Very often as I encounter events, incidents, or things that require explanation with respect to one or many family members, I will turn up historical information that I'd like to be able to keep within FTM/Ancestry. A lot of this information does not apply specifically to a single ancestor. In fact, it might apply to a specific year, or to a whole town, or to a region in which several ancestors lived.
For example, in 1873 two children of some great-grandparents died on the same day in 1873. Research showed that the kids, aged 8 and 10 months, died of "cholera infantum," also called the "summer illness" - a sort of catch-all to explain what was likely a dangerously debilitating, dehydrating intestinal illness which was unlikely to have been actual "cholera," but quite possibly could have been rotavirus or norovirus, which, untreated in young children, could be deadly. The death ledger for the city for the two week period during which the children died showed 44 deaths, 36 of children aged 10 or under. The germ theory had not come about yet, so causes of death and illness were haphazardly named, described and reported.
I have come across many such 19th century death reports and have accumulated a small computer library of information about 19th century medicine, its practice and its limitations. I've also accumulated information on, say, the peregrinations and machinations of certain Welsh aristocracy that have direct bearing on a family or families, but might apply only indirectly to a particular family or individual. However, the information helps to explain why A married B or how C angered Henry VIII and lost his patrimony, materially affecting the family for years thereafter.
I have many such artifacts of information about local events, epidemics, politics, etc., which I have stored externally to FTM and am indexing so that I can retrieve it with respect to time, place, persons, etc.
What I want to know: do FTM or Ancestry (or both) have ways to store and retrieve such information, possibly tagging it so that it applies, where possible, to an individual or several?
Any ideas would be welcome.