Might I add a bit of background here? The idea of witnesses (meaning someone
associated with an event as either a participant or as an observer) and
roles in an even is a bit old.
Most of my really ancient genealogy software manuals (for example, Roots, a
CPM+ and later DOS and early Windows software) are packed away somewhere.
However I did find an Ultimate Family Tree manual (early versions of
Windows) with its description of events and attaching other individuals to
an event and assigning a role for each of those attached individuals (for a
census, perhaps wife, son, daughter, etc).
Today, some genealogy software allow adding an even (a census, obituary,
etc) to one individual (for example, as head of household in a census) and
linking each individual listed in that census "family" census (wife,
children, grandparents, in-laws, border, etc) recorded at that one
"residence".
Other genealogy software today record that same event in each individual's
record and identify that person's role in the Description or Notes text box,
adjusting the resulting Sentence to reflect the event and role information
for that specific individual. For example, in Legacy the Event Clipboard
transfers a copy of the same event and source information to each individual
recorded in the event, taking a similar but not exact action of linking
multiple individuals to an event.
How the term 'witness' originated today to express recording multiple
individuals, all associate to a single event, I have no idea. The old UFT
manual I found records the actions of recording multiple individuals to the
same event as "Connected Individuals. An unlimited number of roles can be
linked to each event."
Hope that description clears up a bit of the mystery.
Best,
Denise L. Moss-Fritch
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