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Archiver > TMG > 2003-03 > 1046530996


From: Lee Hoffman <>
Subject: Re: [TMG] Birth/baptism
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2003 10:03:16 -0500
References: <CHEMKKAJHOKJPIEOPLKDIEEMDHAA.clcasper@sprynet.com>
In-Reply-To: <000001c2dff3$8967bf80$a7b03dca@miettefunhouse>


Ireland-Johnston wrote:
>If I look at the Person view for Felix STRANGE, for example, the
>children that I have birth dates for are sorted in chorological order
>over the time span of Felixs life. But the children for whom I only have
>a Baptism date for are all grouped together before Felixs birth. I
>imagine this has got something to do with me recording the birth place
>of these children (as this is known) but not the birthdate (as its not
>known, by me anyway).

Well, yes, not entering a birth date in the child's Birth tag will have
that effect just as no Birth tag for the child will have the same
effect. All tag's in a Person View will be shown chronologically _if_ the
tag has a date or if the child has a Birth tag with a date. Tags (or
children) without a Date for proper sorting will be placed in accordance
with a number of rules. Most of these rules are based on various setting
with the program, but the main one is in Preferences (for TMGW v5x, if you
are using TMGW v4x let us know). Select File=>Preferences, and select Tag
Box on the left. In the right of the screen, you will find near the top,
the field heading "Undated tags sorted:". You may choose from the settings
of Top, Bottom, or None with Top be the default setting.

>I have added the birth place where known as not
>all of my mob were born in the same place they were baptized. I don't
>like to guess the birth date as sometime there has been many year
>between birth and baptism. (Births in rural Australia, "job lot" on the
>baptisms).
>
>What I want to be able to view is all of Felixs (for example) children
>in chronological order across his life span using the birthdate if
>available, otherwise the baptism date. I need help.

Carol Oswalt suggested setting the Birthorder Flag. This Flag is provided
for those times when you _know_ (have evidence of) the birth order of a
child (children) but do not know the date of the birth. It is not
recommended that you use this Birthorder Flag unless you (1) have evidence
of the birth order of the child and (2) do not know the birth date of the
child.

A better option is to enter a Sort Date in the child's Birth tag. The Sort
Date will never print and will not normally display on the Person View (you
can choose to display it although it will not display for children's birth
in the parent's Person View).

The Birthorder Flag was provided as an option prior to the availability of
the Sort Date field. The Flag had its uses then but since the Sort Date
field was added, there is less use for the Flag. The Birthorder Flag will
override the normal sequencing of tags and thus can cause some wonderment
later if you happen to forget that you set the Flag.

Hope this helps -

Lee Hoffman/KY
TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com>;
My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman>;
A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)

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