Use the Property Box to record facts about a person.
The most important tab in the Property Box, for the purpose of recording facts (events or attributes) about a persons life is the Facts tab. You can enter some basic details in the Main tab. But to record more than just the basics, you should use the Facts tab.
Events and attributes can either be Individual events and attributes, or they can be Family events and attributes. The former apply primarily, in the first instance, to one person (e.g. Birth, Death, Occupation). The latter are equally applicable to two people - the husband and wife in a family record (e.g. Marriage, Engagement, Divorce).
To add any kind of event or attribute, click on the button on the Facts tab toolbar. If the fact you wish to add is not listed in the short menu that appears, choose 'More Fact Types...'. This opens the Fact Types dialog. You can either select all the events and attributes you wish to add, one at a time, and press after each one (untick to prevent the dialog closing every time you add an event or attribute); or you can add multiple events and attributes at a time by pressing-and-holding the Ctrl key while clicking on items to select them.
The standard events and attributes, which are included when Family Historian is installed, are:
If the fact type you want is not in this list, there is also an additional set called the Extended Set, which may have the one you want (see How to Access the Extended Set of Fact Types).
You can also create as many custom events and attributes as you want (either for Individuals or Families) - see How to Create a Custom Fact (Event or Attribute). Once created, these custom events and attributes will be added to events and attribute lists, so they can be selected, added and used exactly like standard events and attributes.
If there some standard events and attributes that you are never likely to use, you can hide them if you wish, to make the list more manageable (see Fact Types Dialog).
You can add more details about each event or attribute in the Facts tab. For each one, you can specify a date, age, place, address and note. With some events or attributes there may be other fields too. For example, with the Death event there is a Cause field in which you can record the cause of death. To enter or view these extra details, simply select the relevant event or attribute. The additional details are displayed below the list, and can be edited there.
To specify complex dates (periods, ranges, date phrases, quarter dates, imprecise dates, and so on) use the Date Entry Assistant Dialog. To open this dialog, click on the Date field, or just move the mouse over the field, to activate the helper dialog button - then click on this button. Alternatively, you can also simply double-click on the Date field itself. Other fields, apart from date fields, also have helper dialogs which can be opened in the same way.
You can add more than one instance of each event or attribute - in fact you can have as many instances as you like. For example, if a person had multiple occupations and you wish to record them all, you should have one Occupation attribute for each occupation (see How to Record Multiple Occupations). Again, if a person lived in many different places, you could if you wished have one Residence attribute for each place they lived (see How to Record Where a Person Lived).
Sometimes you may want to record additional details about people who played in role in an event (or more rarely attribute), without being the principal or one of the principals (the bridesmaids or best man at a wedding, say). Such people are called witnesses within Family Historian. See the Witnesses Window for details about how to record witness details.
See also How to Record Details About a Marriage.