Using an Existing Fact<\/h2><\/summary>Before creating anything new, ask which fact the relationship naturally belongs to. Often there is one already:<\/p>\n
\n- Godparent<\/strong>: add the godparents to the Baptism fact with the role of godparent, which is already defined.<\/li>\n
- Employer or business partner<\/strong>: add a role such as Employer<\/em> to the Occupation fact, and attach the person to it.<\/li>\n
- Teacher<\/strong>: add a Teacher<\/em> role to the Education fact. For a pupil, turn it round: give the pupil the Education fact and add the teacher to it.<\/li>\n
- Lived together<\/strong>: add everyone to a Residence fact with the role Resident<\/em>, and reports will list them as living together.<\/li>\n
- Neighbour<\/strong>: add a Neighbour<\/em> role to Residence, or create your own fact (see below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Witnesses are added in the Witnesses Window: select the fact on the Facts tab of the Property Box and click the Witnesses button. New roles are added from the fact’s definition in the Fact Types dialog, and each needs a sentence template so that narrative reports can describe the person. See Witnesses Window<\/a> and Edit Role Dialog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\nFriends<\/h2><\/summary>Version 8 has two facts made for friendship.<\/p>\n![\"Add](\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\")
<\/a>Add People with Roles dialog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFriend List<\/strong> records one person’s friends. Add it to that person and you are asked for the friends straight away. A report on the person says they were “a friend of” each of them; a report on one of the friends mentions only the person whose list it is, not the rest of the list.<\/p>\nFriendship Group<\/strong> records a set of people who were all friends of one another. Add it to any one of them (it does not matter which); that person is put in the group automatically, and you are asked for the others. Reports on every member then say they were “friends with” all the rest.<\/p>\nFor just two people, either will do.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n
Enslavement<\/h2><\/summary>The Enslavement<\/strong> fact records one or more people who were enslaved together, and optionally the person or people who enslaved them, with the roles Enslaved Person<\/em> and Enslaver<\/em>. Add it to one of the enslaved people; they are included automatically, and you are asked for the rest. A whole family can be recorded with a single fact.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\nCreating Your Own Relationship Facts<\/h2><\/summary>If nothing fits, create a custom fact in the Fact Types dialog and give it the roles you need. A relationship can be one-to-one (like a marriage), one-to-many (a teacher and pupils) or many-to-many (a group of neighbours), and the people in it can share a role or have different ones.<\/p>\n
Two options on the role, in the Edit Role – Advanced Features dialog, make a custom fact behave like the built-in ones:<\/p>\n
\n- Prompt to Add on Create<\/em> asks for the people with that role as soon as the fact is added.<\/li>\n
- Default Role for Principal<\/em> gives the person the fact is added to that role automatically, as Friendship Group does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For a group with no obvious principal, such as neighbours who were all neighbours of one another, model the fact on Friendship Group and attach it to any one of them. See Edit Role – Advanced Features<\/a> and Add People with Roles Dialog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\nFinding Relationships Later<\/h2><\/summary>The Witness query type, new in Version 8, lists one row per person per role, which makes it easy to find every friend, enslaver or employer in a project. See An Overview of Queries in Version 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n","protected":false},"template":"","fh_version":[826],"skill_level":[17],"topic":[201,85],"class_list":["post-13236","kb_article","type-kb_article","status-publish","hentry","fh_version-v8","skill_level-intermediate","topic-facts","topic-family-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article\/13236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb_article"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fh_version","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fh_version?post=13236"},{"taxonomy":"skill_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/skill_level?post=13236"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=13236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Before creating anything new, ask which fact the relationship naturally belongs to. Often there is one already:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Godparent<\/strong>: add the godparents to the Baptism fact with the role of godparent, which is already defined.<\/li>\n
- Employer or business partner<\/strong>: add a role such as Employer<\/em> to the Occupation fact, and attach the person to it.<\/li>\n
- Teacher<\/strong>: add a Teacher<\/em> role to the Education fact. For a pupil, turn it round: give the pupil the Education fact and add the teacher to it.<\/li>\n
- Lived together<\/strong>: add everyone to a Residence fact with the role Resident<\/em>, and reports will list them as living together.<\/li>\n
- Neighbour<\/strong>: add a Neighbour<\/em> role to Residence, or create your own fact (see below).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Witnesses are added in the Witnesses Window: select the fact on the Facts tab of the Property Box and click the Witnesses button. New roles are added from the fact’s definition in the Fact Types dialog, and each needs a sentence template so that narrative reports can describe the person. See Witnesses Window<\/a> and Edit Role Dialog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n
Friends<\/h2><\/summary>
Version 8 has two facts made for friendship.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Add People with Roles dialog<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Friend List<\/strong> records one person’s friends. Add it to that person and you are asked for the friends straight away. A report on the person says they were “a friend of” each of them; a report on one of the friends mentions only the person whose list it is, not the rest of the list.<\/p>\n
Friendship Group<\/strong> records a set of people who were all friends of one another. Add it to any one of them (it does not matter which); that person is put in the group automatically, and you are asked for the others. Reports on every member then say they were “friends with” all the rest.<\/p>\n
For just two people, either will do.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n
Enslavement<\/h2><\/summary>
The Enslavement<\/strong> fact records one or more people who were enslaved together, and optionally the person or people who enslaved them, with the roles Enslaved Person<\/em> and Enslaver<\/em>. Add it to one of the enslaved people; they are included automatically, and you are asked for the rest. A whole family can be recorded with a single fact.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n
Creating Your Own Relationship Facts<\/h2><\/summary>
If nothing fits, create a custom fact in the Fact Types dialog and give it the roles you need. A relationship can be one-to-one (like a marriage), one-to-many (a teacher and pupils) or many-to-many (a group of neighbours), and the people in it can share a role or have different ones.<\/p>\n
Two options on the role, in the Edit Role – Advanced Features dialog, make a custom fact behave like the built-in ones:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Prompt to Add on Create<\/em> asks for the people with that role as soon as the fact is added.<\/li>\n
- Default Role for Principal<\/em> gives the person the fact is added to that role automatically, as Friendship Group does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For a group with no obvious principal, such as neighbours who were all neighbours of one another, model the fact on Friendship Group and attach it to any one of them. See Edit Role – Advanced Features<\/a> and Add People with Roles Dialog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n
Finding Relationships Later<\/h2><\/summary>
The Witness query type, new in Version 8, lists one row per person per role, which makes it easy to find every friend, enslaver or employer in a project. See An Overview of Queries in Version 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/details><\/div>\n","protected":false},"template":"","fh_version":[826],"skill_level":[17],"topic":[201,85],"class_list":["post-13236","kb_article","type-kb_article","status-publish","hentry","fh_version-v8","skill_level-intermediate","topic-facts","topic-family-relationships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article\/13236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kb_article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/kb_article"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"fh_version","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fh_version?post=13236"},{"taxonomy":"skill_level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/skill_level?post=13236"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fhug.org.uk\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=13236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Default Role for Principal<\/em> gives the person the fact is added to that role automatically, as Friendship Group does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- Employer or business partner<\/strong>: add a role such as Employer<\/em> to the Occupation fact, and attach the person to it.<\/li>\n
![\"Add](\"\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/fh8-add-people-with-roles-768x892.png\")
<\/a>