Being a relatively new user of FH, most of my initial effort was to migrate data from another program and sort out how it appears and can be queried. Now I'm more in data entry mode I've found the controlled list of Places (ie Place Records) very powerful, and have started to use it in many Attributes and Events, whereas I only ever used it in the Residence field in the past. To take an example, in the following consider that all I know about John Smith is that he became an apprentice bricklayer in London in 1799, so I entered London in OCCU.PLAC (actually as ",,LND, ENG") and did not enter a Residence. I now realise that I have a choice between two alternative ways forward:
1 Keep using the Place field in Attributes and Events. If I do this then when I look at John Smith's Property Box on the Main tab the Residence field will be blank, so I would have to dig deeper to discover that he had an association with London. This is not ideal, but at least I can still find him using a Query for Londoners, by making sure the Query looks for London not just in the RESI.PLAC field but also in OCCU.PLAC (and other *.PLAC fields).
2 Change the way I enter such data, for example by putting "apprentice bricklayer" in OCCU and London in RESI.PLAC, leaving OCCU.PLAC blank.
I'm inclined towards option 2. Any opinions about these options or thoughts about other ways forward would be very welcome,
Kim
* Using and displaying Places
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- Diamond
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- LornaCraig
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Re: Using and displaying Places
In the example you give, the man who was apprenticed in London would have lived near his work so it's safe to record London as his residence. But bear in mind that the place where someone carries out their occupation is not always the place where they live. This is less of a problem with historical records but in more recent times it is quite common.
Similarly you can't always assume that someone's usual residence was where they appeared in a census on a particular date. They might have been a travelling salesman, or visiting relatives.
Your choice of recording method might be influenced by your preferred method of displaying your data. If you use narrative reports, for example, the narrative can become very repetitive if you record a residence event for someone every time you find evidence of their location, if they lived most of their life in the same place. In a case like this you can use a variant of your second method, using a single residence event with a date range, citing all the sources which support it throughout the period. So you could have multiple occupation, censuses, children's baptisms, etc as separate events but a single residence event.
Similarly you can't always assume that someone's usual residence was where they appeared in a census on a particular date. They might have been a travelling salesman, or visiting relatives.
Your choice of recording method might be influenced by your preferred method of displaying your data. If you use narrative reports, for example, the narrative can become very repetitive if you record a residence event for someone every time you find evidence of their location, if they lived most of their life in the same place. In a case like this you can use a variant of your second method, using a single residence event with a date range, citing all the sources which support it throughout the period. So you could have multiple occupation, censuses, children's baptisms, etc as separate events but a single residence event.
Lorna
- tatewise
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Re: Using and displaying Places
Kim, you mention viewing the Residence and other facts on the Main tab of the Property Box.
You must have customised Residence into the Main tab as it is not shown by default.
Anyway, the Main tab can only show a summary of a handful of facts, so is unlikely to show all places where a person lived.
Typically only one or two Occupation or Residence facts can be shown in the Main tab without it getting too large in conjunction with the usual BMD facts. So for someone who moves about you won't get an indication of where they lived.
The Facts tab gives a better view of the Places involved over a person's lifetime.
Or you could use the Map Window to Map Places for a selected person.
As you say, you can use Queries, and as Lorna says, use Reports to give Place details.
Typically, every fact should have a Place and maybe an Address especially as in some eras people were very mobile.
Before committing to a Place and Address strategy, take a look at glossary:places|> Places and Addresses including the Forum Posts on Places and Addresses.
You must have customised Residence into the Main tab as it is not shown by default.
Anyway, the Main tab can only show a summary of a handful of facts, so is unlikely to show all places where a person lived.
Typically only one or two Occupation or Residence facts can be shown in the Main tab without it getting too large in conjunction with the usual BMD facts. So for someone who moves about you won't get an indication of where they lived.
The Facts tab gives a better view of the Places involved over a person's lifetime.
Or you could use the Map Window to Map Places for a selected person.
As you say, you can use Queries, and as Lorna says, use Reports to give Place details.
Typically, every fact should have a Place and maybe an Address especially as in some eras people were very mobile.
Before committing to a Place and Address strategy, take a look at glossary:places|> Places and Addresses including the Forum Posts on Places and Addresses.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
- LornaCraig
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Re: Using and displaying Places
By the way, you don't need to write your own query for this. In Tools>Work with Data>Places select the place you are interested in and click Where Used. The results will be displayed in the Query window. Double clicking on the place in one of the rows in the result set will open the facts tab of the Property box for the relevant record with the focus on the event in question.I can still find him using a Query for Londoners, by making sure the Query looks for London not just in the RESI.PLAC field but also in OCCU.PLAC (and other *.PLAC fields).
Lorna
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Re: Using and displaying Places
There is also ready made Standard Query > Events Near Place.
Is your existing custom Query a Fact Type Query?
If it were, then by filtering on a Place it would list every person and every fact at that Place.
You can get an illustration by running View > Standard Query > All Facts.
Then click on the Place column header to sort into order and group by Place name.
Is your existing custom Query a Fact Type Query?
If it were, then by filtering on a Place it would list every person and every fact at that Place.
You can get an illustration by running View > Standard Query > All Facts.
Then click on the Place column header to sort into order and group by Place name.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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- Diamond
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Re: Using and displaying Places
Thanks to both of you for your thoughtful advice. I have just discovered Fact Queries and will look further into these. I will also use expressions to condense *.PLAC entries into a single column for display in Query results (I'm especially thinking of the case where there is only one place associated with a person, rather than the people who have 10-30 places). Also I'll look into use of expressions in a tab header. Then having done these things and lived with it for a bit, I will make my decisions,
Thanks again,
Kim
Thanks again,
Kim