* Notes missing from exported GEDCOM

[westey]

Hello. I'm new to FH and have 20 days left of my evaluation period.

I've successfully imported my GEDCOM from a very old version of FTM (v9) and everything is OK. I'm getting used to the program but I've found that when I export my GEDCOM from FH to the Heredis app on my ipad my notes are missing. I used to record all my sources, research, theories together as one block of text on the single notes page of FTM and they have always transferred successfully to Heredis so why am I having trouble now? Is it anything to do with the fact that when I first exported to FH my notes ended up in the lower of the two windows of the notes tab with the first line of text repeated in the top window as Note Record (1 link)? - I'm still trying to understand what that is all about.

Can you please tell me why my notes are not exporting?

[Jane]

Family Historian can support different types of notes and have lots of notes per individual or even shared notes and notes against facts.

Are your notes local (blue dot) or Note Records (Yellow square)?

If you are using the Export option are you including Note records?

2016-07-23_132425.jpg (37.97 KiB) Viewed 12326 times

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG. Can I give a more detailed explanation.

Unfortunately, the Gedcom file format specification exists as both Release 5.5 and Draft 5.5.1, and also different programs such as FTM, Heredis, and FH implement them slightly differently, resulting in slightly different dialects of Gedcom file.

Checkout the how_to:import_from_family_tree_maker|> Import from Family Tree Maker (FTM) advice, and one of the issues is that FTM exports Local Notes as separate linked Note Records. This is easily corrected with the Clean Up Notes Plugin, but the FH Trial Version does NOT support Plugins.

To export to Heredis from FH it is best to use the Export Gedcom File Plugin that has custom settings for Heredis, but again NOT supported in FH Trial Version.

When you transferred from FTM to Heredis before, did you export/import Gedcom, or can Heredis read the FTM database directly? If the latter, then that explains why it worked, but now Gedcom does not because of the dialect issues.

[westey]

Jane
The top window contains only the yellow square icon, followed by the first line of my notes (highlighted) plus the description of it being type Note Record (1 link). The bottom window contains my notes and no dot or icon. And yes I made sure I included everything to be exported.

Tatewise
Thank you for the welcome. I believe I followed the correct procedure when exporting. I shall have to see about importing. I don't know anything about Local Notes and Note Records. They're all just notes to me. What's the difference? It's a shame I can't try out the export before buying the program but when I do use the plug ins that you suggest will my notes be placed in just the top window then? As for when I transferred from FTM to Heredis, as I do every month, I followed the standard export procedure to create a GEDCOM, email it to myself as backup and import direct into the Heredis app.

[tatewise]

I guess you understand that each Individual requires a separate Record.
Local Notes are embedded within such Records and so can only apply to one Individual.
Note Records are completely independent, and may be linked to more than one Individual, in the same way that Father/Mother Individual Records can be linked to more than one Child Individual Record, etc.

I do not understand why transferring Gedcom via FH to Heredis upsets the visibility of the Notes. I will investigate in a bit more detail when I have time tomorrow.

[westey]

Thank you. I hope you have some success.

[tatewise]

I have given this some thought, and performed some experiments, but cannot reproduce your reported symptoms.

Note Records v Local Notes

The yellow icon on the Notes tab identifies a Note Record with 1 link to the displayed Individual Record. When other Notes are added (to Family or Facts), they will be indexed in the top pane, and whichever one is selected will be displayed in full in the lower pane.
e.g.
Select the Main tab and type a short sentence into the local Note: box on 5th row down. Return to the Notes tab and it will be indexed there with a blue bullet icon and Type as Local. (This is how the Notes will appear after using the Clean Up Notes Plugin.)

Switch to the Records Window and select its Notes tab. There you will find all the Note Records with their yellow folder icons and the number of Links. (The Plugin will convert all those with 1 Link to Local Notes on the Individual's Main tab.)

Exported Notes in Heredis

In FH I used File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File and in its dialogue clicked Add All and OK, leaving all other options in the default state.

I do not have the Heredis app, so used the Heredis 2015 Windows trial version, but I believe all variants of Heredis are the same.
Using the Open a GEDCOM File option, I selected the Gedcom File exported by FH and accepted all the default dialogue options.
On its Data tab I displayed the Personal Data of any Individual with Local Notes &/or Note Records as described above.
I chose the Edit the Individual and Family Notes toolbar icon that looks like a Notepad & Pencil.
In this Notes of ... dialogue all the Local Notes and Note Records were merged on the Person Note tab.

I investigated Notes (Local and Records) in other positions in the database such as on Family records and on Facts (Events/Attributes), and they all appeared correctly in Heredis either in the Notes dialogue above, or in the Event Note dialogue.

So, what are you doing differently?

Do the Notes imported directly from FTM appear in different dialogues than those described above?

[westey]

Thank you for having a go at this. I've tried again exactly following your export instructions and imported the GEDCOM via email into my Heredis app but again no notes appeared in the Data panel. The app is pretty basic and you just select the email containing the GEDCOM and tap the attachment, select Heredis in the box that pops up, name the file, wait for it to copy and away you go. My notes should have transferred into the Data panel as before with FTM.

I shall look again at the Heredis side of things tomorrow because I have family coming shortly.

[Valkrider]

I have the Heredis app in my iPhone.

Rather than using the email option I use the usual iTunes drag and drop copy of my Family Historian exported Gedcom. I have no issues at all with my notes they are all there and carried over correctly from Family Historian.

It should make no difference how you import the gedcom but it may be worth trying the drag and drop method.

[tatewise]

Colin, did those Notes include both Local Notes and Note Records linked to Individual record?
Can you try the Gedcom route to see if that is different.

I have installed the Heredis for Android app (I do not have iPad) and successfully transferred my test Project including both Local Notes and Note Records that appear in the app Person Data in the Note section, and similarly for Events.

To perform the transfer I had to import the FH Gedcom into Heredis for Windows and use File > Prepare for > Android... which creates a .hmwz file to be transferred to Android and loaded into the Heredis for Android app. There is no load from Gedcom option in this app.

I notice that in Heredis for Windows there is also File > Prepare for > iTunes... that is presumably intended for iPad.

[Valkrider]

Mike

I have just checked and both local notes and note records are present.

I only purchased Heredis for Windows not the Mac that I now work on so no longer have the ability to do anything with Heredis on a computer. The iPhone app allows you to import a gedcom direct which is what I did by dragging and dropping into the application in iTunes. The app then converts it to the Heredis format.

[AnneEast]

I have the Heredis app on my iPad, which I just use for reference when out and about. I seem to get all my notes but have found they are quite well hidden away down some layers of a person's information. I'm sure you have gone down all those tracks but just thought I would mention it 'just in case'.
Anne

[tatewise]

Maybe the Android app is different, but on the Person Data tab the record level Notes are on the same screen. Opening any Event from lower down on same screen, displays the Fact level Notes.

Ann, could you describe the iPad command steps you use to reach the Notes.

However, that is not really the problem, because westey can see the Notes when the Gedcom from FTM is loaded into Heredis. Mysteriously, if that same Gedcom is imported into FH and exported into Heredis the Notes vanish. But nobody else can reproduce those symptoms. Simply going via FH should not disrupt the Gedcom so much that the Notes vanish.

There must be something uniquely unusual about that Gedcom. The only significant difference between the FTM Gedcom and the derived FH Gedcom is that FH adds a Place record for each Place name. BUT all our FH Gedcom have Place records without hiding Notes in Heredis.

One idea is to tick the Exclude Place records option in the Export Gedcom File dialogue.

Can I suggest to westey to try a VERY simple new FTM database of a handful of people with just a few Notes and see if that still exhibits the problem when transferred via FH.

Can you also confirm that the missing Notes apply to every Individual (or at least a large number of random samples)?

[westey]

I've used a small file that I had on FTM, written a note pertaining to 1 individual, created a GEDCOM, emailed it to myself,and imported it into the Heredis app on my Ipad. The note was there. I then imported the same GEDCOM into FH and the note was there. I then exported that same GEDCOM from FH following your instructions given yesterday into Heredis on my Ipad and guess what? No note. I've tried to import notes from FH into Heredis several times now and it just does not work.

And yes in my family file the missing notes apply to every individual.

[tatewise]

OK, to resolve the mystery please attach both Gedcom files to your reply using the Upload attachment tab below the edit message box. Don't forget to click the Add the file button.

You can add both files to one reply by using the process twice.

Then I can investigate what is different about the two Gedcom that is causing the problem.

I wonder if it is some glitch in the 30-day Trial version.
So please also in FH use Help > About Family Historian and post the Version number here.
It should be something like FH Version 6.2.2.

[tatewise]

westey where did those two Gedcom go - the posting has vanished.

[westey]

I decided to delete them because I realised they had some personal info in them. I've created new GEDs for a fictitious family following the same procedure and checked the problems are the same. In GED 1, export from FTM to Heredis app, the notes are there for Joe and Mary, they are imported in FH, but they're gone in GED 2, export from FH to Heredis app.

And yes the Version is 6.2.2.

[tatewise]

OK, I've looked at both files in Notepad and they look correct.
I have opened both in FH and in Heredis for Windows ~ all OK.
I have transferred the FH export via Heredis for Windows into Heredis for Android app ~ all OK.
In all cases the Notes are retained.

Perhaps Colin can try direct Drag & Drop to Heredis for iPad.

The only significant difference I noted is that Bloggs 1 is encoded in ANSI, but Bloggs 2 is encoded in UTF-8 (both are valid).

So in the FH Export Gedcom File dialogue try setting Format: top right to ANSI and see if that retains Notes.
Maybe the UTF-8 encoding is not transferring via Email correctly or Heredis for iPad does not handle it correctly.
In the same dialogue, you could also tick Exclude Place records and that may help.

[westey]

I think I tried ANSI before but I did it again with Place records excluded and you know what? No notes

[tatewise]

Well, I am running out of ideas, unless Colin can suggest anything.
It is not clear what is different about your configuration that treats two such similar and simple Gedcom differently.
I might try making small changes to Bloggs 2 to see if any particular line is the culprit, and post the Gedcom here for you to try.

When I get a free moment what I plan to do is try two options.
1) Use the Clean Up Notes Plugin to convert to local Notes.
2) Use the Export Gedcom File plugin with appropriate options.
Then attach both resulting Gedcom here for you to try.

[westey]

Thanks.

[Valkrider]

I have tried this with drag and drop to my iPhone with interesting results.

Bloggs2 does not display either note type under any circumstance.

Blogs1 does display Local Notes but not Notes Records in the person view. However, on going to the tree view and clicking on the individual then the Notes Record is displayed.

It therefore looks as though there is something odd going on with the conversion to an hmw file.

[tatewise]

Colin, last Sunday you suggested that both types of Note transferred to iPhone OK.
But now it is failing ~ what has changed?
Westey, does Colin's description match your experience?

Yes, seems as if the Heredis app is faulty or sensitive to some Gedcom details.

There are some suggestions on Google that some Heredis versions do not handle Note Records from Gedcom very well.

Try using the Heredis for Windows to import the Gedcom and use File > Prepare for > iTunes to create a .hmwz file and transfer that to iPhone.

[westey]

My Ipad app just displays the same for both person and tree views.

[mjashby]

This may (or may not ) help, but in a review of Heredis as a possible alternative to FTM - see here:

http://genealogytools.com/replacing-fam ... edis-2015/

the following issue with importing Notes to Heredis is mentioned

"— Notes: Failed to import notes that used cross-references (e.g., NOTE @N1@). Cross-references are a way of using notes (or other records) more than once so they don’t have to be spelled out every time. They’re defined in the GEDCOM standard, and there’s no reason Heredis can’t read them, even if it doesn’t export them (which it doesn’t)."

Other problems with Heredis GEDCOM import and export are also mentioned and are certainly worthwhile being if you use (or are considering using) the application alongside other software.

Mervyn