Common Data Elements

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This article describes common data elements: fields and structures, that are encountered in creating most Facts and Events concerning an individual or family.

Type (TYPE)
Type categorizes facts and events. It is mandatory while using generic FACT or EVEN tags, and useful in some other cases. In general Type is not structured, and what you put here depends on context, for example Ordination of a buddhist monk can be lay or priest type, and Marriage can be religious or civil type, etc. Some common types are pre-defined and presented as choices.
Date (DATE)
Main article: Dates
Dates must be entered in English, even if displayed in other languages, for example 12 Jan 1824. The user interface provides a calendar helper and will attempt to guess common date formats, for example if you enter 2/17/2003 or 17.2.2003, it will be corectly transformed into 12 FEB 2003. The Date field accepts both points in time and intervals, as well as approximate dates. Read the Dates article for details.
Time (TIME)
Time complements date when important, for example when describing the Birth event. Enter time as hh:mm:ss, for example 14:24:15, using 24 hour clock (military time in the US). You can skip seconds and/or minutes, if unknown.
Place (PLACE)
Main article: Place data
The convention requires that places are entered with fulll details, including the city or village, county, state or other higher level division, and country. This convention not only helps identify the place on a map, but is also used by PGV for some useful things like providing a hierarchy of places, displaying locations on Google maps and more. Read about the places in a separate article on Place data.
Address (ADDR)
The Address sctructure is used wherever the address information is relevant, for example in describing place of birth, marriage, education, etc. Enter the address just like it would appear on a mailing label, using multiple lines. There is another, structured form of Address, with fields for City, State, Code etc, which will be displayed by PGV if found in Gedcom. Address is also part of a Residence (RESI) fact for individual and family; it is recomended that the Residence fact is used to note the personal/family address information. The Address structure has also tags to indicate phone, fax, www and email address. PGV is flexible in reading the data, and it will also display the address, phone, email etc. if attached to individual directly (not in Residence structure).
Agency (AGNC)
Agency is used wherever an institution is mentioned in describing a fact ot event. It can be a school or university for an Education fact, the employer for Occupation fact, etc.
Associate (ASSO)
Associate is a person performing a role in the described event. It can be a priest, witness, best man, godmother, friend, etc., and may be part of the family or not. Keeping with Gedcom structure, this person has her/his own record, and it is only mentioned as associate (with corresponding role) by the event. In order to be so referenced the person must already exist in the database. Adding an unlinked person comes handy here (you need Admin privileges to do it) if the Associate is not part of the family.
Source Citation (SOUR)
Main article: Proper use of sources
If possible, you should always quote the source of the information. The Source Citation structure helps you find and existing Source record or create one, and add details for this citation, including citation details (page in the surce), relevant text and even a Media Object. For details see article on Proper use of sources.
Note (NOTE)
Can be attached to virtually anything - a place to add notes and comments related to the item in question (person, fact, object, etc.).
Multimedia Object (OBJE)
Media enliven and illustrate your family tree. You can create a new Media Object or make a reference to an existing one. See Adding / Editing Media for details.
Restriction (RESN)
Main article: Setting a Restriction
In addition to PGV global privacy settings, you can set restrictions on each event adn fact, preventing others from editing or seeing the event. See Setting a Restriction for details.