* Adding a "remembrance" note about a person

[KArthur]

I am just learning to use Family Historian 7. I brought my data over from TMG The Master Genealogist. So far, I am liking FH much better.

I am trying to figure out where/how would be the best place to enter a first hand "remembrance" about a person. I have some notes that people have told me about something a person did or said or maybe something peculiar about the way they would act. I could enter this as a note on the persons main tab, but I thought there might be a better way that I could tie it back to the person that gave me the information.

Thanks.
Kirk

[KFN]

First of all I would consider the “remembrance” as a source, just like a letter or other authored document.

As a source, it can be linked to the person (or persons) it discusses. I would then scan a copy of the document and attach it to either the source or the facts that it discusses.

You can also extract specific words or sentences out of the document and add them as text to facts, this way the text can be added to reports and books.

[BobWard]

I created a custom "Biography" Fact for Family Historian. I then add that Fact to everyone in my FH database. Once you create and open that Fact, you can write anything that you want about that person.

As KFN states, you can also attach any scanned copies of notes, letters, etc. to the Biography fact as Source documents. You can make written reference to those Source documents in the text that you add to the Biography.

[Mark1834]

Kirk also asked about linking the information back to the original author. One possibility is to create a link to the originator in the note text (assuming they are in your FH project). It won’t show up in the originator’s information, but clicking on the link will take you directly to their record.

[Jean001]

For any piece of information that I wish to enter in FH I first create a Source Record.

In this instance I would record the information, a note about the person who gave me the information, and who I am (who knows who may inherit my project in the future), the date when I was given that information, and, possibly, the occasion (e.g. during a family gathering, wedding, funeral etc.). I always record in the Source Note the date when I create the Source Record.

There is a Physical Description Fact Type (Attribute) in the Standard Fact Set. Instead, I have created a Custom Fact 'Description' in which I include physical descriptions and comments on 'character' etc. (sometimes found in newspaper reports).

If the person who gave you the information is also in your FH Project I would probably add that person as a Witness to the Fact.

[KFN]

The standard Source-Record has an Author field. Because the person that created the information (the remembrance) they are also the author, so their name would go there.

When I ask people in an email, letter or in person about their family, the replay becomes the physical source document, and the responder becomes the author. If I (or someone else) took notes while interviewing that person, the interviewed person is still the author, but I note in the source who did the interview.

So the source will somehow say, “A letter from John Doe” or “An interview of John Doe by KFN”. All of this can be done with a basic Source.

[KArthur]

I created a custom "Biography" Fact for Family Historian. I then add that Fact to everyone in my FH database. Once you create and open that Fact, you can write anything that you want about that person.

As KFN states, you can also attach any scanned copies of notes, letters, etc. to the Biography fact as Source documents. You can make written reference to those Source documents in the text that you add to the Biography.

Bob,
Thanks for the tip for creating the "Fact". I just didn't know what event to put my "remembrance" under. I have not learned enough about sentence structure yet. For your Biography" fact, what is your sentence structure for that?

This is how mine is. Did you just leave it the "Default"?

[AdrianBruce]

Can I suggest that your Biography fact is very similar to my "Dated note" fact? The important fact for your Biography fact is what goes in the Note, I suggest - that's exactly what my "Dated note" is intended to be - just a Note that appears amongst the other facts (I don't think it was my idea, by the way!). This is the Fact Definition with its sentence...

Screenshot 2024-02-29 120019.jpg (43.95 KiB) Viewed 576 times

This is an Event because I have no need for a value - everything important goes in the Note.

There's no Place, Age, or Address - again, everything important goes in the Note.

The sentence is simply <para>{note}. The first part prints the note after a new paragraph. The {note} prints the whole content of the note for this fact - so everything you want to print needs to be in there.

You could do something virtually identical for your Biography fact.

[BobWard]

Kirk,
I don't use the computer generated sentence templates in Family Historian. I write all text from scratch in my own words, using my preferred sentence and paragraph formatting. That gives me complete control over how my output looks and avoids awkward wording and sentence formatting that the templates often produce.

I use the Individual Summary Report (ISR) option to publish my output. I find that format to be very concise and presents information in chronological order. Plus, it nicely accommodates my preference to write all my own text about every individual in my database.

Here is what my custom Biography fact definition looks like.

[tatewise]

When using the Individual Summary Report (ISR) option the Sentence Template definition is irrelevant.
The fact local Note text will be interleaved with the other Event/Attribute fact details.
Bob, perhaps you've customised the ISR to only include a small subset of Event/Attribute facts including Biography.

The Sentence Template only applies to Narrative Reports which is what I think the others are discussing.

[BobWard]

Mike,
I was just responding to Kirk's question to me which was: For your Biography" fact, what is your sentence structure for that? This is how mine is. Did you just leave it the "Default"?

I just wanted to clarify to him that I do not use the FH generated sentence structure templates, and, in doing so, I found the ISR format works best for me to accommodate all the Notes that I write for each Fact or Attribute in a person's profile.

As far as I can recall, I have never made any customizations to the ISR format that would exclude any Facts or Attributes in a person's profile. Everything that I have ever entered for any individual always gets printed out when using the ISR option. It has always worked perfectly for me, really love the output that it provides.

[KArthur]

Thanks Bob for the clarification on the sentence structure. Looks like you and AdrianBruce have the same idea about how to do this.

Kirk

[tatewise]

Kirk, for further clarification, Bob states that he does not use the Sentence Templates.
So it is pure chance that his use of {note} is similar to Adrian's.