Family Historian User Group

Has anyone tried this application yet ?
I have with limited success, some things work other return error messages


ID:7035

I have not looked at it yet, I assume you are talking about the one promoted in the Lost Cousins Newsletter this month?

http://ftanalyzer.codeplex.com/

Yes Jane correct
and it has also just been updated to new version as well
Best regards

@JSPhillips You say 'some things return error messages' can you be more specific?

The author does his utmost to fix any and all errors that are brought to his attention so if you are encountering an error you need only let him know by posting an issue here and it should be fixed in the next version. If it is a significant bug that affects lots of users may mean a new version with the fix is released immediately. Otherwise a new version will be out within a couple of days.

PS. In case you hadn't guessed I'm the author and seriously will fix your errors very promptly if you tell me about them.

Oh I should also have said that I am extremely keen to hear of suggestions for new features. The application has come on leaps and bounds in the last month due to enthusiastic users suggesting improvements.

I'm aware that Family Historian should be fully supported as no other program adheres to the GEDCOM standard as well as Family Historian does. That said if there are any tweaks or issues you find then you only need to let me know about them.

Ahhhh, I've just checked back and the 11th of August when you posted your message is the weekend I migrated the code from the old manual install to the new automated installer.

This also included several tweaks that broke the install of older versions, sorry you encountered that.

To fix simply uninstall the old versions and visit http://ftanalyzer.codeplex.com to get the current version it now installs with a single click using Microsoft's click once technology (if you use Chrome or Firefox you may be prompted to save the file before you can click it).

Once installed it will now auto update should there be a new version when you run it. There have been massive improvements in the last fortnight you should notice a huge difference from the pre v2.0.0.4 one you tried on the 11th.

I've been playing with this today and find it very interesting. However, it is only throwing up members of my paternal family. How can I get information for both sides of my family?

Can you post the query on the FTAnalyzer discussion site its unfair to fill up this forum with support questions.

I suspect however your issue is the root person. When you load a GEDCOM the program tells you who was the root person in the file (set by GEDCOM standard as first person in the file) if this is a paternal side person and not you then you'll only see paternal relations. Solution 1) change the root person in your family history program, Solution 2) on the individuals tab select the person you want to make the root person and right click and set as root.

Thank you. The problem was the root person.

Just for information Family Historian marks the Root person by using a custom header tag
Where ID 6 is the root.

Ah useful info.

Is it possible to display a small GEDCOM snippet of how that would appear in a header. In particular I'm looking for anything that is consistent eg: it always appears as a

1 _ROOT @Ixxxx@

or always appears in a particular order.

If so I can then add some recognition code to change the root person on load.

Here is a typical FH HEAD record and start of 1st INDI record:Yes, tag format is always 1 _ROOT @I...@

Perfect thanks. I've added a fix in v2.1.2.0 that will recognise this as the root individual automatically for Family Historian GEDCOM files.

Great
Is it not possible for FH in all its glory not to have produced this output ??
Either as a plug in or as a query. This does not detract from all the hardwork done by ambisset ??

Yes, the Individuals and Families reports can be reproduced in the FH Records Window or with Queries.
The remainder could be produced with a Plugin.

But remember that FT Analyzer works for any GEDCOM, so may be useful with other genealogy products, or for reviewing a GEDCOM exported from another product before importing into FH.

I have just run FT Analyzer for first time and will raise a couple of Issues on the CodePlex website.

I have been trying to use the Lost Cousins report on this program.  I had not previously flagged any individuals as having been entered on the LC website, but today entered a record flag in FH (called LC1911) to show that I had entered their details onto the LC website.  FT Analyzer did not recognise this flag and I have posted on the FTA website and someone is trying to help me but I need to make sure I am approaching it in the right way - otherwise they may help me but not other FH users!  I'm no expert, but I presume I would have to enter different flags in FH for each census year, so if one person is on 1881 and 1911 censuses, I presume I would have to enter two flags, eg LC1881 and LC1911 against that person.  However, perhaps it is possible to create a Lost Cousins tag and then just enter the year each time.  If someone could let me know the best approach, then they can write some code to recognise how FH handles this.  Thanks.

There aren't any instructions (Yet), but the ones for FTM are similar enough. You need a custom event called Lost Cousins, leave every thing else at default values. Then add an event to each person recorded on Lost cousins and just put the census year as the date.

Dear Mike
Could I ask therefore if a report could be produced to show :-
Total Individuals Count and analysed between Blood relation Count & name, By marriage count and name ,Blood relation etc etc as FT Analyzer (as FT Analyzer) and to be able to print out where desired the above only ie Total Blood relations showing count and name.
I appreciate it was written for various programs but it would be nice not to have to produce a GEDCOM and then to open to see it etc.
This in no way detracts from the FT ANALYZER PROGRAMMER who has done a superlative job. It would be nice to receive all this data directly from FH itself.

I assume this would not infringe his 'copyright'.

jsphillips said:
I assume this would not infringe his 'copyright'.

If someone provides an addon for FH that provides similar functionality to a report in FTAnalyzer that isn't a problem for me.

The core aim of FTAnalyzer is to be family history program neutral so that it takes a GEDCOM analyses it and reports issues it finds and assists further searching. eg: the click through census report that looks up Ancestry/FindMyPast/FreeCen/FamilySeach census records for you.

Once you decide you have found any data whether through an assisted search or a error report it is up to the user to make the change in their family tree program of choice. FTAnalyzer will never attempt to edit a users data the philosophy is that a users data is their own and sacrosanct it is for them to edit and them alone. All that FTAnalyzer does is look at patterns in the data and report them and help with further searching.

That said I am aware that FH is exceptionally flexible with plugins and one plugin I have thought would be interesting would be one where a click on a person in FTAnalyzer took you to view that person in your family tree program ie: FH.

I've not looked at how FH plugins work but essentially if there was a plugin that exposed an API to say go to person/family. Then I could code up something that called that plugin (silently failing if the user didn't have that installed).

The idea would be the user finds errors or search results via FTAnalyzer and could click to be taken directly to that person in FH, where they could then do their own editing and updating (FTAnalyzer would just take you to the right place it wouldn't/couldn't edit).

I trust this explains my philosophy for developing the program. I see it as a useful tool to run along side a family history program it will NEVER replace a family history program as you will never be able to edit data using FTAnalyzer.

Kathryn said:
I have been trying to use the Lost Cousins report on this program.  I had not previously flagged any individuals as having been entered on the LC website, but today entered a record flag in FH (called LC1911) to show that I had entered their details onto the LC website.  FT Analyzer did not recognise this flag and I have posted on the FTA website and someone is trying to help me but I need to make sure I am approaching it in the right way - otherwise they may help me but not other FH users!  I'm no expert, but I presume I would have to enter different flags in FH for each census year, so if one person is on 1881 and 1911 censuses, I presume I would have to enter two flags, eg LC1881 and LC1911 against that person.  However, perhaps it is possible to create a Lost Cousins tag and then just enter the year each time.  If someone could let me know the best approach, then they can write some code to recognise how FH handles this.  Thanks.

It is myself the author of FTAnalyzer you have been discussing the issue with.

FTAnalyzer currently expects a GEDCOM of the format...

1 EVEN
2 TYPE Lost Cousins
2 DATE yyyy

for a Lost Cousins tag.

To the plugin authors here,is this something simple to add? A custom tag that outputs in this format? If so is it something a tiny plugin could auto provide to save users having to set it up themselves?

I'm keen to support Family Historian as much as possible as it is the program I'd be using if I'd not spent years dealing with how Family Tree Maker works. So I'm kinda reluctant to switch but the draw of plugins is sooooo tempting. [smile]

So it would be really nice if I could put in the instructions 'The FH user has it easy just add this plugin and it will add support for entering and exporting Lost Cousins tags.'

PS. Yes I've enlisted the help of some others to assist with the rather poor documentation at present they are making a start now. It never was my forte.

One of the items I had thought of doing was with DNA on my family and this would be on 'Blood Lines' so a report of this would be great.

Regarding the Lost Cousins Custom Event, that can very easily be added into FH by using the Tools > Work with Fact Sets option to create a New Individual Event with the Fact Name Lost Cousins.

Regarding a Plugin to open an FH Property Box, unfortunately that would not be possible.

jsphilips said:

it would be nice not to have to produce a GEDCOM and then to open it to see FT Analyser reports

There is no need to produce a GEDCOM because it already exist in your Project folder within the .fh_data subfolder.

I started using FTA for the purpose of adding Lost Cousins.

After a few hiccups I got this working and then I started to look at other aspects of FTA. The latest version has tabs for Sources and Facts. I began comparing the number of records for a particular source and fact on FH and FTA and I found lots on disparities. The most common was where I had accidentally added the source data for the birth against the name or event and not against the birth event.

If anybody is interested I can give details of how I did it.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread but I have just downloaded FT Analyser, partly with the intent of analysing the ancestors entered on Lost Cousins. About 4 or 5 years ago I entered about 30 ancestors on Lost Ancestors but as there was, then, no tie-up with FH this fact is not recorded in my FH Gedcom. Consequently FT Analyser does not recognise these ancestors when I log into Lost Cousins. As the number of entries is quite small I could manually add the FH Fact (as described above by Tatewise) but am wondering if there is any way FH or FT Analyser can capture the data automatically.

Some years later, FT Analyser has been updated, with support (it says) for the 1939 Register. ..... does anyone know what "fact" FT Analyser is looking for with respect to the 1939 Register? It doesn't seem to like me calling it a census but, although I appreciate it isn't, I don't really know what it is!!