* GEDCOM Exporting Data Does Not Contain Data Just Imported

[USMC7312]

I am still struggling to choose between FH and RM. I have managed to consolidate a lot data that I could not hope to do with RM 7.x. That said, I wanted to do a test export and import of my data into RM7.x. Much to my horror, I found that much of the work I did complete using FH is negated by the fact that FH doesn’t seem to be exporting out all my custom data fields when I chose GEDCOZ.

I realize some data is lost in translation every time you swap products, but I am greatly concerned as it’s not just some data but a lot of data.

It’s not RM7 failing to import the data. It’s FH not exporting it. Am I missing something here? Let’s say an acceptable loss of all UFF data is okay... Am I right to expect to see the following:

1. All Facts that have been opened and created in FH, irregaurdless of being attribute or event should export as events see more below...

2. All places should export

3. All locations/addresses should export

4. All people should export

5. All families that link mother, father and children should export

6. All individuals and all events (attribute & event) should export as linked data as events as known types or custom data. That means data is exported like this

For attributes
1. Date to Date
2. Place to Place
3. Location to Location
4. Value to description
5. Source to Source

For events
1. Date to Date
2. Place to Place, ie City, County, State, Country
3. Location to Location ie Whitehouse
4. Description to Description
5. Note to Note
6. source to Source

Is this reasonable expectation or am I missing something?

[ColeValleyGirl]

I assume you're using the trial version of FH6? So you can't try out plugins. There's a plugin Export Gedcom File which has a RootsMagic set of settings -- the help is here which might give you some clues, and I expect Mike Tate will be along to give more advice as he's our specialist on importing and exporting Gedcom.

Did you follow the advice at how_to:import_from_roots_magic|> Import from RootsMagic (RM) when you did the import?

[PeterR]

If you want everything in an FH GEDCOM file to be available for Import to something else, you don't need to do an Export at all. Just Import the FH GEDCOM file.

[tatewise]

Sorry Peter, but that just does not work in most cases because different products support different dialects of GEDCOM.
Many of them don't even support the default UNICODE encoding used by FH so fail at line 1.
Also FH complies with GEDCOM 5.5 but many other products comply with GEDCOM 5.5.1 so some structures are different.
They certainly don't support many of the FH glossary:gedcom_extension_list|> GEDCOM Extension List tags and thus Custom Attributes and Media & Place records in particular don't migrate well, and explains why the OP is seeing data loss.

All the FH to RM7 data transfer requirements listed earlier are satisfied, and a few more, including all Media, but only by using my Export Gedcom File Plugin from the Plugin Store. However, it won't run in the FH 30-day trial version.

To adjust the FH GEDCOM to the RM7 GEDCOM format needs several adjustments, the main ones being:

• Every 1 _ATTR custom attribute tag is converted to 1 EVEN event tag
• Every AGE value is moved to the local NOTE field
• Sort Dates _SDATE are created for each fact
• Some Source Citations (_SHAR.SOUR, NOTE.SOUR) are elevated one level as they are not supported by RM7
• All Media (OBJE) are adjusted to RM7 format and gain _PRIM Y tag for first photo
• Place (_PLAC) records have their Record Id removed to comply with RM7 format

Note that those tags with underscore prefix are custom extensions to standard GEDCOM, and although perfectly syntactically valid, are not guaranteed to be recognised by all products. That is one of the strengths and weaknesses of GEDCOM. It allows custom extensions (good) but products might not recognise them (bad).

[USMC7312]

Fortunately, I just bought the product as I needed to see how it functioned with all features which includes plugins.

So I will go back and try to export with the plugin mentioned above.

As many know by now, I have been testing a variety of products and have narrowed my choices to RM and FH. Unfortunately, the two products fit like a jig saw puzzle where you combine both products and get everything you want. Separate you find yourself wanting.

Anyways...

I will download the plugin and see how it goes. Using the default tools worked but it was nasty, duplicate fields, missing data, etc...

[USMC7312]

How do I get the attribute value to export in the description instead of note?

Figured it out

[tatewise]

The Export Gedcom File Plugin should do that automatically with its default settings for (RMT) Roots Magic Tree.

[USMC7312]

Thanks. I saw that after taking more time to examine all the plugin. It worked out great. Now, I just need to figure out how to delete the UDF data.

Outside the UDF SNAFU, the more I use FH the more I appreciate the data structure and workflow. I was really concerned about this at first, but it’s winning me over...

[tatewise]

The export from FH to RM7 is usually very successful with those few adjustments, because RM7 (like FH) is a very GEDCOM compliant.

The UDF problems are being discussed in your How to delete undefined data (17276) thread.