Events¶
An event is something that took place at a particular time in a particular place. Births, baptisms, marriages, emigrations, deaths — but also confirmations, census records, military service, graduations, and much more.
Why are events important?¶
An event is more precise than a note on a person. With events, you can:
- Show multiple people's lives on the same timeline
- Link multiple people to the same event (e.g. a married couple and witnesses)
- See which events took place at a specific place
- Link sources and media to that particular event — not just to the person in general
Event types¶
| Type | Label |
|---|---|
| birth | Birth |
| baptism | Baptism |
| confirmation | Confirmation |
| marriage | Marriage |
| divorce | Divorce |
| death | Death |
| burial | Burial |
| emigration | Emigration |
| immigration | Immigration |
| military | Military service |
| census | Census |
| residence | Residence |
| occupation | Occupation |
| retirement | Retirement |
| graduation | Graduation |
| education | Education |
| other | Other |
Roles¶
Each person is linked to an event with a role. The roles are shared across all event types:
| Role | Label | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| primary | Primary person | The person the event is about — the one being born, dying, getting married |
| spouse | Spouse | The other party in a marriage or divorce |
| parent | Parent | Parent at a baptism or census |
| child | Child | Child at a census |
| witness | Witness | Marriage witness, baptism witness |
| officiant | Officiant | Priest, mayor, or other person performing the ceremony |
| attendee | Attendee | Other participants |
| other | Other | A role that doesn't fit the above |
Choose the role carefully
The role affects how the event is displayed on the person's page and in the timeline. A person with the role Witness at a wedding is shown as a witness, not as the groom or bride.
Create an event¶
You can create events from three places:
- From a person's page — the Events tab → "+ Add event". The person is automatically linked as the Primary person.
- From a place's page — the event is automatically linked to the place.
- From the main menu — Events → Add event.
In the form, you fill in:
- Type — choose from the list above
- Title — e.g. "Marriage of Erik and Anna" (optional but recommended for events with multiple participants)
- Description — longer free text about the event
- Date — with the same precision levels as for persons: exact date, just a year, approximate, before, after, or a range
- Place — choose an existing place or create a new one directly in the form
- Participants — add one or more persons with their respective roles
- Notes — shorter notes
- Private — mark the event as private if it shouldn't appear in printouts and reports
The events list¶
Go to Events in the main menu to see all events. List view is the default. You can:
- Search by title, description, or place
- Filter by event type, date range, tags, and categories
- Filter by person — type a name to find every event linked to a specific person, across the whole database (not just the page you're currently on)
- Sort by date, type, or title
- Switch view between card view and list view
In list view, the names of persons linked to each event are shown (up to 5 — additional persons are shown as "+X more"), making it easy to tell apart, e.g., multiple deaths or marriages in the list.
Click an event to open its detail page.
The event page¶
The detail page for an event shows the type, date, place, description, notes, participants with roles, linked media, and source citations. From here you can also edit or delete the event.
Private events are shown with a padlock icon in the heading.
Tags and categories¶
Just like with persons, you can set tags and categories on events to group and filter them. Click the pencil icon next to "Tags and categories" on the event page.
→ Read more about tags and categories
Validation¶
PastPaths checks that the event is plausible in relation to the life data of the people involved.
Errors — block saving:
- Birth event dated after the person's date of death
- Death event dated before the person's date of birth
Warnings — require confirmation:
| Situation | Event type |
|---|---|
| Event date differs by more than 30 days from the person's registered date of birth | Birth |
| Event date differs by more than 30 days from the person's registered date of death | Death |
| The event took place before the person was born | All others |
| The event took place after the person's date of death | All others |
| The person was under 15 at the time of marriage | Marriage |
| The person was over 80 at the time of marriage | Marriage |
| Baptism dated before the person's birth | Baptism |
| The person was under 5 at an education event | Education |
| The person was under 10 at an occupation event | Occupation |
Information — shown without restriction:
- A small difference (under 30 days) between the event date and the registered date of birth/death
- Baptism more than 365 days after birth
- Occupation event at an unusually high age (over 75)
Statistics¶
Click the bar chart icon in the events list to see a summary: total number of events, distribution by type, and the time span between the earliest and most recently registered dates.
Imported events¶
During GEDCOM import, events are created automatically from standard tags. PastPaths interprets, among others:
| GEDCOM tag | Event type |
|---|---|
| BIRT | Birth |
| CHR / BAPM | Baptism |
| CONF | Confirmation |
| MARR | Marriage |
| DIV | Divorce |
| DEAT | Death |
| BURI | Burial |
| EMIG | Emigration |
| IMMI | Immigration |
| MILI | Military service |
| CENS | Census |
| RESI | Residence |
| OCCU | Occupation |
| EDUC | Education |
Imported events may have incomplete data — e.g. only a year without a place. That's normal; fill in more as you find it.
→ Read more about GEDCOM import
Delete an event¶
Deletion is permanent
This cannot be undone. Check that no sources or media files are linked only to that particular event before removing it.