On 5/25/2012 11:16 PM Jim Ramaley submitted the following: > John, > > I am not in favor of structural changes to a program to accommodate a perceived need when that need can be easily handled with a work-around. > > The issue seems to be that folks want to use the Location field in ways that were not intended. > > For example, some want it to be a history lesson by including former names of a location. I recall seeing one some years ago who wanted to include the fact that many current-day European locations were, historically, part of the Holy Roman Empire. > > Some want the location to be GPS exact and while that might be technically possible today, it is not nearly as useful as saying something like "Schlosser's Church, Unionville/Neff, North Whitehall Twp, Lehigh Co, PA . > > I use the location field to help a reader or fellow researcher in understanding enough of the location of a given event to visit or to do further research. When I go into the field I find that your report "Locations with Events" to be of great value. But if locations were so specific that they are unique to a given individual, this report would be much less useful. > > There are at least two ways that greater precision can be given in specifying the location for an event. > > 1. Events have a source field. The source screen has several fields that could be populated to make the citation more geographically precise. For example, if one wants to specify the section, lot, and plot number for a grave, there are comment fields, text fields, and page / reel number fields [that's what I use]. These print out on reports and you would want to cite a source anyway. > > 2. If a location has "changed" because of political activity (example: a new county is formed out of an old one) it usually takes only a few characters out of the 100 available to so indicate. For example, I have ancestors buried in what is now Lehigh County, PA, but at the time of the probate of the wills the county was Northampton. If necessary for understanding, I use "Heidelberg Twp, Lehigh (formerly Northampton) Co, PA" > > I have read that some folks don't want to use abbreviations because they can be confusing. I have found that to be the case only where the political subdivision is not known to the researcher and has been left blank. For example, here in Adams County, PA the westernmost township is Franklin Twp. The next county to our west is also named Franklin. So, giving a citation to "Franklin" but omitting the political subdivision is certainly confusing if citing an event in this area. > > Bottom line: I have 8666 locations in my database. Average length is 27 with a standard deviation of 9. Largest location has 98 characters with only 10 having a length of 70 or more (and those 10 could have been shortened by abbreviations if I saw the value is so doing. > > Jim Ramaley > Gettysburg, PA > > If all the fields in BK are at the max allowed by GEDCOM, ( http://www.phpgedview.net/ged551-5.pdf ) I suggest leaving them alone. Much data is swapped with others around the globe who may be using some other program than BK. IMHO it would seem that GEDCOM is the deciding factor on field length.

Dave, thank you for mentioning this. It threw me into a short-lived panic as I have used the BURIAL event more than when a person was first buried in cemetery #1 and their remains later moved to cemetery #2. I just now checked the group sheet and register reports (2 reports I use most) and both BURIAL events show in the order listed on the EDIT screen. In the case I tested I had a date for the first burial but not have one for the second. I had them listed on the EDIT screen in cemetery #1, cemetery #2 order. Is there a better way to record when a body is moved from one cemetery to another? ----- From: Dave Bradshaw <davebradshaw@sympatico.ca> Subject: Re: [BK] Number of Characters Allowed Date: Sun, 27 May 2012 14:03:11 -0400 References: <579021D4621D4957A2FF7C6B8CC13957@Blackie> In-Reply-To: <579021D4621D4957A2FF7C6B8CC13957@Blackie> Carol: I know you can do what you say and it shows properly on the edit screen. Are you sure it will print that way say on a group sheet, I seem to remember that it printed only one instance of say buried. Give a try and see if its OK. Dave Bradshaw ----

On Sun, 27 May 2012 11:43:46 -0700, lyn <eswan2453@netscape.net> wrote: >Dave, thank you for mentioning this. It threw me into a short-lived >panic as I have used the BURIAL event more than when a person was first >buried in cemetery #1 and their remains later moved to cemetery #2. > >I just now checked the group sheet and register reports (2 reports I use >most) and both BURIAL events show in the order listed on the EDIT >screen. In the case I tested I had a date for the first burial but not >have one for the second. I had them listed on the EDIT screen in >cemetery #1, cemetery #2 order. > >Is there a better way to record when a body is moved from one cemetery >to another? Foir me it is strange, but I have to ask. Is it normal that one do reburry a dead person after several years. ? -- Otto Jørgensen http://www.bkwin.info/ All email is checked by NORTON