Roy_Delos_Reyes

I have the same problems as well. In addition, clicking Web Search usually opens two instances of RootsWeb (both blank).

 

The first to come up is LDS FamilySearch. It searches with exact spelling on. It would be nice sometimes to have a choice before searching. Besides that, it doesn't come up with any positive results. I have used FamilySearch many times and found the same person that it can't find through TMG.

 

I had tried out Family Tree Maker 2009 and they seem to be well integrated with Ancestry.com. It works pretty slick and even has a merge feature that lets you select which tags you want to merge into your data.

 

Maybe TMG version 8 will improve in this area.

I personally want TMG to stay as far away as possible from intergrating with Ancestry...

unless Bob takes over the programming and Quality Control departments at Ancestry!

I use Ancestry a lot but always manually key in whatever I find there- I'd hate to think of a feature that would feed into TMG the Ancestry data like their member trees do {SHUDDER!}

I've search the forums and not found this scenario. In fact, in my years as an amateur genealogist - I've never seen a clear description of this (either specific to a piece of software - or at a higher, conceptual level). I think it's best explained by example:

 

- I wish to export my TMG data to another program, for a couple reasons:

1) Another program has a convienent search mechanism (for example, Ancestry.com)

2) Another program is more portable (an old example was taking my Treo to the library, rather than the whole laptop ...)

 

- At some point, I wish to merge CHANGES back into my main TMG project, and file.

 

How the heck do I do this? I'm not particularly into doing a full "find duplicate people" against the 6000+ (x2?) people in my data set each time. Ugly, time consuming, and prone to stooper induced errors.

 

I feel like there's something basic that I'm not "getting" here. I'm not even sure my questions are right ... but here at stab at it:

- Can I, somehow, delete/remove the non-changed records before reimporting/merging the "updated" data set?

- Is there something automated (perhaps using those darn reference numbers) that would make merging back in more automated? People have tried explaining this to me before (I think) - but I just didn't understand.

 

I once had a Palm program that flagged changed records ... had I been able to Delete the non-changed records (I couldn't) ... I'd have exactly what I'm looking for here. Basically, can I pair down the import file to just chaged records, or can I better automate a mass merge of large, similiar files.

 

I can't be the only one the wishes to occassionally push data out to another program, and then bring it back. TMG is my home base - but not my only tool.

 

What am I missing here? I'm probably going to need a remedial explanation. Referrals to reading material gladly accepted!

The only program I've ever worked with that did something like this was in a medical lab I worked for... and the cost ran into the mid six figures!

I wish to convert all my FTM 2008-9 data to TMG. The GEDCOM export for FTM 2008-9 is not as robust as the direct import of FTM16 into TMG. I have been waiting since the release of TMG 7.0 for this feature. The reply I always receive is under development. Are we close to release yet?

 

Eileen

Eileen,

I think you'll find that TMG's policy is not to comment on the exact timing of any particular feature or update.

You might, depending on the size of your database, consider using FTM16 and add the changes from 2008/2009 to your FTM16 and then do a direct import from 16.

No, but boy do I wish we could. It seems like such an easy feature to add. On the master tag type list where we select how we want the tag to display, just have a drop down box for the color of the background and another for the color of the text. Voila, all marriage tags are now blue with white text, all 1850census tags are orange with yellow text. No need for filters. Just a simple change of the display color based on two selection boxes on the Master Tag Type list.

Ahem... the way some people use tags and color they'd need a video card with 64 GIG of video memory!

*GRIN*

I'm currently running vista home premier and have v-7 installed. When I try to run a backup I get the following" "Input file read failure this error occurs when a file read opleration is performed on a zip file that is locked or restricted by another person." Please advise

This usually happens when trying to backup to an external device. Try backing up to your main Drive and then copying the backup file to the external device.

I have a family, parents and four minor children, who are in the 1870 census. They are all there again in the 1880 census. Of course there is no 1890 census. In the 1900 census I can only find the parents with a new child and two of the earlier minor children with ther own families. Two of the earlier children are not in the 1900 census.

 

The child with the parents in the 1900 census is 8 years old. The parents are now both 68 years old which would have made the mother 60 when this child was born. This seems to imply the child is a grandchild. But which of the two missing earlier children (who I presume to be dead) or even the two existing children (the grandchild is visiting the grandparents) is the parent(s) of the 8 year old?

 

My question is how to handle this situation. I hate to arbitrarily pick one of the parents and assign them as the parent. Even making them non-primary doesn't seem right. I could list all four of the earlier children as the parent(s) of the grandchild with a cautionary not but that seems a bit of overkill.

 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Mike

What I did was to give the grandparents another child using the given names of the other children (Joe-mary-robert-ernst-polly) and then made that person the parent of the "grandchild".

Granted- it looks strange but with a note in the memo it pretty well makes things clear.

There is a group of people -- father, mother, four children and the children's spouses -- for whom I needed to make one combined list of their events in chronological order -- sort of timeline of the people's lives. I printed the Individual Detail report for each person separately, pruned the events to only those needed, and then added the person's name to each event and placed the events in chronological order. The blended sequence of events suggested a new reason for the events that occurred -- something that would have been more to pick out without looking at the activities of the entire group.

 

Because I've incorporated the research log into the person view, all my research notes appear in PV and research notes were the majority of the tags I used in the above report. They are quite lengthy, too long to use the list of events reports, which I would have exported to Excel.

 

I'd like to request that this functionality be added to the Individual Detail report: selecting a group of people, all of whose events would be listed chronologically in a single group -- NOT as a separate report for each individual. I hope this isn't more difficult than adding a column with the individual's name, but I'm not a programmer.

 

Thank you for any help you can provide.

 

Linda

Believe me- it is way more difficult, plus the fact that it would no longer be an Individual Detail Report.

I'd set up a dummy person for each family I wanted such a report on (say "xxxx Family Chronline") and then make that dummy person a witness to each event in each family member's life. You could then run a report on that dummy person and have pretty much what you want.

I'm sure this has been asked many times already, but I'll ask again.

 

For a NON-programmer, is there a fast (read EASY) way to include parents of siblings spouses in a journal report?

 

Additionally, is there a way to include more than one ancestral generation for those same spouses?

 

Am I asking too much of the Journal Report? Should I be using a different report?

 

The non-custom "style" under options will answer my first question (after looking a little harder). But, is there still a way to do more than one ancestral generation for the siblings spouses?

Marlyn,

I don't think there is an easy way to do it automatically but with hardwiring of either the marriage sentence or a custom tag it probably can be done.

I'm assuming you want something like:

"On March 4, 1859, in the villiage chapel of Much Sodding on the Marsh, Middleshire, England; he marriaed Polly Purebody daughter of Sir Arthur Purebody (who was himself the son of Lord James Purebody and Millicent Ravaged) and Lady Hycianth Buckette (who was herself the daughter of The Duke of Blunderforth and Vicountess Knoital)."

I'm sure it can be done... but neither easily nor quickly I'm afraid.

I am getting ready to publish and would like to get the right program since it looks like the price is a little steep

Which program is the best plus easiest to learn

Quark or Pagemaker or other that one may suggest

 

I have MS Word 2007, seems to be ok but can publishers import to what they use

I really need some guidance here

I think I asked to many people around here and am completely confused

 

Thanks

Kenny Stugart

a volga german

Your best bet woulld be to see what format your publisher requires...assuming, of course, that your have selected a publisher.

Some will accept Word files, others may require a PDF file.

There is often a situation where all children of a husband are known. But exact date of marriage is not know so it is not possible to be sure that wife is a mother of earlier children.

Example: Children are born 1700, 1702, 1704 and 1706. Marriage is know to be before 1704 and it is known that children born 1704 and 1706 are children of the wife aswell.

It is very much assumable that children born 1700 and 1702 have same mother, but can not be proofed. So TMG7 point of view these children have father but not mother.

 

Now the tricky part. When printing Journal from wife-line, only those children where wife is listed as mother will show in report. I would like to get all children listed but separately and noted, because it is not proved that they are children of this wife.

 

I believe this is a quite common issue which some of you have allready thought about.

 

What is a best practize or any good way to solve this? All ideas are very much appreciated.

 

Peter

One either has to assume the children are the children of that wife or assume that they are from some other female or females. Lacking any indication that the children are not from that wife I'd link them to that wife and note that there is a possibility that such may not be the case but no evidence, at this point in time, is available to make a solid determination.

I was very pleased when Version 7.0 rolled out and I discovered that the Last Edit Date was no longer updated when a Flag value was changed. Now I discover that it was a "bug" and Version 7.01 has "fixed" it ........... very very sad.

Iquit paying attention to the last Edited Date some time ago.

I made a tag Logedit with the sentence [DD][M]. Then in the memo I just enter exactly what I updated.

Since I'm usualy working with deceased people it places the tag at the bottom of the Detail window so I can always see what my last entry was on that person. Works a treat.

Rather than contending anything, we just need to move to a Microsoft umbrella that does support Unicode. If only somebody in TMG still had our Visual Foxpro license numbers. Then, this wouldn't have to hit us like a Hurricane Katrina that they knew for 50 years that New Orleans was vulnerable, but did nothing to dike it up, or move the people inland.

» I have in my Tree a cousin who was born in England, but died in Turkey during the first world war.

» I also have a Vietnamese acquaintance who moved to the Czech Republic, married a Czech lady, before coming to Canada. He's important enough for me to put in my Tree.

» I have a Turkish acquaintance who came to Canada and married a lady in Ontario who came from China.

» A number of ancestors on my mother's side moved to Kansas, where there is a colony of people who appear on the US census with their Czech names fully accented in Czech style because the census taker was a Czech-American.

» And I'm only one example. We live in a cosmopolitan world, in a time of modern technology and communication. Many of us are interested in recording the details that appear on the records, in all their glorious detail, inconsistencies and accents and all the rest.

» Surely Microsoft can help us to move from the dead-end backwaters of Visual FoxPro, which is known to be heading for extinction, to something where complaints are no longer required.

» Are there any creative thinkers amongst us? Anyone?

Of course there are creative thinkers among us... Bob Velke to name just one.

Do you really think Bob hasn't been aware of this all along- and has made plans accordingly?

TMG rarely comments on future developments and yet has managed to stay at the top of the heap for over a decade against some very well funded competition. Just look at that competition; with each release they try to get closer to what TMG already is.

I trusted Bob and TMG with my data 10 years ago or more, I trust them with it today, and I'll trust them to meet my future needs until they show me that they can't meet them.

Hello, Thomas -

 

You can contact tech support directly by email to support@whollygenes.com or from within TMG with a trouble report: Help > Technical Support > Trouble Report (the button at lower left).

 

You may also find help on the TMG rootsweb mailing list for the unique problems associated with such a large database. I know of several list members with well over 100,000 people and a few with as many as 250,000. Your import of 400,000+ may be getting close to a record though <g>. To subscribe:

 

http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/other/Software/TMG.html

 

Virginia

I think when Jim and I were importing the Stobie. GED sometime last year it ran to 466,862.

Using TMG 4 with 512MB ram wasn't fun but it *was* interesting!

*grin*

The problem I mentioned with the Tree View is that it is not graphical enough, I love the way FTM 2008 has the tree view. You can go forward or back multiple generations by clicking an arrow on the tree view and then change focus to a person by double clicking on him in the Tree View.

 

I know that you can change the tree view by double clicking a name on one of the many data windows on the screen but I would like the reverse available also, to be able to navigate the tree and change focus by the tree. Every genealogy application has this ability now. This is the only eye candy that I have enjoyed from the other genealogy programs that is not in TMG.

Yep... but then it *is* only eye-candy <GRIN>

I'll take function over form ever time.

<br />Well said, elevator.<br /><br />Yes, the subject of visual appeal has come up several times, but nobody seems to be able to define what they want to see. I've asked for examples, either here or on the TMG list, but have not gotten an answer. IMHO, just because it doesn't look or maybe feel like a MS product doesn't make it a lesser product. The TMG interface is so customizable that many of us are running something totally different than the next person, than the next person, etc. -- as evidenced by another thread, showing pages of customizations, on this site.<br /><br />BoricuaSeeker, please take some time with TMG. Poke around, play with it, input some data that seems to make sense to you, get a feel for it. Then run some filters, make some reports, feel its raw power all at your fingertips. I think you will enjoy what you find. <img src="style_emoticons/default/thumbsupsmileyanim.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="thumbsupsmileyanim.gif" /><br />

<br /><br /><br />

 

You guys are correct that the visual appeal is not there. I can see the power in the programming and the attention to detail is great but I have to wonder if this application will be around in 5 years if they do not get off the current technology. I program on the side in .Net and I use to program in FoxPro for Dos and VFP in the early 90's and foxpro was doomed as soon as Microsoft bought it, all the wanted was the patented Rushmore query ability to stick it into Microsoft Access. The writing was on the wall for VFP.

 

Now the current technology like C# or VB.Net is much easier to program in because of the updated Framework 3.0 and 3.5, especially if you use SQL server on the backend.

 

I guess my issue is that FoxPro is dead, the interface to TMG is suffering because it is on Foxpro. With Foxpro TMG will never get better looking, never get easier to use because the language is lacking. TMG is powerful and the company has done an incredible job with Foxpro but Foxpro is dead, and the interface looks like stuff written in the early 90's. Within 5 years Foxpro will probably not run on the OS that will be out in 5 years. Just like many Windows 98 programs do not run on XP or Vista.

 

I like the interface in RootsMagic and FTM 2008. FTM 2008 is lacking the detail and power that TMG and RootsMagic has but I imagine in time it will get added since FTM 2008 is really a 1.0 release because it is a total rewrite. RootsMagic is written in C++ I believe I read somewhere, which never gets outdated, very portable to any C++ compiler with some work. If they use the example of FTM 2008 for tree view and web searching and clipping, and use the intuitiveness of RootsMagic and keep all the detail and power of TMG this program will be sitting pretty for years to come.

 

They need to add some nice web clipping and merging capability like FTM 2008, With FTM you can merge data into a current person in your tree, it automatically creates the sources and citations which you can modify. Unfortunately FTM's data entry and display of a person's data is ugly.

 

With our data being so valuable I just want to know from the developer's what are the future plans, I cannot believe that they are not currently planning something.

I'm certain Bob and company have a development plan for TMG. I am also certain that they will NOT comment at this time on exactly those plans are; after all, why let the competition know what you plan to do. You'll note that TMG-7 hasn't been certified to run on win64 as of yet. For all we know the 64 bit TMG may well be going to be based on a new technology (and yes, Bob has indicated that at some point in the future we can probably expect a 64 bit TMG).

Thanks Jim for your interest and your help. I think I am coming at this problem from a different angle and perhaps I should explain myself a little better. I earlier asked:

 

Does TMG renumber IDs without any warning?

 

You replied:

 

Never. The program will never renumber an existing person in a data set unless the user says to do so. Renumbering can be done by the user globally to fill empty IDs or on a person-by-person basis. Even when user-initiated, there is a warning about global renumbering.

 

But this is exactly what it did do although it was not an existing data set within TMG. I started a new project with no data. I imported a Gedcom that, as required by Gedcom, already had ID numbers. On import, TMG changed all of the ID numbers except for ID1 exactly as you described earlier:

 

Individuals are imported in the sequence in which they occur in the GEDCOM file and are numbered sequentially starting with ID#1.

 

Thus it changed ID numbers with no warning. I can no longer export my TMG database with the same ID numbers that were in the original Gedcom.

 

As I have stated earlier, TMG should not automatically (without warning) change ID numbers or change any Gedcom tag data. Because it changed INDI numbers on import, it also changed FAM numbers etc etc. TMG should offer, maybe only on new projects, that imported ID numbers not be changed.

 

As I said earlier, changing the ID numbers on 'new' databases only increases the work needing to be done by TMG. It would be much easier just to import the ID numbers as contained in the Gedcom. May be this is one of the reasons that it took nearly 15 minutes to create the database!!

 

I think TMG should add the ability to retain ID numbers when importing any data to establish a new project. I would like to pass this on as an enhancement request. Where should I do this?

 

Thanks again for your help.

I'm not quite sure how keeping the same ID numbers upon importing would work. Consider the following:

I have Gedcom A with 1000 people and import it to a data set.

I then import Gedcom B which also has 1000 people but which has no dupliicates of Gedcom A into a data set.

I then want to merge the two datasets into a single project.

I would wind up with two people with ID #1, #2, etc.

What was meant about TMG not changing ID numbers was that it won't change ID numbers after importing into TMG without warning the user.

I can not enter certain Czech characters specifically the r with a caron over it. Other Czech characters work OK. If I cut and paste them they end up looking like a zero with a dash through it. I have set up Czech keyboard but that doesn't work either. I found a forum thread about this:

 

http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...zech+characters

 

and it says that it is caused by the underlying MS Foxpro database not being able to support Unicode but that was for an older version of TMG. Is this still true with version 7?

Thanks

Dave

Unfortunately, since Microsoft hasn't seen fit to add Unicode support to Foxpro yet, TMG still can't add Unicode support.

I am working with the eval copy of TMG V7. I have been trying to get the data from TNG V4.0d into V7 and I cannot get the backup/restore to function so I was trying to use the GEDCOM as an interim step. It worked fine but it seems that not all the event types are exporting. I checked the interim file to make sure. I have an event type called employment in 4.0d and it does not appear in any of the ouputs. I can create one in V7 and reenter the data but this seems to be a not so elegant method and I may be missing other things that did not export correctly.

 

Is there a bug or constraint that prevents me from exporting this event type in 4.0d?

If I can get a valid backup/restore to work will this correct the problem?

To go from TMG 4.0d to TMG 7 you need to IMPORT not restore the 4.06 data to v7.

No need to foll with gedcom at all.

OK, I have a theory about Ancestory.com and TMG.

I need opinions before I proceed.

 

I have a branch of my family I have traced in Ancestory.com only using the census records. No trees submitted by others or any other records, strictly census records. I was looking to collect all the census records I was missing for that branch of the family. I've now exported this file from Ancestory.com to a GED file. If I import the GED to an empty project, then merge the two projects matching entries I've already made. Importing the correct census data as sources along with the people I import/merge.

 

Is this a good idea or a bad idea?

How interesting! I was just thinking about doing the same thing except I'd be starting from scratch so no need for later merges, etc.

I was wondering just how much cleanup would be needed on the sources that are gedcomed into TMG7.

I was thinking about using it on several unsourced gedcoms I've gotten over the years and never really had time to look into. Most are for collateral lines that aren't really needed in my main file but would be nice to have.

Have you tried loading TMG when you are not connected to the Internet? Sometimes that will allow the program to start up without the delay. Once the program opens, go into Preferences > 'Startup and Exit' and change the days to 0 for checking for Messages. In that case, you may want to check for messages manually from Help - so you don't miss any important announcements.

 

Let us know if that does not help -

 

Virginia

Virginia,

I'm curious as to what type of important announcements would come through the Message Manager that wouldn't appear on either this forum or on the TMG-L list? Any Idea?

Sorry for responding so late.

 

I am personally not familiar with the specifics of the GEDCOM spec,

but I do get her point about the child sorting. Even TMG has child numbering as an option to prevent the very problem she is mentioning from occuring. If TMG does child sequencing, why would it not do marriage sequencing or at least entertain this as an option in its next release?

 

It would seem that anything to make the purchasers of TMG happy with the software they purchased would seem to be a worthy goal for the creators of this package.

Not if what it takes to makes them happy conflicts with certain standards held by the developers. An example of this is John Cardinal's Utility which allows users to perform certain functions which will never be included in TMG itself simply because those functions allow users to violate certain principles of Bob Velke's conception of data integrity.

I'd also take the word of Bob's crew about anything concerning the gedcom standard over *anyone* connceted with Ancestry/Roostweb.

The main reason I switched genealogy programs is because we have a daughter with a same-sex partner and a child. The child is the biological daughter of our daughter's partner. All the tags are set up appropriately (dau-bio and dau-ado), but apparently because both parents are female and/or there's an adoption involved, our granddaughter shows up as the daughter of our daughter-in-law but not of our daughter. While I understand to some extent why this is happening, I'm wondering if there's a way around it so that both women show up as parents. I don't even mind changing the dau-ado if necessary and using a memo (or something!).

 

What's really sad is that the former program, Roots Magic, actually does show both parents in the charts; however, that's because one of the women shows up as a male. RM has made it clear that they will not recognize same-sex unions, period. I'm pleased that TMG does at least that.

 

Just so you know, I'm not looking for a lecture on the definition of genealogy as it relates to blood lines -- just want to know if there's a work around to handle this and will accomplish my goal.

 

Thanks!

The only way to accomplish what you want is for genealogy programs to divorce the meanings of bio-father and/or bio-mother and the word parent.

Parent should NOT mean immediate genealogical ancestor of either sex. The term parent should be sexless and no gender be required of that "role".

This means, for all practical purposes, changing the english language... anyone up to giving ity a try?

Bob does listen to his users comments on wishes. SInce I started using TMG (was it really 5 years ago?) I have seen several that I have requested show up in TMG. Of course, there are many more I still hope to see.

I have no idea how he decides what goes into the next upgrade. It could be a throw of the dice. I would imagine it has to do more with ease of programming, and how many users will benefit.

If you have something you would like to see, why not start a new thread with WISHLIST in the subject line. You've got a blank survey sheet right here, and you can say what's on it.

I am looking forward to V7, but I know that V8 will be great when it comes out someday too.

Bob said something interesting in last night's chat re the wishlist...

Seems that the betatesters are his first filter for wishlist items (or words to that effect). Check the transcript for his exact words as I may have misunderstood him.

I'm able to export to my custom configuration without sources, so I'm guessing "ASOUR" is code for a source issue.

How can I figure out which source or source type is the problem? I only have 2583 sources (in other words, I don't have a source number that matches the number in the error message.

Next step? --GJ

Is it just a coincidence that if you take 2583 (your number of sources) and remove the 3 from the end and put it in front you have 3258 as mentioned in the error message? Hmmmmm......

I'm not well versed in TMG but that seems a bit strange to me.

I'm sure that the import speed could be shortened considerably by optimizing the import code. The problem is that the effort would take a very long time to do (think on the order of a week or more) and since files of this nature are so rare, it's difficult to justify the developer time required to do this.

 

I still haven't gotten to the import. I'll set it up on another machine this morning and let it run until it's done.

 

%%%%%%%%%%

 

The import of stobie.ged on my notebook under TMG7 took about 5.25 hours.

 

The import under TMG v6.12 on a slower machine took between 12.75 and 13.75 hours.

 

The disk space used by the indexed v6.12 project is about 2.05 Gb and the backup file size is about 95 Mb. While you can work with the project even with the Project Explorer linked to the other windows, a project of this size is really too sluggish to be practical. Doing some cleanup and looking at the project further.

Jim,

Even your "slow" machine is faster than mine.

On mine the import into v4.0d took 59 hrs. 15 min, 11 sec. (although I'm very surprised at rather quick response time when changing views. I've not yet had the courage to try to add something<g>)