Use of "Witness" feature in Genealogy Software?

[Andy Donaldson]

Hi,

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

As I am quite new to all this can somebody explain how best to use the
witness feature (in either general terms or in TMG speak) and
particularly how it can be used to easily group and show all the
people in a household on a census return?

Thanks for your time.

Andy Donaldson
eMail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.stamp.demon.co.uk

[f/f george]

One option in TMG is to use the Census tag and put that on everyone
that appears on the same Census. Of course that also means that you
then have to run a report to get them all out and I don't know how
detailed a report that can be. I do it this way but am not sure if it
is the best way.

On Mon, 06 Sep 2004 14:18:44 GMT, Andy Donaldson
<[email protected]> wrote:

Hi,

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

As I am quite new to all this can somebody explain how best to use the
witness feature (in either general terms or in TMG speak) and
particularly how it can be used to easily group and show all the
people in a household on a census return?

Thanks for your time.

Andy Donaldson
eMail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.stamp.demon.co.uk

[Dale Hammer]

Andy,

You might want to also pose this question to the TMG mailing list. This
list is an incredible source of information and best-practices using TMG.
The people on this list are very friendly and are always helping the novice
TMG user. This listserver email list is available to sign up at:

http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/TMG.html

The lists can be searched for specific keywords.

You should also check out all the help information that is on several
websites managed by users that have used TMG for many years. Some of the
websites I would recommend are:

http://tmg.reigelridge.com/

http://www.tmgtips.com/

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... tml#Census

I would also highly recommend the book "Getting the Most Out of The Master
Genealogist" that is available from Wholly Genes software. This is
available at:
http://store.whollygenes.com/Search.bok ... gory=Books

Regards,
Dale Hammer



"Andy Donaldson" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

Hi,

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

As I am quite new to all this can somebody explain how best to use the
witness feature (in either general terms or in TMG speak) and
particularly how it can be used to easily group and show all the
people in a household on a census return?

Thanks for your time.

Andy Donaldson
eMail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.stamp.demon.co.uk

[Paul Bolchover]

In article <[email protected]>,
Andy Donaldson <[email protected]> wrote:

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

The "Witness" tag is intended for anyone involved in the event who isn't
one of the two principals. Personally, I think that "Other Person"
would be a far more descriptive name.

It is possible to give "Witnesses" different role names, and to customize
the sentence according to the role.

For example, at a wedding, you could record (for example)
Bride, Groom, Best Man, Minister, Witnesses
and have customised sentences for each.

Likewise, for a census, you could have the single principal as
Head of Household
and various Witness roles as
Wife of Household
Son of Household
Daughter of Household
Grandson of Household etc

and customise the sentences to read (for example)

[HoH name] was recorded as Head of Household in the 18?? census
of ???. Also in the household were [all witnesses].

[Wife name] was recorded in the 18?? census of ??? in the household
of her husband [HoH name]. Also in the household were [all other
witnesses].

[Son name] was recorded in the 18?? census of ??? in the household
of his father [HoH name]. Also in the household were [all other witnesses].


There are many possibilities - you can really customise it to do
_exactly_ what you want.

As someone else suggested, there is a very active TMG list

To subscribe, email [email protected]

Paul Bolchover

[Andy Donaldson]

Just wanted to say thanks to the people who responded with helpful
suggestions.

Andy

On 7 Sep 2004 10:48:31 +0100, [email protected] (Paul Bolchover)
wrote:

In article <[email protected]>,
Andy Donaldson <[email protected]> wrote:

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

The "Witness" tag is intended for anyone involved in the event who isn't
one of the two principals. Personally, I think that "Other Person"
would be a far more descriptive name.

It is possible to give "Witnesses" different role names, and to customize
the sentence according to the role.

For example, at a wedding, you could record (for example)
Bride, Groom, Best Man, Minister, Witnesses
and have customised sentences for each.

Likewise, for a census, you could have the single principal as
Head of Household
and various Witness roles as
Wife of Household
Son of Household
Daughter of Household
Grandson of Household etc

and customise the sentences to read (for example)

[HoH name] was recorded as Head of Household in the 18?? census
of ???. Also in the household were [all witnesses].

[Wife name] was recorded in the 18?? census of ??? in the household
of her husband [HoH name]. Also in the household were [all other
witnesses].

[Son name] was recorded in the 18?? census of ??? in the household
of his father [HoH name]. Also in the household were [all other witnesses].


There are many possibilities - you can really customise it to do
_exactly_ what you want.

As someone else suggested, there is a very active TMG list

To subscribe, email [email protected]

Paul Bolchover

[Steve Hayes]

On 7 Sep 2004 10:48:31 +0100, [email protected] (Paul Bolchover) wrote:

In article <[email protected]>,
Andy Donaldson <[email protected]> wrote:

I have TMG and up until now I have only used the witness feature of
the program to record such things as the people who were witnesses at
Births, Death and Marriages and a few other events. However a short
while ago I saw a reference to somebody using the witness feature to
record all the people who appeared in the same household entry on a
census return.

The "Witness" tag is intended for anyone involved in the event who isn't
one of the two principals. Personally, I think that "Other Person"
would be a far more descriptive name.

Couldn't there be more than two principals in an event - a plane crash, for
example, or something like the Beslan massacre?


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk