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Given the demise of TMG, the expectation is that eventually one will migrate to another application. Unfortunately, I had bought into TMG fairly close to its demise, and so had not gotten too far in my learning curve. So, it was time to move on.

 

My question:

 

While my question here could relate generally to most other applications, I have chosen to use Gramps.

 

While Gramps (or other application) will be (become) one's 'master' genealogy capture application, what are the thoughts on using TMG as a downstream 'tool', that one would export to, and use for various output purposes. The excellent alignment with Elizabeth Mills' work has to be highly useful.

 

I ask this question because of my lack of experience with TMG.

 

Can someone consider this use for TMG.

 

Thanks,

 

Stan

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Stan,

 

I can't see the merit of using another program as your main program and then exporting your data to TMG to take advantage of it's output features. The import will be a mess that requires extensive cleanup to take advantage of TMG's output capability. Assuming you continue to add information to your other program, you will have to export and clean up the data all over again.

 

I'd think if you want to make use of TMG's capabilities you would want to make it your main program and enter the data correctly the first time.

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Thanks again Terry. I am not surprised with your recommendation.

 

Nonetheless, one can 'migrate' some learnings from TMG, and thus influence the data in Gramps.

A while ago I began to map source fields to achieve a similar result. It was not perfect, but the TMG starting point was quite helpful; evnetually I could make Gramps display a similar data set.

 

As an aside, are you personally migrating to some different application? Or, perhaps better still are you considering translating your expertise into a more general resource? Joining the Gramps team??

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No, I'm not migrating. I've looked a little and have so far seen nothing in the same league as TMG and Second Site. I've not looked at Gramps, because I've not heard anyone suggest it is close to TMG's capabilities. But then I've not spent time looking either.

 

I expect TMG to continue to serve me for 10 or 15 years, at which point there may be an adequate replacement, or I may not care. I would share that there seem to a lot of other users continuing with TMG, at least if sales of my book are any measure. It continues to sell, though at a slower rate than before the announcement.

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To motivate his crew, Cortez burned his ships upon landing in Mexico. My recommendation is that if your intention is to switch...switch!

 

Just make sure that you select a program that will fit (most) of your needs. I was changing computers last night and today brought up the TMG website, only to be blindsided by the announcement from last year about the program being discontinued. (Obviously, I hadn't been very active in the last year :-) ).

 

My first thought was, "now what?"Several years ago I spent an inordinate amount of time creating custom tags for things like city directories, and rearranging census tags, etc. I'm not expecting very many (if any) programs to play nice with those tags. They'd certainly be lost in a GEDCOM export.

 

On and off, I've looked at GRAMPS as an alternative. It's open-source, which means that if the current developers decided they were tired of maintaining it, someone else could pick up the ball and run with it. This means it will always be around in some iteration, and will be able to be modified when new O/S challenges arise.

 

Last year I asked on their Facebook page about importing custom tags. The developer was nice enough to say to send him a snip of my database and he'll see what happens. I didn't follow through so am not sure how robust of an import will happen. There was a TMG2Gramps importer written a while ago. But, that was based upon TMGv6, which is obviously pretty old.

 

For now, I'm going to continue using TMGv7. But, I'm going to actively be looking at other programs to see how well they import my unique dataset. It may come a time where I have to "burn my ships" and move on. But, until I'm either comfortable with the results, or can at least live with the consequences, I won't be making any knee jerk reactions.

 

FWIW: TMG ran fine on Windows 8, so I'm assuming it will also work fine under Windows 10. That means you've got a while to use it beyond the 2020 date I've seen mentioned.

 

Good luck!

 

Robert

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Terry,

 

I am sorry that Bob Velke s not well. In my opinion, he certainly spoiled me. When I heard that TMG was not going to be continued, I was most upset. However, I thought that I needed to try another program. My husband has used PAF, Ancestral Quest and Family Tree Maker. I am familiar with those programs. For myself, I converted to Roots Magic. I was NOT satisfied, and I returned to my TMG. For me, there is nothing like TMG. Roots Magic did have one plus. I was able to take my great, great grandfather and his descendants and plop them into another project. TMG did not have the capability. Later this year, I intend to buy your book.

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Roots Magic did have one plus. I was able to take my great, great grandfather and his descendants and plop them into another project.

It doesn't? The Secondary Output of the List of People report will create a new Project or new Data Set populated with copies of all the people specified with a Filter, selected in the Project Explorer, or collected in a Focus Group. It would be easy to specify a person and his descendants with a Filter. If you want others included, like parents of spouses, the Focus Group is probably easier.

 

TMG did not have the capability. Later this year, I intend to buy your book.

It should be available. But why wait? :naughty:

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