription of that will. I , John Adams...

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On the Person view, the witness memo (if there is one) will be listed before the Memo IF the person is a witness to that tag.

 

Like heir: John Adams PLACE She was to receive 800 acres of land.; The following is a transcription of that will. I , John Adams...

 

Yes if the (tag) memo is giving info about the whole event that's fine, where I don't like it is when I have to use the (tag) memo for special information about the principal, because there is nowhere else to put it, like in the example below, there Age 50 ... refers to his mother.

 

Like

census: Malcolm MCDONALD, Parish of Glenshiel, Scotland Age 25, Occupation Cooper.; Age 50, Occupation Cotter.

 

Marianne

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I'm not real sure I follow you as to the problem. In your example, the mother is the person on the PV screen. You have 9 memo fields on the Principal one screen to use for the Principal. I agree it would be good if the Principals had their own WM screens, but they don't. For census it might be confusing, but on a will or deed tag, I like that I can see the full MEMO field and the WM fields for witnesses as well. I usually use the MEMO field for a transcription of a will. I use the WM field for what that particular heir received. Since I only use P1 for a will tag, I can see what the wife received as her part of the will, but I can also read the full will in her PV screen. I guess it has it good and bad points.

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