Family Historian User Group

We have now updated the pre-release version of 6.1. The new version (still a pre-release at this point) is 6.1.1. It includes some new functionality (such as new date format options, and the ability to only show slashes round surnames in the Property Box 'when necessary') and fixes some problems that were reported with 6.1.0. For full details see the section New & Enhanced Features in 6.1.1 in http://www.family-historian.co.uk/downl ... ade-to-6.1.

If anyone wishes to post comments about 6.1.1, please post them here.

I can confirm that the sort bug appears to be OK now.

When adding a link to a place record in the Media Window, spurious text has been removed from the Place record selection dialog.

The incorrect text has been removed (it used to say 'Select final version for merged items') but there are still no Filter or record ID boxes in the dialog for quick location of the required Place record. These boxes appear in the dialog when linking to an Individual, Family or Source record from the Media Window, so why not when linking to a Place record?

When opting to view linked media in the Records Window (from the Media tab of the Property Box), the Associated Events/Facts option did not work. Now fixed.

I confirm this seems to be fixed now, thanks.

I mentioned in the 6.1.0 topic:

If any of the media have a date in the format ‘between...and...’ the sorting in the media tab of the Property box is inconsistent.
If sorted on the Date column the media with ‘between’ dates are placed at the end of the list, although if sorted on Age the list and the thumbnails are displayed in the expected order.

This seems to be fixed now, thanks.

Noticed this with 6.1 and still there in 6.1.1 in that if in Preferences->File Load/Save - Save in UTF-8 File Format is ticked, then setting is not saved when you close FH down and re-open.

Dual Dating and Julian Dates:

I have tested both of the above and whilst dual dates seem to now be working well, i.e. estimated as well as known dates are now accepted correctly.

Unfortunately using Julian ('Old Style') dates is still a problem, i.e. Family Historian doesn't recognise that with the Julian Calendar Year running from the 25 March to 24 March in England and many others parts of the world between 1582 and 1752 (1600 in Scotland) someone could have been born in December 1625 and baptised a month later in January 1625, or be married in April 1625 and have a legitimate child born 10 months later in February 1625.

Mervyn

I think it would be better if the new option to Save in UTF-8 file format defaulted to the existing encoding of the GEDCOM file just loaded.

When I try to run the 6.1.1 upgrader, I get an error "The source file is corrupted" with no other information. Ideas? (Yes, I've downloaded it three times -- 15MB -- without any difference.)

Later: rebooted PC (which included a Windows update), retried download and update... and it worked. Windows -- doncha just love it?

It was probably a corrupted download. First thing to try is re-downloading to eliminate that possibility.

Mervyn

As before, on installing V6.1.1 the Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Record Type Display Options were reset to Installation Settings, whereas usually I have them all set to Always show. This is on a fully updated Windows Vista PC.

(BTW:I am reviewing all the Help issues raised, and discovering omissions & errors.)

That's odd, my Record Type Display Options had been preserved OK. Using Windows 7.

Mike,

All of my Record Type Display Options were also maintained fine. I am using Windows 7 SP1 X64 Pro.

Bill

These list numbers refer to my posting in Pre-release of version 6.1 (13143).

1. As mentioned earlier, on installing V6.1.1 the Tools > Preferences > Records Window > Record Type Display Options were (I think) reset to Installation Settings. I usually have them all set to Always show.
2. Tools > Plugins > Plugin Store and other web access buttons work OK.
3. Report > Options > Main section > DRA > %FILE_OWNER% problem fixed.
4. Many Help issues from Beta > Issues > New Help Text Issues (11621) still exist.
   (BTW: That posting is only visible to Beta testers.) Details repeated below...
5. Find and Replace Dialogs NOT FIXED
   There is still no Help for the new Edit > Find nor Edit > Find and Replace dialogs.
   Reported on the FHU E-Mail list by walton a year ago.
6. Understanding Functions > DistanceBetween NOT FULLY FIXED
   Help now exists, but in Miscellaneous Functions page and Functions (all) page is wrongly indexed under Diff so also never appears in Index tab.
7. Understanding Functions > LastUpdated NOT FIXED
   Now returns Date + Time but is still undocumented.
   Date parts can be extracted using Date(LastUpdated(%INDI%)) or Year(LastUpdated(%INDI%)), etc, but how is Time extracted?
   If used in Plugins via fhCallBuiltInFunction it returns three parameters:
   DatePoint, IntegerHour, IntegerMinute
8. Understanding Functions > TextPart NOT FIXED
   The help says "Parameter 1: String. The input text".
   If Parameter 1 was a literal string then it would be of very limited use.
   More likely, as illustrated in the examples, is a Data Ref to a text field such as %INDI.BIRT.PLAC%.
   So it should add "Is usually the text associated with a data reference."
   
   This problem affects several functions that simply say a Parameter is a String:
   Text(), TextToNumber(), ToLower(), ToUpper()
9. Understanding Functions > Data Types NOT FIXED
   This page does not mention String at all.
   So it should say "There are 6 basic data types:" and String should be defined as "Literal text or the text associated with a data reference."
10. Plugin > FH API > Function Index Help fixed OK.
11. See Beta > Issues > Place Queries Columns Items (11796) Help fixed OK.
    
    The Status item is missing altogether, although it can be added into the Columns using Expression = %_PLAC.STAT%.
12. Beta > Issues > unable to scroll Facts all the way right using scroll bar (11551) NOT FIXED.
13. Tools > Preferences > General > Latitude & Longitude Format NOT FIXED
    See v6 Bug? Latitude and Longitude preferences inconsistent (12022).
    Preference does not affect input format in Latitude & Longitude data entry dialog in Place records.
14. Help for Records Window search Filter now exists OK.
15. =Sex() function Help fixed OK.
16. I do not understand how for companion products "FH now saves the last-used record id for each record type in the GEDCOM file". I can see the 1 _USED tag with a list of record id, but it never changes, whatever records are updated within FH. Does it mean record id last-used by the companion program?
17. File > Project Window > More Tasks > Delete Project works OK but no fix mentioned in Upgrade to Version 6.1 page.

There is still an issue with the Map Window pop-up missing some use of Places (previously reported in Beta forum). Summary follows:

Clicking on a marker in the map window displays a list of all events associated with that place (when the Map is displaying a Place Record marker set). However this list does not include emigration or immigration events in which the place in question was the second place in the pair.

If someone emigrated from A to B and the marker for A is clicked the list will include the emigration event. But if the marker for B is clicked the emigration event is not picked up and listed.
Similarly if someone immigrated to C from D, and the marker for C is clicked the list includes the immigration event, but if the marker for D is clicked the immigration event is not listed.

Witness feature.

Just when I thought I was done with an ancestor, they pull me back in.

I'm downloading Wills & Probate Records where I can find them online. I've already made one correction to my data, in a branch long not visited, based on irrefutable will language. And added a few more family members.

Anyway, I'm entering a lot of will records lately. Beneficiaries and Executors are so very often family members, and very, very likely to be the very next of kin. Wives, sons, daughters, in-laws.

It would be nice, when I go to Add Witness for Will, I can Add an Individual from my database (and I'm really hoping the Will is not for John Smith, because there's lots of Smiths), or Add Name.

Similarly, when I go to add Witnesses for Birth, it would nice to be presented, in a pre-filtered list, Mom and Dad for easy selection. (For Baptisms, Mom, Dad, Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles.)

Since we're pre-release yet, is it too late to add another option: Add Immediate Family.

Clicking that offers a FH filtered list of only immediate family members and (helpfully) their spouses from which to pick from?

Anyone else having problems downloading 6.1.1? It downloads okay but Windows 10 says the download has a missing or invalid signature.

Thanks

Welcome to the FHUG James.
Try the download again, and if Win 10 still complains try the following:

• Right-click on downloaded file, choose Properties and click the Unblock button.
• Right-click on downloaded file, choose Run as administrator and enter an admin password.

Thanks Mike. That did the trick !

James

Truncation after import of a GEDCOM from FTM
- The problems I reported for v6.1 with OCCUpation and REPOsitory.ADDRess are not fixed in v6.1.1.

Additionally I have discovered that it is happening with RELIgeon
Again the CONC tags which were present (and equally a problem!) in import to v6.0 have become _CONC, so at least are not illegal GEDCOM.

FTM
1 RELI At various times in his life Johnny was a Moslem, a Catholic, a Mormon
2 CONC and a Methodist. At the end he said he didn't believe in any of them
2 SOUR @S4@
3 PAGE Faith Section p6543

FH v6.1.1
1 RELI At various times in his life Johnny was a Moslem, a Catholic, a Mormon
2 SOUR @S4@
3 PAGE Faith Section p6543
2 _CONC and a Methodist. At the end he said he didn't believe in any of them

(btw not a real person but a real Ancestry ==> FTM record)

Interestingly a similar problem with Repository Name which I have only recently discovered in v6.0 appears to be fixed! Can't be sure if it was 6.1 or 6.11 that did it.

Ian

@Barnowl: The GEDCOM specification probably expects only a few words or a short phrase, but allows up to 90 characters on the same line after tags such as OCCU and RELI, and such tags cannot be followed by CONT or CONC tags. Unlimited length of text is only possible using one or more NOTE fields each of which can have any number of CONC and/or CONT tags, as well as SOURce links.

It may be possible for FH or a Plugin to automatically add a NOTE field to an OCCU or RELI attribute, but how would the software decide how much of the original text to leave after the OCCU or RELI tag, and how much to add to the NOTE, along with the contents of the CONC fields?

It is a common misconception that GEDCOM Size limits are maximums.
But Primitive Elements of the Lineage-Linked Form on page 37 says:

The field sizes show the minimum recommended field length within a database that is constrained to fixed length fields.

So that only applies to databases with fixed length fields, and anyway the fields can be longer than the minimum recommended, at least up to the GEDCOM line limit of 255 characters, and FH supports that and more.

I know because I have a Plugin that concatenates such CONC text onto the Attribute value, and FH is happy. In fact (sic) I have an example of a 360 character long OCCU line in the FH GEDCOM file.

So although it is invalid to have CONC on Attribute values, as I understand it, those are the sort of things that FH V6.1.1 is trying to tolerate, and in several cases is doing so with various invalid GEDCOM structures (just like many other products). For years FH has tolerated invalid Media record FILE tags and converts them to its _FILE tags. FH should continue this trend.

Hi Peter,
Mike is right, when you get your legal specs on and read the GEDCOM definition, these are minimums. But really that is beside the point. The person who entered the information into Ancestry was not thinking about GEDCOM specs when he put that information in. She was simply filling in a box - quite a big box at that - labeled Religion.
(in point of fact GEDCOM probably had little to do with the whole process!) Then when he later syncs with Family Tree Maker, exports a GEDCOM and imports it into fH she is not going to be happy that half of it has disappeared - in my book quite rightly so.
Back in v6.0 there were very very many of these truncations, and we have to thank Simon for getting them sorted for us. The purpose of my post was to point out that one or two had been overlooked.
My FTM_Fixer plugin fixes these problems and more besides. A v6.1 compatible version will be on the plugin forum soon.
Ian

The crashing on Gedcom export that I was suffering seems to be corrected in 6.1.1

Focus Window. Spouses & Children tab.

Parents of the Focus
Focus
Children of the Focus

In the Parents of the Focus panel, a Burial fact will appears as a proxy for a death. My Stephen Paine (Sr.) appears with b.c. 1602, bur. 1679.

On the Focus panel, a Burial fact will not appear as a proxy for death. Stephen Paine (Jr.) for whom I also only have a Burial fact recorded, has a blank for Died.

When I focus on Stephen Paine Sr. his vital now shows his Birth c. 1602, and Died is blank.

And in the Children panel, his son, Stephen Paine Jr. shows a date under Birth, and a (burial date) under Death.

Rather than insert a "circa" date for Death, so I can see some fact rather than a blank, could not the baptism/christening/proxy dates that otherwise appear in the children panel, and parents panel, not appear similarly in the focus panel as well?

Ever since the Focus Window was introduced, both Burial and Cremation events act as proxy Death details in Parent, Focus, and Child boxes. Nothing has changed.

BUT if you have a Death event, even with no Date or Place, then that trumps the other two in the Focus box.

So check Stephen Paine (Jr.) and you will find he has a blank Death Event.

Ah ha. That was it.

It does turn out I have a Death fact without date, place, cause, note, or source.

(And I've actually been seeing a lot of them in my data lately. Not sure how they got there, but I've been ignoring them. Don't want to keep ignoring them.)

I see a query in my future.

Thanks.