Events in Gramps

Here an overview of the predefined events in GRAMPS are given, with their meaning.

Events and event types

Events form a core concept in genealogical research. For communication/translation/portability it is important that the terminology is well defined.

In GRAMPS you denote to an event an event type. This is usefull as it allows to group events to meaning in a common denominator, the event type. On creation of an event, you must select the event type. You can select one of the predefined events, or create a custom event by just typing a name.

Be carefull with making to many event types, it might be better practise to group events under the same event type, and use the description field to give extra nuance.

Now we first give an overview of predefined events types in GRAMPS, and next provide a list for event types which are not in this list

Event types available in GRAMPS

Adopted

This type if for events related to adoption. Typically the event is added to the person being adopted, with this person playing the primary role. Administers, civil servants and the parents can be added to the event with other event roles

The adoption event can be added for the process of adoption (which can take several months), but also for the placeholder of a adoption certificate you found as a source.

On adding the person to the family he is adopted into, one should also set the relationship to the parents to adopted. This doubles the event information somewhat but is used for some reports.

Event types not available in GRAMPS

Draft lottery

Draft lottery was a general practise to determine who should do military service. Before the advent of a professional army, it was not feasible to train all young boys, so a selection was needed: who should join the force and who should not. To make this fair, a lottery was generally organised to which all boys of certain age had to participate. The documents of these lotteries form an interesting source of genealogical information, as all boys where required to participate.

This event type should be used for all events surrounding the draft lottery:

• the lottery itself. This happened in a place on a specific date.
• legal documents referring to the lottery. Rich boys who had to join the army due to the lottery generally paid commoners to go in their place instead. Legal contracts where drafted for this.
• desertion documents concerning the lottery. Many people having to go in the army due to the lottery, immigrated abroad, with the consequence that they are flagged as deserters in their home country. In genealogical research this event can be very difficult to trace, as deserters often changed their name