Fact Types Dialog

When you specify a template for a given fact here, it will be used wherever a fact of the relevant type is used within a person’s (or family’s) record - unless it is overridden. Suppose you are specifying a template for the Occupation attribute. You can see a pretty good approximation of the kind of sentence that will be generated for a given person, by clicking on their Occupation attribute in the Facts tab of the Property Box when looking at their record. The relevant sentence will be displayed in the ‘Sentence’ field at the bottom of the dialog. If the generated sentence isn't quite right, in any given case, you can override it.  See Facts tab for details.

Each fact is associated with an approximate time frame. This time frame is used for various purposes. First, it is used to check for possible errors when dates are entered. Suppose, for example, you added 'Conception' as a custom fact type and gave it the time frame "Pre-Birth". If you then entered a date of conception for a given person, which was after their recorded date of birth, you would be warned that the date looked inconsistent with the person's birth date.

Some of the checks that are done when dates are entered make use not only of the known time frames for the relevant facts, but also estimates of the maximum likely life span for people, and their likely age at childbirth etc. These estimates can be altered in the 'Estimates' tab of Preferences. For example, if a given fact has a time frame of 'post-marriage' (e.g. divorce), a warning will be given if you enter a divorce date for a person, that - taking their known date of birth into account - would mean that they would have to have got married at an age which is less than the estimated minimum age for marriage. For example, a warning would be given if the divorce date would mean that they got divorced aged 10, say. These warnings can be safely ignored if the dates, however unlikely they may appear, are in fact correct.

Time frames may also be used when Family Historian orders events and attributes - for example, in reports, or in the Facts tab of the Property Box. Where ordering can be determined by dates alone, these will always be given priority. But suppose there is no date, or none that determines the ordering? For example, a person's baptism, birth and death might all be recorded simply as 1910. Time frames will be used to ensure that the birth is listed first, followed by the baptism, and then death.

Finally, time frames are also used in the Facts tab of the Property Box, to determine whether or not age information should be calculated, if not provided. Age information is always calculated unless the Time Frame is Birth, Pre-Birth, Post-Death or none.

Lists the roles that have been defined for witnesses associated with the current fact. Click the Roles button to open the Witness Roles Dialog, to maintain role information for the current fact. All role data is applicable to the fact that it is defined for, and only to that fact.

For any given fact (event or attribute) about a person, you can normally enter a date, age, place, address or note. In some cases, not all of these fields may be appropriate. When creating a custom fact, ensure that you only tick the fields you require.

If a given fact type does not require a particular field (date, say), the field will not be shown when the fields for that fact are being displayed in the Fact tab of the Property Box (i.e. when the fact is selected in the list). At least, the field will not be shown if there is no value associated with it. If it just so happens that a value has been recorded for this field (perhaps before it was decided that facts of this type do not require that field), whether or not it seems like a reasonable or meaningful thing to do, the field, with its value, will be displayed. So by unticking a field, there is no risk that you may in doing so, inadvertently cause data to be hidden.

An alternative way to hide a fact is to use the Hide button in the Fact Types Dialog.