Storing Census data in Ancestris

[ahoyle]

Hi

I am trying to understand how the registers tool works in Ancestris. I am trying to enter English Census data. I can't seem to find how to add a Census type to the possible births, marriages, deaths, misc types. Also I can't find how to define what entries there should be for each Census. In England the data collected changes for each Census. Also how do I record multiple entries, the example file only shows two participants, while Census pages can record many people per page. Can you explain how Ancestris stores and reads the registry information in a GEDCOM file.

If register records are not the correct way to store Census information please let me know.

I am looking for something like the forms add on in Gramps.
https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Addon:Forms_Gramplet

I would use Gramps but I much prefer the simpler interface of Ancestris.

Thanks for writing such a great program.

[FredericL]

Hi,

Thanks for your message. Let me check first. I do not use it very often and I need to check a few things before answering. I will come back to you asap. It *is* the proper way to enter census data.
The census data is not stored in the gedcom right away. You will need to drag-n-drop people from the census table to your gedcom tree to do that.
In the meantime, just in case, this is the documentation: https://docs.ancestris.org/books/user-guide/page/registers-records

Whether it answers your question or not, please let me kow.

Best regards,
Frederic

[FredericL]

Hi again,

I can't seem to find how to add a Census type to the possible births, marriages, deaths, misc types

Not sure what you mean by type. You can have entries for births, marriages and deaths. For any other type, you use Misc.

Also I can't find how to define what entries there should be for each Census. In England the data collected changes for each Census.

To add an entry, click the "Create a new record" button or Alt+N or M or D or V for short (letter key depends on type) and fill in the right hand side panel (the various fields you know).
You can select which fields you want to display but the list of items and fields is fixed.

Also how do I record multiple entries, the example file only shows two participants, while Census pages can record many people per page.

Before entering a long list of entries, you set the fields which are likely to be required for the list, as mentioned above, and then you enter one by one in the form and Alt+V for each. It populates the list on the left. List can be very long.

Can you explain how Ancestris stores and reads the registry information in a GEDCOM file.

Out of the record entries in the llist, you can drag-n-drop the ones to insert in your tree. The documentation is rather descriptive there.

I hope that helps.

Frederic

[ahoyle]

Hi Frederic

Thank you for your help. But unfortunately registers tool does not help me on this occasion. Using the "Misc" type is not idea but okay. Unfortunately only having a fix list of fields is a bigger problem. There are many fields that just are not included, such as number of children born, living and died, or infirmity. I could reuse other fields but that would lead to confusion. I now understand how to enter multiple entries, thank you. Entering the information in a registry and then copying it across does not really help me. I might as well enter the information directly into the individuals record. I was also hoping for a way to display data already in my GEDCOM file, to help me spot mistakes and missing entries.

I will continue to investigate the functionality of Ancestris.

Thank you for all your help and such a prompt reply to my questions.
Alastair

[arvernes]

Maybe a possibility could be to add new items, but as they won't be compliant with the gedcom specs, those items could be added to the gedcom with specific tags as "_item1" "_xxxx". That way this will fullfill the needs for some people, won't break Ancestris and would be totally transparent for the users.

[FredericL]

The thing is that all the fields in the tables are from another format spec and any added file will not make it to the gedcom automatically in this interchange format (NEMEGUE for instance), unless this format is flexible enough. I will check.
I guess the only easier way for now is to add them once the record is transferred to the gedcom file.