Marriage data download from Ancestry

chrishill · Post by **chrishill** » 06 Jul 2012 16:30

I have a problem with downloading a gedcom file created in Ancestry. When importing the file into FH the marriage data (location and date) does not appear in the individuals records (although the MARR data does exist). I sent a copy through to FH support and they say that Ancestry are producing a file that does not meet the gedcom standard for layout and that the marriage data is being held against an individual rather than as a family event. Needless to say on speaking with Ancestry support, they say that the download file is in the correct format and that it is obviously a FH problem.

FH support suggest I use the plug-in Change Any Fact. I wondered whether other users had come across the same problem and whether the plug-in was the best way to make the correction. Doing it manually is going to take an awful lot of effort.

Chris

ID:6375

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 06 Jul 2012 16:47

Marriages should not be in Individual records, how would you know who the spouse is?

It's probably possible to do a plugin to move the data over to the family records. Using the Change any Fact Plugin would allow you to create a custom fact with in the Individual.

I am surprised Ancestry are adding MARR to Individual records which is the correct tag for marriages, but the spec says it's not allowed on Individual records.

When you add the marriage data in Ancestry does it not ask you to assign it to a couple?

Post by **tatewise** » 06 Jul 2012 18:58

Chris says

the marriage data (location and date) does not appear in the individuals records

Where are you looking to come to this conclusion?

If you look in the expanded Individual Records then you will NOT find a MARR tag there, because it is in the Family Records.

If you are using the default FH settings, then the Family Records tab is not shown in the Records Window.
Use FH V5 Tools > Preferences > Records Window or FH V4 Tools > Record Window Options to show all the tabs.

Do the Marriage Facts appear in the Property Box on the Main tab and the Facts/Events tab?

The Change Any Fact Tag Plugin cannot change an Individual tag into a Family tag.

chrishill · Post by **chrishill** » 07 Jul 2012 08:54

I didn't make it clear... when I said the marriage data (location and date) does not appear in the individuals records. I meant that when you look at an individual's records - the standard default layout with Main/Facts/Notes/Multimedia etc tabs at the top - which has family member, Spouse and Children, the data does not appear in the boxes for marriage dtae and location.

If however on the main index of names, by opening up the + and seeing the drop down details, then one of those details is headed MARR and below that is DATE, PLAC, SOUR and these fields have the data.

The information does not appear in the Facts tab as an event.

chrishill · Post by **chrishill** » 07 Jul 2012 09:02

And to answer Jane's question..In Ancestry you can add a family member e.g spouse or child against an individual, then within the events you can add the details such as the location, date and source.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 07 Jul 2012 10:33

I can probably write a plugin to move the Marriage data to the Family which is where Ancestry should be putting it, as MARR events are not supported for Individuals in the GEDCOM standard, so despite what Ancestry are saying the file they are producing is not to the standard as you can't have a marriage for a single person.

I am off on holiday tomorrow, but I will take a look on my return.

chrishill · Post by **chrishill** » 07 Jul 2012 11:28

Thank you! I hope you have a good holiday.

Post by **tatewise** » 07 Jul 2012 13:03

The clue to MARR being unrecognised by FH as valid GEDCOM is the star-burst bullet point instead of the normal blob bullet point.

This indicates what is known as an Uncategorised Data Field or UDF.

For more information, in FH open the Help > Family Historian Help and on the Search tab enter Uncategorised and click List Topics.
Then double-click on each Title to view the help page and review the Uncategorised Data Field topic.

As Jane says, this is definitely invalid GEDCOM being created by Ancestry.
User defined tags are allowed, but they must start with an underscore, and so would look like _MARR.
This would be accepted by FH, but only as a user defined Custom Individual Event, and NOT a standard Family Marriage Event.

chrishill · Post by **chrishill** » 07 Jul 2012 14:26

Looking at the report file generated when loading into FH, for a tree of some 1500 individuals - I have got about 500 pages of uncategorised data. Most of it is in relation to the source for census material and, quite frankly, is not important to me. The ones that are obviously important are ones that show as follows:
l.91748 - INFO ONLY: Loaded uncategorised data (non-GEDCOM): '1 MARR '

Whilst speaking to Ancestry support they said that they had run a download on one of my trees and said it was fine. I think I will create a single tree on Ancestry with a marriage of two individuals as a test and see what happens. If it still shows uncategorised data I'll recontact their support with chapter and verse.

Thanks for your help

Chris

Family Historian User Group