* Custom Attribute

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Langbard
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Custom Attribute

Post by Langbard »

I've created a custom attribute for census residence which I created by copying the settings from standard Residence and then amended as needed. However there is an additional field appearing which doesn't appear on Residence which I would like to remove. Please see attached image.
Annotation 2020-02-26 112228.png
Annotation 2020-02-26 112228.png (12.35 KiB) Viewed 4356 times
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Langbard
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by Langbard »

By experimenting I've found that this field is the {value} field - question is can I remove it from the dialog
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tatewise
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by tatewise »

Every Attribute has a Value {value} field, except for the standard Residence attribute, which is an anomaly.

So the only way to eliminate that Value {value} field is to start again from scratch.
Delete all those Census Residence entries (probably only a few) and the Custom Attribute definition.
Then create a Custom Event instead.

However, I question the purpose of that Census Residence fact.
Usually, when capturing Census details it is advisable to use the standard Census Event.
That holds the Place & Address recorded in the Census and may not be the place of residence.
There are many other benefits in using the standard Census Event.
See how_to:recording_census_records|> Recording from a Census Record.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Langbard
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by Langbard »

Thanks for the reply. Not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it's what I do. I think it started because of the way the import from TMG worked when I first moved to FH as I seem to remember that it created Census(family) events which I wasn't fond of.

1) I don't use witnesses on the census event because I don't think the people aren't witnessing anything.
2) Instead I add a residence attribute for the principal and add the others as resident roles - I use the date of the census for this attribute (I have a custom script that checks that each census event has an associated residence attribute)
3) I created a custom residence attribute so that the report sentence says, for example "In the 1861 census she lived at ..."
4) I've modified the census report sentence, for example "She was aged 27 in the 1861 census"
5) For the occupation at the time of the census I just use the year and not the full date (an assumption that they weren't just doing the job for one day!)

On a slightly related subject why does the census event (7 Apr 1861), the occupation (1861), and the residence attribute (7 Apr 1861) appear in that order in the properties box and printed reports?
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tatewise
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by tatewise »

There is a Migrate Census Family to Individual Events Plugin that handles those TMG Census (family) facts.
  1. I don't follow your logic here, because Residence attributes don't have people as witnesses either.
  2. Fact Witness is unfortunate terminology. They are not necessarily a formal witness.
    It is just a way of assigning Roles to different people involved in an Event.
  3. Quite often single people appear in a household as Servant, Visitor, Lodger, etc. How do you deal with them?
  4. The Facts tab is not sure what specific date to give to the Occupation, so it does not alter their order.
    Use the black Move Up/Down arrows to alter their order, and if that does not 'stick' use the All tab and the up/down arrows top right to do the same.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Langbard
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by Langbard »

I don't follow your logic here, because Residence attributes don't have people as witnesses either.
I remember getting very confused about what to do with the census(family) facts. I think the conversion from TMG just added the witnesses as notes and I didn't like that, and there was some discussion about witnesses for census not being the right way to go. But I guess things changed and certainly the number of useful plugins has increased. At some point I might try writing a script that moves all my Residence witnesses back into the Census fact ;)

Thanks for the tip about the occupation date.
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Langbard
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by Langbard »

Tatewise in the end I took your advice about using witnesses. I created a plugin that moved all the witnesses of residences (whose date matched exactly that of a census) back into the census witnesses with a role of Member of Household. I also added the principal in with a role of Head of Household.
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tatewise
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Re: Custom Attribute

Post by tatewise »

I advise you to check the impact of such Census event Fact Witnesses in various Reports, including Narrative Reports.

Also, do all those people who share the same household in the Census each have their own Census Event or not?
See how_to:recording_census_records|> Recording from a Census Record for the pros and cons, which I referred to in my first reply.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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