jgr

Follow-up: Operator error, of course. The witness statement I should have been looking at was the one for the "with parents" role, not the regular witness statement. The "with parents" role did have an errant period, which has now been removed.

I am using the modified census entry system that makes all family members witnesses to the entry for the head of household. I have an identical witness sentence for the 1920 census and the 1930 census except for the year:

I know the sentences are identical because I copied and pasted the 1920 census sentence into the 1930 census sentence, changing only the year.

Yet, repeatedly, the sentences produce different results:

Note the comma after the date in 1920 and the period after the date in 1930.

I'm baffled. Any ideas?

-- jgr

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?

Holly, I was waiting to see if anyone else chimed in who had experience with this. (I was hoping someone else had tried it!) It seems in theory like a perfectly sound concept, and you'll be able to test it thoroughly in the empty project before you try to merge the projects.The one hitch I can think of might be the format of the source reference from Ancestry versus the source format you're already using in your existing project.

So, I am looking for help in creating a listing with the married surname for married women.

That'd give you FirstName MaidenName MarriedName, no?

However, please try the suggestion Terry gave me in answer to my questions about adding parents & children to the individual narrative: sentence: [P] [PAR] In the individual narrative, it produces what I wanted: Elizabeth Smith, daughter of John Smith and Mary Jones.

The problem is the comma at the start of the phrase produced by the variable [PAR]. I want to produce a simple sentence:

That apparently can't be done without roles, and that's a royal pain... There are often uses for a simple parentage statement without having it as a subordinate clause to some other fact (in other words, not set off by the comma). And that apparently can't be done without roles, and I'd hate to have to do that every time I want this statement.

I don't believe there is a way to do it simply with variables as you are trying to do. But you could do it with roles...

I swear, writing sentences in TMG is going to drive me to drink.

What I want to produce is:

I'd love to be able to use PAR but that produces that #$%@ initial comma:

Is there any way to do this??? Thanks!

PROBLEM: All my "citations" have been imported from Brother's Keeper, but I can't seem to add a NEW citation; when I try, I find I must pick one of the OLD citations in the citation picklist. How can I create a NEW citation?

If I gather correctly, you want to be able to add something new to cite -- a new source of information. That's called a source in TMG, and each time you cite it, that's called a citation.

To add a source, drop down the Tools menu at the top, choose Master Source List, and you'll see a box open with a list of all your existing sources. Then choose Add to add one.

Most of us just ask on TMG-L. In the add events feature, you add the date in one field and the sort date in the next, so just leave the field for the date blank, and then put your sort date in the sort date field.

Thanks. I'll remember to ask on TMG-L in the future. (I did just figure this out... what I was missing was how to indicate that the date field was blank but still supply a sort date field -- and if I'd just RTFM, I'd have seen before that I need to enter a tab...)

Is there a mail list for John Cardinal's TMG Utility? (I have a question -- how to use Add Events and in doing so add ONLY a sort date and not a date...)

Did you check if you're using the same compression in step 8?

Yup. Both are set to normal compression.

Any chance that you have exhibits on the one machine that aren't on or aren't linked on the other? I had that happen between my desktop & laptop before I finally figured out the problem...... Joan

Nope. I literally did a full backup (customizations and all) on computer #1, telling it to backup EVERYTHING. Then I transferred that to computer #2 and did a full restore. In theory, the two should now be identical. So I did a full backup on computer #2, with the identical settings in every way to computer #1, and the size is still different. The only variable I can identify is that one is Win2K and the other is WinXP.

Is it possible that you're in the habit of using optimize on one of the computers? That should affect the file sizes. Dic

Nope. The project was backed up on computer #1, restored immediately on computer #2 then backed up immediately on computer #2 using the exact same settings.

There are two possibilities...

1) The backup configurations on the two systems are set up differently and one backup contains something the other doesn't.

Nope. Just tested it again with absolutely identical full backup (project & customization) settings.

or 2) The cluster size for the file systems on the two systems differ. This would show the backup files differing in size even when the data in the backups is identical.

Nope. Default cluster size on Win2K and WinXP is the same.

If the backup configurations are identical, the data backed up on the two systems will be identical. The bottom line is that the difference in filesize is not really something to be concerned about.

Hokay. That's all I need to know. Thanks.

I have a single project I am working on that I'd like to fuss with on two computers. I thought the easiest way to do this would be to do a backup of the project on the main computer and transfer that and restore it on the secondary computer. And ditto in reverse: where changes are made on the secondary computer, do a backup and transfer that and restore it on the main computer.

What has me a bit nervous about this is that the backup file size is always different -- and smaller -- on the secondary computer. I can't help but wonder if I'm losing something in the translation.

Example: today I backed up the project on the main computer (a W2K Pro system) and the file size was 710,192 bytes. I transferred that to the secondary computer (a WinXP Pro system) and restored it there. Then I immediately backed it up using the exact same backup method (default backup project). The backup on the secondary system was 649,974 bytes.

Is this merely a function of the different operating systems, or am I losing data somewhere? And is there a better or safer method of doing this?

I just used ancestry.com for the first time and I found census data I want to cite (previously I had cited the data found at the National Archives, which included roll number, etc.). How do I cite information from ancestry.com?

You cite it exactly as you would with data viewed at the National Archives (with the roll number etc.), except that you would add a line something to the effect "as viewed online at Ancestry.com" to make it clear where you viewed the record. To view the roll number, look at the results page for the individual (see attached image for an example).

I found what Ancestry.com refers to as a civil war pension index for one of my ancestors. However, I was surprised at the lack of information contained in it. It just lists the deceased, the widow's name, the unit the deceased served in, date of filing, application number, and certificate number. Is this all the information I would normally expect to find? Or do I not have what I think I have? Thanks.

That's all you would normally expect to find in an Index. To get the rest of the available info, you need to order an actual copy of the pension file from the National Archives and Records Administration. For more info, try this explanation at Ancestry.com.

Are you sure you need to use the hidden codes to get the link in Second Site? I'm not an expert in that program, but I thought it recognized URLs and automatically made them links. You might check the Help file, or go to the Second Site list on RootsWeb, where lots of SS experts, including the author, hang out.In a quick check, I do find the following in the list of enhancements very long ago: "URLs and e-mail addresses are now recognized in citations as well as sources"

I will ask John, but am reasonably sure I have to use the hidden codes to get this to appear the way I want it to appear, as a hotlink with the words I want and not simply as a URL. In other words, I want it to say:

and not

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful, hate me because, the reason you are getting it is you don't have anything in the CD field. Either use the CD field, OR put your comma outside the brackets.

Would that it would be so simple, great beautiful guru. Fact is, even if I DELETE the CD field entirely, I still get the double period. I have tried the following:

The output in every case is:

This is a brand-new project created specifically to test this, with a brand-new database consisting of precisely two people, in the latest TMG v. 6.12, so I doubt it's a database error. In addition, if you'll note, I have the comma inside the angle brackets for the Full Footnote form, and it works exactly as I would expect it to.

I'm doomed...

Okay. This is driving me bonkers. I cannot for the LIFE of me figure out the punctuation rules here. What I'm trying to do is create a source definition that works both for TMG and for Second Site, and I have it all figured out EXCEPT the TMG punctuation rule. An example is the Social Security Death Index. For the first reference in TMG, I'd want the long footnote:

which prints as:

For the second and subsequent reference in TMG, I'd want it simply to read:

In Second Site, I want that SSDI Online to be a hotlink. So I'm using the Supplemental area of the Source Definition field, and I have it as:

Then I have the Output Forum for the Short Title as:

In Second Site, it's perfect. It appears as SSDI Online://http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/...m/"]SSDI Online.

But in TMG it appears with a second period:

I have tried everything I can think of, but can't make that second !%@*& period go away and leave me alone.

So I'm begging:

Bless you...

I realize this topic will reveal my inherent laziness about data entry... but long ago in the days when I did genealogy on a dos based program, and used letters to communicate I used a book for addresses. The book was "The genealogists Address book" . Looking at my copy the data is now 1995, ancient by the standards of today. Was wondering (hoping) someone had devised a method for something like this to be compatable with todays computerized standard. Specifically it would be wonderful to either have TMG come with, or have an add on program that lists the (1000?) most commonly used repositories, FHL, NEGHS, DAR library, Library of Congress, National Archives, all 50 state historical societies, perhaps all state vital records offices and all county courthouse sites. I grant that these change little from year to year and I (should/can easily) enter these as I go. Just was hoping not to have to do it

I'll second that. I'm also fundamentally and inherently lazy when it comes to that sort of thing!

I could have sworn that I'd tested that and it worked, but when I test now it works for the [WO] variable but not for Role variables. I'll report it as a bug. But in the meantime I'm afraid the only work-around is to re-enter the witnesses, sorry to say.

Fortunately, there weren't all that many witnesses on this census, and I'll be a LOT more careful on the others! Thanks for reporting it as a bug.

Selecting the person you want to move, then on the arrows as you show in your screenshot, should move that person in both the list of witnesses and in the output of reports. It doesn't for you?

Nope. I've moved Mary Isabella into the top position, but she still stays as #2 in the report output. See attached.

In a census entry using Terry's wonderful system, the children in an 1880 census report are listed out of age order (and I'd prefer to have them in age order). I'm sure I entered them in the wrong order, but I was hoping that if I moved the oldest child from second place to first place in the witness list, it would bring her to the front of the order. (See attached for what I mean.) That's not working. Is there a way to do this without deleting and re-entering the children in the right order?

The relevant part of the sentence is: [P] <|and [PO]> appeared on the 1880 Federal Census of< [LCI],>< [LCN],> [LS]<, at [LD]><, enumerated [D]>. <Their children [RG:with Parents] were listed as living with them.>

Thanks.

Nevermind. There is an answer, and it's part of Second Site (my apologies for not looking there first).

The solution is to combine the [HID] codes of TMG with the [sS] codes of Second Site, which overrides the [HID] code for Second Site. So my sentence works in both just the way I want if I write it as:

A [HID:][sS:]<a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~msattala/register.html">[:SS][:HID]Descriptive Register[HID:][sS:]</a>[:SS][:HID] of adult men was prepared for Attala County, MS, in 1864-65.

The material inside the HID codes does NOT print for TMG, but since it's inside SS codes, it DOES work for Second Site.

Is it possible to write a memo so that it includes HTML codes for use with Second Site but excludes those codes for TMG reports?

Example: A [html:]<a href="http://www.rootsweb.com/~msattala/register.html">Descriptive Register</a>[:HTML] of adult men was prepared for Attala County, MS, in 1864-65. The exact purpose is not clear but may well have been part of the conditions of amnesty at the end of Civil War.

What I want in Second Site is for the words Descriptive Register to be a hotlink to the online version of that Register. What I want in a TMG report is for the sentence to simply read: "A Descriptive Register of adult men was prepared for Attala County, MS, in 1864-65. The exact purpose is not clear but may well have been part of the conditions of amnesty at the end of Civil War."

Doable??? Thanks!