* Convert Sources query

[WeefordHoldcroft's]

I am trying to use Ancestral Sources to convert my census data. Loaded the file from Family Historian 7. All appears ok. Watch your video on setting up Census Convert but cannot see any source records listed if I tick rich text, generic sources, type in census. Where am I going wrong?

[NickWalker]

If you're trying to convert plain text census sources into rich text census sources then you need to have be using AS in rich-text mode. Go to Tools->Options and choose "General Settings - Source Text" at the top and make sure that use rich source text and notes is ticked.

If you are trying to convert generic census sources into templated sources then you need to be using AS in templated source mode. Go to Tools->Options and make sure that use templated sources is ticked.

You also need to be using recording method 1 for census entries.

You said

I cannot see any source records listed if I tick rich text, generic sources, type in census

if you are ticking rich-text (presumably after unticking plain text?) then this suggests you're trying to convert existing rich-text source text that doesn't have hyperlinks into rich-text with hyperlinks? Are you sure you have any rich text census sources that you created with AS?

Can you explain what you are trying to convert (i.e. generic to templated, plain to rich, rich without linked to rich with links)? Were the entries you created made with AS?

[WeefordHoldcroft's]

Hi

I am new to AS and have created my source data from my existing templates in an earlier version of Family Historian, I am now using FH 7 and would like to convert the Census Sources using AS Census Convert, I have imported the FM tree and all the data has migrated across to AS. I can see the data on AS main screen, however when I go to AS Census convert it shows no records listed for the Censuses. I have already ticked the boxes you mentioned in your YouTube Video. Check these again but still no Census shown to Convert. The original FH7 do not have hyperlinks or any standard format. Which is why I want to convert them. I am wondering if there is something wrong with the way I have created my sources on FH. Hopefully not as I am not sure how I could reformat them, there is a lot.

Martin

[NickWalker]

Perhaps I need to make it clearer, although I do say this within the first couple of minutes of the video, that the conversion facility is for people who have used AS to create census sources in the past without using rich-text and/or templated sources who want to migrate to using one or both of those facilities. It may be possible to convert your census sources but only if they have been set up in a similar way that AS would do it.

In particular:
You need to have one source for every census household (this is know as "method 1" or the "splitter" method).
Each individual in the household has to have their own individual census facts with the census date and the place recorded in the census facts linked to the source via a citation.
If you have any hope of AS being able to convert your existing transcriptions into rich-text transcriptions you would need to have those recorded in the source text of each source and they would need to have some kind of table-like structure to them, e.g. using tabs or commas between the different columns.

if you're unsure about this perhaps post some screenshots of how one of your census sources appears in Family Historian.

The first thing you could try in AS is to go to the Census Source Convert screen and untick the Source filter at the top. This should show a list of all your sources. From what you've said you would expect to see a lot (hundreds/thousands?) of census sources in that list. Try clicking on one and see what happens.

[WeefordHoldcroft's]

Not sure if this helps but I have attached a screenshot of one of the Source records. All my census records are either Ancestry or Find my Past, and set up identically to this screen shot.

[NickWalker]

That looks like a method 2 (lumper) source where you have information stored in the citation and just one source for ancestry. The default for AS and the only method which works for the conversion is method 1 (splitter) where you would have hundreds or thousands of sources, one for each household, rather than a single source for Ancestry. Watch the introduction to AS video and you'll see how AS records sources in this way.