That's a great idea. I hope you'll add it to the official wish list. Bill ----- Original Message ----- From: "Donald R. Newcomb" <DRNewcomb@attglobal.net> To: <FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001 6:55 PM Subject: [FO] Wish List Item > Continuing the discussion of how to model Family and Local History > relationships, as opposed to strictly Genealogical relationships within FOW, > I'd like to add this item to the wish list for FOW v.20. It is my hope that > these ideas can contribute to making FOW a more useful and general tool for > the recording and study of all types of History, not strictly Genealogy. > > FOW presently has user definable facts. However, all the relationships > between people are predefined. I've had many occasions in my experience > studying Genealogy and Family History where I would like to create new types > of relationships and groups. For instance, I've seen cases where there > seemed to be a lot of intermarriage between various families but couldn't > figure out why until I realized that all the men were members of the same > Masonic lodge. I think it would be a great feature to be able to create an > object (e.g. "Beau Gest Lodge F.&.A.O.M") along with the rules and > characteristics for that class of object (Fraternal Lodge) that would allow > me to attach individuals to that object as "members". > > Under this schema, the present FOW object classes, Person, Family, etc. > would become some of the pre-defined classes supplied with FOW, just as > Birth, Death, Marriage are some of the predefined fact types supplied with > the program. However, the user would be able to define new object classes > according to the dictates of his research. I understand that this may not be > a feature that everyone would be able to use (or even understand), however, > I think it would be a great boon to historical research. > > Donald R. Newcomb > DRNewcomb (at) attglobal (dot) net >