Overview
You may add an Ethnicity item to include ethnicity information in the Person Entry. The Ethnicity item is an "ethnicity calculator" that derives a person's ethnicity from the national origin tags of his or her ancestors.
The Ethnicity item is focused on culture rather than DNA. Its definition of ethnicity is based on the country of origin (or culture) of ancestors. It helps your family members answer the question, "How (English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, etc.) are you?"
When the Ethnicity item is present and enabled, GedSite inspects the tag list to determine if the person has a tag that assigns ethnicity or national origin to the current person. For people who do not have a tag, GedSite derives the person's ethnicity based on the tags of the person's ancestors.
The default ethnicity Tag Type is "National Origin". If your genealogy data does not include National Origin tags (or a different tag where you have recorded ethnicity information), the Ethnicity item will not be able to determine ethnicity and there will be no output from the Ethnicity Person Entry item.
In the example output above, the subject did not have a National Origin tag. GedSite derived ethnicity using tags from the person's ancestors.
Derived Values
GedSite uses a simple formula to derive ethnicity percentages. Parents are assumed to contribute 50% of their ethnicity to their children. The contribution is halved on each successive generation.
For example, if a 100% Irish father and a 100% Italian mother have a child, GedSite assumes their children are 50% Irish and 50% Italian. If one of their children marries a person who is 100% German, the next generation children will be 50% German, 25% Irish, and 25% Italian.
Properties
Title
The Title of the Ethnicity item is used as the label for the content in the Person Entry.
Tag Name
Enter the name of the tag where you have recorded ethnicity information. The default value is "national origin". If you use a different tag, make sure you specify the tag name, not the tag label.
GedSite converts the standard GEDCOM NATI record to a "National Origin" tag, so users of compliant applications should be able to use the default value for the Nationality Tag Name.
Label for Unknown
The text in the Label for Unknown property is used when some ancestors of a person have ethnicity information and others don't. The ethnicity for people who do not have Nationality tags is assigned the label you provide here.
List Type
The List Type pull-down menu determines the format of the list of ethnicities. The choices are:
| Value | Example Output |
|---|---|
| Comma Separated | 50% Irish, 50% Italian |
| Row Separated | 50% Irish 50% Italian |
| Semicolon Separated | 50% Irish; 50% Italian |