* Brother's Keeper new subscriber

[Bill48]

Hi everyone. I am a new trial subscriber to FH. My genealogy society is running a new potential FH users group, I think originally emanating from their existing TMG users group. I attended one (only) of their TMG meetings and decided it was not for me, largely because I thought it was too big a learning curve. This inaugural meeting is in a few weeks and so I am hoping to try FH so that the meeting will mean more to me.

So, am I likely to find FH as daunting as I anticipated TMG to be? From the little that I have read so far, FH sets itself up a bit differently from the usual run of genealogy programs. This interests me. I am also about to embark on a prodigious task of re-ordering and instituting a naming regime for my family history documents and images. If I should become a signed up FH user, I will need to learn a lot about how it best works with my docs and images.

I have been a loyal and supportive user of Brother's Keeper since DOS days. The creator, John Steed, is constantly supportive and contactable. I have no plans to ditch it. I have always upgraded to the latest versions. My main database contains about 2000 names.

Checking for past posts here on Brother's Keeper, the last on importing is many years old. So, I would welcome any tips and advice on how best to go about best importing my BK database into FH please.

Many thanks.
Bill

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.
As a newcomer you may find how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers useful.

Switching from one software package to another will always involve a learning curve, whether it is an Operating System (Windows v Apple Mac), word-processor (MS Office Word v OpenOffice Writer), or a genealogy program.

To migrate from Brother's Keeper to FH will typically involve a GEDCOM file and associated Media image files. See how_to:index#importing_to_family_historian|> Importing to Family Historian for similar techniques used with other packages.

I am a little concerned that "you have no plans to ditch Brother's Keeper" because it is extremely onerous to keep two databases in synch. If that genuinely is your intention, then why bother with FH at all?

[Bill48]

Ouch.
I am a long-time researcher, and all that time I have kept upgrading BK. When (and if) I get up to speed with FH, probably it would be my intention to keep BK, at no cost, in reserve, but not adding to it. These days I am entering very few new names. I am anticipating that FH will be much better at incorporating my media files, citations, sources in general, all of which need a thorough re-ordering. So I won't initially be importing media files into FH. I will want to learn how this is done in FH and then attach what I have in an orderly fashion.
Thanks for taking the trouble to respond.
Bill

[tatewise]

OK, perhaps I misunderstood. It sounds like your intention is to eventually migrate fully to FH.
You can certainly transfer your data to FH in various ways, with or without Media.
One option is to export/import a GEDCOM file, but you could do it manually one person at a time.

Use the Newcomer link I provided, and initially focus on the Documentation and Tutorials involving the Family Historian Sample Project that comes with the installation. But do follow all the other Newcomer links and the rest of our Knowledge Base. That will lead you up the learning curve and hopefully answer most of your questions. If not, then please post specific questions in the General Usage Forum.

[jmurphy]

Ouch.
I am a long-time researcher, and all that time I have kept upgrading BK. When (and if) I get up to speed with FH, probably it would be my intention to keep BK, at no cost, in reserve, but not adding to it. These days I am entering very few new names. I am anticipating that FH will be much better at incorporating my media files, citations, sources in general, all of which need a thorough re-ordering. So I won't initially be importing media files into FH. I will want to learn how this is done in FH and then attach what I have in an orderly fashion.
Thanks for taking the trouble to respond.
Bill

Hi, Bill --

I'd like to point out one of the features of FH that (for me) set it apart from all the other programs I tested: Auto-Source Citation.

Having Auto-Source citation allows you to create the Source first and then extract all the data in it. Turn on Auto-Source and then Family Historian will follow along as you go, marking everything you do as having come from that source. Be sure to turn it off when you are finished with that source!

I find this a much natural way of working than entering all the data first, and then going along afterwards attaching the source citation to everything. (If you find later that you have missed something, it is easy to put the citation with that fact, but as a rule I don't enter facts and then mark them with their source afterwards.)

One of the things I recommend to people who are testing a new program is to pick out the family of a neighbor or family friend/associate to use as your test project. This allows you to use sources from the same research locations you are already familiar with, but if you make a mistake, you won't make a mess of your own family's file.

I also like very much the add-on Ancestral Sources, which helps with the data entry for census records and other sources that usually have the name of more than one person in them.

Family Historian is a fine program in itself, even before you add in the value from Ancestral Sources, the plug ins, and all the other material shared by the users. I hope you have fun exploring what it can do.