* Problem Importing Gramps GEDCOM

[jpoole]

I am using an evaluation copy, version 5.0.7. I hope to migrate my data from Gramps, as I have grown weary of Gramps wacky ways on Windows. And it mostly works, but FH seems to read some records oddly, and has created things that I cannot find any way to correct other than to delete the entire record, and re-enter it using FH. Not knowing how many of these time bombs await me as I use my data going forward, I'm reluctant to make the switch. I have read the documentation and searched this site, and can't find the answer, although it may be that I am getting lost in the slightly different terminology FH uses.

The issues are things like:
1. for some reason, FH has extracted a word from a note- "possessions"- and turned it into what Gramps would call an event- I'm still unclear on exactly what the FH term is. And I cannot for the life of me see how to edit that "possessions".
2. FH lopped off the end of a sentence and made it a "CONC", which I have no clue as to what that is, or how to get rid of it.
3. FH has created for me a thing called "_MILT", which has associated with it "NOTE @NO232@" and "SOUR @SO117@", which -apart from the fact that I'm pretty "SOUR" about their existence- seem to be useless information, but unmovable.

What am I doing wrong? Can this be corrected in FH, or must I grit my teeth and return to Gramps, which for all its failings, at least allows the user get rid of junk, and edit whatever he thinks needs it.

I downloaded a freebie GEDCOM explorer and looked at the GEDCOM Gramps had created, and did not find any of this stuff. It all looked the same as it does in Gramps, so I'm reasonably convinced that my usage of FH is where the defect lies.

Thank you.

(And, FWIW, your British-centric registration validation questions are a trial for those of us in the former colonies. What was the date of the first census? I tried to find the answer on the web, but the forum didn't like any of the web's answers. Thankfully, it finally tried me out on a relationship question, which apparently the UK and the US agree upon. Wouldn't it be friendlier to use something more universal?)

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.
You asked:

Can this be corrected in FH, or must I grit my teeth and return to Gramps?

Such problems are not uncommon when switching between genealogy software and can certainly be corrected in FH.

One thing to remember is that FH has imported a GEDCOM file created by Gramps.
How Gramps fills the GEDCOM fields with its data is determined by the Gramps software.

1. for some reason, FH has extracted a word from a note- "possessions"- and turned it into what Gramps would call an event.

I suspect what Gramps calls a Note "possessions" is what GEDCOM and FH call a Possessions Attribute that is listed in the Property Box on the Facts tab. You correctly say it is similar to an Event but an Attribute has an additional value parameter that in the case of Possessions is a description of the Possessions.

And I cannot for the life of me see how to edit that "possessions".

What editing do you wish to perform?

2. FH lopped off the end of a sentence and made it a "CONC", which I have no clue as to what that is, or how to get rid of it.

In GEDCOM a CONC is a CONCatenation of long text that exceeds the GEDCOM maximum line length. It is possible that Gramps has misused the CONC tag, because it is only allowed for certain long text fields. Where exactly is this "sentence" and what do you want to change?

3. FH has created for me a thing called "_MILT", which has associated with it "NOTE @NO232@" and "SOUR @SO117@"

I suspect that this is some sort of customised MILiTary fact derived from you Gramps data. Gramps has tried to create a GEDCOM custom Event called _MILT (The leading underscore is used for custom Events). However, FH does not recognise the format used. I suspect this item only appears in the Property Box on the All tab (or in the Records Window) prefixed with a star-burst bullet. This identifies what is known as an Uncategorised Data Field (UDF) that can either be converted using a Plugin or simply deleted.

[Jane]

What was the date of the first census? Wouldn't it be friendlier to use something more universal?

I am sorry you had difficultly with the question. They are used as I felt most people would find them easier than the re-Capture type boxes, they also need to hard enough to prevent a quick google providing the answer, but I wrongly assumed anyone interested in Family Historian even in the ex-Colonies would be able to find the answer. Not using them means the site may get over run with spammers.

The actual question is
In which year was the first UK Census of the 20th Century?

[jpoole]

1. for some reason, FH has extracted a word from a note- "possessions"- and turned it into what Gramps would call an event.

I suspect what Gramps calls a Note "possessions" is what GEDCOM and FH call a Possessions Attribute that is listed in the Property Box on the Facts tab. You correctly say it is similar to an Event but an Attribute has an additional value parameter that in the case of Possessions is a description of the Possessions.

And I cannot for the life of me see how to edit that "possessions".

What editing do you wish to perform?
I want to get rid of it. It does not exist in Gramps, and it is worth noting that at least one other GEDCOM import software didn't find it either.

2. FH lopped off the end of a sentence and made it a "CONC", which I have no clue as to what that is, or how to get rid of it.

In GEDCOM a CONC is a CONCatenation of long text that exceeds the GEDCOM maximum line length. It is possible that Gramps has misused the CONC tag, because it is only allowed for certain long text fields. Where exactly is this "sentence" and what do you want to change?
It is the following sentence: "Plat for 38 acres on Enoree River, Lawrence District, surveyed by Burre". FH lopped off " ll Bobo" to make its CONC. Is that really a long sentence?

3. FH has created for me a thing called "_MILT", which has associated with it "NOTE @NO232@" and "SOUR @SO117@"

I suspect that this is some sort of customised MILiTary fact derived from you Gramps data. Gramps has tried to create a GEDCOM custom Event called _MILT (The leading underscore is used for custom Events). However, FH does not recognise the format used. I suspect this item only appears in the Property Box on the All tab (or in the Records Window) prefixed with a star-burst bullet. This identifies what is known as an Uncategorised Data Field (UDF) that can either be converted using a Plugin or simply deleted.[/quote]
Okay, PLEASE tell me- in plain American English if possible- what do I click in FH to persuade it to delete the thing?

Thank you for your help.

[jpoole]

What was the date of the first census? Wouldn't it be friendlier to use something more universal?

I am sorry you had difficultly with the question. They are used as I felt most people would find them easier than the re-Capture type boxes, they also need to hard enough to prevent a quick google providing the answer, but I wrongly assumed anyone interested in Family Historian even in the ex-Colonies would be able to find the answer. Not using them means the site may get over run with spammers.

The actual question is
In which year was the first UK Census of the 20th Century?

FWIW, another UK site I use regularly uses questions of math- "What is 1 + 1?". Even with the sorry state of US education these days, most of us can handle that without resorting to web searches.

[Jane]

Unfortunately Maths questions are also easily solved by Spammers.

Family Historian is different from many programs on import in that it tells you exactly what it has problems with. Many programs simply "throw away" fields they can not handle.

I suspect you had the CONC line on a place field or similar, where they are not supported, by the GEDCOM standard, so Gramps should not have been using them.

To simply remove all the fields, flagged by FH, the quickest way is to download and install the
Unidentified Data Fields (UDF) List then run it from the tools>plugins menu, this will list any problem fields, you can simply then select the fields and press the delete key to remove them.

[tatewise]

To delete the Possessions Attribute, open the persons Property Box and select the Facts tab where the Possessions Attribute is listed.
Select the Possessions Attribute so it is highlighted in blue, and click the X Delete Fact(s) button near the center to the right of the Add Fact button.
(Oddly, you originally said it was a note- "possessions" in Gramps, but then that it does not exist in Gramps.)

As Jane says, if that "sentence" is in a Place field on the Main or Facts tab of the Property Box then Gramps has illegally inserted the CONC tag. It is not the fault of FH if Gramps creates illegal GEDCOM structures.
Simply type in the missing text to correct the mistake.

To delete UDF simply select the item so it is highlighted in blue, and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
See also how_to:handling_unrecognised_data_fields|> Handling Unrecognised Data Fields.

[johnmorrisoniom]

jpoole is using the evaluation copy of FH, so plugins options to change a fact will not be available.

[jpoole]

I have no idea where "possessions" came from. When I open the GEDCOM in notepad and search for "possessions", the word is not found, so how FH came up with it, I'll leave to your expert judgment.

It appears that the only way to get rid of wayward records is to delete them and re-enter, which is more work than I'm prepared to do. I think that I will just given up, apologize to Gramps, and re-join the fold.

GEDCOM, the standard that is no standard has done me in, I fear. I'm stuck with Gramps... oh well, we've had a long relationship, I suppose we'll smooth over the dispute somehow

I appreciate your help, and wish you well with FH.

[tatewise]

If you read this reply, then you won't find possession in the GEDCOM file because the standard tag is PROP for the Possession/Property Attribute.

You only asked about deleting data and not correcting the data, so that is what we advised.

As we have said before FH can only import the GEDCOM data that Gramps provides, and if Gramps does not follow the standards then FH can do little about it.
It is widely recognised that FH is one of the best genealogy packages for adhering to the GEDCOM standard.

[jpoole]

I couldn't resist one last pass of tinkering. I downloaded an evaluation copy of RootsMagic, read the gramps GEDCOM (same as FH read), and looked at the record I was discussing. It looked identical to Gramps. I then exported a GEDCOM from RootMagic, and read it into FH. MILT, @N0232@ and @S0117@, COC-- they are all still there. I did figure out that FH is morphing PROPERTY fact into "posessions"... ok...

Gramps and RootMagic both allow me to highlight PROPERTY and change it to "WHATEVER-I-WANT" in any record. So far as I can tell, FH makes me delete the entire thing, and re-enter the entire record. That is a sticking point. I'm not really surprised that you occasionally disagree with Gramps about GEDCOM entries.

I'm sure you're proud of adhering to your interpretation of the ever elusive GEDCOM "standard", so I can deal with your odd insertions, IF you give me a way to simply correct them. So, I'm not, I think unreasonable, especially given that RootMagic behaves as does Gramps with the same GEDCOM.

[tatewise]

There is a Plugin that supports the kind of change you request, but Plugins are only available with a fully licensed installation not the free evaluation copy.
In the meantime it is possible to perform global edits on the GEDCOM file using a plain text editor such as Notepad or Notepad++, etc.

The snag with change it to "WHATEVER-I-WANT" in any record is that it renders "WHATEVER-I-WANT" non-standard as far as GEDCOM is concerned and almost impossible to export/import between different genealogy products.
That is the whole point of the GEDCOM standard as described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM it is a GEnealogical Data COMmunication standard for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software.
As Jane said, it is quite common that many genealogy products simply discard any GEDCOM data that they do not recognise, whereas FH goes to great lengths to retain as much as possible even if it is non-standard GEDCOM.

FH does allow custom Facts (Events/Attributes) to be created within the GEDCOM standard, and the Plugin mentioned above does allow any Fact to be changed to any other Fact for which a definition exists (either Standard or Custom).
This technique makes it clear to the user which Facts are Standard and therefore can be exported/imported via GEDCOM and which Facts are Custom and may not export/import to another product.