13 replies to this topic

[Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen]

Hi, 

 

It looks like I'm doing something wrong, I hope some of you can help me.

 

I want to export a part of my tree to a gedcom-file. I use the File-Export function from the menu. My problem is that everybody in the file are tagged as dead ("1 DEAT Y") in the gedcom-file.

 

Have I done something wrong, when I created the gedcom-file? Or is there something wrong with my tree I RM?

 

Most of the data has been imported from The Master Genealogist a few years ago, so maybe that process could have been the cause for a problem?

 

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Another issue with the same process: All notes are exported to the gedcom-file though I choose not to. Have I done something wrong here too?

 

I would be very grateful for any help

Thanks

 

Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen, Denmark

[TomH]

For any persons without a Death event and currently aged under 105, look at their Edit Person screen to see if the Living checkbox is unchecked. If unchecked, use Tools > Set Living to set the flag across the database. If checked, then the issue is with the Export but I don't recall a setting that would do what you reported.

[Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen]

Thank you very much, Tom.

 

I didn't know this feature, though it's prette obvious now I know. Took quite a long time to add all those living flags, I had to do it by hand.

 

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I have also managed to not export the notes, but I still get the address in the gedcom, even when I select no address in the export window. My addresses look nice and normal ind Rootsmagic, so it doesn't look like its an issue with the conversion from The Master Genealogist.

[TomH]

I just checked and verified that the address for a person found in the Edit Person screen under the Address button is not exported when the Export settings is so set. I wonder if you have a custom fact type named Address that appears in the person's event list. If that's the case, under Lists > Fact Type List, select the Address fact type and edit it to uncheck the box beside "Exporting GEDCOM files".

[Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen]

That's strange.

 

I have two Address facts - "Addres" and "Address (fam)". They both look like standard.

 

When I open the Fact Types window, it is not obvious whict facts are custom facts. But there are small differences, and it doesn't look like there are any custom facts concerning address. In the Person Window the existing address facts look precisely like the ones that Rootsmagic makes.

 

But as you suggested, I turned off gedcom for the address facts, and that solved my problem for now.

 

Thank you very much for your help!

[TomH]

Neither of those is a built-in fact type; they are both custom for RM even though they may be built into TMG. Not sure if they are a standard GEDCOM element either. No matter - you've now got control. 

 

You can tell if a fact type is a built-in or custom one if you try to edit the fact name: built-in ones cannot be changed. Another is to create a new empty database and look at its Fact Type List which will have only the inherent ones.

[TomH]

And if your interests and aptitudes include a little computerese, then you may find this of interest: 

Fact Inclusion Controls #facttypes #events #gedcom #reports

[Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen]

Aha, this made me much wiser!

 

I would like to use the defaul facts for simplification, but I guess that requires some housekeeping.

 

Thank you for the help.

[KFN]

GEDCOM 5.5.1 Standard

 

In the GEDCOM Standard there is no FACT/EVEN that is called ADDRESS.

 

The ADDR tag (and its subtags) is a subtag to every FACT/EVEN, much like PLAC is a subtag to every FACT/EVEN.

 

The correct way to include an individual’s home address in GEDCOM would be:

1 RESI

2 ADDR 1060 W. Addison St.

3 CONT Chicago, Illinois 

3 CONT 60613

 

Unfortunately, most genealogy programs don’t support this GEDCOM 5.5.1 standard so they invented their own tag like the ADDRES, or ADDRESS, or ADDR fact tags which of course may not mean anything to the program that receives the errant GEDCOM file.

[Jerry Bryan]

The ADDR tag (and its subtags) is a subtag to every FACT/EVEN, much like PLAC is a subtag to every FACT/EVEN.

 

The correct way to include an individual’s home address in GEDCOM would be:

1 RESI

2 ADDR 1060 W. Addison St.

3 CONT Chicago, Illinois 

3 CONT 60613

 

Changing the subject a bit and I hope I'm not hijacking the thread, but I have a GEDCOM question and you are a GEDCOM expert. So here goes. I have been thinking a lot about the problem of the Place Name Standard not supporting cemetery names and hospital names and the like. But cemetery names are the most important, and it seems to me that genealogy standards that don't support the recording of cemetery names are defective standards. As I read the GEDCOM standard, a place name is supposed to be a "jurisdiction". I'm not sure how literally to interpret the word "jurisdiction", but it sounds like a "political jurisdiction" to me like a county or a state or a country. Under this literal interpretation, a cemetery name is surely not a "jurisdiction" and therefore surely should not be placed in the place name in GEDCOM.

 

I know that RM pushes you in the direction of using Place Details for cemetery names, a notion I reject because RM's Place Details are seldom transferred to other genealogy software.  I also know that RM places Place Details into GEDCOM using the ADDR tag, which is why my question ties into this thread. For example, RM might product the following GEDCOM when a user enters a cemetery name into RM's Place Details.

1 BURI
2 DATE 1900
2 PLAC Anderson County, Tennessee
2 ADDR Mt. Vernon Cemetery

My question is the following. Is this truly the GEDCOM standard way to place cemetery names into GEDCOM? If not, then what is the GEDCOM standard way to do so? I really don't know, which is why I'm asking.

 

Jerry

[Jesper Beenfeldt Nielsen]

Just a follow up-question:

 

Is there any way to see where a certain fact has been used? Or if it is used at all?

 

(I want to clean up my facts in order to avoid problems).

[TomH]

Yes, it's a little clunky. Lists > Fact Type List > Print > keep the dropdown lists on their defaults except the list of fact types (defaults to top of list) > check the box "Print private facts" > Generate Report

[TomH]

A more aggressive way is to select a fact type in the Fact Type List and hit Delete. Built-in fact types cannot be deleted but custom ones can. If it is in use, you will be warned.

[KFN]

Jerry,

 

GEDCOM 5.5.1 does not specify in so many words how to enter things like cemeteries (burials) and hospitals (birth).  But it hints in one of its examples that the correct way would be in the PLAC tag.

 

1 BURI

2 PLAC Spring Hill Cem., Stamford, CT
 

I would concur with this example even if the hint was not provided because I understand the term “jurisdiction” to represent “authority” or that the entity maintains some control over the content of the place.  Therefore a hospital or cemetery would fit that bill.  Maybe churches and other religious location as well since they maintain baptismal, marriage and other religiously related events.  There may be others places that fit this definition as well.

 

Since I also use the PLAC tag as a key to my mapping program I take this a step farther to also identify street addresses for homes and other places to document a location of an event.  This extension is my use model and is not a GEDCOM encouraged addition,  BUT, cemeteries, hospital and religious entities would be ok as I see by looking at the code hint.

 

Since RM Publisher can provide a “list of places”, I would think that this list would make more sense if it was more granular for places like hospitals, churches, cemeteries and farm names (in Norway we name our farms and many stay in the family for several hundred years) so I could identify family and non-family born or dying at a farm rather that in the county where 100 farms exist and a family member could have died at a farm they worked at “down the fjord a way.”  Or a spouse could have come from a neighboring farm.