* Address import from TMG V8.08

[dewilkinson]

I have been considering moving away from TMG for sometime and have taken the plunge using the free trial at present. The transfer seemed to go perfectly, in fact everything I have cross checked is fine accepting the different ways of showing the doing the same thing.

One thing is bugging me though. Addresses seem the have imported as a string in the Place field and the Address field is blank. I am wondering what consequences this may have.

I would welcome any views on this.

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.

Checkout how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG) for general advice.

I believe TMG only supports Place details and no Address field, whereas FH supports the full GEDCOM specification that supports both. So an import from TMG will have no Address fields.

Also as a newcomer work through how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and follow all the links, but in this context see glossary:places|> Places and Addresses and review the Forum Posts on Places and Addresses.

FH does pose a paradox for Place and Address fields. Ideally the GEDCOM definition should be followed, but FH only offers geocoding for Place names. So if geocoding down to street level is required, then address details must be held in the Place fields, as often discussed in those Forum postings.

[dewilkinson]

Thank you for your reply. As you say there is a paradox here.

As I read it the design idea is that you have Place limited to say Parish, Town, County, Country and Address has Addressee say St. Mary and the street. This doesn't seem very good to me as I have for example 130 St.Mary churches excluding St. Mary the etc etc. My file is 25,000 people with all the attached facts and addresses/places so far to big to do manual adjustments. I need to think about this one. One good point using TMG's F2 function for entering addresses they are all consistent.

The import from TMG hasn't put in delimiters for missing fields so it looks like places could be out of line for reports etc. This has to be FH's weak point. TMG used a structured table for this so everything lined up. Pity the import has lost this.

Where does the postcode go in this structure? (rhetorical question)

[tatewise]

There are lots of debates about the pros and cons of various Place and Address structures, but the main thing is to be self-consistent. The 130 St.Mary churches is one justification for breaking the GEDCOM advice and putting such details in the Place field. Alternatively, some users duplicate part of the Place in the Address to differentiate such churches, etc, including the Post Code, although there is also a partly hidden GEDCOM Post Code sub-field of the Address structure. There are techniques for eliminating that duplication in Narrative report Sentences involving both Address and Place by using the TextParts(...) function.

It is unfortunate that delimiters have not been inserted for missing parts. However, use the Tools > Works with Data > Places/Addresses to make global adjustments. Once consistent column parts have been achieved, the FH auto-complete should keep them all consistent.

It is also possible to work with the Place records in the Records Window to achieve consistent names.

BTW: For some changes the Rearrange Address and Place Parts Plugin is useful.

BTW: The Map Life Facts Plugin usually does a better job of geocoding down to street & building level than the FH geocoder.

BUT Plugins are not supported in the FH Trial version.