Add Events

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On this page: Description, File Format, Example File

This is an advanced function. You should be comfortable with creating formatted data files in order to use the function effectively.

Description

Add Events adds events from a text file. You may only add one type of event at a time, but for each event you may specify principals and witnesses, date and sort date, the place data, the memo, a source number, surety, and citation detail text. The format of the text file is described below.

This function may be useful if you want to add a large number of events and you can create the event data from some electronic source.

Step by Step

  1. Create an input file in the proper format.
  2. Choose Add Events from the function tree.
  3. Choose the type of event you would like to add from the "Event type to add:" pull-down menu.
  4. Choose the place style to assign for new places from the "Place Style for new places:" pull-down menu.
  5. Click the [Add Events] button.
  6. The program will respond with a file open dialog; choose the input file that contains the event data.
  7. Click [OK] in response to the "Confirm" dialog.

For each record in the file, the program will attempt to parse the data and create an event. If the place data represents a new place, the place record will be added to the project and assigned the given Place Style. If the place already exists in the project, the existing place will be assigned to the new event. The Place Style will not be changed.

File Format

Create the file as a text file with a ".TXT" extension.

Each record in the file should contain a series of 8 data items separated by a tab character. Many of the fields are optional, that is, you may leave the field empty. But even in those cases, you must supply the intervening tab character.

The items, in order, are:

  1. TMG ID numbers and roles for the people who are principals or witnesses to the event. For each person, you specify a TMG ID number and an optional role name. You may specify both principals and witnesses, but the two principals must come first in the sequence.

    The format of this field is as follows:

    P1-ID#<=role>​||P2-ID#<=role>​||W1-ID#<=role>​||W1-ID#<=role>...

    Each text line begins at the left margin. If you view this page in a narrow browser window, the line may wrap. Any indented text is a continuation of the line above. Do not wrap lines when you create an actual data file. The other examples on this page follow the same convention.

    You must supply the P1-ID#. If you supply a role, precede the role name with an equal sign. The default role name for P1 and P2 is "Principal". If you supply a role name, it must match one of the roles defined for the tag type.

    Examples for the TMG ID number field:

    In the first example, the event is added for TMG ID 3 who will be P1 for the new event and assigned the role "Principal":

    3

    In the second example, the event is added for TMG IDs 17, 18 and 27. ID #17 will be P1 and is assigned the role "Bride". ID #18 will be P2 and is assigned the role "Groom". ID #26 will be a witness and is assigned the role "BestMan".

    17=Bride​||18=Groom​||26=BestMan

    In the third example, the event is added for TMG IDs 32 and 33. ID #32 will be P1 and is assigned the role "HOH". There is no P2, but the field must be supplied if witnesses are specified, so the user specified a ID 0 for P2. ID #33 will be a witness and is assigned the role "Child1".

    32=HOH​||0​||33=Child1
  2. The date of the event, in GEDCOM 5.5 standard format ("nn mmm yyyy") or partial dates like "mmm yyyy" and "yyyy". You may use dates preceded by these modifiers: before, bef, after, aft, say, about, abt, circa, ca, after, aft.

    Examples: "4 Jul 1776", "bef Feb 1927", "say 1900"

    Add Events will not convert all versions of legitimate date values to regular dates. If Add Events cannot convert a value to a regular date, it will store the value as an irregular date.

    Leave this field empty if you do not want to supply a date.

  3. Sort date for the event. Same rules as the event date except the program will use the date if you leave the sort date empty.
  4. Place of the event. If you want to specify a place, you must enter a series of 10 subfields, in the following format:
    Addressee​$!&Detail​$!&City​$!&County​$!&State​$!&Country​$!&Postal​$!&Phone​$!&
    LatLong​$!&Temple​$!&

    $!& is a special delimiter once used within TMG to split data into subfields. As with the tab characters that separate the data items, if a field is missing, you must still supply the $!&.

    I chose $!& rather than || because TMG allows || within the Detail field.

    If you do not want to specify a place, leave the field blank.

  5. A memo, if needed. Leave empty if there is no memo. The memo can not include carriage returns or tabs.
  6. Source number, for an existing source in your TMG database. If you do not want to create a citation, leave this item empty or specify 0 (zero).
  7. Surety, if you have specified a source number. A surety value, if specified, should be a single character. The program will determine which data items have been supplied, and it will copy the single character you supply in the appropriate (12DPM) surety field. So--a single surety character applies to all the data items, and you can't vary the surety from item to item. Leave empty for no surety.
  8. Citation Details, if you have specified a source number. Leave blank if there is no citation detail.

Example File

I have created an example file to help you understand the file format. You may want to right-click (or whatever is required in your browser) to download the text file and open it with a text editor on your computer.

Copyright © 2023 by John Cardinal