* Recording various facts with linked media

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TimM
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Recording various facts with linked media

Post by TimM »

How would you record the following in FH? -

1. A manufacturing business owned and run by father and sons for which I have photos and an index (pdf) of archived business records.

2. Photos of a church window presented by an ancestor in memory of their siblings.

3. Lengthy documents (over 40 pages) in MS word and pdf written by father and son about the life and times of themselves and many other family members and probable immigrant origins.

4. Family heirlooms which appear in various photos where the family lived.

Tim


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tatewise
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Recording various facts with linked media

Post by tatewise »

Tim, since you have been an FHUG member for many years, I assume you are familiar with the basics of creating Source Records and using Citations to link them to Facts on the Facts tab of the Individual Property Box.

There are several Knowledge Base articles on the subject:
Adding Multimedia
Using Sources

I would create a Source Record for each document (or closely related set of documents).
Document media in any format can be linked to the Source Record via the Multimedia tab.
However, you need to consider how these documents will be displayed.
Will they only be inspected on the PC within FH?
Will they need to appear in published Reports, or Books, or Webpages, CD or DVD?
Some media formats will not appear in some of these published formats.

Then either use existing Standard Facts or create Custom Facts considering whether they need to be Events or Attributes.
Add each Fact to the appropriate Individual and cite the Source Record.
This technique ensures that each Fact has a traceable Source as supporting evidence or amplification, and that traceability is included in Reports, etc.

Alternatively, Multimedia can be linked directly to the Facts, but usually appear in a single group near the top of Reports, and thus are not associated with any particular Fact.
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TimM
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Recording various facts with linked media

Post by TimM »

Thanks Mike for that.

It’s not sources I have trouble with, it’s when you get oddball stuff to enter. I scratch my head every time trying to categorize the information. Should it be entered as an event or attribute, or even a note! Then I try to see if there’s a standard fact which might suit, if not then create one, but what to call it?
I suppose the easy option is to have an attribute and/or event called ‘Miscellaneous’, to cover all those odd ones. I’ve never been quite sure what’s the best method, so I thought it’s about time I’d ask to see what other people do.
And as you asked,I usually print out reports.

Tim
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LornaCraig
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Recording various facts with linked media

Post by LornaCraig »

Hi Tim,

I have a case similar to your item no.1.  Rather than create a custom fact I used the standard Occupation fact for each individual (the father and each of the sons), entering the occupation as 'Proprietor of XXX business'.  In the note field for the occupation I recorded that it was a family business run by the father and sons, and added very brief details of the date(s) each individual was involved.  The Occupation event is linked to a Source record called 'XXX Family Business'. The Source text contains more details and the photos and any other documentation are linked to the Source Record via the Multimedia tab.

Your items 2, 3 and 4 may be best handled by Note Records which can then be linked to as many individual members of the family as you like.  The photos of the church window and the heirlooms could be linked to Sources for their respective Note Records. In the case of the documents for item no. 3, the MS text could be copied and pasted into the Note Record, making it easy to display the text in reports if you want to. But you might also want to link the PDF versions to a Source for the Note Record, particulary if these include images of original handwriting.

These are just suggestions but the beauty of FH is that it is flexible enough to approach things in a variety of ways.
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tatewise
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Recording various facts with linked media

Post by tatewise »

Tim said
I usually print out reports.
Therefore, if you want Multimedia to appear in those Reports they must be in one of the supported photo image file formats such as JPG or PNG.
See FH Help > Family Historian Help > Using Family Historian > How to ... > Pictures and Other Multimedia > Add a Picture for an Individual for details.
So you may want to convert some of your PDF files to PNG format.
See FHUG Downloads ~ Utility ~ IrfanView for free file conversion capabilities.

Tim said
It’s not sources I have trouble with, it’s when you get oddball stuff to enter.
Don't think of Sources as just BMD & Census Documents.
Think of them as evidence or details supporting any Facts, but give each kind a different Source Type such as Occupation, Military, Biography, Possession, etc.
With reference to your earlier numbered list:

1. Add standard Occupation and maybe custom Earnings or other Attributes to the Father & Sons, and enter Date Period, Place & Address details evidenced by the cited Occupation Source(s).

2. Add a custom Memorial Attribute to the ancestor and siblings citing the Church Window Source.

3. There are many options here. You can add Whole Record citations of a Biography Source to every Individual mentioned. Add a specific Fact for each significant Fact in the Biography, such as BMD Events, Education, Occupation, Residence, etc. If necessary, use the Citation (not Source Record) fields Where within Source and Text From Source to clarify where the Fact appears in the Biography Source.

4. Add a standard Possessions Attribute to each person who has owned the heirloom, perhaps with Date Period, Place & Address details associated with the cited Heirloom Source.

It is advisable to use a Source and Multimedia record naming convention to help organise your data.
The How do you organise sources on your PC thread has lots of suggestions.
As your Sources grow you may want to rearrange the Source Type names via the Tools > Work with Data > Source Types options.
You may want to use Keywords to classify the Multimedia, and organise the files into logical Media sub-folders.

Lorna said
Items 2, 3 and 4 may be best handled by Note Records.
I believe one snag is that Note Records are NOT as well supported in Reports as Source Records, so experiment before committing to them.
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