Family Historian User Group

I have recently transferred my database (17,000 names) from an old out-of-date unsupported program (GreatFamily) to Family Historian 6. The old program had a page with a single Note box, like the individual record in FH Main tab, in which I entered a mixture of all types of data not accommodated by the basic dates/places boxes.

The transferred data in FH has been spread in a number of places:
Main Tab "Note" (although this is often empty)
Notes Tab top box - single line entries labled e.g. "Note Record (1 link)" and "Local"
Notes Tab bottom box. Often with text but occasionally the first line is repeated
All Tab has "Note Record" and "Note"

Not sure what these various Note classifications mean.

Please advise if there is a way to show in the Main Tab Notes box all the notes as included in the GEDCOM I loaded into FH. Alternative is there a way I can tidy up the mixture of notes I now have?

What you are inspecting on the Main tab, Notes tab, and All tab, are essentially the same Notes.

The following are all the same Note local to the Individual record:

• Note box on Main tab - click the [...] button to open full text window
• Local Type note on Notes tab - select it to see full text in lower pane
• Note on All tab - click the [...] button to open full text window

You can edit the same Note text in any of those views.

The following are all the same Note Record linked to the Individual record:

• Note Record Type note on Notes tab - select it to see full text in lower pane, or double-click it to open Note Record
• Note on All tab - double-click right-hand item to open Note Record
• In Records Window select Notes tab to see these Note Records

You can edit the same Note Record text in any of those views.
Since it says the Note Record has only (1 link) its text could be transferred to the Note local to the Individual record, and how_to:convert_note_records_to_local_notes|> Convert Note Records to Local Notes explains how to do that automatically.

There may be other 'oddities' in the imported Gedcom, so check the general advice in how_to:index#importing_to_family_historian|> Importing to Family Historian after all the specific Import from... advice.

If you navigate around the various Property Boxes, you will find Note boxes attached to many items, but it would not usually be a good idea to amalgamate them all together, because they apply to the item they are attached to. The Notes you mention above are meant to apply to the Individual in general. Whereas, the Note boxes attached to each Fact on the Facts tab, are pertinent to just that one Fact.

I have used the "Clean Up Notes" Plugin. The situation now is that the View>Records Lists>Notes list in the Focus Window shows just 7 Notes items each with a line of text. There are several thousand notes shown in other records which do not appear on the list. I have tried to find out if there is any particular feature of these 7 notes which might distinguish them from all the other notes and be the cause of why they appear in the Records List but with no luck. I would appreciate help in finding out why there are these 7 Notes in the Record window and no others or alternatively why all the other notes are not listed.

As I thought I explained, the Local Type Notes are integral with the Individual Records and therefore do NOT appear in the Notes tab on the Records Window. They appear in the Note box on the Main tab of the Individual Property Box, and also in the Notes tab, and All tab as a Local Note.

The Notes tab of the Records Window only lists separate Note Records that are shared by two or more other records. The Links column tells you how many other records link to each Note Record. The Clean Up Notes Plugin only moves Note Record text to a Local Note if there was only one Link.

FYI: FH has 10 record types including Individual, Family, Note, Source, Repository, Media and Place. There is a tab in the Records Window for each type.

To find where those other records are linked to any Note Record, use the Where Used Record Links Plugin.

The Individual tab of the Records Window also, for me, is listing the first of local notes that exist. The note field column heading comes from the %INDI.NOTE2[1]%. That is of some help to me as well, and that tab can be sorted, and of course the record exploded to see all the local notes therein. One thing that would be nice is to have the configure column field listing sorted rather than having to scroll through the entire field listing. Is there a similar Marriage note listing for Families?

UPDATE: I mimicked %INDI.NOTE2[1]% with %FAM.MARR.NOTE2[1]% and it works on the Family tab of the Records Window. I don't know why the suffixed '2' on NOTE however. Perhaps a gedcom rule? Anyway, I like seeing which Individuals and Marriages have at least one Local Note.

Atten. Mike Tate

Thanks for your comments and detailed explanation of Notes which I think I understand.

However that does not solve the problem. I think I may have 7 "rogue" Notes in the Notes Record window which do not appear to belong to any record (or if they do I have failed to find the record)

All 7 notes show 0 (zero) links. According to your explanation the Note should only be displayed if there is more than 1 link so why has the note been recorded? The Record Id given is either not a record or it is the wrong record for the note. I dont know if the the Individual that the Note originally belonged to has been deleted or something else has happened to disconnect the Note.

Assuming that I can verify that the Notes are redundant is there a way I can delete the 7 Notes?

Thank you.

For the zero linked Notes you wish to delete: In the Records Window, Notes tab, highlight the Note(s), then from top ribbon, click the Edit:Delete.

BTW..I don't think Mike was saying zero linked Notes will not appear, only that the number of links (if any) are displayed. Zero link Notes will appear in Records Window, Notes tab. This can occur when a formerly linked note is 'unlinked' but not deleted.

JKC - Note Records with any number of Links will be listed in the Notes tab of the Records Window. I falsely assumed they would all be linked to another record, and that those with only 1 Link had be cleaned up by the Plugin, leaving only those with more than 1 Link.

Presumably, those 'rogue' Note Records with 0 Links have become orphaned by their parent records being deleted.

The Record Id of one type of record are totally unrelated to the Record Id of the other types of record as explained in glossary:record_types_and_record_id|> Record Types and Record Id.

Unfortunately, Ron's trechnique for deleting multiple records does not work. That only works for one record at a time, which is acceptable for just 7 records. See how_to:delete_a_large_number_of_records|> Delete A Large Number of Records.

Ron - In Gedcom both Note Records and Local Notes use the NOTE tag, but the former have an @N99@ link value while latter have plain text. In FH Data Reference format the tags NOTE and NOTE2 are used to make the distinction clearer. BTW: The same convention is used for Source Records (SOUR) versus Source Notes (SOUR2) and Media Records (OBJE) versus Local Media (OBJE2) although you are less likely to have come across those.

You can sort any Column in any FH window by clicking its Column Heading as is common practice in most Windows applications with column displays such as File Explorer. The only variant is that whereas in many applications alternate clicks reverse the sort, in FH you must hold the Alt key while clicking to get a reverse sort. When you define a Records Window Column you can define a default Sort order.

FYI:
%INDI.NOTE2[1]% is the Individual record 1st local Note.
%INDI.NOTE2[2]% is the 2nd such Individual local Note.

%FAM.NOTE2[1]% is the equivalent Family record 1st local Note.

%FAM.MARR.NOTE2[1]% is the Family Marriage fact 1st local Note.

%INDI.BIRT.NOTE2[1]% is a similar Individual Birth fact 1st local Note.
%INDI.BIRT.NOTE2[2]% is the 2nd such Birth fact local Note

%INDI.DEAT.NOTE2[1]% is a similar Individual Death fact 1st local Note.

Good information, Mike. The FH Data Reference can be found in the Knowledge Base, presumably.
Thanks again.

See how_to:understanding_data_references|> Understanding Data References but there is a great deal in the FH Help pages mentioned therein, and of course the appropriate fields all have the Data Reference Assistant (DRA) to help you compose them.

However, none of them spell out that distinction between NOTE and NOTE2, other than the DRA always employs the correct one, and perhaps could be added to the KB.

Mike, earlier you noted:

You can sort any Column in any FH window by clicking its Column Heading as is common practice in most Windows applications with column displays such as File Explorer. The only variant is that whereas in many applications alternate clicks reverse the sort, in FH you must hold the Alt key while clicking to get a reverse sort. When you define a Records Window Column you can define a default Sort order

If this was in response to my question on sorting and 'configure columns', I wasn't referring to the column sort, of which I was already aware, but the configure columns for individual records list field selection. Would be a bit easier to find references if sorted, even if just within each record type.

Ah! I see what you mean.