Introduction
Family Historian V6 introduced Fact WitnessesA Witness is somebody who played an important role in an event (or rarely, attribute) but were not a Principal, e.g. they could have been a bridesmaid at a wedding, rather than one of the individuals getting married. and Ancestral SourcesSource: "where information was found". This could be anything from an archive in a county records office, a book, or even a relative's recorded recollection. Citing your Sources helps to show how you reached a particular conclusion about an Individual. can optionally use them to record the Informant of a Birth or Death event. However, it is not made clear that the Informant Witness Role must be defined in Family Historian.
Ancestral Sources also offers the option to include Associated Individuals on the Further Info tab, but again it is not made clear that an equivalent Witness Role must be defined in ƒh, although in this case, unlike the Informant Witness Role, some are already defined at installation.
Birth & Death Informant
At installation, ƒh does not include an Informant Witness Role. To use Ancestral Sources to record the Informant of a Birth or Death event, one must be defined in ƒh to allow the features to operate correctly.
Without that definition, the Facts tab of the Informant just displays Birth or Death without any further details, and the Narrative Sentence has no Template to correct its wording. This is confusing as the example below shows, with the word Death being displayed in the Facts tab dated Dec 1998 for a person still living 20 years later. The Sentence text further down is correct (although the grammar has not been corrected).
Define Informant Witness Role
To define an Informant Witness Role in ƒh follow these steps:
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Use Tools > Fact Types, select the Birth or Death event, and click Edit to open a Fact Definition dialogue.
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In the Sentence TemplateSentences are used in conjunction with Fact Sets to produce Narrative Reports; their templates are highly customisable.: optionally add
. <The birth/death was registered by {role=informant}.>
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Some Witness Roles may exist but not Informant, so click Roles and then Add to open a New Role dialogue.
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Enter Role Name: as Informant.
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Enter Past Tense: as Informed.
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In the Witness Sentence Template: change a to an so it will read “… an Informant …”.
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Finally click the Create button, then Close, OK, Close.
An Informant Witness Role needs to created in ƒh for both the Birth and Death eventsEvents are things that happened to an Individual and Attributes are things that described them..
Facts Tab Format
With the above definition the Facts tab for the Informant will say Informed Birth/Death of…
That can be customised by selecting the Informant role and using the Edit and Advanced buttons to create an Override Template, e.g. To mimic the Timeline Facts that say just Birth/Death of… then use the Template:
Birth/Death of {=Relationship(%CUR~WITN>%,GetRecord(%FACT%),TEXT,1)}
{=FieldText(GetRecord(%FACT%),'INDI.NAME:FIRST')}
See the Forum thread Birth of son not recorded September 2017.
Other Considerations
Strictly speaking the Informant registration is a different event from the Birth or Death itself. It usually happens on a different Date at a different Place and Address"The address structure should be formed as it would appear on a mailing label…", according to GEDCOM; however, this is capable of a number of interpretations, and Address and Place are best considered together.. So rather than use an Informant Witness Role, it may be better to use a Custom Event where those different details can be recorded.
Associated Individuals in Ancestral Sources
The need for matching Witness Roles in ƒh also applies to all Associated Individuals in Ancestral Sources. Many Associations are installed by default in Ancestral Sources but there may not be a corresponding Witness Role in ƒh. For every Association that you wish to use (or create) in Ancestral Sources a corresponding Witness Role needs to exist in ƒh before you can use it properly.
The full list of Further Info Associated Individual Roles is as follows where those marked ** are defaults in ƒh:
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Birth ~
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Baptism ~ **Godparent, **Minister, **Priest, Rabbi
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Marriage ~ **Best man, **Bridesmaid, **Minister, **Priest, **Rabbi, **Witness
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Death ~ Mourner, Minister, Priest, Rabbi, **Witness
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Burial ~ **Mourner, **Minister, **Priest, **Rabbi, Witness, **Attender
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Cremation ~ **Mourner, **Minister, **Priest, **Rabbi, Witness, **Attender
To use Ancestral Sources properly for these other Roles, you need to create an equivalent Witness Role in ƒh.
A Witness Role needs to be created in ƒh for every Fact Type that it will be used with, so that for example, if you wish to use the Further Info Associated Individual Role of Rabbi, you would need to create a Witness Role titled Rabbi in ƒh in both the Baptism & Death Facts.
Define Witness Role
To define any Witness Role in ƒh follow these steps:
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Use Tools > Fact Types, select the relevant event, and click Edit to open a Fact Definition dialogue.
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In the Sentence Template: optionally add such as
<The ceremony was conducted by {role=minister}. >by copying the template used in other facts that have the same Role defined by default.
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Some Witness Roles may already exist, but click Roles and then Add to open a New Role dialogue.
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Enter Role Name: matching the Associated Individual option.
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Enter Past Tense: as appropriate.
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In the Witness Sentence Template: the default wording will appear as:
{individual} was a {role name} at {label} of {principal} {date} {place}
If necessary change that so it will read correctly. Mimic the template used in other facts that have the same Role defined by default.
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Click the Create button, then Close, OK, Close.
The Facts Tab Format can also be adjusted similar to Informants above.
Other Considerations
Other options are available to capture additional person/people information using Ancestral Sources and some users may prefer to use Ancestral Sources to create a Custom EventUsers of Family Historian can customize fact definitions, or create their own fact definitions to more closely match they way they want to work./Attribute, an Associated Person, or a simple Note by using the Ancestral Sources Edit… Associated Individual Types dialogue.