* Exporting to TNG v13

Importing from another genealogy program? This is the place to ask. Questions about Exporting should go in the Exporting sub-forum of the General Usage forum.
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tea2weeds
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Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

I'm looking into Family Historian for a pc based research tool. I would like to be able to export the FH information to TNG v13. Are there users of FH and TNG in this forum with any recommendations as I begin to set up the program, especially when it comes to places and shared events, etc.? I would like the maps to be fully compatible in both FH and TNG. I also have media albums in TNG, not sure if that exists in FH. I may have to put the documents with multiple images into .pdf format or such.

I would really appreciate any suggestions or sources/tutorials on how to get a smooth export between the two applications.

thank you
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tatewise »

Welcome to the FHUG.

There are plenty of users here who regularly migrate their FH Project to TNG and they will no doubt offer advice.

Central to the migration process is the Export Gedcom File plugin that has specific settings and options for TNG including media album collections and place map coordinates.
For further details see the Help & Advice at https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... edcom-file and specifically for exporting to TNG at https://pluginstore.family-historian.co ... generation.
For general advice on using Plugins see FHUG Knowledge Base Family Historian Plugins.

Shared events, or what FH calls Fact Witnesses, do migrate to TNG but currently with reduced features.
There is an ongoing discussion with Darrin Lythgoe to persuade him to improve matters.
See posting thread TNG and FH event witnesses standoff (15833).
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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tea2weeds
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

I'm struggling to get FH configured with a gedcom that will import smoothly into TNG. I've installed the plugin for the gedcom but sooo many options. I can't seem to find settings to get the source citations into any semblance close to Evidence Explained - I have my source and citation in FH set up to diplay the information properly, but when I export it - the bibliography goes into TNG's source. Ok that's fine. But I cannot get anything close to the citation information into the anything close to a citation format with the remainder of the information - I'm getting variable: data listed in the notes field. I know there's no 1:1 translation but is there a way to get something close to a citation text?
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tatewise »

This is one of the issues when exporting to other products via GEDCOM. There are no standards to work with.
Every product does its own thing regarding formal citation formats.
I'm not sure how the Bibliography is becoming the TNG Source Citation.

Can you explain how you have your FH setup for Source Record Title, Bibliography, Footnote Formats?

What TNG Source Record fields need to hold which of those formats?

Presumably, you are using the plugin (TNG) The Next Generation GEDCOM Export Mode?
On the plugin Extra Options tab the Source Template 1 _SRCT: setting allows Reformat Metafields option.
Each Source generic Title is moved to the generic Short Title and the Footnote plain text becomes the generic Title and the Source Template becomes a linked shared Note.

The needs of these new FH V7 Source Templates with regard to mapping to other products is a voyage of discovery and will take some time to achieve a satisfactory plugin solution.
Mike Tate ~ researching the Tate and Scott family history ~ tatewise ancestry
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

Thank you. I did install the plug-in and tried an export with the info I have in FH. My sources are not what I was expecting and can't seem to find a setting to alter them. I'm basically getting the title of the source from FH - not a footnote and citation. I'm trying to get something that has the components of the source and citation based on Evidence Explained. I know TNG doesn't display the full EE footnotes, but have been able to store the information. I'm just not sure how to get the export to send the full information.
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

Mike,

I'm trying to tackle this one issue at the moment - if I can't get the sources to provide the source and citation details then nothing else matters, it's not going to work for me. I can live with things moving around, but prefer to keep the details and structure as close as possible to Evidence Explained. TNG has basically two locations for the information, so the details from the FH have to be parsed somehow into those. The footnote on FH looks great - online after the import, not so much.

I don't think I'm doing anything differently than most people - the source is the Book, or Census, etc. The citation contains the details within that source for the specific person, place, or event

On my current TNG site for a census record I have this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: 1940 U.S. Federal Census, population schedule; digital image, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com); citing United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

Citation: [S2] 1940 U.S. Federal Census, Jackson County, Alabama; Precinct 13; 36-16; sheets 4B-5A; household 61; Fred Lusk; accessed 30 May 2016 (Reliability: 2).

On the TNG test site with the FH import it looks like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Alabama. Jackson County. 1940 U.S. Federal Census, population schedule. digital image, Ancestry

Citation: [S8] Alabama. Jackson County. 1940 U.S. Federal Census, population schedule. digital image, Ancestry (Reliability: 2), 1 Jun 1940.

with "Tupelo" in the note field

You can see neither the Source or the Citation from the FH gedcom import has all the details, even though the same information you see in my TNG example is entered into the FH source and citation. The little bit of info I'm receiving in TNG from the gedcom is just not going to work. I can work with it if the details move from one place to the other but still need the information details. Surely I must be doing something wrong, missing something in my setup for the gedcom export.

This is a show stopper for me - I don't mind changing how I do something, but need the details.

My goal for going through this process was to find a pc based application to hold my 25+ years of research for my daughter-in-law, while still being able to keep my TNG website with the level of detail I currently have. I'm trying to go through step by step to achieve that - right now it's information being transferred to sources and citations because that's not resolved - nothing else matters... I go back to either searching for another pc app, or tell my daughter-in-law to export reports and transfer the media files if she decides to take the TNG website down. TNG has gedcom export, but the source/citation info is not broken down into individual fields like pc apps usually are. It would save the research but would be up to her to decide what to do with it from there.

I don't mind going through the process of entering all my info into an app, I may find new resources and information as I go...done it before when TMG was retired. However, I'm only going to do this one more time - then it's up to the next generation. LOL

All I know, is that I'm happy with my TNG site, and not willing to lose the level of detail it currently has...shifting around a bit is fine, but I went to great pains to find all the sources, stories and media - I'm not willing to do double data entry or sacrifice the details. They'll have to deal with that decision.

thank you, I really appreciate your help. Just let me know how you want me to proceed or if there's a way to get the source/citation details. I'm sure there has to be - there are too many TMG and TNG users of FH. I just need to learn what they already have puzzled out.

Trudy
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tatewise »

I have merged the two postings into a single posting here and edited them to make sense.

To discover what information needs to go where, we need to understand where TNG holds the source/citation details.
We need to know what GEDCOM imported fields it expects to hold what details to get the display you require.
Just showing us what TNG displays will not discover that solution, but I don't have TNG so you will have to help me.

When we have that information it should be possible to organise the information in FH so that it exports the GEDCOM file in the format that TNG needs to display what you want.

You have posted an example TNG source/citation and an example FH source/citation exported to TNG.
I presume they are for exactly the same source/citation record.
What fields in FH hold the following details that are missing from the export to TNG?
United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940.
Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.
Precinct 13; 36-16; sheets 4B-5A; household 61; Fred Lusk; accessed 30 May 2016


To discover the GEDCOM fields involved please export a GEDCOM file from TNG including that full TNG source/citation.
It only needs to be a tiny subset of the database as long as it includes that example source/citation as you require.
Attach that GEDCOM file via the ATTACHMENTS tab at the bottom of your Reply box.
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

Thank you!

Ok, I have the info gathered on the FH source/citations and the TNG source citations. I can't remember which source template was used last for Fred's info. I had tried gedcom exports for both of the ones listed below.

I've included 3 files

- Fred.ged is the gedcom export for Fred Lusk from FH

- FredMarvinLusk.ged is the gedcom from my live website for Fred

- 1940Census.pdf has several screenshots from FH, my live TNG site, and the test TNG site where I've been testing the gedcom import

I hope this makes sense. I really appreciate you taking a look at it
Attachments
FredMarvinLusk.ged
(27.44 KiB) Downloaded 104 times
Fred.ged
(3.46 KiB) Downloaded 111 times
1940Census.pdf
(376.18 KiB) Downloaded 116 times
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

I just realized, the gedcom from FH I had included was from FH but without using the TNG plugin. It may not help.
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tatewise »

Thank you for that information.
I've quickly reviewed the details and can make one suggestion. If that does not give what you want then we can dig deeper.

Run the Export Gedcom File plugin in the TNG export mode as you have before.
But on the Extra Options tab change the lower left Source Template 1 _SRCT: setting to Reformat Metafields.
That moves the Title Format to the Short Title and puts the Footnote Format into the Title field.
I think that will work better in TNG.
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

That helped - progress

The source info is better, it appears to be complete except the original source. I can deal with that. However, there's still no citation detail other than one oddball bit - it put the household number from the census record in the citation comment field. It also seems to be putting the field names and values in the source comment field.

Is there anything that can be done for those issues or is there some configuration I need to set up? If I need to create templates, or adjust settings or such - I can do that and document what I'm modifying for Jenn's reference.

If there's a book or further documentation that would help, just let me know. I don't mind editing templates or configurations as long as they don't get wiped out during upgrades. I had to do that for TMG's sentences and source templates.

Trudy
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tatewise »

In your 1940Census.pdf there is a screenshot of the Citation window showing Source Record and Citation details.
The Footnote shown to the right is what will get put in the Source record Long Title when exported to TNG.

One snag is you are using a Method 2 'lumped' Source that will be shared by multiple Citations for different households.
So for a full EE citation, some details must be derived from the GEDCOM Citation and they cannot go in the Source record.
This will become clearer if you create a similar Source Citation but for a different household.

Another snag is that FH Source Template fields are not standard GEDCOM so no other products understand them.
It is those field names & values that you are seeing in the comments in TNG.

Your screenshots of the blue TNG Source/Citation details show it uses standard GEDCOM Source and Citation fields such as Long Title, Short Title, Author, Page, Citation Date, Actual Text, Notes, etc.
They are compatible with what FH calls Generic Sources but you are using Templated Sources.

There are a number of possible solutions.
  1. Change to Method 1 'splitter' Sources that have a separate Source record for each household and empty Citations.
    Explanations of Method 1 and Method 2 are in the FHUG Knowledge Base Citing Sources: Method 1 and Method 2
    A similar strategy would be needed for most other Source Citations.
  2. Change to use more standard GEDCOM Generic Source Citation fields that fit better with TNG.
    See FHUG KB Sources and Citations in Version 7 (for New Users) Should I Use Source Templates? which says they may not be best if you regularly export a Gedcom file to generate a website.
    It might be possible to use standard Generic Citation fields with Templated Source records.
Rest assured that whatever customised solution you use they won't get wiped out during upgrades.
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

I'll take a look at the generic source and see if I can get that to work. I really do not like numerous sources, when it's the citation that should hold the details.

Example
Source = the book
Citation = different pages dependent on each individual

Thank you!
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

The generic template worked, Thank you!!!

I could paste in the details of my source and citation just as it is in my live site. The other templates would have been easier for Jenn to use, but make a mess on the website. It still looks decent in FH. It won't produce the Short and Bibliography forms, but the necessary details are there. I'll send her my Evidence Explained book! LOL

At least that gives me a way to enter my data into the pc app for her, but not destroy my TNG site. Woo hoo!
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by ColeValleyGirl »

Have you found Tools > Preferences > Formats > Generic Source formats?
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Re: Exporting to TNG v13

Post by tea2weeds »

no I hadn't, thank you! I'll take a look at that. There was a minor syntax I wanted to see if I could tweak - this will do it :)
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