Introduction
When you enter a FactFacts are one of the key concepts at the heart of Family Historian; they are how you record the things that happened to, or described, each ancestor (Individual)., you’ll almost always have the option to enter a Date for the Fact.
This article explains how to do this, and answers some commonly asked questions.
Dates
The date for an eventEvents are things that happened to an Individual and Attributes are things that described them. / fact does not need to be exact; it can be entered as any one of the options below. The Date Entry Assistant in Family Historian (ƒh) can be invoked by clicking 
at the end of a date input box. This is the Date Entry Assistant window.
Date Formats
| Type | Format | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Date | 18 Jan 1891 | normal date format |
| Period | frm 18 Jan 1891 to 30 Mar 1894 | A specific period, which is inclusive, e.g., the fact to which it is attached took place over the whole period. For example, you might record that Colin Entwhistle’s OccupationAn occupation is defined in the GEDCOM standard as: ‘The kind of activity that an individual does for a job, profession, or principal activity’. was a Carpenter frm July 1917 to May 1923. |
| Date Phrase | <anything> | Any text not recognised as a valid date is classed as a date phrase. Where possible these should be avoided as date comparisons and computations cannot be done on date phrases. |
| Range Between | btw 18 Jan 1891 and 30 Mar 1894 | Signifies an event that took placeAccording to GEDCOM, a Place should hold "The jurisdictional name of the place where the event took place…" some time in the given range. For example, you might record that Colin Entwhitle was born btw 1897 and 1901. |
| Range Before | before 1 January 1891 | Signifies an event before the given date |
| Range After | after 1 January 1891 | Signifies an event took place after the given date |
| Quarter Date | Q1 Jan 1891 | Shows a date covering a three-month period. See Historical Date Formats for a detailed explanation |
Date Qualifiers
| Qualifier | Title | Use |
|---|---|---|
| (app) | Approximate | The date is not exact. (From V6 you can configure ƒh to use circa instead, using Tools > Preferences and selecting the option To use ‘circa’ for approximate dates on the General tab.) |
| (calculated) | Calculated | The date has been calculated from another event, often an age on a censusCensus records are national collections of population statistics. They usually record details about members of a household on a particular date, and are typically collected every ten years. or gravestone |
| (estimated) | Estimated | Based on an algorithm. |
Last update: 31 Jan 2021