For the principal person (the couple), I have this in sentence template of the Fact Type for Residence (family) :
They resided< [Desc]>< [PlaceDetails]>< in [Place:Plain]>< [Date]>.
For a different role that I want to use for the children, I have this sentence:
[Person] resided< [Desc]>< [PlaceDetails]>< in [Place:Plain]>< [Date]>.
When I go to Edit Person to see how the sentence reads for the child, the name of the father is shown in the sentence - not the name of the child.
If I change the Fact Type for the child’s role to this:
[Person:HeShe] resided< [Desc]>< [PlaceDetails]>< in [Place:Plain]>< [Date]>.
the sentence for the female child reads “He resided…” instead of “She resided…”
I have “Use description field” check marked and double-checked that I have selected the proper role.
What am I doing wrong, or isn’t it possible to do what I want?
For an individual fact, the person owning the fact is referred to as [Person].
For family facts, the couple who own the fact is referred to as [Couple] and can be separated out [Husband] and [Wife] if need be.
Your question was specific to family facts, but the answer really is common to both family and individual facts when they are shared via a role. In the role sentence, you need [ThisPerson] for the person assigned the role and a [Person] variable or [Couple] variable in a role sentence refer to the person or couple owning the original fact.
The reason the [Person:HeShe] is picking up “He” for a female child is because the Person part of Person:HeShe is referring to the father and he is male. I’ve never tried it, but I suspect [ThisPerson:HeShe] could be used to pick up a pronoun for the person owning the role sentence.