Family Sections

Overview

The Family Sections item in the Person Entry list controls the inclusion of family information in the person entry which shows spouses and children of the subject.

The Family Section may include zero, one, or more family entries. The number varies with the number of families where the subject was a parent or spouse.

The Family Section content varies according to the properties of this item and by strings and sentence templates specified in the Family Section Strings and Family Heading Sentences Strings sections.

Properties

Show Title

If the Show Title checkbox is checked, the Family Section will begin with a title. The title text varies based on the number of families where the subject was a parent or spouse, i.e., "Family" or "Families". The actual titles are specified in the Family Section Strings section. The default value is checked.

Spouses

The Spouses pull-down menu controls whether Gedcom Publisher creates a family section on the person page for childless spouses. If Spouses is set to All spouses, a family section is created for all spouses. If Spouses is set to Spouses with children, a family section is created only for spouses with whom the subject had children. The default value is Spouses with children.

Heading

The Heading pull-down menu influences how the Format constructs the title and contents of the Family Section. The choices are:

Heading Label

When Heading is set to Use heading sentence, the Heading Label property determines the label or prefix for the parent section heading. The default value is an empty string, and the contents of the Family Section heading is determined by the Heading Sentence.

Heading Sentence

When Heading is set to Use heading sentence, the Heading Sentence property determines the content part of the parent section heading. The default value is shown below, but you may alter the sentence to suit your needs.

The spouse, partner, or co-parent of the subject, if any, may be referenced by the role variable [R:Partner].

The default heading sentence is:

<Partner: [R:Partner]<[R:Partner:LSP]>|Children:>

You may use the [M:Number] variable to refer to the sequential family number.

Person Prefix

The Person Prefix pull-down menu controls whether Gedcom Publisher inserts a value before spouse and child names. The choices are:

Person Prefix Attribute

The Person Prefix Attribute textbox is enabled when the Person Prefix property is set to "Attribute". You must enter the name of an Attribute. Attributes are imported from several source applications and Gedcom Publisher may also assign Attribute values.

You can explore Attribute names and values via the Record Browser.

For more information about Attributes, see the Attribute Person Entry Item.

Person Prefix Template

The Person Prefix Template textbox is enabled when the Person Prefix property is set to "Manual". You must enter a template that yields a value that you want to use as a prefix.

Why would you use a template you specify yourself? Here is one example.

If you set Person Prefix to "ID Number", Gedcom Publisher inserts the ID number of the person with a leading "#" and no commas in the number, for example, "#1234". If you prefer a different format, such as a different leading character or a number with a thousands separator, you can use a manual template. Here's a manual template value that will insert the person's ID number with a leading "I" character and with a thousands separator in the ID number:

<I[S:ID:#,###]>

Note that commas in the format are replaced by the locale-appropriate thousands separator. The separator is a comma for US English but will be locale-appropriate based on the book Language value.

Person Prefix For

If Person Prefix is set to something other than "None", the Person Prefix For pull-down menu controls whether the Person Prefix appears before children, spouses, or both. The choices are:

Parent Relationships

Gedcom Publisher assigns labels to parent relationships based on codes in the input data.

Gedcom Publisher supports the GEDCOM Pedigree Linkage Type record:

INDI.FAMC.PEDI code

Unfortunately, that record sets a parent relationship label for both parents, and not one or the other. It also has only a small set of values (adopted, birth, foster, sealing).

Due to the limitations described above, several applications use custom records to describe other relationships, such as step children, and parent relationships that differ for the mother and father, for example, birth mother and step father.

Gedcom Publisher supports the following custom records written by several applications:

FAM.CHIL._FREL code
FAM.CHIL._MREL code

• _FREL labels the relationship between the father and the child.
• _MREL labels the relationship between the mother and the child.
• The codes may be different, such as occurs when a step-father is married to the birth mother of a child.
• The application may write one, both, or neither of the records.

Several applications export _FREL and _MREL records including Family Tree Maker, Legacy, and RootsMagic. Family Historian will import FAM.CHIL._FREL and FAM.CHIL._MREL records but it does not export them.

Gedcom Publisher supports a custom record written by Family Historian that is similar to the standard PEDI record:

INDI.FAMC._PEDI code [(father)|(mother)]

The code may be one of the standard PEDI codes as well as several others (step, de facto, illegitimate). The value includes an optional suffix that indicates whether the code applies only to the father or only to the mother. Family Historian uses the standard PEDI record for standard codes that apply to both parents, and uses its custom _PEDI record for other cases.

Note that INDI.FAMC.PEDI and INDI.FAMC._PEDI are written under the INDI record whereas FAM.CHIL._MREL and _FREL are written under the FAM record. The latter is more logical.

When reading a TMG project, Gedcom Publisher uses the name of the parent-child relationship tag to assign a code. The Aliases column in the table below includes TMG Tag Type names as aliases for the codes used in GEDCOM files.

If there is no parent relationship code in the input file, Gedcom Publisher uses the standard labels defined in the Person Entry Strings and Children Strings sections.

Users may customize the labels used in the book. See the Parent Relationship Strings section.

Gedcom Publisher ignores the relationship label when the code is "birth" and the relationship is primary.

Parent Relationship Codes

Gedcom Publisher recognizes the following parent relationship codes. Several codes found in some genealogy data are treated as aliases as shown in the table. The default labels for US English are shown in the labels columns.