Odd Error Message on Start-up

stillsearching · Post by **stillsearching** » 20 May 2012 08:35

I'm suddenly getting an odd error message when starting Ancestral Sources. It has been working perfectly until today. FH4 crashed on me and although I have restored it from a recent backup and it's now fine, I cannot get AS to start with my current project (but it will open other projects). The error message is

What did I do wrong and how do I fix it?

Many thanks.

ID:6253

stillsearching · Post by **stillsearching** » 20 May 2012 08:47

Just to add that I have uninstalled & reinstalled AS but the error message is still there so I think the problem must lie with the Gedcom file.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 20 May 2012 08:57

Try running the file validation (menu File>Validate) over the file in FH

stillsearching · Post by **stillsearching** » 20 May 2012 09:18

Yay, that works. Thank you, Jane [smile]!

mis1865 · Post by **mis1865** » 12 Jun 2012 07:48

Hi

I am new to FH & Ancestral Sources and I am having the same problem as above, though the error message/s are slightly different.

'File can not be loaded. Invalid GEDCOM error on line 138: 2 REPO @@RO@@. Record Links to non-existent respository: @@RO@@.

I have validated in FH but it says I have no errors. I have also had a look at my respository lists but nothing appears out of the ordinary.

My Gedcom file was produced using Legacy.

Thanks..

Sandra

Post by **tatewise** » 12 Jun 2012 09:30

That looks like an Uncategorised Data Field (UDF) derived from Legacy.
Usually REPOsitory links look like 1 REPO @R0@.

In FH use Tools > Find Uncategorised Data which should list these UDF.

You then need to investigate why Legacy is creating these invalid GEDCOM REPO tags.
If possible make corrections to the Legacy data and export & import the GEDCOM again.
Otherwise, simply delete the UDF entries in FH.

Post by **NickWalker** » 12 Jun 2012 16:29

Ancestral Sources is quite sensitive about these repository links. Family Historian does, correctly, ignore them but AS doesn't. I've had a very small number of people report similar issues and when they've sent me the file there are a number of these items of data in their file that just sit there being ignored by FH but not serving any useful purpose.

I'm assuming you're not planning to use the file with Legacy again? If you want to email me your GEDCOM file I'm happy to strip out these for you and make sure you're not losing any important data in the process. You can email me via the Help menu in Ancestral Sources.

Best wishes

Nick

mis1865 · Post by **mis1865** » 14 Jun 2012 10:01

Thanks Tatewise.

I have run the UDF report and it shows 12237 entries....

I've noticed that when I look at the report some of the entries on a birth or marriage has:

Husband: [I1476] Samuel DREW ( - )
_PREF: Y
Wife: [I1405] Mary ( - )
_PREF: Y
Child: [I812] Mary Ann DREW (1805-1882)
_PREF: Y

Husband: [I939] James FOLEY ( - )
_PREF: Y
Wife: [I952] Catherine MCPHILLIPS ( - )
_PREF: Y

I'll look at the report and try to understand what these mean in Legacy before doing anything else.

Nick

I'm probably going to use FH as my main database but still have Legacy as a back up. I'm not quite sure about FH GedCom facility yet, though haven't played around with it too much yet.Legacy allows me to remove all living and private individuals automatically, without having to run a separate query to remove. Even though I only over 9000 names in my database, on my TNG family history website, I've only upload about 900 names.

Regards

Sandra

Post by **tatewise** » 14 Jun 2012 10:46

The GEDCOM file that Nick mentions is the file you produced from Legacy and loaded into Family Historian.

Most genealogy packages such as Legacy and Family Historian extend the formal GEDCOM Specification and add user defined fields whose tags start with an underscore (_), e.g. _PREF.

Such user defined fields/tags are not usually recognised by other genealogy packages, and in the case of Family Historian are loaded as an Uncategorised Data Field (UDF).
These can be viewed in the Property Box on the All tab, and are marked with a sun-burst bullet icon.

Once you have analysed which Legacy fields are related to which Legacy tags then a strategy can be devised.
One option is to delete the superfluous ones in Legacy before exporting to FH.
Another option, if you have FH V5, is to use the Plugin Change Any Fact Tag that can convert tags such as _PREF into a valid FH tag.

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