Adding Custom Tags Types by Janis Parkison Rodriguez Arlington RUG Meeting 13 August 2011 Chapter 14 of Terry Reigel’s A Primer for The Master Genealogist and beyond …

Why Create a Custom Tag Type?  Easy way to record frequent events not accommodated easily with a standard Tag Type  Easy* to find Custom Tags on Person View, in FGS or Individual Detail reports. Easy to see who has, or is missing, a certain tag  Allows certain events to be easily excluded from reports when you wish  Dealing with Names or Relationships in a way not accomplished with the standard Tag Type

Some Situations where Custom Tag Types are Useful:  Alternate Data  Candidates  Census Years  Restricted Data  “Not Married” Couples  Standardized Names

Alternate Data Tags  Record conflicting data from different sources in “-alt” versions of Common Tag Types Birth-alt Marriage-alt Death-alt  Draft sentence to dovetail with the standard sentence

Candidate Tags  Record data of less certainty which still requires more research Birth-can Marriage-can Father/Mother-can Census-can  The Custom Sentence can explain the person referred to in the data is only a candidate vs. a certainty and why.

SSDI CANDIDATES Birth-Can Tag - SSDI Role  If [P] was the “[M1]” in the Social Security Death Index who died [M2], then he was born [D]. Death Tag - SSDI Candidate Role  According to the Social Security Death Index, a person named "[M1]" died [D].. This may have been [P+] 6

Census Years Many users prefer to have a separate tags for each census year.  Easy to see whether that person has been found for that year  Allows custom narrative for each year providing a quick way to vary narrative for many people without significant effort

Restricted Data  Create a separate tag to record information you may not want to include in all reports.  Anecdote you only want to share with certain people  Information a source has requested not be shared  Easy to de-select these tags for a report.

“Not married” Couples  Create a Custom Relationship to record someone’s significant relationships even though they are not “married”  Liaison  Partner

Standardized Names  Surname spellings vary widely, for various reasons.  Sometimes it is handy to use a Custom Name Tag to record a Standard Name  Easy to exclude a Custom tag name tag from a report by making it non- printing using the exclusion mark a “-” hyphen

Create a Custom Tag Type Tools > Master Tag Type List On the Tag Type Definition Screen, click Add button on the right side 11

Tag Group  Be careful to select the correct group for your custom tag  By default, TMG uses the Tag Group from the Tag Type which was selected/highlighted when you clicked Add  It also picks up the default Role Names from that Tag Type but not the entire sentence structure  Most often missed entry 12

Tag Group is Important  Tag will not work properly if it is in the wrong group  Cannot easily change an -alt or -can tags to the standard tag by just clicking on the tag type button if the custom tag was created in the wrong group  Names tags must be in the name group to use that Name in narrative reports/sentences  Tags in the Birth, Marriage, Death, and Burial groups have special functions in certain reports  Children lists  BMDB paragraphs 15

Relationship Tag Group  Relationship tags have no sentences and tie people together without explanation – if primary they will still be used in reports  When using custom relationship tags, consider adding a corresponding tag in the Other group so you can explain the basis for using the custom tag 16

Remember!  When creating a Custom Tag Type, the Tag Group cannot be changed afterwards, in TMG.  All other fields can be edited after the tag type is created  However, TMG Utility allows you to change all EVENT tags of one type to another event tag type, regardless of Tag Group. So, you may create a new custom tag with a different name in the correct group, then change  Ex: Change “Probate” tags in “Burial” group to an “Estate” tag in the “Other” group NOTE: Does not move sentences or roles to the other tag 17

Label Considerations:  Where do you want it to sort on the Tag Type List?  Birth-alt and Birth-can will sort with the standard tag types  Make Label meaningful  Will it fit in the Label column of Person view 18

Past Tense Used in the List of Children in the Journal Report to create a brief statement about the child’s events 19

Abbreviation Used to identify the tag in charts such as the Pedigree, where space is limited. 20

Tag Label Color TMG v8 Beta Change color of the Label on the Person view and the Tag Type List 21

“Roles & Sentences” tab on the Tag Type Definition Screen

Roles & Sentences Click on the Roles and Sentences tab of the Tag Type Definition screen  The usual default sentence added is awkward: Principal:  [P] New Tag Witness:  [W] witnessed the New Tag of [P] 24

Adding/Modifying Sentences and/or Roles  Create sentences for all roles (See Chapters 11-13)  Create male/female sentences if using hard pronouns  Add Custom Roles (See Chapter 13)  Remember you can restrict role by sex or age 25

Ordering Roles  Move Roles up or down the list  You may disable a role in TMG v8 Beta Selecting Roles  Select from Drop down list of Roles on the Tag Entry screen  You may choose “Add Role” from the drop down list in TMG v8 Beta 26

“OTHER” tab on the Tag Type Definition Screen

Add a Reminder Select the “Other” tab to make other changes to your new custom tag type  Add a Reminder on how to use the custom Tag Type  Click on the Other Tab of the Tag Type Definition screen  Type into the Reminder box 29

Display Tags on Person View On the “Other” tab, choose how you want to display the new custom tag on the Person view  Choose whether to show “witness” or the tag type label for witnesses tags  Choose whether to display the role name for Principals and/or Witnesses 31

Year Validation  Little used feature on the Other tab  Constrain the dates allowed for a tag by including a Minimum or Maximum year  Very handy for Census Year tags  Does not stop you from entering a different date, just asks if you are sure 33

GEDCOM Export  If you think you might export you data to a GEDCOM file, make certain you have the GEDCOM data completed portion completed  Even seems to work for most but…  I found that I needed to identify my custom Federal Census Year tags as CENS tags for GEDCOM or GenSmarts did not know they were Census tags 35

Easy Ways to Create a Custom Tag Type  COPY an existing Tag Type  Includes all roles and sentences!  IMPORT a Tag Type in TMG v8 Beta  Includes everything! 37

COPY a Tag Type  Save a lot of time by copying a tag type that is close to what you want. Then you just modify the entries, particularly the sentences, to fit your needs… 39

IMPORT a Tag Type  In TMG v8 Beta, you can import already perfected Tag Types exported from other projects!  Import from your own project  Import from a friend’s project! 41

Custom Tag Types - Exercises 42

Exercise 1910 Federal Census Tag Type 43

Principal Role

Witness Role

Candidate Role

Alive Not Found Role

Child Role

Head Role

Wife (as Principal) Role

Wife (as Witness) Role

Unlikely Role

NOT FOUND Role