* Exporting Family Historian GEDCOMs

[lindad]

Apologies if this has been asked before... but, if it has, I can't find it!

For the last 12 years or so I've been using Family Historian for maintaining my 'master' tree and every now and then I've exported an updated GEDCOM to Tribal Pages and Ancestry (both in a protected format) for the purposes of networking and when appropriate sharing. This has always worked trouble free.

However, the last time I uploaded a GEDCOM to Tribal Pages there was mayhem and it wiped my entire tree on Tribal Pages, leaving 500+ images unlinked. The TP team (not usually known for their speedy assistance) did eventually come up trumps and restore my tree - but I've not had the courage to try again! Today I've tried to upload an updated GEDCOM to Ancestry and I am getting an error message saying "Error: The file you have specified (Dutton, Berrett & Hungerford Twigs - 5.ged) does not appear to be a valid GEDCOM file, please try again."

I'm definitely using the correct file i.e. the GEDCOM and not the FH Project but am wondering if perhaps FH GEDCOMs from V6 are no longer compatible for exporting elsewhere? Has anyone else experienced similar problems? As far as I'm aware, everything with my master tree on FH is absolutely fine and data is being saved when and how it should.

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome. Many thanks!

Linda

[ireneblackburn]

This has been posted before (but I can't find the link), use the plugin 'Export Gedcom File' and choose the FTM mode and export character code UTF8

No doubt someone will be able to provide an explanation

[tatewise]

The reason many products no longer accept FH GEDCOM files is that they are now encoded using UNICODE UTF-16 format, which is the easiest way to support all UNICODE accented characters and symbols, but is not universally accepted by all products.

The built in command File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File allows other formats such as UTF-8 and ANSI to be created, but the best solution is the Export Gedcom File Plugin, which has dedicated export modes for many genealogy products, and in the latest version now includes an (ANC) Ancestry Family Tree option. For Tribal Pages try the (Std) Standard GEDCOM 5.5 option. Check the Plugin Help & Advice pages for further details.

[P.S. I am investigating Tribal Pages and its support of GEDCOM, but initial impressions suggest it omits many standard facts and details, so it will need custom Plugin settings to include as much FH data as possible. One snag I have discovered is that the Free version only supports a few Custom Events, and they are used by the Plugin to circumvent omissions, so my testing options are very restricted, unless someone with a subscription is prepared to help.]

[lindad]

Thanks Mike.... I'll have to read and digest your response slowly as I have no knowledge or understanding about UNICODES! However, I'm reasonably confident with techy stuff so hopefully will be able to suss it!

As far as TP is concerned, I am aware that when I upload a FH GEDCOM not all of the data gets transferred - but it has always taken just enough to keep my family and contacts happy. Am always reluctant to hand over my tree to someone else in its entirety but, as TP is password protected, that at least allows me to only pass it on to those I choose!

I do have a subscription for TP and would be very happy to help you, although I'm currently in the process of moving house and am therefore a bit tied up until late September. If I can be of help then, please do let me know.

Best wishes,

Linda

[tatewise]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode is a good summary of UNICODE.

Thank you for your offer of help. Please post here when you have moved house and have some free time.

An alternative to TribalPages that you might link to consider is the new free http://www.zoompast.org/ which is also password protected.

The more I investigate TribalPages the less impressed I get. It does not even support multiple instances of the same Fact. So multiple Census, Occupation, Residence, etc, facts lose all but the first one! It does not support Address or Age or Individual record local Notes. With so many omissions I am not sure how to deal with them all, and wonder whether it is worth including specific Plugin options.

[Gowermick]

Mike,

I have been using TP for quite a while, and upload my Gedcom (from FTM2012) with no problems. I do not understand your comment about local notes. (Have yet to try from FH)

If you visit my TP (http://www.loney.tribalpages.com), goto William Loney (1891-1971), and you'll see extensive notes in a box to the right.

Are these the notes you are referring to, or some other type of note?

[tatewise]

GEDCOM files exported from FTM2012 do not use local Notes at all, but linked Note Records are used instead. This applies to Notes associated with the whole Record as well as Notes associated with each Fact, etc. That may explain why TP accepts the FTM exported GEDCOM better. FH and GEDCOM 5.5 allows both multiple local Notes and multiple linked Note Records, so more experiments are needed to understand the TP import rules and how Notes must be converted to be acceptable.

I notice that William Loney (1891-1971) has one Census, one Residence, and one Occupation Fact. I could find no one that had more than one of such Facts, so it appears multiple Census, Residence, or Occupation Facts cannot be recorded. Is that your experience too?

[Gowermick]

Mike,

To be honest, I've never noticed that! I do know that with FTM, when you have multiple facts, one needs to be set to 'preferred'. I have always assumed that this was to choose which one was displayed in the right hand panel, which could only show one at a time.

Why that should affect the Gedcom I don't know.

I am going to export the whole file today, using options 'other-ansi', import it into FH and see what the result is. If I find I've lost all the other census data during the process, I'll be more than annoyed.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Mike
Edit:
I just checked William in my GedView iPad app, and there is more than one census and occupation shown there, and I used same Gedcom file as I used for TP. It would seem that this particular problem lies with TP import routine. If memory serves me right, it was they who suggested exporting from FTM using ftm16-ansi option. This was 8 years ago, so will contact them, explain the problem and see what they suggest.
Mike

[AdrianBruce]

Working from fallible memory, I am sure that TribalPages only imports one each of some things. I note that I have not got any census, occupation or residence in my TP site, so I suspect I ripped all such items out before loading on the basis that I didn't want to see just single occurences.