* Census entry with new names?

[E Wilcock]

Although I was urged from the start to use AS for data entry from a census, I have not done so in my place study.
Now for the first time working in fh on my own family tree, I decided to use AS for American census entry. It is very convenient to have all the fields provided.
But I immediately ran into the complication.
Is there a way of entering in AS a head of household / father who is not already an indvidual in fh, and if so, how does one do that?

I had already entered address and other data in the form, and I did not want to lose that - but I have read that AS is designed for first time entry of data, a work round (applying the entry to someone already on the tree) seemed ruled out because one cannot go back and edit previous entries.

By going back to fh and entering the head of household there, I ended up with two versions of fh open and really hadnt a clue what I was doing.
So I would appreciate instruction please.

In case anyone wonders why I had an entirely new family to enter - it is a potential birth family for a bride of that surname who married in that town. But it later occurred to me that when I enter households in a place study, the names are almost always entirely new.

[jbtapscott]

In AS, the sixth icon in from the left showing the upper half of a person and a blue "plus" sign provides the opportunity to add a person who is not already in FH. You can also use the menu option Edit -> Add Unrelated Individual.

[Valkrider]

Building on Brent's reply:

You can use AS to create a census entry from scratch without any of them being in your Family Historian Project.

Add an unrelated individual as per Brent's reply. Then on the right hand side of the AS window add the Spouse, Children etc just by clicking on the appropriate link.

I would have thought this way of working is even more appropriate for your Place Study.

[tatewise]

Did you work through the ancestralsources:ancestral_sources_tutorial_entering_census_facts|> Ancestral Sources Tutorial ~ Enter Census Facts?
In ancestralsources:tutorial:census:populate_the_census_grid|> Ancestral Sources Tutorial ~ Enter Census ~ (3) Populate the Census Grid it illustrates adding daughter Martha who does not yet exist in the database.

There is a similar example in ancestralsources:tutorial:baptism:enter_baptism_information|> Ancestral Sources Tutorial ~ Enter Baptism ~ (1) Enter Baptism Information to add the parents who are not in the database.

Also in ancestralsources:ancestral_sources_tutorial_working_with_tools|> Ancestral Sources Tutorial ~ Working With Tools there is ancestralsources:tutorial:tools:add_unrelated_individual|> Ancestral Sources Tutorial ~ Working With Tools ~ (1) Unrelated Individuals that illustrates adding a new unrelated individual.

May I suggest you undertake all those tutorials to explore the full potential of AS.

With software products in general, I adopt the stance of "I want to do such & such, and surely others have wanted to do the same, so this software product almost certainly will support that feature, and I just have to search its options to find what I want."

[E Wilcock]

My misundersrtanding. Yes I have regularly added people (additional chldren) related to the head of household.

I wrongly thought that the unrelated individual button was to use for servants etc who had no relationship anyone else in the household.
I am sorry to have been so stupid - but there you go.

To people who asked about the place studies for which I read the census. If I had been more experienced with fh, I might have used AS, but in the more complex census records, information in AS is entered to a note, whereas I set up a number of fields - attributes and events in fh which I entered directly.

Indeed I fear I may have lost data by not realising how much of the American data was lost when I entered via AS. I thought it was in a note field somewhere. I checked to create a Race attribute so wrongly assumed colour would go into that.

But where should one select to have the other information (from the pale columns) noted? There is an option to have it noted with the citation, I think. But there are so many options, I dont see where to do that,

[tatewise]

No data should have been 'lost' when entered via AS.

Everything that is entered into the columns (whether pale or not) should be in the Source record in the Text From Source transcript, providing you use the Auto Text option below the AS grid. But if you do not use that option then yes, it will be lost.

The pale columns are Generic and only save their data via Auto Text in the Text From Source field.
Every Generic column has an option to save it as a local Note on the Census Event or associated Occupation Attribute.
To change that option use Census > Census Templates to open the Census Template Editor.
Choose the Country (USA) and Year.
Then for example, select the Color or race column on the left.
In the centre it says it is Generic and the Recording: option allows the append to local Note to be chosen.
Repeat that for any other Generic columns.
Finally Save at the bottom.
That must be repeated for each census Year that needs to be customised.

BTW: Setting the Tools > Options > Census settings > Nationality tick option only applies to dark columns headed Nationality to create a Nationality fact. There is no Race attribute setting.

[E Wilcock]

Thank you Mike - I have lost some data (not vital) as I havent been clicking the Auto button till today. When thanks to you, I suddenly realised.

In due course, I will work through every USA template, as you suggest.

[tatewise]

As I said earlier, have you worked through the AS tutorials to gain an appreciation of what data goes where, and the importance of Auto Text?