* Importing Media From Find My Past?

Importing from another genealogy program? This is the place to ask. Questions about Exporting should go in the Exporting sub-forum of the General Usage forum.
Post Reply
avatar
myeika
Silver
Posts: 5
Joined: 25 Nov 2018 08:54
Family Historian: V6

Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by myeika »

Hi There...

I wondered if someone could help me please....
I found this software and was pleased to see that I can import my tree from FMP....
But not Media was imported.... and I have lots on FMP :shock:
I did read in the forum that importing a Geo file does not bring in the media... and there are some post's that help others for different programs, but I couldn't find any information regarding FMP... :?
So I was wondering, is there any way I can do it at all, with out having to do each piece separately?.....

Thanks in advance for any help :D
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

Welcome to the FHUG.

You are correct; there is currently no way to import Media in bulk from FindMyPast.

See how_to:index#importing_to_family_historian|> Importing to Family Historian for general advice.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
avatar
myeika
Silver
Posts: 5
Joined: 25 Nov 2018 08:54
Family Historian: V6

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by myeika »

Hi Mike, thanks for the welcome :)

I have looked at the link you gave me, and after clicking through the links there, I still can not find anything that will help me understand how to get the 'meda' held at FMP into Family Historian.....

So I am still at a loss as to how to do it... sorry.... :cry:
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

The advice I gave is for the general checks for other problems that affect GEDCOM imports, because many products do not implement it correctly.

As I said, there is no way to transfer those Media in bulk.
As you said, you have to do each piece separately - Sorry.

That is quite common for web based products such as Ancestry and FindMyPast.
They want to keep you captive with their product, so make it difficult to migrate.
With Ancestry there are some devious workarounds, but not as far as I am aware for FindMyPast.

( I was working on a Plugin that might have worked, but that has run into technical difficulties. )
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
avatar
myeika
Silver
Posts: 5
Joined: 25 Nov 2018 08:54
Family Historian: V6

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by myeika »

OK Mike..

Thank you for your help .......

I will have to give it some thought....
User avatar
David2416
Superstar
Posts: 398
Joined: 12 Nov 2017 16:37
Family Historian: V7
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by David2416 »

To explore this a little I created and downloaded a Gedcom from my FMP tree. I then imported this into a new FH project. My observations are:

For the FMP records that I had linked to my tree a hyperlink was produced. The ones I tested from within the downloaded Gedcom linked to a page with a transcription of the record which itself has a link to the image. (Some of the hyperlinks had an extra {0} in the line which needed to be removed.) Importing the Gedcom into FH there were 138 broken links to media files - which I believe are the hyperlinks. The import log file shows that FH treats these as UDFs.

I imagine this could be used as a basis for automating a download of the images. (I expect you would need a current subscription, and that this does not break their Terms and Conditions.)

I know this does not provide an answer your question but I shows there might be a way of running a script to download the images, update the Gedcom to replace the hyperlink with a FH media link. The resultant Gedcom should be thenbe importable into FH.
avatar
myeika
Silver
Posts: 5
Joined: 25 Nov 2018 08:54
Family Historian: V6

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by myeika »

Hi David.

Thanks with your help looking into my problem....
I understood your first paragraph... partially.... :shock: Yes it told me I had 100 broken links....
I do have a current subscription to FMP... so that shouldn't be an issue....
Are the (0) which need to be removed at the end of the links?...

Thanks
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

BTW: What David describes regarding using the URL to automate downloads of Media was the basis of my Plugin, but it needs the https secure protocol to access your subscription protected records, and that is not currently available for the Plugin scripting language Lua. Calico Pie were looking into resolving that but no progress so far.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
User avatar
David2416
Superstar
Posts: 398
Joined: 12 Nov 2017 16:37
Family Historian: V7
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by David2416 »

Sorry my response was a bit techy speak like.

An example of the {0} - note curly brackets- as in this link:

http://search.findmypast.co.uk{0}/record?id=bmd%2fm%2f1886%2f2%2faz%2f000016%2f283
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?i ... 0016%2f283
when removed, this will work as a link to the transcription, and

http://search.findmypast.co.uk{0}/recordid=bmd%2fm%2f1886%2f2%2faz%2f000016&parentid=bmd%2fm%2f1886%2f2%2faz%2f000016%2f088
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/recordid ... 0016%2f088
will work as a link to the image of a marriage. (Both these retrieve an https:// address).

It seems you need to explicitly link the image to the FMP tree - am wondering if accepting the hints in FMP (as I have been doing only links to the transcription - I need to look at this further).
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

I believe the FMP 'Hints' link to both transcription and image if both are available.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
User avatar
David2416
Superstar
Posts: 398
Joined: 12 Nov 2017 16:37
Family Historian: V7
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by David2416 »

I'll build a small test tree to explore what happens
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

You don't need to build a tree, just use the Family Historian Sample Project.
I've just tried that and the Review link goes to the transcript page, and if one exists that has a View image link, which is the same as any FMP search. Not surprising as the 'hint' is just a shortcut search.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
User avatar
David2416
Superstar
Posts: 398
Joined: 12 Nov 2017 16:37
Family Historian: V7
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by David2416 »

Actually I think we may be slightly at cross purposes here. I am looking at the FMP site rather than the hints within FH (where I agree completely with what you say). However working on the FindMyPast website I find that just accepting the hints on the website just attaches a link to the transcription to the tree. This link is then exported in the Gedcom FMP produces. If I manually change this link in FMP to a link to the media page then the media link is exported. It would be nice if FMP created a media link directly - if it does I haven't found how to do it - that way would we have a Gedcom with links to the media files on FMP. Those would have to be processed to download the images for linking in FH.

I hope that's clear ;)
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

Yes, I didn't realise you meant the FMP internal hints.
I suspect the reason is that transcripts almost certainly always exist, but media images only exist for some records.
I imagine the link in the tree leads to the transcript page, and that has a link to the image if one exists.
As I said before, Ancestry and FMP are not going to make it easy for you to leave their clutches.

I suspect that trying to download using the transcript URL will just retrieve the HTML script for that page.
Extracting the transcript as plain text will be a challenge, especially for any automated software.
Extracting a media image link and downloading the image automatically would probably be relatively easy.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
User avatar
David2416
Superstar
Posts: 398
Joined: 12 Nov 2017 16:37
Family Historian: V7
Location: Suffolk UK

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by David2416 »

Yes, that might help answer the question asked at the beginning of this thread. However the FMP tree would need to have those media links in place before creating a Gedcom. That means manually amending the media field in each case.

In this case I suspect each media item has to be downloaded and linked into the FH project individually, easy if you do it as you discover each record, tedious if you have to retrospectively retrieve many images.
avatar
myeika
Silver
Posts: 5
Joined: 25 Nov 2018 08:54
Family Historian: V6

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by myeika »

Hi David....

You said...
David2416 wrote: In this case I suspect each media item has to be downloaded and linked into the FH project individually, easy if you do it as you discover each record, tedious if you have to retrospectively retrieve many images.
I did see the {0} but couldn't work out how to remove them.... But as for downloading them into the FH project... I have tried many ways and still can not fathom out how to do this... so sorry for being a pain....
User avatar
tatewise
Megastar
Posts: 28410
Joined: 25 May 2010 11:00
Family Historian: V7
Location: Torbay, Devon, UK
Contact:

Re: Importing Media From Find My Past?

Post by tatewise »

Yes, downloading Media from FMP and adding them to your imported Project is somewhat tricky.
The way FMP attaches Media records is rather unconventional.

It will help if you understand the typical process of adding Media to a Project.
So first study the following advice using the Family Historian Sample Project to experiment on.
  • In how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers find the advice on Getting the Most From Family Historian and study the two Chapters in that book:
    4. Pictures & Media Part 1: The Property Box
    5. Pictures & Media Part 2: The Media Window
  • See how_to:v4:adding_multimedia|> Adding Photographs and Other Multimedia
  • See how_to:changing_external_file_links|> Changing External File Links
  • See glossary:sources|> Source Records and Method 1 and Method 2
I advise you understand the above processes before proceeding.

You must use your Family Tree on FMP to download each linked Media image to your PC as a JPEG file.
Alternatively, for transcripts, you will have to copy & paste the text into a Text From Source box in FH.

In general there are two categories of Media images.
  1. Pictures of people are attached to the Media tab of the Individual (or sometimes Family) Property Box
  2. Method 1 images of documents are attached to the Media tab of the associated Source record Property Box
    Method 2 images of documents are attached to the associated Source Citation
You must decide whether to use Method 1 or Method 2 for each associated Source.

FMP seems to use Method 2 'lumper' mode for Source records such as England & Wales births 1837-2006 or 1939 Register but links all the Media records to the Media tab of the Individual's Property Box.
So if you continue with Method 2 then in the Sources For yellow pane you would select the Source and click the Show Media button, select Citation Media and use Add Media for Citation to link your downloaded JPEG.
Transcripts would go in the Text From Source box of the Source For - Citation.
Then you can delete the redundant imported Media records with the URL to FMP.

If you prefer Method 1, then you will have to create new Source records and link a new Media image to each one.
Transcripts would go in the Text From Source box of the Source record.
The you would delete all the redundant imported Source records and Media records.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
Post Reply