Merge christening and baptism?

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 20 Jan 2010 14:42

I've just got V4 and would like to know whether you can merge the old 'christening' field where a lot of my data was into the new 'baptism' field which is the only one that I can find in the new property dialog box. The christening data appears in the events tab but not in the baptism field on the (customised) main tab. Is this possible or will I just have to put up with it?

Thanks
Louise [smile]

ID:4300

gerrynuk · Post by **gerrynuk** » 20 Jan 2010 14:57

One way is to edit the GEDCOM file to change all the CHRI to BAPT. (At least I think Gedcom uses CHRI for Christening.) I don't think you can do this within FH4 unless there is a way using a Query.

You should be able to use Notepad to do the editing if you don't have a text editor. But don't use Word or a word processor as it can insert 'hidden' text that will really foul things up!

Don't forget to backup the GEDCOM file before you edit it.

Gerry

Post by **hsw** » 20 Jan 2010 15:26

Alternatively, you can customise the Main tab in the Property box to show Christening. Remember to untick the box that says 'Show most commonly used items only' and Christening will become available to you.

If you do decide to edit the GEDcom, you need to change CHR to BAPM.

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 20 Jan 2010 16:09

Brilliant - thank you both!

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 20 Jan 2010 16:09

Brilliant - thank you both!

mikepimley · Post by **mikepimley** » 21 Jan 2010 11:58

You can use Word (I do, because I find Notepad a bit clunky for doing multiple edits), but if you do, then -
1. Pleeaase make a backup before you start!!!
2. After you've finished your edits, don't do Save, do SaveAs. This will bring up the normal SaveAs dialogue box, in which -
3. Change the 'Save as Type' option to 'Plain Text (*.txt)'.
4. Change the extension of the filename from txt to ged.
5. Click Save. This will now open a File Conversion box, in which -
6. Set 'Text Encoding:' to 'Windows (Default)'
7. Leave the 'Insert line breaks' and 'Allow character substitution' option boxes blank.
8. Click OK.

That's 'all' there is to it, but if it looks the least bit beyond you, then please just use Notepad instead [smile].

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 21 Jan 2010 14:01

All sorted - word handled over 5000 pages of data in a few seconds - thank heavens for find and replace!
Thanks again everyone!

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 22 Jan 2010 15:45

Hmm thought this was sorted but it's not. The source gedcom now has no trace of CHR field - all are BAPM. Most of the data displays correctly now in the Baptism field in FH4. However, some records (nearly 2000 out of nearly 13000) still appear in the christening field even though in the source gedcom they are definitly Baptism coded fields.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks
Louise

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 22 Jan 2010 15:50

To add a little more info - it seems all the records which are still appearing in the christening field although they are baptisms in the gedcom have sources attached to them. Maybe this is interfering in the process somehow?

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 22 Jan 2010 16:29

Could you export (V4) a few people with the issue to a file and attach it so we can see the data?

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 22 Jan 2010 17:40

Have exported a sample but not sure how to attach it here - sorry. Could you explain?
Thanks
Louise

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 22 Jan 2010 19:31

You can upload it as an image I think if not if you email it
to admin at fhug.org.uk, I'll put it up for you.

ltester · Post by **ltester** » 22 Jan 2010 20:28

Hold on - I've cracked it!

There were two locations where my data was stored on my pc and they both looked as if the data file was identical. However the one I changed was not the one that FH4 was accessing. Doh! I have now done the search and replace on the correct file and all data is showing correctly.

Sorry to have created a problem where there was none!

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