Draft Registration in the Gedcom

[Marshall]

Hello, I have a bunch of WWI Draft Registration cards I scanned in, and was wanting to add them into PGV.  It looks like there might not be a tag for anything like that.  Perhaps there's a generic event tag I could use?  Is anyone else using the Draft cards in their gedcom?  If so, I'd like to hear how you have handled them.

Thank you,
Marshall

[Stew Stronski]

I don't have any draft registrations but I have a few enlistments. I used Miltitary (_MILI) and ended up with:
1 _MILI Canadian Over-seas Expeditionary Force
2 DATE 17 JAN 1916
2 PLAC Calgary, Alberta, Canada
2 TYPE Enrollment
2 AGE 43
2 SOUR @S15@
3 PAGE RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4116 - 26
3 DATA
4 TEXT Name:
5 CONT HART, ALFRED FRANK
5 CONT Regimental number(s):
5 CONT 523051
5 CONT Reference:
5 CONT RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 4116 - 26
5 CONT Date of Birth:
5 CONT 01/06/1872
3 QUAY VG
2 OBJE @M91@
2 OBJE @M92@

I guess you could argue against draft registration being an actual military event but it's the best fit I can think of. If you don't want to use a non-standard event like _MILI then you could probably use it as a source for another event like DESC or occupation. Depends on what kind of information is on the card.

The only other thing I can think of is ID Number (IDNO). The only thing I really know about draft registration is that it has a number on it. Number and type fields are available.

[Stephen Arnold]

Marshall
Similarly to Stew, we use the MILI tag as follows

1 _MILI WWI Draft Registration - John Smith
2 DATE 07 JUN 1917
2 PLAC Winslow, Patoka Twp, Pike Co, Indiana, USA
2 OCCU Farmer - self
2 NOTE Married: Jane Smith, Caucasian; Med/Med, Blue/Black, No, signed with attested mark only
3 CONT YOB varies as to other information 1897 vs 1898, but age confirms 1898, etc........
2 RESI
3 ADDR RR 2, Winslow, Indiana, USA
2 OBJE @Mxxxx@  //Image of Draft Registration
2 SOUR @S68@  //WWI Draft Registration

[Victor H.]

Marshall,

I do it pretty much the same as Stephen and Stew, except I don't scan the card itself, I just transcribe it:

1 _MILI WW1 Draft Registration
2 DATE 12 SEP 1918
2 PLAC Elmore County, Alabama
2 SOUR @S478@
2 NOTE WW1 Registration Card
3 CONT Ollie Lull Hawk
3 CONT Box 6, RFD 1, Wetumpka, Elmore County, Ala.
3 CONT Age 19
3 CONT Born Jan. 20, 1899
3 CONT Occupation: Farmer
3 CONT Employer: G. L. Bau
3 CONT RFD 1, Wetumpka, Elmore County, Ala.
3 CONT Nearest Relative: Lee Hawk, Father, RFD 1, Wetumpka, Elmore Co. Ala.
3 CONT [ Signed ] Ollie Lull Hawk
3 CONT
3 CONT Medium height, slender build
3 CONT Brown eyes, red hair

[Marshall]

Thanks for the input.  I had considered adding it using the _MILI tag, but didn't want to head off down the wrong path and have to change it all later.  I know its a little bit of a gray area, but I figured if the gedcom standard changes to accommodate something like this, the likelihood of it being a real problem lessens if my data looks more like your data =)

I might as well use the cards, as they're already scanned in and set up.  Plus, family likes to look at stuff like this. 

Again, thanks!

Marshall

[Wes Groleau]

To me, a draft registration is just a SOURce for other things.

I put the image and/or transcript in media and reference it in the source citation.

Or I put it outside of PGV and use the URI as the PAGE (citation details) for the citation.

I treat a lot of things that way if they don't have their own standard tag (and sometimes even if they do).

[Stephen Arnold]

IOHO, Wes' solution is a fine one and probably works for him.
BUT, due to privacy issues and the nature of the content of much of our source information (names, relationships, email addresses, phone numbers, etc), we don't attach media to sources as we hide sources from casual users. If we did as Wes does, no one would see the Tombstones, Draft Registrations, Marriage Certs, Death and Birth Certs and more. Therefore, we use the
2 OBJE @Mxxx@  tag to add these to the event/tag.

See  http://myarnolds.com/individual.php?pid=I63981&ged=Arnold.ged

-Stephen

[Marshall]

To all,

Thanks again.  I continue to follow this thread and pick up the suggestions from you all.  Looking at how the various gedcoms are being handled with the _MILI tag and its associated info gives me fair insight on how the gedcom is used and organized.  Furthermore, I have been looking through the php code trying to learn what I can about it, and it helps a little looking at the routines and how it uses the levels/numbers to pull information and to know when the fact/event is finished.  I'm a little new to gedcom formats and extremely new to php.   Hopefully I'll be able to pick up enough to benefit others sometime. 

Stephen:  I pretty much keep all my multimedia objects similar to what you are showing.  I link them to the event/INDI/FAM/etc...

Thanks again, and a Happy New Year to all.

Marshall

[Stew Stronski]

I take a slightly different approach to sources and only use general sources. I.E. Source 1 might be 1851 England Census and then any details are added at the individual/family event level. So I don't have an individual source for every event. I have general sources with individual details. So if there is privacy for an indi/event the details don't show.

I suppose this is contrary to the intended method but it's the way I started out and by the time I figured out that it wasn't the standard way it was too late to go back. Works for me.

[Stephen Arnold]

Stew
Not really different. We use general sources as well, then use the Citation/Page and Text fields to differentiate.
i.e.
S31 - Social Security Death Index for all references
Page/Citation gives the details.
S45 - US Federal Census
Page/Citation gives date and location and Ancestry.com URL
etc
S15 - Personally known family data (here's the privacy issues).
Page/Citation includes provider's name, relationship to person, perhaps reason for knowledge, may reference and email or provide address or phone contact details.
-Stephen

[Anonymous]

Steew, I agree with Stephen. I'm not sure there is any such thing as the 'standard method' - but I do the same as you too, and from everything I've seen dicussed here, although not every one does it the same, the majority would do what you do,

[Stew Stronski]

Cool. Seems I'm not the misfit I thought I was :)

Stephen: I understand what you mean now about the privacy issue. When using those kinds of "Personally known" sources I've just been putting something like "Forename Surname - Emails and Research". I hadn't thought to add anything more but it's something to think about. I know the reason why that person is a trustworthy source but that isn't necessarily true for others viewing the site.

[Wes Groleau]

I interpreted "general source" and "details are added at the individual/family event level" to mean he uses the PAF style of putting all source citations at level one instead of level two.

Either way, you can still put media subordinate to the source citation.