Family Historian User Group

Having used TMG for over 15 years, I am very new to FH, in fact still using the FH trial version to test it out.

I was wondering if someone knows whether FH imports the TMG Reference field content found in the Citation window. If so - where does it import it to? And if not, is there any plug-in or other way to import the contents of this particular field?

This is a field I have heavily used in my TMG project (roughly 8,000 people, with close to 2,000 sources, so you get an idea of how often I have used that reference field). In order to make it easier to understand what I am asking, I have included a screenshot of the window and field in question.
I apologize if this question has been asked and answered in the past but I was unable to find anything on this in the forum. Thank you much in advance for any insight.

The quick way to find if it's come in, is to do a Edit>Find for one of the references. If it's there it will show in the results list and you can click on the link to see where it's been put.

Thank you very much, Jane. The search indeed came up empty.

Do you have any suggestion as to plugins or anything else I could do? I like FH quite a bit but just checked - I have altogether almost 49,000 citations and just the thought of having to manually add these makes me extremely dizzy.

Thank you!

A couple of questions, did you use the Direct import or go via a Gedcom file?

If you export a Gedcom file do those references get exported to the gedcom?

I know Tatewise did excellent work on a plugin to import Sort Dates by combining a Direct Import and a Gedcom one, so it might be possible for you to do something similar if TMG does Export them, I presume they are really a "Where With In Source" type reference?

Hi Jane, I used the Direct Import. I would have to see if a Gedcom file contains this particular field. Thank you also for pointing out the plugin, I will check it out. Actually, the values in my reference fields are references to the actual scan of the respective source (their file names), this is why this is so important (I keep the image/document scans separate from my genealogy program).

However, I have played around with this a bit in the meantime and found at least a work-around using TMG Utility (donorware, separate from TMG, available at https://www.johncardinal.com/tmgutil/index.htm). It moves the content of the Citation Reference field to the Citation Memo field which is indeed copied over to FH in the conversion process. I am posting this work-around here in case someone has the same problem as I do:

In TMG Utility, open your TMG database (I strongly recommend working with a copy at first to make sure the results are what you want).
Go to Citations > Change Citation Parts.
For the 'Filters' box, select 'If Reference' 'is not empty'.
For the "Actions" box, select 'Change Memo' 'append', then enter [CREF] into the blank field.

If you are absolutely certain that you never entered any content into the Citation Memo field in your project, you can also set the following rule:
Go to Citations > Change Citation Parts.
For the 'Filters' box, select 'If Reference' 'is not empty'.
For the "Actions" box, select 'Change Memo' 'copy', then select 'Reference' from the drop-down list. Note though that this option will overwrite any content already present in the Citation Memo field.

Then click OK, and for extra-safety, select the "Log Only" option which will not change your actual data but only do a test run to see if this is yields the desired results. To actually implement these rules for your TMG project, uncheck "Log Only".

Hope this helps someone, and thank you very much, Jane, for responding to my question!

BTW: You cannot use Plugins in the Trial FH version.

Did you find how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG)?

No, I had not. Thank you! This sounds interesting, I will try the suggestions mentioned in there. Thanks again.

When you joined the FHUG, you should been advised by Email to checkout how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers and under Project Structure & Location there is a link to how_to:index#importing_to_family_historian|> Importing to Family Historian where that TMG advice resides.

Thanks, Mike. I just saw that recommendation at the bottom of my activation email. At the time, I had just clicked the activation link and not read on. My bad.

The non-transfer of this TMG Reference field has been discussed in the past - see Importing citation details (12745)

Don

Thank you, DonF. Before posting here, I tried to search the forum accordingly but my various search terms must have not triggered this result. In any case, thanks.