It would be most helpful, to be able to record a general description and some simple notes within each rmtree file.
You can add the “Preparer” information via “Settings”, so some additional fields here to be able to describe the project and its purpose would be great. If this information would show in the “File Properties” in the “Home” page that would be great.
“Tree Description”, “Tree Notes” for example.
I am currently adding this information as Tasks in a “00-General” or “00-Read Me” task folder, but it may not be obvious to other users to go looking in “Tasks” for that kind of information.
Agree totally. I also want to describe the working assumptions and conventions I’ve used in compiling my database. For example : how I’ve chosen to record place names (at the time of the event or today’s name?), likewise monetary values, how sources and citations have been named / grouped / split, how names are shown in reports (birth, married, casual) etc.
Whilst these things may be discernible to a genealogist and RM user, they are not so obvious to the untrained eye. If one of the main purposes of our research is to pass on knowledge to others - MyRootsMagic website and Shareable Drive spring to mind - then easy reference to such contextual information is surely beneficial.
Another example would be any social history background which might help interpret the lives we record. I don’t mean dates from history (world events, battles, etc), I mean things like : what was actually meant by the legal terms ‘imbecile’, ‘idiot’ or ‘lunatic’ which sometimes appeared on old UK census returns? What was the system of marriage bonds? Why did so many people emigrate to America?
At the moment these things tend to get hidden from general sight if they’re recorded against a single person/fact/place etc. What’s needed is a database-wide, and readily accessible, space to store such information.
All of this would require no more than text notes which the user would write and name as they wished. I don’t know but I wouldn’t have thought RM need to do a lot of programming definition here. Seems to me a good way of achieving what we want would be to add a new item on the Page Menu (I would call it ‘Policies’ to make it clear it’s important), from where you could access a list of named Notes. All that’s then needed is the ability to add, edit/view or delete Notes. Simple!!
Actually, the contents of a RootsMagic database are incredibly boring: names, dates and places. That tree stuff should be at the end. The file should include extensive room for stories and other items like, look how young that bride was, obvious errors in the records, and chapters about each family group, including areas where there may be a connection if more evidence is uncovered.