[Gramps-bugs] Feature: person events

[Theo v. B. <the...@ya...>]

 
Hi all,
I have been using Gramps 3.3.1- for
Lunix since June last to build my wife's family tree.
I find that I would like some features
improved or added.
Person Events.
There are some Events in my Persons'
lives that I do not find in the dropdown list. Now I could
accommodate them in a rest category and add a description. The only
rest category available is “Unknown” which seems strange to me.
How can anyone want to record an event he has no knowledge of? So my
first proposal is to add a category “Other” or to replace
“Unknown” with “Other”, whatever is feasible.
An even better option in my perspective
would be to add some Person Events. Some of my wife's ancestors were
born in slavery (in Suriname). Now the most important event in their
life was when they were set free, for which there were two
possibilities:
(1) Manumissie, a Dutch term. There
must be an English equivalent, which unfortunately I do not know. It
means that the slave or someone else paid the owner for his freedom,
or even that the owner released him/her without compensation.
(2) Emancipatie (emancipation). In
Suriname this refers specifically to the release of all slaves at the
abolishment of slavery in 1863, when the government indemnified the
owners.
Both through “manumissie” or
through emancipation the slaves also obtained a surname, which they
did not have before.
I would think these events were
important in the lives of ancestors elsewhere in the world, notably
the USA?
(3) Further it may happen that a child
is born out of wedlock, and therefore its surname at birth is the
mother's name.  Later the biological father of a subsequent husband
of the mother may recognize the child as his own, by which it obtains
the surname of the father/husband. Legalization or Acknowledgement by
the father is recorded by the Civil Registry, so why is it not
available in the Person Event dropdown list?
Other wishes I shall put forward in
seperate emails.
Thanks,
Theo