* FMP Gedcom to FH - Beginners Questions

[GromitsMuse]

Hi all

I'm completely brand new to FH, so please excuse what may seem as some very basic questions! I must confess I have found a lot of the information given in the knowledge base has so far gone straight over my head, and also some of the help given here in the forum!

I've only been researching my family history for a couple of years, mostly using Find My Past (which I really like as the layout and design is the most visually appealing), but have also tried Ancestry and My Heritage, which were not so easy to use or navigate around. I have approx 2000 people on my Tree. My plan was to get a stand-alone package to save all my data on so that I wouldn't have to keep subscribing to an online service. Now I'm aware that I'll have to keep my subscription up for quite a while longer than I anticipated.

So my quick questions are:

1) as the media files don't get transferred over is it worth not transferring the links over when importing the Gedcom? Having to upload my tree to another online service that will include the media files seems too much of a hassle when I intend to double check all the media, sources and citations as I go through each person on my tree anyway to ensure I've got everything as accurate as can be.

2) Are the Sources/citations from FMP uploaded via the Gedcom as splitters or are they lumpers? I thought the whole purpose of FH7's templated sources was that this is how a Gedcom stores its sources/citations?

3) Is is just the media links that get broken when uploaded from a Gedcom?

4) Would it be worth me starting my family tree from scratch on FH7 and checking/entering my own information as I go, rather than importing a Gedcom?

Many thanks!

[ColeValleyGirl]

Sometimes the experts get a little carried away around here, so apologies for that!

I'm going to skip straight to your last question (as importing isn't something I know a lot about).

Would it be worth me starting my family tree from scratch on FH7 and checking/entering my own information as I go, rather than importing a Gedcom?

In my opinion, if you're intending to recheck everything, this would be the easiest way to go. You would sidestep the need to get your head around the importing issues. You would still need to get your head around some of the key concepts in FH (and there are some beginner level resources in the KnowledgeBase on Getting Started, as well as some intro videos on the Family Historian video page. It would also be worth your while to get to grips with Ancestral Sources which will significantly reduce the time it takes to re-enter your data.

[tatewise]

A variant of what Helen suggested is to import your tree from FMP and then delete all Source and Media records.
That saves you from retyping all the names, facts, and relationships but gives you a clean sheet for checking all the Source and Media information.

[fhtess65]

I agree with Mike on this one - at least you'll have the basic structure of your tree.

Have you been saving the document images to your hard drive so they can be added or linked to your FH project?

A variant of what Helen suggested is to import your tree from FMP and then delete all Source and Media records.
That saves you from retyping all the names, facts, and relationships but gives you a clean sheet for checking all the Source and Media information.

[GromitsMuse]

Thanks everyone! That's all really helpful, so I'm really glad I asked!

Taking on board all your suggestions I think my plan is to: leave my FMP Gedcom inport as it is for the time being, have a good look at Ancestral Sources and how that works, then delete all the sources and media links on my project on FH leaving my family tree skeleton ready to put my sources, citations and media bits back in by using Ancestral Sources and Family Historian together!

I'm sure I'll be back if I get stuck!

Thanks again

[tatewise]

In case you were not aware, see FHUG Knowledge Base > Delete One or Many Records for the technique to bulk delete all the Source and Media records.

[ColeValleyGirl]

Take a little time to decide how you want to structure your sources and media before diving in.

[NickWalker]

Thanks everyone! That's all really helpful, so I'm really glad I asked!

Taking on board all your suggestions I think my plan is to: leave my FMP Gedcom inport as it is for the time being, have a good look at Ancestral Sources and how that works, then delete all the sources and media links on my project on FH leaving my family tree skeleton ready to put my sources, citations and media bits back in by using Ancestral Sources and Family Historian together!

I'm sure I'll be back if I get stuck!

Thanks again

I'd recommend having a look at the Ancestral Sources Introduction video and perhaps some of the other videos in the AS YouTube channel.

Best wishes

Nick

[fhtess65]

I second this one...work out exactly what system you're going to use and how to maintain consistency. Ancestral Sources does help with this.

Take a little time to decide how you want to structure your sources and media before diving in.

[GromitsMuse]

Thanks again everyone for more useful tips, hints and links!

As a bit of a perfectionist I do like things to be consistent so have set myself up a couple little trial trees to play around with. I don't jump into anything quickly so I'm going to take my time before jumping all in. I had a look at the Introduction to AS this morning before I went to work and actually understood most of it, so thanks for that Nick! What an excellent, useful program!

Thanks for the link to the Delete One or Many Records, Mike I'm sure I will probably make use of that when the time is right

And thanks to ColeValleyGirl and fhtess65 for your comments also. I didn't download all the media sources to my hard drive at the time of doing my tree on FMP. I downloaded some, but also downloaded others where I wanted to compare families and information contained within them when some of the families seemed so similar or were even related. I'm probably not the only one who has created mini-trees of other unrelated families just so I could be sure I could absolutely rule them out! So creating some media files of the source records is also on my list to do as I go. I have copies of certificates I've ordered from GRO either downloaded or scanned in so they'll be nicely organised too, eventually

Thanks all for being so welcoming and friendly!

[ergo]

Beginners can sometimes find help with the FH Zoom Group: https://fhzg.co.uk/

[Trivvie]

That is an excellent suggestion by ergo. They have a beginners group and there are people ready to do a zoom 1:1 with people if they need it.

[GromitsMuse]

Just wanted to post a quick update on my progress since my questions before Christmas, and to again thank you all for your kind comments, suggestions and warm welcome!

1) I created a good filing system on my hard drive to download/record my source items and incorporated a naming system that matches my source record data,
2) created a mini-tree and followed the quick-starters guide and watched a number of the videos (again), and have started inputting some data, citing the sources, including some media, syncing the data with Ancestral Sources, and
3) input my first census information for a family via Ancestral Resources!



Now I'm off to find info of a different kind!