When I run a narrative report for a married individual, the marriage fact does not appear. Neither in RM7 nor RM8. I must assume this is intended but what is the thinking behind not including it?
Can anyone suggest a simple workaround if I want it included?
GM
The marriage fact does appear in the descendant reports. Specifically which report are you running where it doesn’t appear?
I just ran the Narrative Report, and the marriage fact is included.
You may be referring to the format of things like RM’s Descendant Narrative reports. Marriage facts do appear, as do other facts for a couple such as Divorce and Marriage Banns. But facts for a couple appear in a separate section of the the narrative than to facts for each individual. A typical family entry has four sections: 1) facts for one spouse, 2) facts for the couple, 3) facts for the other spouse, 4) list of children in the family.
Is that what you are talking about? If so, you can get Marriage facts also to appear in section #1 and section #3 of narrative reports by sharing the Marriage fact with both parties to the marriage.
RM’s format for these reports is following genealogical standards. The reports are not an error on the part of RM.
I assume you mean #3 to be facts for the other spouse. However in the NGSQ report, sections 2 and 3 are really just one section. Like this:
" 1. Charles Jeffries Emery** was born on 19 Mar 1903. He died on 8 Oct 1964 at the age of 61. He was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri.
Charles Jeffries Emery and Manda “Mandy” Seals were married on 13 Jan 1925. Manda “Mandy” Seals , daughter of Jasper Newton Seals and Margaret Ann Alexander, was born on 11 Sep 1900 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. She died on 21 Dec 1955 at the age of 55 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. She was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. Sections 2 and 3 together
Charles Jeffries Emery and Manda Seals had the following children:
2 i. Charles Henry Emery** was born on 12 Jun 1926 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. He lived in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas in 1955. He died on 13 Oct 1982 at the age of 56 in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri. Charles was buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Maryville, Nodaway County, Missouri."
Yes, I had a typo. I meant “other spouse” rather than “other couple”. I’ll fix it in my original post, but I can’t fix it in your quote of my message.
Your example actually does have all four sections. It’s just that section #2 is only one sentence long and there is no white space between section #2 and section #3. Instead, section #3 continues on the same line as section #2.
Me experience may be different than yours, so let me explain further. My experience with RM7 is that there is what I consider to be a bug in that RM7 does not begin section #3 on a new line to make it into what visually appears to be a new section. That’s why you see section #2 and section #3 as the same section. Your example must be from RM7. If it’s from RM8, then I’m very puzzled (see below). The bug (or the broken as designed feature) was never fixed. My workaround was to terminate the note for the last couple fact with a double carriage return. That started section #3 on a new line and also provided a blank line between section #2 and section #3.
My experience with RM8 is that it fixes the RM7 bug so that section #3 does begin on a new line and is separated from section #2 with a blank line. That’s why I think your example must be from RM7. I will have to remove all my extra carriage returns at the end of the last couple fact for each couple after I convert to RM8. But just to make things interesting, RM8 does start section #2 on a new line but fails to separate section #1 from section #2 with a blank line. If this bug is never fixed, then I will have to add a single carriage return to the end of the note for the last individual fact for each person in order to get the blank line between section #1 and section #2.
Given my oft stated position in regards to the hot mess that is RM8, it is indeed a snippet from the RM7 report.
I am aware of the sections that you mention, however some people may not be cognizant of them and get confused since in the example, there is no clear division between what you label as parts 2 and 3.
If I recall correctly, the official NGSQ formatting puts your parts 1-3 in one section. With no breaks, so that word technically make both RM7 and RM8 incorrect. I will go verify this tomorrow as it has been a really long time since I read through their requirements.
Please post what you find out. My experience reading the the NGSQ and NEHGS standards has been frustrating. The only things I have been able to find have been the numbering conventions. Other aspects of the formatting seem not to be well defined. If I have missed something in that regard, I would love to become better informed.
I was thinking a little further about my use of the word “section”, and I really am curious what the NGSQ and NEHGS standards says about formatting. In any case, a better word than “section” might be “timeline”. Whether the information is physically separated into sections with whitespace or not, it remains the case that there are three separate timelines.
There are two things I like about sharing the marriage fact with the both spouses. One is the thing I mentioned before about the marriage fact showing up in the individual timeline for each spouse. The other is that if the second spouse has multiple spouses, all the marriages for the second spouse show up in the second spouse’s timeline.
Using latest/last RM7 on Windows 10 PC.
I open the database with family view of the root person (myself)
I select myself.
I click Reports/Narrative Reports…
Report type is Ancestors only and set to 1 generation
Under Descendants everything is unchecked (I don’t know what they mean)
I leave Options unchanged and click Generate Report.
The narrative report prints a paragraph sentence for all facts except marriage.
Am I missing something? I am a relatively amateur genealogist.
Thank you for your interest.
GM
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Only that the Ancestor Narrative reports are always being constructed as if the selected individual is a singular discreet individual whose birth (and those of any siblings) is considered the end result (ie. disregards spouses and decendants info entirely).
If you are the Root person of the report, your ancestors go up the line starting with your parents. In this scenario, you are Generation 1, so choosing to set the report to 1 Generation you should be seeing yourself only. Set the report to 3 Generations; you should see yourself, your parents, and your four grandparents. BTW, descendants go down the line, so if you are married and have children, they are your descendants. You and your siblings are descendants of your parents etc.
Yes, of course.
I just want a single sheet report (one generation) of a selected person (myself in this example) but I expect to see my marriage in the list of life events.
I have tried it for several other married people and still the marriage is not included.
Pop
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If you are doing a 1 generation Ancestor report, you are not going to get a marriage. 1 generation is going to give you ONLY the selected person. If you want spouses, change to the Descendant report for, either NGSQ or NEHGS. You can also use Family Group Sheets, although you will need to print one for the root person and each spouse. The FGS will also give you kids of each couple. I suppose you could also do an Individual Summary depending on what you want too.
The report I describe above contains ALL the life events of the person selected. Birth, Christening, Education, Residences, Occupation, Election, and if appropriate, death and burial.
But no mention of the person’s marriage or indeed, marriages.
I simply wonder why that is so. It seems illogical. I seek the logic.
Pop
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Marriage is a shared fact; there is no one else with which to share that fact.
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For better or worse, the logic is that individuals don’t have marriages. Couples have marriages. If you produce reports in such a way that a couple is not printed, then marriages will not appear.
As a practical matter, you can get marriages into the timeline for an individual by sharing the marriage fact with both parties to the marriage.
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…and if you share the marriage fact as suggested by Jerry, you will definitely want to create a sentence for the roles, otherwise the report sounds a little awkward.
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Thanks to all.
I always thought that marriage was a complicated matter 
Pop
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The role I define for the Marriage fact is Individual_Marriage. I never use the [Individual_Marriage] variable in the Marriage sentence itself. It would make no sense to do so.
Remembering that I use point form sentences, the sentence I use for the Individual_Marriage role is as follows. This is what makes the marriage show up in the timeline for each of the two individuals who are parties to the marriage.
{cr} (this is where I type in the actual carriage return character using the Enter key)
<b>Marriage: </b> <[Date:Plain],><< [PlaceDetails]>< [Place:Plain],>>< age [ThisPerson:Age:plain],> to <%[Wife:full]|[Husband:full]>.
I don’t use Place Details anymore since I include the name of the church or other such place where the marriage took place in the main [Place] field. But I haven’t taken [PlaceDetails] out of the template. It doesn’t hurt anything for it to be there.
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