* Import from Mac Family Tree

[Gary_G]

Tony ~ regarding Export to Mac Family Tree — note for geocoding (22710).

I have also tried MacFamilyTree 10 for geocoding my French locations.
However; I've not found a good way to import the geocoded locations back into FH7.
Have you had any success in that regard?

[tatewise]

Gary, it depends on where Mac Family Tree puts the Lat/Long in the GEDCOM. Can you give us some clues?
I have a Move LatLong from Place field to Place record plugin that might work.

[Gary_G]

Mike;

If I were to export a GEDCOM from MacFamilyTree 10, would it be sufficient to show you where the latitude and longitude are stored? For import to FH7, which version of GEDCOM would work best?

[tatewise]

If Mac Family Tree offers a choice then GEDCOM 5.5.1 is better than GEDCOM 5.5.
What options does it offer?

Yes, post a copy of a PLAC data structure showing its context and where the Lat/Long is stored.

[Gary_G]

The following is an extract from the example tree in MacFamilyTree 10. It was exported in GEDCOM 5.5.1 format. Hope it is adequate.

1 OCCU 35th President of the United States
2 DATE FROM 20.01.1961 TO 22.11.1963
2 CHAN
3 DATE 09 OCT 2013
4 TIME 02:05:14
2 _CRE
3 DATE 09 OCT 2013
4 TIME 02:03:10
1 DEAT Assassinated
2 DATE 22.11.1963
2 PLAC Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, USA
3 FORM City,County,State,Country
3 MAP
4 LONG W96.806389
4 LATI N32.782778
2 _COR
3 _LAD 32
3 _LAM 46
3 _LAS 58
3 _LOD 96
3 _LOM 48
3 _LOS 23
3 _LON 1
2 SOUR @S90237276@
3 QUAY 3
3 _QUAL
4 _INFO P
2 CHAN
3 DATE 30 NOV 2021
4 TIME 14:18:40

[tatewise]

Yes, that is enough information and the following plugin moves the Lat/Long values correctly.

Move LatLong from Place field to Place record

I was impressed that 2 DATE 22.11.1963 which is invalid GEDCOM was converted by FH to 22 NOV 1963

However, 1 DEAT Assassinated which is invalid GEDCOM will need post-processing to set 2 CAUS Assassinated

There is also a lot of 2 CHAN and 2 _COR and 3 _QUAL data that will need post-processing.

[Gary_G]

Mike;
It sounds as if the MacFamilyTree GEDCOM has some major "structural" issues.

As I am really not familiar with importing GEDCOM data into FH7, I should ask a seemingly obvious question.
My intent is solely to export the GEDCOM data from FH7, geocode the places and addresses, then updating FH7 with the updated data. Is there a way to update just the coordinates for places and addresses in FH7 and avoid the potential issues due to the balance of the GEDCOM?

[tatewise]

It should be possible to devise a process to import the Mac Family Tree GEDCOM to FH V7, export just the Place records with Lat/Long values into a temporary GEDCOM file, and then merge that into your master FH Project.

However, it begs the question of why can't you auto-geocode those Place names in FH V7 and avoid Mac Family Tree altogether?

Perhaps that is where this discussion should start rather than solving a problem that may be unnecessary.

[Gary_G]

Mike;

The overall geocoding functionality on MacFamilyTree is more developed than on FH7. That's not saying that FH7's doesn't do the actual job of geocoding. It's more that MacFamilyTree has made geocoding a key built-in functionality with a specialized interface and associated tools. So it's a bit easier to make sure that one's geocoding is accurate. That said; the rest of the program is far less user friendly and citations are a bit of a "lost cause", which is why I prefer FH7 overall.

If importing places and addresses is a lot of work, then a cost/benefit analysis dictates living with what we have.

[tatewise]

What special geocoding features and tools does Mac Family Tree offer that FH V7 does not?
If worthwhile, they could perhaps become Wish List items.

If migrating just Place Lat/Long values is a regular process then a custom plugin could be written for FH V7 that reads through the Mac Family Tree exported GEDCOM and automatically updates the FH V7 Project Place records.

[mjashby]

Mike,

If it's of any interest, you can download a copy of the MacMamilyTree User Guide from https://www.syniumsoftware.com/macfamilytree/tutorials (The User Guide downloads are listed a the very bottom of the page.)

I brief scan through the document will give you an impression of some of the the differences in focus from FH i.e 'highly graphical', as you might expect from a native Mac-only application that builds on the longstanding desktop-publishing strengths of Apple computers.

I have used MacFamilyTree casually in the past, but one 'weakness' I couldn't get over was it's inability to handle alternative calendars; i.e. in my use case I need the ability to differentiate between Gregorian and Julian dates, but MacFamilyTree can only handle Gregorian dates. - e.g. No 'double-dating' or Julian date identifier capability, so the only way to clarify why a date recorded might appear to differ from a source record or transcription record is to explain each difference in the individual source records. I did raise this shortcoming with the developers a couple of years ago, but I was not impressed by the response, which suggested (to me) that there was no interest in enhancing the product to incorporate alternative calendars. Not, in my opinion, very impressive for a supposedly serious international software option that has been in production since 1998.

Mervyn

[tatewise]

Thanks Mervyn, but I could not find anything about auto-geocoding functionality, which is what I was discussing with Gary.

[Gary_G]

Mike;

It's more than one specific feature. It's that the all map-related features are incorporated in a single, very graphical, package. This makes it very simple for me to work on maps and the associated data. I, really don't expect the same things from a Windows platform program vs. a Mac. Mac programs are often specifically designed to take advantage of the graphics capabilities of the platform. Windows programs have other strengths, which is why I run parallels and FH7 for database-related projects.

Migrating Place Lat/Long values is something I do only about twice a year, as it seems to take that long for substantial coord gaps to build up. A plugin would be nice, but it sounds like a lot of work. I'll try to manage by opening MacFamilyTree on one monitor and FH7 on another, then doing some copying and pasting. Who knows; perhaps I'll get to the point of feeling more comfortable with using the geocoding plugins and even that won't be needed.