Lee

I have created a new Timeline for France based on Judy Jacobson's "History for Genealogists". There may be some errors in it, but the brief trials I have made show some interesting information when looking at my French ancestors. I am attaching a ZIP file of the timeline for those interested. Just download, unZip it, and place the three contained files in the TMG Timelines folder. Lee Hoffman France Timeline.zip

Has anyone noted a difference in output of the Relationship Chart between the printed chart and the Quick-Key Relationship Calculator [Ctrl+R] when the Chart is generated from 32-bit installation and 64-bit installation. I did the Relationship Calculator on both 32-bit and 64-bit for a pair of persons and got four results in both cases: 5th cousin 2 times removed 8th cousin 5 times removed 22nd cousin 2 times removed 24th cousin When I generated a Relationship Chart on the 32-bit system, I got the closest relationship (the 5th cousin 2 times removed) as expected. But when I generated the same report on the 64-bit system, I got a mess. It appears to be a mix of the closest and most distant relationships. Is there a work-around for this 64-bit mess? Lee

I have used https://familychartmasters.com/ a few times and gotten good results. Lee

The Abbreviations table shows Canada with the abbreviation of CA, Yet reports (e.g., Compressed Pedigree) that provide for abbreviation usage still print Canada instead of CA. Why?

Harrumph!! If I clean my glasses, maybe I could see something. Thanks for better eyesight. This is an option I seldom use, but now I know.

I was asked recently some questions about the use in TMG of DNA data. Mostly, I had to say that I have not used TMG for recording DNA results for many years. In looking over the feature, I am less sure of how best to use it. Also, I have not been active in the use of DNA in quite a while. For one, the available DNA Fingerprint Templates seem to be limited as I only recognize a few that I used in the past and tests I have used more recently are not listed. I seem to recall a discussion (on the old RootsWeb TMG List?) about creating custom templates, but I don’t recall how the process went. Any comments? Lee

Having the Name Style templates is one thing. But if any Template has Custom names, You will need to add them to TMG in order to use them. The process is like this: 1. Tools=>aster Style List to display the window. 2. Click on [Add] and enter the desired Style Name (e.g., Royal Name Style). 3. Right-click in turn on each Label in the left column, and select the "Modify Labels of this level" option. 4. In the Edit labels window, click on [Add], and enter the new custom Label for that Label level (e,g,, Label 1 would be "Style". 5. When no more custom Labels are needed adding or editing, click [OK] and continue with step 3 to the next Label. 6. After all Labels have be added/edited, start Editing (or copy/pasting) the Templates, click on [OK] and the Just added/edited Name Style will be saved in TMG and may be used. You will likely have a number of persons for whom the new Name Style is needed. It is probably best to do these individually, but you may want to use John Cardinal's TMG Utility to change many at a time. You want to be careful about this as it is easy to change more than you want.

I was working on my main project as usual today when TMG quit. I did not notice immediately as I was switching to another open program for a moment. So, when I decided to go back to TMG, it wasn’t there. This has happened in the past and I just re-started it and rain the Maintenance routine to check that all was OK. This time, on restart, it flashed a message saying that a file was missing. I must have hit a key or something as the message went away quickly. My memory of the quick view was that one of the Name files was missing. I opened File Manager and saw that all the six Name files (other than the index files) were present. So, I again re-started TMG to get the message that the “Project is already open elsewhere”. Now, that is all I get. I can open other projects. If I open another project, exit, and re-start then all appears file. If I try opening my main project, I get the message “An error happened when opening the data tables…” Clicking [OK] closes the program. Re-start now tells me that it is operating in Repair Mode. Opening SAMPLE and exiting and restarting gives the normal operation until I try opening my main project again. Looking at the four Name files in a DB program does not show anything. That is, they all appear as I might expect them. However, I could be missing something as I am not _that_ familiar with the file structure of each file. I did note something with my NPT.DBF file that seems odd. It gives the Template, ID, and Value as expected – except that there are eleven lines with lines 10 and 11 having the same Template and Value (Maiden Name). Comparing this with other projects, they only show nine lines. I do not recall that I might have created a Custom Name template although looking at the ST table, I see two Marr Name Style Stylenames with the same display – both including Maiden Name]. I don’t know that this is what caused the problem although I can see that it might. Anyhow, my SOP is to do a quick Backup (Project only) following each session or end-of day. I do a full Backup every few weeks. I looked to Restore my latest Backup to only find no quick Backups and only my full backups (3 weeks ago). I have a bunch of quick backups from v4x, but those are years old and not much help now. <Arrghh> Any ideas? Lee

OK, re-booted & started TMG as administrator. SAMPLE project cane up w/o problem. Exited, and re-started as normal, selected my main project only to get “An error happened when opening the data tables.…” Clicked [OK] & TMG exited. Tried running as administrator again, and got the “Repair node has been activated…" message. Clicked [OK] and TMG came up to the welcome screen as usual. (Last project was greyed out). Selected my main project, and still got the “An error happened when opening the data tables.…” Tried selecting {Repair] from the Install program. Started as Admin and entered license data, exited and re-started. Selected my main program and still got “An error happened when opening the data tables…” I still think one of the (Name?) tables is screwed up. But can’t figure which.

Michael - As you say, one can mostly figure out the first five fields. I feel the first few fields are degrees of consanguinity. However, I am insure, but think that there are different kinds of consanguinity (as defined by civil law and church law) and how the degrees are calculated. So. there may be subtle differences in the fields and what they mean. Lee

In the group of strings beginning with Relationship in the Language file (Strings.dbf). there are some 1230 strings that seem to be in a certain format. A few of the strings are: Relationship (#/##/-1/####/#####/F/Short): #####ggranddaughter Relationship (#/##/1/####/#####/F/Long): 1st cousin #### times removed Relationship (50/49/48/1/-1/M/Long): 48th cousin 1 time removed Specifically, what are the values within the parentheses? The first three would probably be the number of generations, but what is the difference? The next two would seem to be related to the “removed” amount and the direction of the removal. The next would be the gender of the person. The last seems to permit both the long (verbose) and short (abbreviated) description of the relationship. Finally, those showing the “#” characters might be a provision for relationships beyond 50 generations. But, am I even in the right neighborhood on this? Lee

Hi Jim – Ran into an odd one today. I decided to open an old project that I had not used in a long time (version 6 !!). I wen to import it into v9 and could not find a backup, but did find the project on an old external drive. Then I had to install v6 to make a backup which then imported fine. Since I now did not need to keep v6 on my system, I tried uninstalling it. That seemed to go well for about 30 seconds and I got the message that the Install.log could not be found. I know I can use Windows Explorer to delete the folders and files of v6, but Windows Registry still has the entries. Do you know a way to re-create the Install.log or get around that lack. I think I know at least one place in the registry, but I’m leery of deleting entries about which I’m not sure. I’d rather just let the UNWISE program do the work, but it needs the Install.log. Any ideas? Lee

OK, I have tried installing again (and again). I have found the Install.log file under the sysdata folder. I made a copy and opened it and cannot see any problem with opening. Perusing the file, I don't see anything that appears (to me) to be out of the ordinary although there are some entries that seem "off". Even those could be the result of a second install. Some entries indicate files are overwritten as would be expected. Others are less explicit as to that. In looking at the Install.log and comparing it to the Windows registry, I find some corresponding entries and others I don't. I'll be the first to admit that there is a lot about the Registry that I don't know. Still, I have messed with it enough to have some idea of its make-up. I tried copying the Install.log from the sysdata subfolder to the Program Files (x86)/The Master Genealogist folder and trying the uninstall again with the same luck. Entries in the Install.log about itself always mention the sysdata folder, so I expect that sysdata is where it is supposed to be found. The error message just says the file could not be opened, so it must be that something about the file itself is bad. But, if so, why don't I have a problem opening with Notepad? This is a fairly new computer (Win10-64), having copied most of my stuff from the older system (which is still operating as I have not finished setting up the new one -- I'm slow <G>). Out of curiosity, I looked at the old system (Win 10 - 32), and v6 was still installed -- but it was v6.5 which surprised me. I uninstalled it (no problems), and installed v6.12 using the same disk I had used on the new system. I re-booted, and opened TMGv6 without any major problem. It noted that Sessionkeeper.dbf could not be found, but I canceled and opened SAMPLE with no problem and the opened another project that I still had there with no problem. I exited TMG and then uninstalled v6 -- again with no problem. So, what is happening with v6 on the new computer? Lee

Click on File=>Printer Setup from the Main Menu and check the Paper Size.

TMG can be used by multiple users at the same time on a network. Only one user can edit a record as TMG “locks” any open records. There may be other “limits” such as how many users can access the same project - this may be more a limit of bandwidth though. My wife and I used a local network for a number of years in this way and had little "conflict" of needing to access the same record -- mostly working on different people and families. To my knowledge, not many users have used the feature. Most of those I have heard of were on a local network (same building and often same room). At least two users have used TMG for collaboration being 1600 miles apart. One user described their experience in 2005 with TMG v5x in an article at www.tmgtips.com/tmg5_network.htm. While the article was written in 2005 for TMG v5x, the discussion should be comparable to al later versions of TMG. Mostly, it requires that there is a base (host) with one user and other user(s) accessing TMG remotely. The article was written for a much earlier version of Windows, but should work with all later versions of Windows. My wife and I used the local network method for a few years up to Windows XP or Windows 7. As for the Cloud, I don’t think that would work although I don’t know that for sure. I do know that any time that a Cloud service is synchronized with the TMG data folders, there is potential for data corruption as TMG keeps project files open at all times during a session. Cloud services expect files to be closed during a time of synchronization. This is not a problem with most programs as there is only one file involved. With TMG, there are about 80 files and a single edited Tag can cause four or more files to be updated when a Tag or other record is edited. So, if one file is updated when a Cloud update is done, the other files are not and the Cloud backup then are corrupt as three files had not been updated yet. For this reason, it is always recommended that TMG folder not be in Cloud coverage. The recommendation is that TMG operate outside the Cloud and the TMG backup (SQZ) files be copied to a folder covered by the Cloud.

Yep, all maintenance routines run. and I just did them again with the same results. The question is where is the link. It almost certainly must be a father/son Relationship Tag coupled with Birth Tags. Hmm! I might run a List of People in the ID range showing Father ID. This is 479 people of which 125 have no known father (Primary or non-Primary). Only one of the 125 have a known mother. Guess it'll turn up in time. Lee

Something I have not run across before -- I ran the Audit report for "Born before father was 16 years old" and got mostly the "usual suspects". But in the middle was the name "an unknown person" with no ID Number. Of course, no one in the project has that name. This "name" appears often in other reports, but not here. I have a number of people with no Given or Surnames, but these follow the Empty name text option of the Report Definition "(--?--)" and would include the ID Number. Sorting the report by ID Number shows the entry between ID# 5615 and # 6095 leaving a lot of to search. It is odd. The text usually appears when there is no person entered, but how can an un-entered person (with, of course, no birthdate) be seen as being born before the father was 16? Any ideas on how to find this? Lee

Rather than using the Father-Oth Relationship Tag, I suggest that just a "dummy" or psuedo-person "1900 U.S.Census" (or whatever) be created. Then add that psuedo-person as a Witness to each Census Tag. You may want to create a new Custom Census Tag Role for this Psuedo-Person and adjust normal Sentences so that the psuedo-person does not show up in reports when they shouldn't. You can then use the dummy person to generate reports as you need. Another idea (I have not thought this through) is to create a psuedo-person named "Smalltown" or whatever is the name of the community. Again, adding this psuedo-person as a Witness to Tags as needed. You might have both showing the community through the census years or just for a census year. You might get some ideas at <http://www.tmgtips.com/unusual.htm>. Lee

Oops. This was v7.04

Any idea why editing a Witness with a Role of 'minister' should cause a "1234 Subscript out of bounds" error. Reindexing, Repair, Optimize all have been run. The only fix seems to be deleting the Witness and then Adding them back with the same Role.

About 60% of the people in my project have at least one non-Primary Name Tag. If a Citation is not attached to the Tag (including the Primary Name), how are you or anyone able to determine where it came from and how accurate it is? Lee

I don't think there is a way to print a Flag value on a chart. A Flag's value can be inferred however, by using it to display the person's in a certain way through Accents. Lee

Playing with Languages somewhat related to recent discussions on TMG-L, I tried to [Add] a Custom Language. After entering the name of the new Language (German2) , I clicked [OK] and got the error message: Variable 'CGERMAN2' is not found. 42 FRMMODIFYLANG.MCOPY I clicked [Abort] and tried to [Copy] German and again entered the new Language name (German2) and got the error message: Variable 'CGERMAN2' is not found. 39 FRMMODIFYLANG.MCOPY This is following all the Maintenance routines which noted no problems. I tried the Maintenance routines (including Reindex) again and got the same thing. This is with a new installation of v9.05 on Win10 and with an Import of a v4x data set. Any ideas? Lee

Actually, like most things in TMG, Focus Groups aren’t stored in a single place. The Focus Group itself (the name and an assigned number within TMG) is stored in the “O” table as Terry mentioned. But to find the members of a Focus Group, you need to go to the “B” table. The “B” table lists the Focus Groups by group number and then each member by person number. But, note that “person number” is not necessarily the same as the Person ID#, so you need to refer to the “N” table to get the the name of the member . While you can read the various tables to find out about Focus Groups (or any other part of a TMG project), you really don’t want to make any changes in a database manager as a change to one table can affect many other tables. Any editing should only be done within TMG as Jim said. Lee

Roz - The typical way of entering a woman into TMG (or any genealogy programs) is to enter her birth name (including surname) in the Primary Name Tag. You may add numerous other Name-... Tags with other names. If you allow, TMG will automatically add a Name-Marr Tag which will have the husband's surname when a Marriage Tag Group Tag is added. Lee