strathglass

Has anyone bothered to create any kind of visual data model or entity relation diagram type-of-thing for TMG? I.e. something that would show all the different object types and how they relate, cardinality, etc. I think it would answer a lot of the basic questions people have (at least, I think it would help me!). thanks -strathglass

I can't find an obvious way to add a photo for a person (that is not associated to some specific event like a wedding): I see that you can't attach an exhibit to a Name-var tag. So what tag should I use to add a person's photo? Or do I have to make one up myself (strange that TMG7 wouldn't include a suitable tag, but I couldn't find one). I'm talking about a general picture (not, for example, a birth announcement or wedding photo, which could obviously be added as an exhibit for the birth or marriage tags). Also, how is it recommended to handle group photos such as family photos? Finally, do images added to the database ever get exported in GEDCOM exports (I mean the photo info [like file name and path], since GEDCOM doesn't handle non-text data). (In my own simple test, I failed to find photo info in the GEDCOM export - maybe I can get it there somehow?) Regards, strathglass

Very valuable input Jim, thanks. I will switch to external exhibits in a flat folder. -strathglass

Thanks Michael, that WAS easier than I was expecting (but I can blame my confusion on a slight inconsistency with exhibit handling paradigm though ). Unfortunately, when I select the image Properties and go to the Description tab, I see that the IPTC caption info I've added to my pictures does NOT get read into TNG caption field. Too bad, as that is what the IPTC fields are designed for! I guess I will have to make a feature request for this. By the way, does it make much difference if I use internal or external image formats? What do people tend to prefer (trying to understand if there is an advantage to keeping images OUTSIDE of dataabase). Thanks, strathglass.

Several PLACES in my MASTER PLACE LIST don't show up in any events. (I.e. in the Master Place List, select a place, click on Events: no events are listed!) Is this normal? Can I delete these (apparently unused) places? (And if so how [there doesn't appear to be a delete function in the Master Place List]?) If it matters, this data was imported from FTM 2005. Similarly, there are some places that are very similar and should be consolidated. (E.g. "E. Greenwich, RI" and "East Greenwich, RI") Is there a way to do this? Finally, as a related aside: do you still refer to a place by its current locale name even if at the time of the event that the place is associated with the place had a different name (e.g. "E. Greenwhich, RI" event was before US independance, and what about Upper Canada vs. Ontario for Canada)? Thanks, strathglass

Thanks very much Terry & Michael - I think you've straightened me out. Now I just need to go clean up the data for all my places (and my MSL too). -strathglass

Thanks Terry I was afraid of this: my problem is I have some places that aren't referenced by any event and yet still don't get removed by the optimize command. Sounds like a bug maybe. Regarding your last point, I am trying to understand exactly what Michael's concern was. It is not clear to me because I don't know what he means by higher and lower level fields. Can anyone help on this? -strathglass

Thanks retsof, Michael and Jim. Thanks especially for all the details Michael. Based on your detailed response, I have a couple questions for you: You said "...the actual deletion of entries you have marked for deletion": how do you mark a place for deletion? I have not discovered a way to do this. Also, I am not sure what you mean when you state that "Separate tags that are the same place do not have separate place entries in each tag." Maybe because I am not clear what you mean by a tag. I guess there is no "direct" way to pick a place in the MPL to use as the place for the current event, and I think you were describing a work around technique to achieve this. Correct? Regards, strathglass

Thanks altogatto and Virginia. But what I was actually looking for was a data MODEL: what are the logical objects in the database (people, places, events, citations, sources, etc.) and how do they relate. via a graphical model like an ERD etc. Regards, strathglass

Thanks Paul. I checked the repository list, but unfortunately it is not attached to any repository either. Anyone have any further ideas? And thanks Virginia for those links, they're just what I needed! -strathglass

Excellent input Neil, thanks. Only one issue: the optimize cleaned up some of the orphaned places, but I see at least one (the first one in the master place list) is still an orphan (has no associated events). Anyone have any ideas on what the issue might be? (In the mean time I may have to check all the other places to see if any other orphaned places remain after the optimize, or if it is just the 1st one.) Thanks, strathglass.

All of which is why it would be nice if TMG ran native under other OSs besides Windoze! Maybe one day (after they drop the use of Foxpro!!). -strathglass

Hi all: I want to scrub all the address tags to make needed corrections. Is there a way I can just see a list of all the address tags in the database and go through them to make corrections? Or do I need to go through each person and find all their address tags to make changes? (The latter is not a lot more work, but the former would be a bit more efficient.) Also, I just bought TNG, and the output is pretty spiffy: this tool helps creates a nice web output of your family tree. However it works from a GEDCOM file I've exported from TMG7, which of course doesn't include any photos. Is it possible to get TMG7 to export all my photos somehow? (I'll also pursue at the TNG forums more support on this.) Thanks! -strathglass

Michael & Jim - thanks for the good ideas about how to go about the tag cleanup. I will try some form of these ideas out shortly. Michael - I did look at demo sites for both TNG and SS, and I know SS has the advantage of working with the TMG native format. But I like the look and feel of TNG that much better that I went with it despite those limitations. I will play around with it to try and get it working to my satisfaction w.r.t. pictures etc. (the basic data is already in place and it took me under 1 hour). Since TNG is MySQL+PHP it can easily be hacked developed further, which I will probably play with. Worst case I could always switch to SS since both are very affordable at about $30 each. -strathglass

Hi: I am a new user (still on trial version, coming from FTM2005). I've always tried to add source details when documenting genealogical facts. But after importing into TMG7 and looking at my master source list, I realize it looks rather haphazard. I thought if I applied a naming scheme to the master sources that this would help (make it easier to find items, for example). Does anyone else have a naming scheme they apply to their sources that they could share? BTW - I also see TMG has a master repository list: anyone want to advise on how important (or not) that this is? Most of my source info to date is just personal recollection of family members, copies of relevant personal documents (obituaries, death certificates, marriage records, etc.), and photos of gravestones. Thanks, strathglass

Hey - thanks very much Michael and Terry for those last responses: they really helped a lot! -strathglass

I always try to document what I know about where my genealogy facts come from (in FTM). Now that I am trying TMG7, I'd like to keep this up and actually clean up my master source list. I got some naming ideas from this thread. Now I'd like to solicit general wisdom on best practices for documenting sources in the master source list, and also for entering citations. One book I had suggested reading Evidence!.. by Elizabeth Shown Mills. If anyone wants to suggest any specific books, great - please do! But I was hoping more for a list of good practices I can immediately put to use, as I go about cleaning up my old FTM source list that is now in TMG7. So if you've learned anything the hard way, or otherwise have helpful tips, could you share them with me? One specific question: how do you document info that comes from conversations with relatives? Or info you know yourself (I know the addresses of my siblings!!!). thanks, strathglass.

Unfortunately I don't see that one at the library. I'll have to check it out at the bookstore. Thanks Michael! -strathglass

Makes sense, thanks Terry. And thanks all for the input (some of it is over my head because I don't know about all the sources you are talking about and hence why you have indexes and why you are using soundex codes etc! ) But for now I just want to do one other general post about best practices...watch for it soon Thanks again! -strathglass

I added a new address for someone and made it primary. Now I want to take the old address and change it to a residence tag (per help file: says residence tag is for non-current addresses). But I can't figure out how to do it: anyone know? BTW - for deceased people, would you put the address as the last address or the "main" address or use only residence tags? -strathglass

OK, trying to understand this more: Michael - what is the difference between: BIRT USA OH Washington GOV 18843752 and BIRT USA OH GOV 1947 Jones, John J. (which use quite different formats). You mentioned one was a collection: how can you have a collection of birth records and why do you care about a collection of them since you would be interested only in specific birth records, I would think? Also, I was thinking of including the involed surname(s) in the abbreviation but it looks like the people here aren't doing that. Any comments on the value of doing this or not doing it? -strathglass

I've already used the TMG utility to change from the default US address style to a CDN style that I created. I will use it too to change ADDR to RES tags! (Didn't notice that feature). Yes, I hope one day to know enough to be a contributor and not just a questioner! -strathglass

Thanks all - helpful info. I will be recording residence info just to know where people lived when, in some cases to go see those places. And like Michael points out, it can help for research re city directories etc. (something I hadn't thought of!). -strathglass

Was trying to implement Terry's RELATED-BY flag as per http://tmg.reigelridge.com/related-by.htm. However step 4 doesn't find anything, and so that is an obvious problem! Does anyone who has created & used this flag have ideas on what the problem could be? (I've reset all the flags back to "?" and tried again a few times with the same results.) BTW: the tutorial has an error in step 2, in the 3rd last bullet of this step: at end it has the quoted text "Additions" that should say "Ancestors". ("Additions" is the name given to a filter that is created: not sure why Terry even has us name the filter since it is called up again only one other time [step 1 second last bullet] and not any of the subsequent times that the List...of People report is called up. Is that a mistake?) -strathglass

OK Terry - I've identified the confusion: in the 4th last bullet of step 1 it says: "...and click Add under the Filter name. Give this Filter a new name, say "Additions."" It is this step that wasn't clear to me: I interpreted the "filter name" as the "configuration name". May I suggest a wording tweak here? Even though it was my mistake, I think you'd make it more explicit/clearer if you changed it from the above to: "...and click Add under the Filter name that is beside the "Filtered group" radio button. Give this Filter a new name, say "Additions."" Anyways, I will try it again now that I know where I went wrong. Thanks again for all the help!!! -strathglass