* Cleaning up my January 2017 TMG Import

[dlitzer]

Hello All,

13 months ago I bought FH6 and imported my TMG 9 database of 12,700-odd individuals into it. While the FHUG Knowledge Base document on Import from The Master Genealogist would've been very helpful to me then, I didn't locate it at the time. Then I got ill , and retired , and...I'm finally getting back to it now.

I've tweaked my FH6 project a fair amount already, mainly to get FH's source ID numbers to line up (1-836) with those in my old TMG database, since that's how I have all of my documentation filed. However, I'm seeing several other things that didn't come through well, and am just putting them out here to see whether anyone has silver-bullet solutions short of a lot of editing:

1) Sort date--I see other threads on this, and yeah, mine didn't come through either. Oh well, at least you can sort kids into birth order.

2) TMG Citation Detail--this is where I entered info such as volume & page #s in TMG...but the import dumped all that into the "Text Within Source" field instead of the "Where Within Source" field. Any way to move that text globally?

3) Missing Note Text--very little of my note text for TMG Tags exported into FH--at least where I can find it. I did a lot of keying in obituary text into Death & Burial Tags--nuttin' came through. I suspect I'll have to cut and paste it all from my old TMG to FH. Can anyone tell me, however, if I want to make sure this text exports properly through GEDCOM next time, will both or either FH Fact Notes and Individual Notes transfer?

4) Useless Tags/Facts--while TMG Tags like Military, Biography, Anecdote did import into FH6, most of them are pretty useless without Sort Dates or Note Text. The most expedient solution seems to be to delete them and create Individual Facts to cut & paste their note text into from TMG.

5) Source Auditing--in TMG, you could produce reports of the actual citations that a source referenced. While I've figured out in FH6 how to identify persons referenced by a source, I haven't figured out how to identify facts referenced by a source. Any ideas?

Otherwise, the main irritation I've had with FH6 is with the box layout. In TMG, you could set up a layout and have the boxes "snap" into place so all of your main windows were fully viewable--and then save the layout so one didn't have to start from scratch every time. The FH6 docking function doesn't seem to work that way--even if I dock the Property Box, I still have to fiddle with the Property and Focus Boxes so they're not overlapping. Is there something really obvious I'm missing?

While this may seem like a rant, I'm hopeful overall that FH6 will support my genealogy needs as long as I need to. Any help with the above will be appreciated--thanks in advance!

Don

[Jane]

I will leave others for most of these, but with regard to your text, have you tried doing a Text search to see if you can identify of the text is hiding somewhere? Also have you tried checking the UDF list?

Another possible option might be to create a new project from your TMG data, over the last 12 months there have been a lot of improvements in the import, so you might be able to get a cleaner Project which you could then review or possibly merge with your previously migrated one.

The more recent import may not actually renumber your Sources, as long as you make sure they are numeric and have no duplicates in your TMG database.

[BillH]

Don,

For #5 use the plugin Where Used Record Links. If you double click on the info in the column labeled Data Ref Where Used it will take you to the fact that is linked to that source.

[E Wilcock]

Most of the points you mention have arisen.

The lost notes - That surprises me as mine imported.
However the Notes for Birth Marriage and Death do not show on the fh Main Tab of the Property Box for a person.
That Main Tab is a sort of resumee. If you move the the Facts Tab - the next Tab along where you get all the events, the Notes should be there. I just checked my son in laws tree which includes a notes about a death and it has been imported.

Some of my trees have been in fh for more than a year and are fine.

Mike has written a plug in to rearrange some mis placed components of source and citation text - I dont know if that covers your particular problem with the fields, but it sorted out mine.

For sort order Mike has designed a plug in to add to a fh Project the sort dates taken from a GEDCOM exported from TMG. Within fh it isnt so important but it is when it comes to exporting to Gedsite.

In order to test this plug in on a variety of TMG Projects I both imported several TMG Projects into fh and exported matching gedcoms. I dont know where your odd Tags and events have got to? As mine all imported including some that were total mistakes from the start.
All my genealogical muddle imported - replicating TMG.

Unlike you, I have multiple Projects in TMG and dont bring anything into fh unless I am going to work on it. But I am working almost daily with projects created in fh. And the text search in fh is a great convenience to anyone who writes long notes and narratives. Yu just hit the binocular icon at the top and type in the word you want.

Custom Tags or events come into fh but ne needs to rewrite the sentence for them.

I hope this is some help to you.

[tatewise]

Hello Don.
You say "While the FHUG Knowledge Base document on Import from The Master Genealogist would've been very helpful to me then, I didn't locate it at the time."
In your original posting Editing FH Source ID Numbers (14594) last year, I advised you to study how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and follow its links that branch out into the rest of our [kb]|[/kb] wiki, which would have led you to Import from The Master Genealogist advice, so I presume you did not look far enough.

You talk about exporting via GEDCOM next time, so I hope you did not migrate via GEDCOM last time, because the direct import is far more effective and comprehensive as explained in how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG). Also I hope you have updated to the latest FH V6.2.6 that has added improvements over the year.

Regarding specific points:

1) Sort Date ~ The TMG Sort Dates can now be added to your data via a TMG GEDCOM and managed using a Plugin, and is best discussed in a separate thread.

2) TMG Citation Detail ~ There are two Plugins that may help with moving your data, and if you need further help with using them then just ask, but please start a new thread:

a) Move Citation Text Fields is attached to Importing citation details (12745) and unconditionally moves Text From Source to Where within Source and then also Note to Text From Source.

b) Move some Text From Source to Where Within Source is attached to Citations from TMG (14565) with instructions on setting conditional text to trigger the move from Text From Source to Where within Source.

3) Missing Note Text & 4) Useless Tags/Facts ~ I suspect all the Text has come across, but you simply have not found it, and others have given some advice about that. I suspect all the Tags have also come across, but are perhaps hiding as UDF, or masquerading in some other way. In some cases it may have helped to adjust some Tag definitions in TMG before migration, but I suspect it is too late for that. Please start new thread to investigate those particular problems.

5) Source Auditing ~ Use Where Used Record Links Plugin.

6) Window Layout ~ FH is now better at remembering layout than in earlier versions, but may still not be as good as TMG. I don't understand some of your comments. You say even if Property Box is docked, you have to fiddle so it does not overlap the Focus Window. But if docked it cannot possibly overlap anything. Do you actually mean when Property Box is floating? But then you can even position it outside the main Focus Window, and its position is remembered indefinitely, so you don't start from scratch every time. Maybe you are missing some settings such as Tools >Preferences > Workspaces. Please start a new thread on this topic and we can post some screenshots of what is possible.

[dlitzer]

Mike, Bill, Jane,

Thanks for being so gentle with me. When I got back home (I posted from a remote location this morning), I checked my notes. Indeed, MIke, I printed off the FHUG Knowledge Base document on 12/27/2016, which was only two pages long then. I did an Audit of All People in my TMG database, and some other optimizations I vaguely recall but didn't document. When I did the import, it crashed several times at step 10. I removed all of the witnesses, exhibits and tasks from my project, and it went through....

Jane, I looked in the Named Lists Pane and found no lists there--that's where UDFs would be hiding, right? UDFs are not mentioned in Simon's book, and FH Help has some gaps in their bread crumb trail on this subject.

After reviewing the feedback, I'm inclined to take Jane's advice and take another run at importing my TMG project. In no small measure thanks to you, I'm a little more cognizant of some of these techie issues. We'll see how it goes!

Don

[BillH]

Don,

To find your UDF's, go to the menu and select Tools > Uncatagorized Data > Find Uncatagorized Data....

[tatewise]

OR as it says in how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG) see the advice in how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF), which explains how to find UDF and how to deal with them.

Don, printing a [kb]|[/kb] page is often not very useful, especially if it is only a summary, as you cannot follow the orange links to further detailed advice.

[E Wilcock]

So at last I know what a UDF is. Not something from space. May be there needs to be more explanation of fh vocabulary every time it comes into a thread?

[tatewise]

Now Evelyn, that is something that when entered into FH Help > Search Help or [kb]|[/kb] Search does tell you all about it, and it has been explained numerous times in these Forums, such as your own thread Sentences TMG to fh (14586) last year, so please add it to your note book.

[dlitzer]

With your help, I think I've got most things fixed.

By the way, Mike, when I referred to GEDCOM transfer earlier, I wasn't talking about import. Rather, I was wondering whether the ability, in the future, to transfer my data would be affected by it being in custom "containers"--whether imported TMG Tag Types with no FH analogue, or custom FH Fact types I might be tempted to concoct.

I did another from-scratch import of my TMG database last evening, and my notes showed up! BTW, I did find the explanation of UDFs in the Knowledge Base and didn't find any in my original import.

By running both recommended plugins for transferring TMG Citation Detail into the "Where Within Source," I got that data in the right place--thanks! The "Where Used Record Links" plugin also will be helpful for auditing my sources.

The "Order Facts by Sort Date" plugin definitely improved the database. While the Sort Date inserted by the plugin is not always the same value as the one I entered into TMG, this will work fine.

I would appreciate your opinion, please: is there any value-added you can see in gradually getting rid of TMG Tags with no FH analogues, e.g., Military and Residence tags--or should they be fine as is for data editing and manipulation? They appear to be fine as is, but you may have other observations.

Finally, FWIW, I've attached a Word file with screenshots attempting to explain my struggles with FH screen layout. Apologies for the screenshots' small size; they needed to be shrunk to fit into the forum's attachment file size requirements.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Don

[BillH]

Don,

Not sure what is causing your problems with the layout of FH but here is what I have. I like to have something similar to what you want, but I have the source pane showing as well so it looks like this.

image1.jpg (107.6 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

I have the property box docked and in the preferences I have it set like this.

image2.jpg (130.01 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

image3.jpg (148.61 KiB) Viewed 8056 times

With those settings any time I open FH it looks like my first screen shot. Hope this helps.

[tatewise]

Don, what you may not have noticed is the vertical ....... gripper bar to the left of a docked Property Box.
Drag that right and you can choose what proportions of window are allocated to each pane.

If you position the yellow Sources For pane to Right of Property Box there is a similar vertical ....... gripper bar between them, so you can achieve the same layout as Bill.

There are similar horizontal ....... gripper bars inside the Property Box to adjust its vertical panes.

That is all covered in the ƒh Book: "Getting the Most From Family Historian" in Chapter 2. Editing Records with the Property Box. Have you worked through that book as advised in how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers? It is also summarised in the Quick Start Guide or Help > Quick Start Guide on Page 6.

BTW: With a floating Property Box and main FH Window both suitably sized & positioned, if you close & open FH it should remember that arrangement without needing to keep resizing. Note that you can position the floating Property Box outside the main Window and even on a separate monitor if you have one. Whereas, it seems you have used the Window > Cascade command and sized the Focus Window separately within the main Window, and that size is not remembered.

You can import the TMG Sort Dates into FH using that same Plugin, but via a GEDCOM file exported from TMG.

Custom fact Tags, such as Military, do generally migrate well between products in GEDCOM files as that is part of the standard GEDCOM specification. BTW: Residence is a standard GEDCOM fact, so if you have a custom TMG version, then change to to the standard using the Change Any Fact Tag Plugin. You can convert any other facts the same way.

If you have specific plans to migrate the FH Project to other products via GEDCOM then see the Export Gedcom File Plugin.