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Archiver > FTST > 2002-01 > 1010680350


From: Terry Reigel <>
Subject: Re: [FTST] Re: Selecting datasets in FTST
Date: Thu, 10 Jan 2002 11:32:36 -0500
References: <200201101100.g0AB0TE08255@lists2.rootsweb.com> <3C3D7FF4.4830BDC4@Shelley.net>


nick wrote:

> Terry,
> Thanks for your comments. However this configuration and the data
> selection restriction it creates makes no sense to me.

It's really a problem of conflicting objectives. Putting Baptism in the Birth Group is extremely useful for those many people for whom we cannot find birth records. I've been told that in some cultures it is common to find a baptism recorded in church records when there is no recorded of the birth itself. For cultures that practice infant baptism the baptism is a good proxy for a birth date. By putting both in the same group we are able then to have a "birth" date for these people show in the Picklist, Family and Tree views, etc. It's only in the box charts, and only for those who want to specify both events, that this is a problem.


> There is already
> a 'birth-group*' dataset option which can serve the same purpose; the
> linking of 'Birth*' and 'Baptism*' datasets to the birth group just
> undermines their usefulness.

Yes, the Birth-group option will print either the birth or baptism record, whichever is primary. The Birth and Baptism options are not "linked," but in fact allow you to specifically choose which one to print. But the fact remains, only primary tags can be printed, otherwise there would be no way for the program to choose which of potentially dozens of non-primary tags to display. And, for the very good reason outlined above, the standard Baptism Tag is in the Birth Group, which allow only one to be primary.

> Now if I want to express BOTH birth and baptism information on a chart,
> I have to make a new tag, eg: 'baptised', which is not part of the birth
> group. Using John Cardinal's utility, such a change is not hard,

Yes, that is the way to do it.

> BUT it
> removes TMG's ability to show age, based on an individual's birth OR
> baptism date.

That's right, it can't work both ways at once.

> Whether birth and baptism tags should be considered by
> TMG as part of the birth group or not should be configurable within
> TMG.

How would you have this work? Say you have both a Birth and Baptism tag for an individual. You use your proposed new feature to move the Baptism tag so you can print it. In order to print it, you mark it primary. After creating the chart, you move it back to the Birth group. How does TMG/FTST know which of the two primary tags to leave as primary?

> Now if I want to be able to show both birth and baptismal details AND
> have a functioning age display for each person on the screen, I would
> have to create an EXTRA 'baptised' tag per person.

There's no need for an Extra tag -- if you have a valid Birth Tag, why do you need the Baptism tag in the Birth Group?

Terry Reigel

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