I’ve started building my family tree from scratch again now I’m getting used to working with Gramps and discovering the possibilities. Most other programs/apps were restricted in how much info you could register, Gramps offers more, and in my opinion better options. But…
To prevent cluttering, how detailed do you register data? For example, I was wondering about registering education (every school / education or just the last known?), job history (again, every job or the current / last one?), military service detailed or not? Etc…
I keep thinking that every bit of detail brings a family tree to live, make it a family history story. But I don’t want to make it to cluttered and I realize that getting this kind of info on earlier generations will become increasingly difficult.
So, what’s your opinion on this? How detailed do you collect/register data?
As you say, earlier generations become lost in the mist of time. Only recent generations can bring their side information to make a lively picture of an individual (“side” information is everything beyond birth-date-marriage = generic relationship in Gramps).
I don’t think this level of detail clutters a family tree because you have it only about a few persons.
What you describe are events. As with any event, you can record either an exact or approximate date. Gramps offers “duration” events (as opposed to “instant” events) but the concept is not well formalised and it is difficult to choose the correct type between an uncertainty on an “instant” event (birth occurred between Christmas and Easter) and a duration (lived at Park Street between 1900 and 1914).
The most important, in my opinion, is to record “evanescent” data like anecdotes reported by aged relatives, whether they are true or embellished memories. This family oral tradition is not written in books. Unfortunately, you have to make a choice to which person(s) you’ll link the corresponding notes. It is not always straightforward because tales often involve several relatives. You must also take into account that the story may be seriously distorted or biased (I have several examples where written evidence contradicted the tale in the end; but explaining the bias is also very interesting by itself and reveals unexpected facts).
There is an important point from my point of view. I consider Gramps as a tool for entering (and searching) data, not a viewer. There are two reasons for that.
I am very reluctant to give access to the raw database because everybody would have write privilege and could damage the DB
Gramps does not show aggregated data: data is spread over several records/window
I prefer to prepare a NarrativeWeb report (HTML site) which I augment with many interactive Family Lines graphs showing various aspects of the tree. This is much more synthetic than what is basically in Gramps. Clicking on a node in a graph jumps to the person/family page where, once again, everything related to this person/family is shown together.
PS: among the details I record are all the names of a person along his/her life. The names can come from spelling errors by the clerk, personal choice of said person, common designation by others, … I meticulously attach a time reference to these variations (and a citation) to see if there is a pattern, demonstrating a voluntary action, or not, random errors due to acculturation.
And I absolutely agree that “evanescent” data like anecdotes reported by aged relatives are really important. I’ve got a video interview with my now deceased grandfather with him telling stories about his time as a railroad worker. Great stories although often a bit or more bending the truth. But such a part of him, the person he was and my memories of him.
Gramps is a great tool for data management indeed. But I find the report functionality of gramps also very good. One of the reasons I’m using gramps.
As for “interactive” viewing of the data, I use humo-gen to produce my website.
But such a part of him, the person he was and my memories of him.