Family Historian User Group

I have just tried the online version of VGedX and, judging by the messages it returns, it appears to alter the submitted Gedcom in addition to reporting 'errors'. So it would be wise to try it on a copy of your Gedcom and not your working version!

Gerry

ID:5828

Gerry, I'd be curious what changes you saw to the GEDCOM file. VGedX open the file read-only and never writes to it, so I wouldn't have thought it possible that it modified your file.

VGedX is now also available as a web service that does not have access to your original file - maximum safety.

http://ancestorsnow.com/tools/vgedx.php

tjforsythe said:
Gerry, I'd be curious what changes you saw to the GEDCOM file. VGedX open the file read-only and never writes to it, so I wouldn't have thought it possible that it modified your file.

Perhaps the messages need to be clarified. At present they give the distinct impression that the original Gedcom is changed.

I'll check it out, thanks

I assume the offending warning is the one that says 'Removed unparsed record'. VGedX uses a common GEDCOM parsing library that is used in several of the free tools and services I provide. The library builds an internal database representation of the GEDCOM file during the parsing process in order to determine when records are not referenced, etc. The database is then passed to calling applications for processing such as the Ancestors Now Tree service. The 'Removed unparsed record' warning is just an indication that the record was not added to the internal database so that it will not be processed further by any application that might use the database. It does not indicate that the imported GEDCOM file was modified in anyway. I understand your point that the warning is both not clear, and not necessary for the VGedX application. I will suppress that warning in the next update to both VGed and VGedX. Thanks again for your input.

Some interesting software and displays the data nicely.

I was a bit confused with the setup but sorted it in the end.

Quite a lot of data was not used ( I can not remember what it was called or what data was missed now ). Perhaps I need more of a tidyup with my original file.

Could do with some UK support for counties in the censuses and the Google map lookup is interesting although it does not always work well.
e.g. 41 Walcote Leicester England (Eng) M > locates at Leicester and not Walcote in Leicestershire. I probably need to change the Leicester to Leicestershire!

You are of course referring to the Ancestors Now tree builder and not VGedX. VGedX is a separate GEDCOM validation app.

The Ancestors Now Tree builds reads in a GEDCOM file as well, but also creates ancestor profile pages using the data provided. I checked the build log, and it appears the only data not used were the Multimedia files, which I have not yet added support for, and some user defined _FLGS. I can add support for those as well, but would need to know more about what they were. I could not check the GEDCOM file, because you had already deleted it.

I plan on adding the ability to configure census enumeration locations, like the census years that can already be configured, but until then I've hardcoded the US State abbreviations, and NOW England County abbreviations (I'm still trying to find if there are official ones defined. For now I just made up some 3 letter codes). If you do decide to build your tree again, the Census table should look much nicer.

Thanks for the feedback.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman_code
The above link should be a useful start, but the 3-letter codes themselves are not used in official documents or for postal addresses.

Thanks, updated.

tjforsythe said:
I checked the build log, and it appears the only data not used were the Multimedia files, which I have not yet added support for, and some user defined _FLGS. I can add support for those as well, but would need to know more about what they were.

_FLGS are used to define Family Historian Flags. There is some information regarding how they are recorded in GEDCOM here:

http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... nsion_list

Best wishes

Nick

You are correct it was the Ancestors Now tree builder and not VGedX.

I deleted my Gedcom etc. as I thought I would tidy up my data and have another go at uploading the file - better to start off with something that is as clean as possible [rolleyes]

Nick, thanks for the link. I've already added support for most of these user defined records. I'll review the list to make sure I've covered them all. However, the _FLGS record contains user defined fields (__???) that are content specific, so I have no way of determining what these are without reviewing them in context in a GEDCOM file, unless of course someone has a list of commonly used ones.

That list may well be out of date by now, it's a few years old.

Flags are only ever set against individuals so when you parse the GEDCOM if you come across a _FLGS record you know from the subordinate nodes which flags apply to them. In the example below has the 1891 Census and the 1901 Census flags applied to them:

1 _FLGS
2 __1891_CENSUS 1891 Census
2 __1901_CENSUS 1901 Census

Quite what you would do with that information is another matter! Other than perhaps give the option to have them listed as part of an individual's information page. There are a couple of standard FH flags Living and Private which can be used to specify whether an individual is Living or should be considered private:

1 _FLGS
2 __LIVING Living
2 __PRIVATE Private

Nick

It's those standard flags I'm looking for. The others I won't process. Thanks