Event/Fact Entity

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Overview

An Event (also called a Fact) entity represents a single occurrence in time, place, and context that is relevant to the family archive. Events can be lifecycle events (birth, marriage, death), attribute facts (occupation, residence), or custom events.

File Format

All GENEALOGIX files use entity type keys at the top level:

# Any .glx file (commonly in events/ directory)
events:
  event-birth-john-1850:
    type: birth
    date: "1850-01-15"
    place: place-leeds
    participants:
      - person: person-john-smith
        role: subject

Key Points:

• Entity ID is the map key (event-birth-john-1850)
• IDs can be descriptive or random, 1-64 alphanumeric/hyphens

Core Concepts

Lifecycle Events

Standard events that occur in a person's life:

• Birth, Death, Marriage, Divorce, Engagement, Adoption
• Baptism, Burial, Cremation, Christening

Attributes

Characteristic facts about a person:

• Occupation, Residence, Education, Religion, Title
• Nationality, Ethnicity

Custom Events

Domain-specific events:

• Military service, Migration/Immigration, Land transactions, Legal proceedings

Properties

Required Properties

Property	Type	Description
Entity ID (map key)	string	Unique identifier (alphanumeric/hyphens, 1-64 chars)
type	string	Event type (birth, death, marriage, occupation, etc.)

Optional Properties

Property	Type	Description
date	string or object	Date as string or object with fuzzy support
date.value	string	Main date expression (if object)
date.range_start	string	Fuzzy date range start (if object)
date.range_end	string	Fuzzy date range end (if object)
place	string	Reference to Place entity
participants	array	People involved in the event
participant.person	string	Reference to Person entity
participant.role	string	Role of participant
participant.notes	string	Notes about participant
value	string	Value for attribute facts (e.g., "blacksmith" for occupation)
properties	object	Vocabulary-defined properties for the event
age_text	string	Age at time of event
cause_text	string	Cause for event
description	string	Narrative description
notes	string	Free-form notes

Date Structure

Events support fuzzy dates using multiple formats:

date:
  value: "about 1850"
  range_start: "1845"
  range_end: "1855"

Participant Structure

participants:
  - person: "person-abc123de"
    role: "principal"
    notes: "The bride"
  - person: "person-def456gh"
    role: "officiant"
    notes: "The minister"
  - person: "person-ghi789jk"
    role: "witness"

Event Types

Event types are defined in the archive's vocabularies/event-types.glx file. Each archive includes standard types and can define custom types as needed.

See Vocabularies - Event Types for:

• Complete list of standard event types
• How to add custom event types
• Vocabulary file structure and examples
• Validation requirements

Usage Patterns

Birth Event Example

# events/event-birth.glx
events:
  event-birth-john:
    type: birth
    date: "1850-01-15"
    place: place-leeds
    participants:
      - person: person-john-smith
        role: principal

Complex Event with Multiple Participants

# events/event-marriage.glx
events:
  event-marriage-john-mary:
    type: marriage
    date: "1875-05-10"
    place: place-stpauls
    participants:
      - person: person-john-smith
        role: groom
      - person: person-mary-jones
        role: bride
      - person: person-thomas-brown
        role: witness
        notes: "First witness"
      - person: person-sarah-white
        role: witness
        notes: "Second witness"
      - person: person-reverend-black
        role: officiant
    description: "Marriage celebrated at St Paul's Cathedral"

File Organization

Note: File organization is flexible. Entities can be in any .glx file with any directory structure. The example below shows one-entity-per-file organization, which is recommended for collaborative projects (better git diffs) but not required.

Event files are typically stored in a events/ directory organized by type:

events/
├── lifecycle/
│   ├── event-birth-001.glx
│   ├── event-marriage-001.glx
│   ├── event-death-001.glx
│   └── event-adoption-001.glx
├── attributes/
│   ├── event-occupation-001.glx
│   ├── event-residence-001.glx
│   └── event-religion-001.glx
└── custom/
    ├── event-military-001.glx
    └── event-migration-001.glx

Or embedded directly in person records as nested structures.

GEDCOM Mapping

Most events map directly to GEDCOM tags:

GLX Type	GEDCOM Tag	Notes
birth	INDI.BIRT	Individual birth
death	INDI.DEAT	Individual death
marriage	FAM.MARR	Family marriage
divorce	FAM.DIV	Family divorce
residence	INDI.RESI	Residence attribute
occupation	INDI.OCCU	Occupation attribute

Multi-Participant Events

For events with multiple participants, GLX uses the ASSO (Associate) tag pattern:

0 FAM
1 MARR
2 DATE 10 MAY 1875
2 PLAC Leeds, Yorkshire, England
1 ASSO person-witness1
2 RELA Witness
1 ASSO person-vicar
2 RELA Officiant

Participant Roles

Participant roles (principal, witness, officiant, etc.) are defined in the archive's vocabularies/participant-roles.glx file.

See Vocabularies - Participant Roles for:

• Complete list of standard participant roles
• How to add custom roles
• Vocabulary file structure and examples
• Which roles apply to events vs. relationships

Validation Rules

• Event type must be defined in vocabularies/event-types.glx
• At least one participant must be present (except for attribute-type events)
• Place, if referenced, must exist in the archive
• All person references must point to existing Person entities
• Date formats must follow genealogical date conventions
• Participant roles must be defined in vocabularies/participant-roles.glx

Confidence and Provenance

All supporting evidence for an event is stored in Assertion Entities that reference the event in their subject field. This keeps the event record clean while allowing for a rich, explicit evidence trail.

See Also

• Person Entity - Contains event references
• Assertion Entity - Provides evidence for events
• Place Entity - Geographic context for events
• Relationship Entity - Multi-person events