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FTAnalyzer questions.

Discussion in 'Family Tree Analyzer' started by Norman, Aug 13, 2013.

  1. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    Could you please give me a short cut to the discussion about short cuts? I'm still trying to find my way around the discussions!
     
  2. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    FTM 2010 always records the residence fact as an individual fact, even if (as in the case of my 2g-grandparents) there are twelve individuals in the same household. I prefer the couples to be listed as sharing one fact -- perhaps it's just my own personal oddity. May I ask why you think they should always be individual facts? (I like hearing why other people do things differently).
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2015
  3. Bryman

    Bryman LostCousins Megastar

    Because, as Norman says, a couple may not always be at the same address on census night. One may be working away from home or just visiting other friends/relatives, leaving their partner at home. I have many such instances in my tree(s).
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  4. Norman

    Norman LostCousins Member

    I suppose it depends on whether you are recording where they lived on a particular date or where they were on that date. I don't think you can always assume that a couple were living where the census records them. They, and the family, may have been visiting friends or relatives on that date.
     
  5. Tim

    Tim Megastar and Moderator Staff Member

    Yes Lynne, I add 3 separate Lost Cousins facts if they happen to be on 1841, 1881 and 1911.

    Yes, that's how FTA works.
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  6. Tim

    Tim Megastar and Moderator Staff Member

    On the Marriage Fact you have the address Tilsbury, Wilshire, England. This address is shared with her partner. You could update this address and both places will change.

    However, you seem to have created a Residence/Census shared fact. I don't do this. What I do is to update the address with what I find on the census and save that to each person on the census. Everyone on that census now has the same address. No new facts required.
     
  7. Tim

    Tim Megastar and Moderator Staff Member

    Here's a shortcut to the Shortcuts discussion.
     
  8. Tim

    Tim Megastar and Moderator Staff Member

    It's true that an individual Fact is created, but they share the same source citation.

    A shared Fact is for 2 people. What do you do when you have 12 children in the same house?
     
  9. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    A Lost Cousins Fact and a Census Fact are two different things. A Lost Cousins Fact indicates the person has been entered onto Lost Cousins with the specific year. A census fact indicates you have found them on a census for that year.

    Thus converting Lost Cousins Facts to census facts would be the wrong thing to do.
     
  10. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    You can use Residence facts or census facts interchangeably FTAnalyzer will cope with either provided the "Treat Residence facts as Census facts" option is ticked which it is by default.

    The only reason to use a Census fact over a residence fact is that it is clearly there for specifically recording a census entry. I have multiple people in my tree for instance for whom I have a census fact and a different residence fact as they were only visiting on census night, their usual residence was elsewhere. So I've recorded their residence as their residence fact and where they were on the census as a census fact.
    Hmmm interesting. I've never seen that before and can say that this special custom fact will show up as unrecognised in FTAnalyzer. It won't be treated as either a census fact nor a residence fact. I would agree with Norman it doesn't make sense to be a shared fact as very frequently the couple won't be together. eg: spouse has died. So you'd end up with some instances being individual facts and some being shared which would render any reports of who was missing a residence useless as it would be cumbersome to craft a report that looked at the two conflicting fact types.

    Shared facts are meant to be things that ALWAYS apply to both parties. eg: Marriage facts, divorce facts, banns facts etc.
    The Lost Cousins fact format needs no description at all. The only thing you need to add is the date (year is good enough) to the date field - NOT the description field. The description field should be blank, its a date and belongs in the date field. If you have someone who has multiple entries in different years on Lost Cousins then they should have multiple Lost Cousins facts, just with different dates.

    Note the right hand column in FTM is only for showing preferred facts. Where you will clearly have multiple facts eg: Census/Residence, Occupation, etc you simply press F3 to edit person or right click and select edit person or click on the person tab. Once you have their form open you simply add an extra fact. Note it is not at all unusual for someone to have half a dozen census facts for instance. If you have found them on half a dozen census records they should. These can of course be residence facts if that's what you've been using in the past there is no necessity to change to using census facts.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2015
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  11. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    This is EXACTLY as it should be. A residence fact doesn't always apply to both people in the marriage (g: one dies before the other, they are resident somewhere before they marry etc. More importantly a shared fact won't show up for any of the children so you are effectively missing out recording where the children were living at the point in their lives when they were children.
    It is exactly the same in FTM 2014 as it is in FTM 2010 and I would EXTREMELY STRONGLY advise that you abandon the shared residence fact it makes reporting extremely difficult and will cause you problems in future. The GEDCOM standard identifies RESIdence facts as a individual fact type for a very good reason as residences can be common between two people but aren't always in common, thus aren't a shared fact.
     
    Last edited: Jun 5, 2015
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  12. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    Lynne,

    Here is an example from my tree note William Morrison was resident at 20 Loch Street, Aberdeen, Scotland when he married on 13th October 1876. However the marriage took place at 8 Canal Terrace, Aberdeen, Scotland. The marriage fact has the date and the place as standard parts of a marriage fact and displayed in the right hand panel of FTM 2010 (or FTM 2014). The residence fact is added to the individual to indicate where his usual residence was at the time of the marriage.
    upload_2015-6-5_15-43-12.png
     
    • Thanks! Thanks! x 1
  13. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    FTM 2014 won't mind at all but it is a really really bad idea as you will destroy the ability to report on residence in FTM 2010 or FTM 2014 or FTAnalyzer. Residence facts are NOT shared facts and it doesn't make sense to circumvent the standards to try to make them shared facts. However I'd suggest you review this in the morning and ask if the standard that has been developed and in place for 20+ years has never had a shared residence fact is it at all wise to circumvent the standard?

    Sorry if this is coming across too strong but I just cannot see how it helps and can only see very significant negatives.
     
  14. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    Thank you, Alexander. I will go back to all my shared residence facts and re-convert them to individual facts. Your explanations are clear and simple. Because I have never used FTA and you designed it, that 's why I m asking the questions about what I should and shouldn't do. Also, in the same way as I know how to drive a car but not how the engine works, I know how to use FTM but not what goes on in the background. Thank you to Peter and the rest of the team for creating this forum and to all the members who so generously give of their time and experience to assist those of us who want to know!
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  15. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    I've re-written all my residence facts as individual facts and re-set all my Lost Cousin facts as dates.
    Now I have another question -- can the residence dates be from one date to another? eg "between 1861-1881"
    or will FTA only recognise the date in its 1881 format?
    Sorry, but I want to get it right and not get frustrated because the program isn't doing what I have caused it not to do!
     
  16. Norman

    Norman LostCousins Member

    The residence facts reflect where the individual was on a particular night. I'm not sure that there is fact type that would allow you to enter a date range but I'm sure Alexander will know for sure. You could always create a fact to enter that information in addition to the census or residence fact.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  17. Alexander Bisset

    Alexander Bisset Administrator Staff Member

    Residence facts can absolutely have a range of dates without problem. If you are using them as census fates though you will get a warning that it covers more than one census which could be an error.

    This is partly why there is a separate type of fact specifically for a census. A residence is by its definition a period of time someone lived somewhere. A census is a discreet event on a single night. Hence different fact types for different events. That said because of the way FTM and Ancestry completely botched and confuse the two types I specifically designed FTAnalyzer to cope with residence facts being erroneously used instead of census facts.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  18. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    That's exactly how I interpreted it too; after all, I have been in residence at my current address for twelve month, and at my previous one for twenty-two years and FTM reflects that.
    Fortunately, most of my data that has a range of dates doesn't include the three relevant English census dates; however I'll be careful with those that are affected and find some way around it -- perhaps by creating a separate census fact just for that individual or group of individuals.
     
  19. Norman

    Norman LostCousins Member

    I just tried adding a residence date range to myself in ancestry. The timeline only shows the first of the dates. How do you enter a from and to date in a single date field? Ive tried dd mon yyyy - dd mon yyyy and dd mon yyyy to dd mon yyyy.
     
  20. LynneB

    LynneB LostCousins Member

    Hi Norman, I keep all my data in Family Tree Maker so I just added my childhood home to my Ancestry tree to try it out. I only used years and no space between the hyphen and the year eg. 1901-1902
    Yes, the time line only took the first date but it did show that I lived there from age 4, which is true. What it didn't show was that I left home at 20 (to be married). Perhaps if I had added another residence fact, that would make sense.
     

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