How the Heredis data is structured

Heredis manages all types of data related to genealogical research and organizes them logically, in order to deepen your understanding of your ancestors.

Persons

Every individual mentioned in the genealogy file: ancestor, contemporary, witness, is known as a Person.

For each person included in the genealogy file, specify:

•  Identity (surname, give names, nickname, occupation, etc.). If you wish to enter information that is not proposed by Heredis, create your own user field.
• Characteristics known as flags: childless, unmarried, confidential, etc.
• A free note.
• Each person is numbered automatically according to his/her position in the genealogy but you may assign a personal number based on other criteria.
• Various events in the person’s life, expanding his/her personal story, and citing sources of information.
• Media (photos, videos or other documents) to illustrate the person, unions or events.
• Personal ties, apart from family ties, Heredis allows noting that people had a special bond. Include friends, tutors, mentors. Create «witness» links for those present at or quoted at an event.

Also see The different data fields and Add a person with no direct connection.

Relationships

As you build your family genealogy, you create new persons with their appropriate relationship. Any relationship can be established retrospectively.

Relationships are of two types: the parent-child and spouse relationships.

Other family ties and the position of any person in the genealogy are determined automatically from these basic links. To create brothers and sisters, you have only to create new children for parents.

• Create direct family links: father, mother or child.
• Create a spouse link (whether the union is official or not). Specify the status of the family: the spouses are married, separated, divorced…? When a person has been married several times, Heredis will number them for easy access, as well as to the children who resulted from them.
• Assign a note, pictures and events to each family created in your genealogy.

For more details, see Add parents, Add spouses, and Add children.

Events

To record important events in the lives of your ancestors, you may note person events (christening, military service, will…), or events shared with a spouse, called family events (engagement, residence, etc.). If you cannot find events that are appropriated, create your own definition of events.

• For each event, enter all known details (date, time, place, age stated on the record…) and add a note relating to the event.
• Specify the status of the source of information (No search record, Search Record or Untraceable Record), allowing you to edit a report of all sources to be researched.
• Declare an event as private, not to be exported or published.
• Illustrate the event with various media (photos, documents).
• Assign a source to the event, to record the origin of your information.
• Assign witnesses to the event (witnesses, registrars, godparents, etc.).

A visual cue  showing the status of main events (Birth or Baptism – Marriage – Death and Burial) appears in the Persons and Branches panels, as well as in the status bar and in the Search screen.

To define the appearance of the icon, select the criteria that you feel are relevant: No missing, approximate or incomplete date – Place mentioned – Source mentioned – No ‘Search Record’ status in the Preferences screen. According to the criteria checked by you are met or not, the bar symbolizing the event in the icon  is in the top, middle or bottom.

In this icon  , for example, the Birth event is partially filled, the Marriage event is not specified, the Death event is complete.

For more details, see Input events and Heredis’ Preferences.

Sources

Heredis may assign any number of information sources to each event.

Each source is an independent element, which is then assigned to one or more events. Heredis allows you the flexibility to create a source and then assign it to the events in question, or at the same time to create both the source and its link to the event.

For further details, see Sources, The different mode for Sources & Citations.

Witnesses or participant

Each person involved in the lives of your ancestors can be entered, be part of the family or not. Heredis will assign persons to events (the witnesses of a marriage, the registrar for a birth, a relative present at the ceremony for a decoration etc.).

• Creating a witness or participant assigns an individual to an event concerning another person. A witness may be assigned to one or more events, and each event can have one or more witnesses or participant.
• Anyone entered in your genealogy plays a role, regardless of its importance and the degree of kinship. When you assign a person to an event, specify the type of link (witness, godfather, declarant…), the age of the linked person at the time of the event, and enter if necessary a suitable comment on the link.
• The information entered for the witness or participant is the same as for any other individual: identity, flags, notes, media…

For more details, see Add witnesses.

Linked Persons

Sometimes we know of a relationship which existed between two people, without being able to assign it to any event. You know that Paul is the uncle of John, but you do not know if he is the brother of the father or mother of John, or the husband of an aunt. You cannot create this link as a kinship. Create a personal link (Sundry Links) between Paul and John until you find the information you need to create the kinship.

• Create linked persons to declare a relationship between one individual and another person. Every individual may be linked to several other persons.
• The name of the link is determined by choosing the type of relationship and meaning of the link. You can also add a comment to the link.

For more details, see Add linked persons.

Media

You have photos or documents; use them to complement and illustrate your family tree.

You can assign a digital image (photograph, signature, seal, etc.) sound recordings (interviews, speeches), videos or any other type of file (document prepared with a word processor or spreadsheet, PDF, HTML, etc.) to any data in your file.

• Each item of media is identified by its name, to which you can add a date and a note.
• You can make any media private if you do not want it to be broadcast.
• Media may be assigned to all types of data: person, family, event, source, name, occupation, place.
• The number of media assigned to any data is without limit and every item of media may be linked to several different data.
• All media are listed and may be managed in the Media Index or in the Photo tool.

For more details, see Media and Photo Tool.

Surnames – Given Names – Occupations – Places

In your genealogy, you will have names, occupations and places that sharpen your interest. When you know more about them (photo of a place, story of a given name etc.), Heredis allows you to keep this information by completing each item.

The surnames, given names, occupations and places that you use in your genealogical file are automatically stored in the Indexes.

Indexes are powerful tools that play several roles: retrieve data by how they are used, link different data by themselves, illustrate your genealogy by management of your documents. Thus, you enrich your genealogy and understand all the better the lives of your ancestors.

• In each Index, the surnames and given names, occupations and places may be illustrated by a note or by media.
• The Indexes can merge similar data. They allow you to declare variants within the same category of data: such spelling of a name is a variant of another name in the file, such given name is a local variant of another given name, such a name is a variant of another occupation saved in the file.

For more details see Indexes: generalities.