Register Report

What Is a Register Report?

Register Numbering

Creating a Register Report
For Whom?
How Many Generations?
Pruning

The Narrative Option

Layout

Miscellaneous Layout Options

Parents of Spouse
Index
Duplication and Convergence

Sources
Pictures
Title
Destination
Privacy Filter

What Is a Register Report?

The Register report is named for the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. For many people, this report is the preferred document for genealogy texts. Reunion creates a Register style report where a narrative paragraph is created for each person, beginning with a selected person and including all descendants up to a specified number of generations. The numbering system is described as follows: each descendant is assigned a unique number, beginning with 1 for the source, followed by his children as 2, 3, 4, etc. In the body of the report, children in a family are listed with lowercase Roman numerals. The entire report is divided by generations.

Here is an example page from a register report as it would appear in Reunion's Book feature...

Register Numbering: a diagram

Register Numbering: a text version

1. source person
   2. source person's 1st child
   3. source person's 2nd child
      5. source person's 2nd child's 1st child
      6. source person's 2nd child's 2nd child
      7. source person's 2nd child's 3rd child
         10. source person's 2nd child's 3rd child's 1st child
         11. source person's 2nd child's 3rd child's 2nd child
   4. source person's 3rd child
      8. source's 3rd child's 1st child
      9. source's 3rd child's 2nd child

Creating a Register Report

To create a Register report...

  1. Click Reports in the navbar.
  2. Click Register in the list of reports.

A panel with several options appears in the center of Reunion's window.

For Whom?

By default, names of the husband and wife of the current family appear when you select Reports > Register. Either can be selected as the principal ancestor to begin the report.

To create a Register report for a different person, you can select (single-click) any name in any sidebar and the "Who" section will be updated. Or, you can return to the family view and navigate until you find the desired starting person.

When creating a Register report, Reunion will start with the person in the "Who" section and move "forward" in time. It gathers information about all the descendants of this person (and all of his/her children with all of his/her spouses) until it reaches the end of a lineage or the specified ending generation (2 to 99).

How Many Generations?

To set the size of a Register report, use the up/down arrows next to the Generations field or type a number into the field. Register reports can be from 2 to 99 generations. The size — in number of characters — is limited only by the amount of available disk space.

Pruning

The Reports > Register panel provides two check-box buttons for pruning large Register reports by including only...

These options provide the means to prune what otherwise may become very large reports.

The Narrative Option

The Register report is traditionally (and by default) a document in the "narrative" style, presenting information (names, events, facts, etc.) in sentence and paragraph form (as if it were spoken). By contrast, the "outline" style presents the same information in more of a "form" — arranged with blocks of data and columns of field titles beside indented columns of information. Reunion's traditional Family History report is an example of an outline-style report.

Some people feel that the outline style is easier-to-follow; however, in Reunion's Register reports, the choice is yours. Just check or uncheck the Narrative button in the report panel.

Layout

After selecting Reports > Register, the layout of the Register report can be changed by clicking the Layout button and choosing Define Layouts.

Most of the layout choices for Register reports are common to other reports and are discussed elsewhere. Two layout settings (Miscellaneous and Parents of Spouse) are explained below.

Miscellaneous

The Define Register Report Layouts window contains a Miscellaneous setting with several choices that are unique to Register reports.

Subtitles for parents

If this option is enabled, Reunion will insert subtitles in the Register report to make the report more readable. The subtitles are the names of parents preceding a group of children.

Number people without children

The Register report format, as originally defined by the NEHGS, assigned numbers only to people whose lineage is continued later in the report (i.e., numbers are assigned only to people with children).

Some users prefer that all people be assigned a number in the Register report.

Example: Let's assume Bruce has no children and he falls in the 5th generation of a Register report. If you wanted Bruce to be listed as a child of his parents in the 4th generation (his parents' generation), assigned a Register number, and also listed separately in the 5th generation (his own generation), then you need to enable the button "Number people without children" as shown above (in the Define Register Report Layout window).

By default, Reunion does not assign Register numbers to people who have no children (like Bruce). I.e., by default the button called Number people without children is unchecked, meaning...

Reunion lets you choose between these options.

Include memos for events

To include the memo field with each event, check the Include memos for events button.

Include parenthetical ancestry

This option refers to the insertion of direct ancestors in parentheses after each descendant's name in the Register report. "Direct ancestors" refer only to the direct line from the descendant to the source couple from whom the Register report begins.

For example, suppose you have a person in a Register report whose Register number is 2101 and his name is John. John's father was Barry, and Barry's mother was Susan. Susan's father was George, the progenitor. If the button Include parenthetical ancestry was checked, then John's entry in the Register report would read as follows:

2101. John LastName (Barry3, Susan MaidenName2, George1). John was born etc.....

This format immediately gives the reader John's lineage back to George, and the reader also knows that John is the fourth generation from George.

Surnames are included only if different from the previous generation. (In the example above, Barry's mother, Susan, had a different surname than Barry.)

Including the parenthetical reference to earlier generations brings the Register report closer to the true Register standard.

Include last names for children

This option is for including the last names of children in Register reports, and the ability to include surnames for children only when different from the father's surname.

Birth and death dates for children

This option determines whether and how birth/death dates are appended to children in Register reports.

Parents of Spouse

Another setting in the Define Register Report Layout window is called Parents of Spouse. This provides a button to include dates for parents of spouses of descendants. (See the Register report excerpt below, which includes dates for parents.)

Index

An index will appear at the end of the Register report. A Register report index includes all descendants, spouses of descendants, and parents of descendants' spouses. Surnames are grouped together and each line in each surname group includes a person's first and middle names, along with one of the following in the second column...

This example shows all the possibilities for a Register report index:

Settings for report indexes are discussed here.

Duplication and Convergence

Duplication, caused by convergence (when relatives marry) is conveniently avoided in Register reports. For example, if you create a Register report for the common ancestor of two second cousins who married, you'll see each cousin (each direct descendant) listed once along with their children. However, under the second listing, the register numbers for their children will be identical to their first listing.

In this example, Jane DOE and John SMITH are second cousins who married. Notice the register numbers for their children.

Register Report Excerpt


16. Jane DOE. Born on 1 Jul 1950 in York, PA.

She married John SMITH, son of Franklin SMITH (1928-) & Ann WESTON (1930-1995), on 1 Oct 1970 in Easton, PA. Born on 1 Mar 1948 in Trenton, NJ. They had the following children:

51 i. Thomas
52 ii. Wilma
53 iii. Arlene

later in the Register report...

33. John SMITH. Born on 1 Mar 1948 in Trenton, NJ

He married Jane DOE, daughter of Norman DOE (1931-1997) & Susan JONES (1932-), on 1 Oct 1970 in Easton, PA. Born on 1 Jul 1950 in York, PA. They had the following children:

51 i. Thomas
52 ii. Wilma
53 iii. Arlene