Michael Hannah

Hi Neil,It is not clear what you are trying to do in the List of Events, but it would depend upon what event tag you were filtering on. However, note that the Relationship tag type is not considered an "Event" and is not listed in the options in a List of Events filter for "Tag Type Group is". Unless the child is a witness/role to an event of the parent, I don't think you can use List of Events to accomplish this. Depending upon what you want to do, maybe you could use a List of People based on the Flag for the Parent and then set a second Flag for the Children. This would be similar to the process used to create the Related Flag that Terry talks about on his web page, but working towards descendants rather than ancestors. Hope this gives you ideas,

Welcome to TMG!Sorry, but you have encountered one of the features of TMG tags that prevents you from doing this. Various tag types are organized into a set of tag groups. You can easily change a tag type into a different tag type so long as the two types belong to the same group. Address tag types are in the "Address" group, and Residence tag types are in the "Other" tag group, so you cannot change one to the other. First let me explain the groups, then I will suggest a "work around" that will let you do what you want. TMG defines the following ten tag groups and the intended purpose of a tag in each group regardless of its tag type: Name--has only one Principal and no Witnesses and defines one of many names (usually called Name-Var’s) that can be assigned to refer to this person in all other tags Birth--refers to only one Principal and defines a beginning date for the life of this person which is used to calculate an age associated with any other event Relationship--links one child to either one father or one mother and has no sentence, date, place, or witnesses, but does have citations and a memo Marriage--links two people as spouses, usually for the purpose of defining a family by grouping children beget by the pair and controls the grouping and order that those spouses and/or their children are displayed in some reports and charts Divorce--also links two people as spouses in the absence of a tag linking the same two people in the marriage group, but defines an end of a formal relationship and does not print as a marriage Death--refers to only one Principal and defines an ending to the life of this person. TMG automatically sets the standard LIVING flag to 'N' when you add any tag in the Death group, and this flag is used by TMG to determine whether the person is living at the time of other events Burial--documents any events that may be associated with the disposition of the body of one or two Principals following death, but adding a tag in the Burial group does not affect the LIVING flag History--links multiple people to a common event but has no Principals, only Witnesses Address--usually used to identify a mailing address or equivalent for a person and in Version 4 and earlier used to be the only tags that used three of the location subfields in their standard sentences Other--links one or two Principals and multiple Witnesses to general purpose other events To do exactly what you desire, I renamed as “ResideOrig” and inactivated the standard Residence tag type in the “Other” group and created my own new custom tag type named “ResidedAddress” in the Address group. (While I could have named the new custom tag type in the Address group “Residence” once the original tag was renamed, I have adopted a practice to not do this so it is clear to me which tags are my custom tags.) My custom sentences for “Address” and “ResidedAddress” expect an “Address” tag to indicate where they are now or associated with a single particular date, and a “ResidedAddress” tag where they once lived for a defined period of time with a beginning and end, or with a prefix like “before” or “after” associated with a known beginning or ending. Having these two tag types in the same group can allow a “now” to very simply be changed to “then”, with a date range, by changing the tag type. I find TMG so customizable that it is easy to have it work "My Way" with only a little creativity. Hope this gives you ideas,

Similar to Jim I also begin my abbreviations with a (four character, all caps) code identifying the source type so similar sources are grouped together. I make all initial elements of the abbreviation fixed widths (using extra spaces if necessary) so they line up in the MSL. Where a source is non-specific for an element that is a portion of the abbreviation, I use an ‘*’ as a visual place holder for that element of the abbreviation. By the way, the last time I checked the Source abbreviation has a maximum of 50 characters. The exact format of my abbreviation depends upon the specific type of source. As a couple of examples, I use the code BIRT for all types of birth records, including individual certificates. A collection would look like: BIRT USA OH Washington GOV 18843752 For USA I include place to level of complete source collection, 3-country, 2-state, 10-county, 3-type record, remaining characters for source. Types of collections I have defined: CHR|GOV|* INX (church record, government record, index). A birth certificate for a single individual would be: BIRT USA OH GOV 1947 Jones, John J. Individual USA certificates include place to level of issuing entity, 3-country, 2-state, etc., 3-type record, 4-year and remaining for person. Types of individual certificates I have defined: CHR|GOV (church certificate, government certificate). As a second example, I use CENS as the code for all census records whether index, soundex, or enumeration: CENS USA1810 OH * Index vol 002 For USA date followed by state. I make an index sort before soundex and detail records for a state by entering “* Index” for the lower place level, the remaining characters identify the film, book volume, etc. CENS USA1910 MI ! Sndex R263-R361 For USA date followed by state. I make a soundex sort before detail records and after index for a state by entering “! Sndex” for the lower place level, then I enter the range of the soundexes in this specific source. CENS USA1910 WV Wood T624-1697 For my USA census sources I enter one source in TMG per county/microfilm. I use 3-country then year, 2-state, 10-county, then film no. If a county spans multiple films I choose to enter it as multiple sources. Multiple counties on the same film I also choose to enter as multiple sources. Obviously the way you structure your abbreviations will be based on how you structure (split or lump) your source entries in TMG. Hope this gives you ideas,

I do not know if the underlying database software used by TMG is designed (or configured) to use dual core hardware. Perhaps one of the developers can answer that. However, if you are concerned about your dual core performance there has been discussion that even if you have dual core hardware the Operating System and/or the programs you use might not be configured to use it. Just because you have that hardware does not automatically mean that the software or OS will actually use it. If you are technically computer savvy you might want to check out the discussion in the link below. The thread recommends downloading and installing an optional patch from Microsoft (and possibly making a Windows Registery entry change and a change to boot.ini, both of which can be dangerous activities) It is on a forum for notebooks, but applies equally to desktops and both Intel and AMD chips. This recommended configuration modification only applies to a (usually older) Windows XP system (not Windows 2K and not Vista) running on dual core hardware. If you are using Vista (which I don't for a variety of reasons) this is not an issue for that operating system as it uses multicore hardware by default. This forum thread link is long, but I recommend starting at the beginning and reading most of it. The comments evolve over time, and some of the early advice is reversed later: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416 By the way, if you have questions about this recommendation, don't ask me as I am not an expert in this. Instead, please post on that forum. Hope this gives you ideas,

Hi Half Pint, Have you tried the File Maintenance facilities? Usually if you see issues like this you want to first try the triplet of actions: Optimize - Verify File Integrity - Optimize. Keep doing this untile Verify File Integrity responds with zero errors corrected. If that does not work, let us know,

I would urge you not to wait too long before trying out the reports. Even using the default formats as a review to screen are extremely helpful. I think you will find that how things look in reports will affect how you want to do your data entry. As you are already finding, rekeying can be a chore, so you might want to key things in the first time to be closer to what you will want in reports and save having to redo quite so much later. Just a suggestion. You are most welcome, and as you learn things I have not tried I look forward to your contributions on the forum in the future.

Your question is exactly the kind of "how do I do ..." that this forum is great at answering. None of us can keep in our head all the possible features of TMG. Setting flags based on a filter like you mentioned is one of the really great features of TMG. I am constantly creating temporary flags, setting them based on a filter, then deleting them when I don't want them anymore. (Remember to Optimize your project regularly.) For example, look at the Report Options for both the List of People report and the List of Events report. Check out the Secondary Output tab where it has the option to Change a Flag value. You can set up a filter for such a report, and instead of actually printing the report you can change the value of a flag based on which people in your dataset match that filter criteria. A really great capability. For example, you could chose a List of Events report, where any Birth group event date was before 1842 but after say 1741 and death not before 1841 and change a flag. Experiment. I think you will find something like this will do what you want. Hope this gives you ideas,

Robin, Most active users are only following the TMG version 7 forum, so you might get more responses by posting there. While I don't have an answer about your alternate Z drive, I know that I have seen many responses on both this Forum and the ListServ of people that use TMG in Parallels so you might get more help there. Many use and like Parallels and claim TMG works even better there than under native Windows.

Hmmm... If that is the only issue I don't see a problem. Often on this forum I hear comments that "TMG cannot do ..." when the actual issue is that TMG is so "chock full" of features it can be easy to overlook "how" to do something and mistakenly believe it cannot be done. I navigate back and forth using the Tree View all the time. One of the outstanding features of TMG is the ability to customize screen layouts. If you create a screen layout with the Tree View, plus have the Siblings, Children, and Associates windows open at the same time, you can navigate where ever you need. Double-clicking on a name in the Tree window changes the focus person to that ancestor or spouse, similarly double clicking on a child changes focus to them, etc. If you jump to the farthest back ancestor showing, one button jumps you back to that last viewed decendent. And F2 will bring up the Picklist to let you quickly change the focus to anyone in the dataset. Of course, if your definition of a "bigger picture" is more than viewing six generations at once (five in the Tree plus children), with indicators whether there are even earlier or later generations, then yes, you will need a report for that. The Tree View is big enough for me. As for comparing TMG with other software, I think Terry's article mentioned earlier is the best. Every program on the market has a few bugs or something a particular person will find either missing or not easily enough accomplished. Those issues and "ease of use" are always going to be a matter of taste. For me, TMG has more capability to customize it "my way" and more capability for accurately and completely documenting anything I find out about my ancestors than any other software. And with the companion product of SecondSite to create HTML while losing none of the features or information from TMG, I find it the best for sharing my information in a way that is easy for them to view. Strathglass, I really suggest you just download the software and try it (for free for 30 days) as you indicated you would. If you can't find a way to do something in TMG, I urge you to post back here. The way to accomplish what you want may not be obvious but there are FEW things TMG cannot accomplish, although you may have to do it differently than you expected or currently find easy/intuitive. Even long-time users often post "how do I ..." questions with some other user almost always pointing the way. Hope this gives you ideas,

Dianne, Note that ROBOCOPY requires that Windows have a folder or disk of the "other" system "shared" on Windows so that it can simply find that other computer's folder as a folder on this computer. Thus the two computers must be networked together along with the security implication of exporting a share. If you do not or cannot network the two computers together, then the existing capability of TMG is really the most reliable. Except for possible changes in external exhibits it is a simple three step operation: 1) create a backup file on the active system, 2) copy that one file to the other computer, 3) restore that backup on the other computer. You can even configure TMG to always create a backup file whenever you exit TMG so you don't have to remember to do step 1. Hope this gives you ideas,

To duplicate my reply on the Rootsweb e-mail list, would you check the report options? Are you using a Filtered Group? Do some of your events contain excluded or sensitive data that would exclude them? As others have mentioned, we need more details of what you are trying to accomplish to help you. There has to be something about those marriages that are excluding them.

Actually, I think both Teresa and Terry are right I do both. My source citations of death records includes all the available information. My custom is to use the Citation Detail for the page number or certificate number etc. and the specifics of the death such as date, place, cause. I then use the Citation Memo for other information from that source, such as informant. I have added the Citation Memo to most of my source templates. Then, if the informant is a person I want in my dataset (which is usual as informants are usually relations) I also link them to the death tag as a Witness with their own Witness Memo, possibly using a Role for that witness as Teresa suggests.

Yep, really easy to make a report of not only this type of event in people's lives but any event that has its own TMG tag. There are probably a variety of ways to do this (as is often the case with TMG) but I would use a List of Events report. I would have the Subject(s) of the report be a Filtered group where I created a Report Filter with the conditions: "Tag Type Group is > Marriage" and could even choose to further filter by certain surnames. Under Report Options you can select whatever data you wish to appear in the Output Columns. To be equivalent to your previous report you would select: Prin1 ID number; Prin1 Last, Given; Prin2 ID number; Prin2 Last, Given; Date; Place. You might even want to output the tag Memo. You can have the report sorted by any column. So assuming that you have followed the typical conventions for your Marriage tags where Principal 1 is the male and Principal 2 is the female, simply run the report twice, once sorting on the Prin1 name and the second sorting on the Prin2 name. There are lots more options to this kind of report which you may wish to explore, but this should get you started. Hope this gives you ideas,

Not really, Jane, but then I only add "Find" tags when I decide I want to find that information. Some people are on side branches that I do not (currently) want to or have time to research, so they don't (yet) have any "Find" tags even though their data is very incomplete. Of course I could add one or two and make their priority very low. The List of Tasks filtered for my keyword for that repository will give me a nice list, prioritized. And if I have entered my second type of keyword for type of source (e.g. WILL or CENS) I can further limit my list to that type of source. When I was using a lot of FHC films I would put the film number as my second type of keyword, so could (also) filter for that, but often a generic source term like CENS is good enough for me. Also, if I have made a citation on the "Find" event to a source that is the FHC film#, then a List of Citations filtered for "Find" events AND filtered for that source number works for me as a list of what to research in that source. I cite sources on "Find" events of the sources I intend to search, and often put in the Citation Reference notes that will help with that source, like a memory jog of where the index to that source is located. I take my computer with me to the library, so even if I forget to generate a To Do list I can do that when I get there. And since the List of Citations can output the Principals' ID numbers for that event, it is easy for me to bring up that person on my computer for any details I need. I use the Tasks not only for prioritization, but also to record why I care about finding this data, e.g. what door this will open to further research. I don't find it burdensome, but I only enter what I really want to find. I also try to follow some of the personal productivity guidelines for assigning tasks to projects and only add the "Find" tags for the next action(s) I want to take with this person, not all possible tasks. Then when those tasks are done and those "Find" tags are converted to "normal" tags, I add "Find" tags for the next things I want to find. What I do like is that I only have to add one tag that may relate to multiple people (e.g. one "Marr Find" tag for both parties, or one "CensFind" tag for the HOH and all the Witnesses I expect to find with their expected roles). Much of my final data entry is already done when I find the marriage or census record because I just have to edit this already entered tag and change it to a "standard" type and flesh out the citation and data. In other words, I often use a "Marr Find" instead of a "Marr" tag when I really know very little information, so it is little more data entry than adding the marriage tag that I would add anyway. Yep, it is very tricky, and very personal. That is why you are smart thinking this through and choosing your way to do it. What works for me may not work for you. Good luck. And glad it has given you food for thought.

Hi Jane,I think you are already "smart" to consider in advance how you are going to use the flexible features in TMG. One of the key attributes (limitations?) of the Research Log is that the List of Tasks can only be sorted by one of Type/Person Name, Designed Date, Planned Date, Begun Date, Progress Date, Completed Date, Keywords, or Task Name. If you wish to order/sort the List of Tasks, you must rely upon one of these fields. Further, these Research Tasks can only link to one of each of Person, Event, Source, Repository. If the task needs to be associated with multiples of these, you could duplicate Tasks, but this introduces the problem of keeping these duplicate tasks synchronized. My way of using the Research Log (and I suspect you will get suggestions of lots of other ways) has three special characteristics: 1) My keywords are a fixed list of abbreviations designed primarily for filtering the tasks. 2) My Tasks are only linked to custom event Tags I created for this purpose, and I use a flag to indicate that the person has outstanding tasks to aid in filtering for such people. 3) My Task names are carefully structured and begin with a priority sort code. More details of each of these follows: 1) For keywords I use a list of my standardized abbreviations. I try to have three types of keywords, in order: first) a place/repository to search, second) a source to check or type of event information to find, and third) a specific action required or task status. While the order is not really important as the filter automatically uses "contains" it is easier for me to read. I choose not to link the Task to a (single) Repository, since I can enter multiple keywords for repositories when there are multiple possible repositories where I might/will research. Examples of source or type might be to find the "SPOUSE", identify the exact "DATE", check the "PASS"enger list, look up their "WILL", etc. And the action or status might be obtain a "COPY", make a "TRANS"cript, etc. I also use the keyword "DONE" to indicate the status of completed tasks, and "PENDING" for tasks where my actions are complete but I am still waiting for a response from someone else. 2) I have created custom tag types associated with most types of events whose tag names all end with the characters "Find", and I only link Tasks to these events. Typically these custom tag types are created in the appropriate group for research about the event so a "Find" tag can be simply changed to the “normal” tag without the suffix when the desired information is found. Examples are: BaptFind, BirthFind, BurialFind, CensusFind, DeathFind, EmigFind, Marr Find, ResideFind. A single "Find" tag event can be linked to many people and cite many (potential) sources, and the main tag memo as well as the separate Witness memos can indicate what I am looking for concerning this person and this event. For me, seeing the tag name (e.g. BirthFind) listed among the person's details reminds me that I still need to find this information. These tags are excluded from printing in most reports. With the custom flag that I have named "FIND" set to 'Y' for people with "Find" events, I can produce an Individual Narrative report of only these people and only printing the BMDB and "Find" events. This IN report, sorted by person ID number, keeps me from duplicating a lot of information in the Research Task itself. A List of Tasks will show the Primary Person ID of the linked event and I can quickly find their narrative in the IN Find report. I can also produce a List of Citations filtered for "Linked Event > Tag Type Label > Contains > Find" to identify all the (already identified) sources that need to be researched. I also have created custom tag types that end with "Nil" for recording when information has been researched but not found (e.g. BaptNil). It saves me from looking in that source again. I would simply edit the existing "Find" tag and change its type to the corresponding "Nil", add a comment in the memo and cite the sources where I looked, and edit the (still) linked Research Task to show "DONE". 3) My Task name is carefully constructed for filtering, sorting and my readability since this field is one of only two ways you can filter, is the default sort key, and the only thing shown on the Research Log task list. I prefer simply prefixing an abbreviated description of the task (who/what/when) with a three digit priority sort code. That way the tasks I wish to do first sort first. My three digits each represent first (0-9) my overall interest, then (0-9) an indication of dependency or importance, and a third (0-9) digit to break ties. There is no problem with multiple tasks having the same sort code, just shows they are relatively equal to me. (This sort code prefix was originally suggested by Virginia Blakelock back in Sep 2000.) I use the Research Task name as the mechanism for assigning priority to the "Find" events, but use the events for any multiple linkage capabilities and more comprehensive reports. When the task is completed, I replace the priority sort code with the word "DONE" which causes all these tasks to sort last. For "who" I put “surname, given” if this task primarily refers to one person, just surname with trailing comma if given is unknown, or for a marriage I put the two surnames separated by an ‘&’ with groom first if I know both surnames. Then comes a single code word for the primary "what" I am looking for with this task (e.g. "BIRT") and finally the year. Examples of Task Names are: “453 Richards, Mary BIRT 1842” or “325 Richards & Egglestore MARR 1820s”. Note that the "where" is not in the Task name but in the keywords. I put the "why" I want to find this information, what actions and results are intended by this task, and why I have assigned the indicated priority in the Task Comments. Everything else should be in the "Find" events data printed in the filtered IN report so is not needed here. Hope this gives you ideas,

The staff of Wholly Genes may have some other solution, but I would suggest just installing your old TMG Version 5 if you still have the download file. You won't have to worry about actually activating it since all versions have had a 30 day free trial period. You could just install, open your old project, back everything up to a SQZ file using the File > Backup menu action, and then remove Version 5. Then you can restore your V5 project backup in V7. Do you still have the download file of the appropriate V5 version? If not, maybe Wholly Genes can point you to a download URL. Hope this gives you ideas,

Klaus, This may be a limitation of the separate report writer product that TMG uses since the TMG Help documentation for Printer Setup states: I interpret this as these are the only choices. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of the internals of the software and this separate report writer package will be able to give a more complete answer. In the meantime, as a work-around, have you tried to set the Properties of the MS Windows Default Printer to a specific size and paper tray and then just have the TMG Printer Setup point to and use the default printer? I don't have the luxury of a multi-tray printer to test this, but this might at least give you a way to get what you need. Hope this gives you ideas,

The Repository Memo field is available for output. I do not see a way to include them in a List of Repositories, but others may know of some method or alternative report. However, the memo field is available to include in source templates. The default templates do not include the memo, but the optional field [REPOSITORY MEMO] could be included in a custom source template. Like most memos, this memo can also be split to create very customized output. Output source templates can refer to the possibly split Repository memo using the variables [REPOSITORY MEMO], [REPOSITORY MEMO1]...[REPOSITORY MEMO9]. Shorter versions of the same variables, [RM], [RM1]...[RM9], are also supported. Hope this gives you ideas,

Sorry, but I can't. Why does it matter? GEDCOM was developed simply to provide "some" way to transfer the basics of genealogy data between people and software electronically. In my observation when I participated in the GEDCOM forum it was never intended to be fully complete, and I don't believe there is any further work planned to upgrade/enhance GEDCOM in light of the advancements of modern genealogy software (such as GenBridge). I agree with Terry that using GEDCOM will be very limiting and restrictive. However, to answer your specific question, the structure of the two GEDCOM tags (TEXT and NOTE) are identical in the GEDCOM file, but the "intended" use of each is slightly different. TEXT was intended for including the exact wording found in an original source document, i.e. a transcription. NOTE (notice that the GEDCOM tag does not have a trailing 'S') was intended for any kind of additional information provided by the submitter for understanding the enclosing data. The purpose for having different GEDCOM tags was intended to aid genealogy software that could/would import/export them differently. However, as Terry says: Why does it matter for your purposes?

The specific link to the descriptions of the US census records on the "Family History 101" site mentioned by Teresa is: http://www.familyhistory101.com/research-census/census2.html

I think this is based on the Gender you set in your personal profile. Dim and gray comes with unknown. See my bright and happy mail icon

Marianne, I agree with Terry that using a History tag is probably not what you want to do for this purpose. I just wanted to remind you of the existence of that tag type that has no Principals for when it does make sense. Terry has also provided the options that will deal with your specific memo concerns. I choose to do a lot of customization of TMG, and perhaps my custom Immigration tag and sentences may be of interest. I changed the sentences of this standard tag to require the Date and the arrival Location for the immigration so that if I don't enter them I get the "unknown" text. I use the Principal role “Head” for P1, and do not use P2, and the Witness role “immigree” for all others immigrating with the “Head”. I like to use role names since I choose on the Other tab of the Tag Type Definition to display roles to remind me on the Details screen of the relationship of this person to this tag. I use split memos and [M1] optionally provides the name of the Head as listed in the immigration documentation in case it is different than any Name-Var defined for this person, [M2] optionally specifies the claimed departure location, and [M3] has optional comments. Similarly for the immigree witnesses, [WM1] optionally provides the listed name of this immigree, [WM2] the listed relationship to the Head (e.g. “son”), and [WM3] has optional comments specific to this immigree. The optional listed departure location [M2] is also included in the immigree witness sentence which avoids the need for [M0] since you now have referenced the main memo. Head (P1) sentence: [P] immigrated to [L] [D]. immigree (W) sentence: [W] led by [P1] immigrated to [L] [D]. Hope this gives you ideas,

Of course, if you want all linked people treated the same, you could use a History event tag. In that tag there are no Principals, only Witnesses. Hope this gives you ideas,

Sorry, not that I know of. Not in the version that works with TMG Version 6. Only Citation Detail and Citation Memo are fields that can be used with the Find and Replace function. John Cardinal usually monitors these forums and may consider this as an enhancement for a future version of the Utility, but only he could comment on that. Yes, it is possible, but you will have to do some work to make that happen. You can include in your Source Templates the optional Source Element [CREF] which will print the contents of the Citation Reference. This is not included in any of the default templates, but you could add it (probably most appropriately as an optional element by to the Source Template that you used for citing this particular source. Hope this gives you ideas,

Jim, As simply a user like yourself I can't speak for Wholly Genes, but having been an active user of TMG for over 13 years I can speak from history. In the past the practice of Wholly Genes as a company and Bob Velke as a person has always been not to comment in any way about "plans" for any changes or enhancements for the future. It has been repeatedly obvious that these support forums are monitored by the staff of Wholly Genes, and each upgrade or new version of TMG has clearly included ideas that were mentioned by users. So mentioning here is the best way to encourage the developers to add the functionality. However, I doubt that you will ever get any official comment about "any current plans" concerning any new functionality. Unfortunately I can understand their legal need to remain silent and not imply any kind of promise of future functionality. In other words, just friendly advice to "not hold your breath"