* U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

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deckie49
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U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by deckie49 »

Good morning,
I am a new user of Family Historian. I am in the process of doing test transfers of my GEDCOM file, seeing how well they transfer, etc. I ran a report listing the "Uncatagorized Data Fields" and noticed a result that is confusing to me. As I understand, a U.D.F. is a GEDCOM field (tag) that Family Historian might not know how to correctly transfer (?). many of the U.D.F.'s in the log file are reference numbers to sources. They are identified as "REFN". I am confused as to why Family Historian would consider them unrecognized. "REFN" is a standard GEDCOM field. As I see it, the field is in the correct place within the source records, and correctly tagged within GEDCOM standards. Why would Family Historian not recognize it??
Thank you in advance for helping me understand this. I am very excited at what I have seen so far in Family Historian and look forward to growing with it.
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by PeterR »

REFN is indeed a valid GEDCOM tag and FH uses it for its Custom ID fields for Individual, Family, Note, Source, Repository, and Media records. It is possible that your source GEDCOM file has used REFN in a different context that FH does not recognize because it is not standard GEDCOM. If you can provide a bit more detail of the exact error message for the UDFs we will be able to help further.
Peter Richmond (researching Richmond, Bulman, Martin, Driscoll, Baxter, Hall, Dales, Tyrer)
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deckie49
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by deckie49 »

Thanks for your help. As far as I have been able to determine, the problem seems to exist only with the reference numbers assigned to a source at the citation level. Reference numbers assigned at the master source level are fine. An example... I "lump" my sources as much as possible, especially with Census records and Newspaper articles. A master source of, say the 1880 US Federal Census will not have a reference number assigned. However, within that master source there are many citations to different households in various states and counties. Each of those different citations has its own unique reference number. It is those reference numbers that Family Historian is flagging as a U.D.F.
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by tatewise »

Welcometo the FHUG.

You correct that REFN is a valid tag, but each tag is only allowed in specified positions, and REFN is not allowed as a Citation tag according to the glossary:gedcom|> GEDCOM Standard 5.5 specification.

A Citation can have the following tags for text fields:
3 PAGE = Where Within Source
3 NOTE = Local Note
3 DATA
4 TEXT = Text From Source

So you would need to edit the GEDCOM file with a plain text editor such as Notepad and replace each 3 REFN with 3 NOTE within Individual records to convert to a valid tag in that position.

This is one of the drawbacks of "lumped" Sources that we refer to as Method 2, because if the same reference is needed for each member of the same Census household, then it has to be repeated in every Citation. Whereas, the Method 1 of one Source per household not only avoids that problem, but allows a full transcript and associated document images to be attached to that Source, aand most Citation fields are redundant.

Furthermore, the custom _PRIM tag looks like a form of assessment saying the Citation is Primary? The formal GEDCOM tag is a Quaity Assessment:
3 QUAY
followed by a digit in the range 0 to 3 for Unreliable, Questionable, Secondary evidence, Primary evidence.
So I suspect a similar edit to change 3 _PRIM Y to 3 QUAY 3 is needed.

You may be interested in the how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Unrecognised Data Fields that is part of the how_to:index#importing_to_family_historian|> Importing to Family Historian.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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deckie49
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by deckie49 »

Mike and Peter,
Thank you so much!
Mike, your specific comments and instructions are exactly what I needed. I have a rather limited knowledge of working with GEDCOM files and was not aware of the REFN limitation with citation reference numbers. I suppose it is also apparent I was unaware of and have yet to study the GEDCOM 5.5 Standard in the Knowledgebase. I'll do that before going any further! Overall, I must say the GEDCOM transfer seems to be going well considering the differences between my other program (Rootsmagic) and Family Historian.
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by tatewise »

Did you see the how_to:import_from_roots_magic|> Import from Roots Magic advice?
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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deckie49
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by deckie49 »

Yes, I see that. Unfortunately, I have Version 7. Apparently, Family Historian does not do a direct import of Rootsmagic v7. The extension of that version is .rmgc
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by lastejas »

deckie49 wrote:Yes, I see that. Unfortunately, I have Version 7. Apparently, Family Historian does not do a direct import of Rootsmagic v7. The extension of that version is .rmgc
I've had the same problem over the years as I run both FH and Rootsmagic. The direct import has not worked since Rootsmagic v3 as v4 and above all use different format and ext .rmgc. I did flag this with Simon when we were beta testing FH v5.
Rick ~ Researching the Hooley's of Cheshire
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deckie49
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by deckie49 »

I understand that FH v6 is still quite new, and perhaps not fully "baked" yet. Can anyone tell me if continued development of this version will include a direct import of Rootsmagic files (.rmgc)? Thanks.
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by NickWalker »

Is .rmgc a published open standard? If not then how can Family Historian support it?

Family Historian works with GEDCOM and although it isn't 'pure' GEDCOM, any extensions that have been added to it are reasonably well understood by the 'experts' on here and anyone moving from Family Historian to other applications will have all these benefits and the plugins to help them format the data as required, etc. But the other way round appears to be a different matter. With hindsight this ability to export in the future ought to be one of the first things that people consider when choosing software to record their family history. If the family history software that people use will lose data when exporting to other software in the future then they're making the wrong choice.
Nick Walker
Ancestral Sources Developer

https://fhug.org.uk/kb/kb-article/ancestral-sources/
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by tatewise »

Have a look at How to Query RootsMagic and RootsMagic 7 that offers ways of editing the RMGC file using SQLite.

Some computer literate RootsMagic emigrants might be able to extend the how_to:import_from_roots_magic|> Import from Roots Magic advice using SQLite to improve the exported GEDCOM file.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Re: U.D.F. and GEDCOM Tag from RootsMagic

Post by Jane »

There is a short "Snippet" in the Knowledge base for use SQL Lite databases from a Plugin plugins:code_snippets:sql_lite_example_usage|Sql Lite Example Usage
Jane
My Family History : My Photography "Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."
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