10 replies to this topic

[RcS]

I decided to try RootsMagic7 as an alternative to Family Tree Maker 2014 so following the intructions I exported my file to a GEDCOM and imported into a new tree in RootsMagic. Everything appeared to work until I noticed I was missing parts of my tree. When searching for the 'missing' individuals I found them in the tree but not linked to the descendants.

 

I then exported just that portion of the original tree and imported into a new tree. This time it appeared to work.

 

As my FTM tree has over 3000 individuals how can I be sure there are not other failures in the import?

[ennoborg]

In yesterday's column on FTM at http://www.tamurajon...TreeMaker.xhtmlTamura Jones reported that FTM has been known for messing up trees, and if he's right, what he most times is, the GEDCOM exported from FTM may indeed have an odd link that RootsMagic doesn't understand, or which may even be totally wrong, and incomprehendable for every other program in the world.

 

To figure out what is the case here, you need to identify the individuals who had broken links, preferably by ID, and have a look at the GEDCOM file itself, to see whether the proper family links are there. You may attach it to a bug report here, so that RootsMagic staff can check whether it's OK or not.

[TomH]

On GEDCOM import, RootsMagic logs problems it encounters to a .LST file in the same folder and with the same name as the database file. Open it and the GEDCOM file with a text editor that has line numbering to inspect for problems.

[zhangrau]

See the new update to 7.0.9.0 which may resolve this issue http://www.rootsmagi...tes/RootsMagic/

[Renee Zamora]

Looks like FTM database can have an issue with Phantom Records. We are seeing reported lines that come in broken actually having a second set of Phantom parents. You can use File>Database Tools and run all options in consecutive order. The tool Clean Phantom Records will remove them, but it good to run all the tools periodically on your database. 

[ian.baker]

As another disgruntled FTM user I have looked to RM 7.0.10.0 as an alternative but the import of FTM Gedcom to RM is broken.

Posted on this thread as it directly links to Gedcom import but not SQL.

 

The issue is the feature that FTM calls Person number and RM calls Record Identification Number.

If a person is deleted or two merged in FTM then a gap correctly appears in the number sequence exported by FTM, but when imported by RM the number sequence is remade with no gaps hence all person id numbers/record numbers after the first gap will be wrong.

RM Support has confirmed this is how RM currently works when importing a Gedcom file from an application other than RM. Curiously they say that importing from FTM 2006 (or earlier) or from RM does enable an option to keep the original number sequence.

With over 4,000 records a manual edit is not viable - so am I stuck with FTM?

[Renee Zamora]

The direct import method doesn't use GEDCOM so that is why the record numbers can be preserved. Right now the only direct import of a FTM file is with version 2006 or earlier. Development still has to consider if they will make a direct import for 2008 or later FTM versions. The file format changed so its not like we can "update" the current FTM import.  It would cost precious development time on the native Mac version of RootsMagic if we did that, which will make a lot of current users very unhappy.

 

Regardless of which program you eventually settle on using the record numbers are going to be an issue. The only way you could preserve your record numbers is to add a Reference Number fact to each individually manually. Then it will never be an issue moving from program to program. You can even display that reference number after a person's name and print it in reports in RootsMagic.

[slimjim]

I had this exact same record number problem when importing a GEDCOM from Family Historian. There is a workaround - it is necessary to make RM believe that the source of the GEDCOM is RootsMagic by manually editing the HEAD part and importing to a new empty database.

I refer to a thread on the FHUG forum

http://www.fhug.org....&p=65340#p65340

David

 

PS if anyone reads that thread there are import issues with regard to sourcing of roles and notes and custom Ids of Note Records. Are there any solutions?

[LynneM]

I imported my gedcom from ancestry.com and thought everything was fine. Until I started looking at my media gallery. Not a single one of the images imported correctly. Although FTM 2014 software was synced to my ancestry.com tree, that is on a computer that no longer works, so I had to import from the online tree. All of the file links start http:\//trees.ancestry.com..... and cannot be located. Will I have to download all those images again and import them into RM7?

[RcS]

I also noticed that all my images could no longer be found. However, although my FTM tree was synced with Ancestry there was a copy of all my images in a local folder with the name of my tree plus "images". So maybe you do not have to download them all again. Also, I noticed that many of my sources were also no longer visible. However, as I have decided to stay with RootsMagic, I am taking the opportunity to clean-up my complete tree and I'm slowly verifying all the entries (>3000 ). So do NOT uninstall FTM until you are sure everything is ok!

[TomH]

I imported my gedcom from ancestry.com and thought everything was fine. Until I started looking at my media gallery. Not a single one of the images imported correctly. Although FTM 2014 software was synced to my ancestry.com tree, that is on a computer that no longer works, so I had to import from the online tree. All of the file links start http:\//trees.ancestry.com..... and cannot be located. Will I have to download all those images again and import them into RM7?

If you cannot recover your FTM software to sync, download and export or find someone with FTM2014 to do that for you, then you will have to access each one of those pages, download the image file, and change the Media item to now point to that local file.