Kim & Kelly Derrick

It's disappointing that the DNA log button is there, but essentially useless. I'd like to urge TMG/Wholly Genes to make the DNA Log more functional, with a generic Y-DNA or user-added selection. I have a similar frustration with the Relation tag. It's there, and it works most of the time, but it doesn't show up in reports, filters, etc. I've been given a bunch of DNA information for my family, but I will make a custom tag for it, as you suggest. Thanks for your help, Jim!

I had entered the Y-DNA haplogroup in the Memo field of a Note tag, however, the better solution is to keep all the DNA data in one place. Isn't that the idea behind providing the DNA Log? For now, I chose the FamilyTreeDNA 12 marker test, entered the Confirmed Haplogroup and explained myself in the Comments field. Not ideal, but somewhat functional. Perhaps I should do both, if that will make the information more available in Reports? I'd like TMG to add: 1. a generic Y-DNA haplogroup selection in the Y-DNA log (like the mtDNA selection) (essential), and/or 2. 23andMe as a laboratory, and/or 3. user-added laboratory and/or test. . 23andMe is a very well respected DNA laboratory and should be included by TMG. 23andMe sponsors the PBS genealogy program "Finding Your Roots", and all ancestral-DNA testing for "Finding Your Roots: is handled through 23andMe. I believe this area is going to grow and I'm sure there are other laboratories out there that TMG hasn't included. The mtDNA and Y-DNA haplogroup identification is the most important piece of DNA information. It would be easiest for TMG/Wholly Genes to just add the generic Y-DNA selection, but I do think keeping it all in one log is essential. I think I can establish a contact for 23andMe if TMG requires one.

All I really wanted to enter was the Y-DNA haplogroup. For instance, my males with the surname Redd are R1b1b2 Y-DNA haplogroup. I was able to enter my mtDNA haplogroup because it's that simple. My mtDNA haplogroup is HV9a. Why isn't there a way to simply enter the Y-DNA haplogroup, without defining the laboratory and the markers? I looked around the 23andMe website & couldn't find a list of markers. I am asking the question at the 23andMe forum, and my cousin that I found via the 23andMe forum. But it would help if I could just enter the Y-DNA haplogroup like I entered the mtDNA haplogroup.

It sure would be nice if TMG added DNA provisions for tests from 23andMe. 23andMe has a LOT of people in its database, and they have very accurate testing.

TMG support has reported the problem as a bug. They are going to move the SealParent tag from the Birth group to the Other group.

As Terry mentioned, whether it was in a PAF or a GEDCOM file, if it is physically first in the file it will be processed first and be set as Primary. The Import processes from the first line of the file to the last, in order. That's exactly what I've been trying to say. I used PAF before I used TMG. Birth and Christening are the top two entries under the person's name, similar to TMG. This is true on the new person input screen, and the PAF version of the detail view. It's logical to start with the person's name, then birth, or in this case Christening information. In PAF, ALL the LDS ordinance tags are down at the bottom of the page. If TMG somehow pulls out the SealParent tag before the Christening information, it's behaving in a totally illogical manner. I'm just going to mention it to support.

The import file would have been a GEDCOM or a PAF. I don't remember which. I still can't imagine why the SealParent tag would have been processed first. If the SealParent tag was in the Other group, in instances where the only Birth group tag is Christening, then would the Christening tag have been made Primary?

To Michael: We've decided to change the group of the SealParent tag to Other. (I'll do the renaming, etc. that is required as outlined above.) To Terry: I can't even possibly imagine why TMG would process the SealParent tags first. All the Seal... tags should be in the Other group. PAF did not list SealParent with Birth and Christening information. They didn't list SealSpouse with Marriage. They put all the Seal... info separately down at the bottom of the page. Now that I understand better how this all works (thanks to you guys), I think these situations where the SealParent tag overrides the Christening tag is a programming mistake. TMG doesn't let SealParent override the Birth tag. In situations where there is no Birth tag, but there is a Christening tag, the Christening tag should be made Primary by default. It can't be that unusual to have hundreds of people with Christening tags, but not Birth tags. I realize that when Christening tags are entered in TMG, t I cannot see any situation where the SealParent tag should ever be Primary, and it shouldn't be in the Birth tag group. I don't know if it would be easier to fix the problem by changing SealParent to the Other group, or making the SealParent tag never Primary. (Probably the latter?) When you enter a new person with only a Christening tag (no Birth tag), the Christening tag is Primary. The problem comes when you import data. When you import data the SealParent tag should never override the Birth tag or the Christening tag.

Actually, TMG makes the first Tag entered in the Birth Group primary - there is nothing special about the SealParent Tag. It doesn't give either priority. It uses the Tag in the Birth Group that is marked as primary, which should be the first one entered.

Ooops. I asked for 27 generations because the Compressed Pedigree file said there were 27 generations. It just occurred to me that I know I was farther back than that in at least one place (back to 63rd ggf). I ran and Relationship Calculation between the 2nd ggf and the 63rd and there is a direct line, so I guess I need to generate an much bigger report than I thought. I need a school gymnasium to display it! Still, thanks to Virginia & Robin!!!

I need Ancestral box charts & Compress Pedigree that are in the region of 25 to 27 generations. I was able to generate them by choosing View (rather than save to file), as Virginia suggested. Then I saved the VCF from there. The first one is roughly 5ft x 90ft. I tried visual first several years ago with a lower version of TMG (obviously) and, of course, a computer that was capable of far less. I had better luck then by generating a saved file and then looking at it. I should have tried the visual first before posting. I was able to generate a visual Compressed Pedigree, but I can't save it. Many thanks to Virginia & Robin!!!

I know it is too late now, but when you import the TMG import process lets you choose what TMG tag type is to be used for each tag type in the importing file. Yeah, but I didn't know enough about TMG at the time. Hindsight is great, isn't it. Well, ahem, yes, if that is the event which they are really identifying. Oh but there is a way. It is called the TMG Utility, a donorware program written by John Cardinal. It has a feature called "Change Event Type" which can do exactly that. And if you have set a Flag to identify only "some" people who need this change it will restrict the change to only those people, otherwise all such events will be changed. THANK YOU!!! I use the Utility all the time, but not for this. I had forgotten that the Utility would do this. I have now converted all the Baptism tags to BaptismLDS. i still have a problem that this didn't fix (see below). Yes, that would help a lot. But I know of no way to do that except view each person, select the Christening tag, and hit the '*' asterisk key to make the tag Primary. You can filter for all people who have no Primary event in the Birth group to get a list. Yeah, but now I have realized that the problem is the SealParent tag which is in the Birth tag group. I apparently have over 300 people who have a Christening date (without a Birth date) and a SealParent tag (and usually an EndowmentLDS tag). TMG makes the SealParent tag primary, not the Christening tag. When you look at these people as children, the "birth date" shown is the SealParent date (not the Christening date). In other words, I've got Lisa Smith, no birth date, christened 1620, sealed to her parents in 1974. When you look at her listed as a child under her parents, her "birth date" is shown as 1974. I have followed your suggestion and found a way to write a Project Explorer filter that gives me a list of over 300 people with the problem (SealParent overrides Christening), so I can fix them one at a time. I wish there was a faster way to fix it. I assume by the "problem" you mean what you mentioned earlier, If the Picklist sort is set to "Surname, Given name, Birth date" I know of no way for it to sort other than by a date from a tag in the Birth group. The Picklist has a column heading for "Birth". Are you seeing the Endowment date listed in that column? If Endowment is really in the "Other" group I don't understand why you are seeing what you are telling me you are seeing. I miss spoke when I included the Picklist in the problem. I didn't realize what was really causing the problem until our discussions here. What is really causing the problem is the SealParent tag. The dates on the Endowment and SealParent are the same, so I erroneously thought the Endowment tag was involved. It is the SealParent tag that is actually causing the problem. The problem is that the SealParent tag overrides the Christening tag. I appreciate all your help. I hadn't looked at the problem in terms of Tag Groups. That is the heart of the matter - SealParent is overriding Christening and both are Birth Group tags. Thank you for having the patience to help me see what was really going on. It would be helpful if TMG gave the Christening date a higher priority than the SealParent date. Failing that - the Christening date becomes Primary when there is no Birth date. Failing that - a global way to toggle Primary. Failing all those - Project Explorer and fix the problems one at a time. THANKS AGAIN !! I am .

I just checked in my projects. Endowment is an Other tag, and yet this is the one that most often causes the problem. For some reason, I have quite a few (probably thousands) people who only have a Christening tag (not a Birth tag), and that Christening tag is NOT primary. This is a condition that has existed since I imported from GEDCOM PAF all those years ago. Maybe what I need is a way to make the Christening tag Primary.

The tag "Baptism" and "Endowment" were created when I imported GEDCOM PAF files many years ago. When I imported them, TMG automatically interpreted the PAF "LDS Baptism" and the PAF "LDS Endowment" as "Baptism" and "Endowment". I inherited those PAF files. Perhaps the person who originally started our projects in PAF used the wrong tags when inputting that data. I'm guessing the next thing you're going to tell me is that I need to change all the Baptism and Endowment tags to BaptismLDS and EndowmentLDS tags? I guess that means I'll just have to live with the problem. I have 3818 Baptism tags and 3764 Endowment tags in the largest of my 4 projects. So I guess what really need is a way to group convert all the Baptism tags to BaptismLDS tags, and the same for Endowment,and I doubt there's a way to do that?

The project I am having trouble with is big -- 1 GB. I need a report that shows my direct line for two 2nd great-grandparents. The Ancestor Box report gets as far as opening the Visual ChartForm, but then I get the error message: VCF has stopped working and the only choice is to close the program. I did set it to Save to:, not View in VCF. When I run the Compressed Pedigree, it calculates the number of people, generates the text, but then the blue circle is there for at least 2.5 hours. I gave up then. One of the CPed reports says it's calculated 5286 grandparents, 27 generations, the other is 6207 & 25. I have feeling you're going to tell me the reports are just too big. I suppose I need a mainframe to produce these reports, not a PC. I thought I'd ask the question just in case there's something else I can do. We've got a family reunion in July and we'd really like to show what we've got.