Family Historian User Group

Since I became a user of FH 6 IN December I have been working on getting my current genealogy into FH 6.

I have run into one error on import that I can't seem to get a consistent answer on. (not from FHUG members) My export contains the following code:

0 HEAD
1 SOUR RootsMagic
2 NAME RootsMagic
2 VERS 7.6.3.0
2 CORP RootsMagic, Inc.
3 ADDR PO Box 495
4 CONT Springville, UT 84663
4 CONT USA
3 PHON 1-800-ROOTSMAGIC
3 WWW www.RootsMagic.com
1 DEST RootsMagic
1 DATE 16 MAR 2020
1 FILE JohnQPublic.ged
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5.1
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR UTF-8
0 @I1@ INDI
.
.
1 EVEN Military description
2 TYPE Military
2 DATE 1 MAR 1895
2 ADDR Place details
2 NOTE Military note
1 EVEN
2 TYPE Anne
2 DATE 1 APR 1895
2 PLAC Carson city

I get the following error on import:

Record Type=Individual. Gedcom Id=I1. Record Number=1.
l.35 - INFO ONLY: Detected & fixed invalid use of EVEN (event) tag: "1 EVEN Military description"

The Military information is saved but almost as comments so I can't find a fact type associated with it. When printing a report the "comment" type information is printed as FH 6 stored it and not very readable so I would need to do editing on the information to properly associate it with a fact type.

If I get rid of the event description FH 6 seems to import correctly.

I've gotten varying opinions on whether the event description following the event tag is legal. I've looked at the 5.5.1 GEDCOM standard and I am confused.

Any help would be appreciated

That is invalid as far as Gedcom is concerned. It should be

1 EVEN
2 TYPE Military
2 DATE 1 MAR 1895
2 ADDR Place details
2 NOTE Military note

1 EVEN cannot have a qualifier so Rootsmagic is generating an invalid Event tag.

Yes, EVENt tags should not have a description field.
In RootsMagic the Military Fact Type is defined to Use description field.
In that case, it should use the GEDCOM 5.5.1 FACT tag instead of EVEN and then the import could be handled better.

In GEDCOM 5.5 as supported by FH there is no FACT tag so FH uses the _ATTR custom tag.

Thus one solution is to carefully edit your RootsMagic GEDCOM file to replace every " EVEN " with " _ATTR "
That relies on every Military fact having a Description which forces a space character after EVEN
Otherwise, you will have a mixture of Military Attributes with descriptions and Military Events without.
It is possible to use a Plugin to fix that.

The same strategy works for every such non-standard Event with a Description field.

Thank you Valkrider and Tatewise.

I suspected as much but wanted to make sure of this. I'm sure I can come up with an automated way to do this. I will need to study your plugin capabilities.

Both FH and RM are due out with new versions so I hope I can wait for that. The problem may just disappear or at least be easier.

Thanks again.

p.s. Meanwhile I can import into FH and use the all relatives charting capability quite nicely. I have already created a chart no other product can and I saved it as a JPEG and PDF and had my local printer print it quire reasonably.

Yes, there is an automated solution using a Plugin or two.

Firstly, use Tools > Preferences > File Load/Save and untick Move invalid data into note fields where possible.
Then, instead of moving EVEN descriptions to the NOTE field, they are moved to an _UNCAT field.

Now use the Change Any Fact Tag Plugin to convert all Custom Events such as Military into Custom Attributes.
There is a strategic trick to performing that successfully.

Finally, run a Plugin similar to Move _UNCAT to Address found in how_to:compendium_of_conversion_plugins|> Compendium of Conversion Plugins.
But instead of moving _UNCAT to Address it moves _UNCAT to the Attribute Description Value.

Anything better than that would rely on one of two things:
1) RootsMagic using FACT instead of EVEN for custom facts that Use description field.
2) FH introducing an option to convert EVEN with description to _ATTR with description instead of EVEN with a NOTE.

Perhaps you could contact RootsMagic support and suggest option 1) above.
You might like to refer them to https://www.gedcomassessment.com/ where there is an assessment of RootsMagic 7 against GEDCOM 5.5.1 that clearly shows it does not handle the FACT attribute.