Re: [Gramps-users] GRAMPS Usability Comments (Long-ish)

[<dpe...@si...>]

On Tue, 13 Apr 2004, Alex Roitman had this to say:

>Henry,
>
>On Mon, 2004-04-12 at 09:00, Henry Hartley wrote:
>> How are alternate names used?  Can someone give me an example?
>
>You may have many alternate names for a person. At any time, you can set
>any of these names to be a preferred name. This is done by
>right-clicking on the alternate name and selecting the popup menu item.

An example of an alternate name may be something as simple as a nickname 
or alias.  It could be a person's middle name if that's what they prefer 
to go by.  I also use alternate names for women in my family tree who have 
married.  One name is their maiden name, the alternate name is their 
married name.  (e.g. Jane Doe marries John Smith; Jane's alternate name 
may be Jane Smith or Jane Doe-Smith.)

>> How does one enter two possible dates for an event?  For instance, I've 
>> got a marriage to enter and it is either 1803 or 1804.  If I enter that 
>
>As Don has already mentioned, GRAMPS can handle ranges (between 1803 and
>1804). As for the alternate dates, I would enter two events, each with
>the corresponding date. The Note tab of the event can store the comment
>about the date uncertainty. If you have source for the event (e.g. you
>have two sources, each calling for a different date), then you can enter
>the confidence for each source, e.g. Very Low vs Normal. 

How difficult would it be to add the ability to parse XXXX or YYYY to the 
date interpreter?  Besides the possibility of two conflicting sources, 
consider poor penmanship in reading original documents.  Is it 1904 or 
1906?  1801 or 1807? Jan 23 or Jan 25?  Alex's suggestion of using a note 
to annotate the discrepancy is a good idea, but in this case, the source 
may have high confidence, it's one's ability to decipher it that's in 
question.  For sorting, I would sort on the earlier of the two options.  
Just a thought.

Cheers,
-Don
-- 
________________________________________________
Donald A. Peterson       | dpe...@si...
Physics Division         | PH:  (630) 252-6870
Argonne National Lab     | FAX: (630) 252-0210
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