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Derek Baker

Census Sort order

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I have imported a lot of data from another genealogy package including UK census information. The 1891 census information now always shows on the tag entry screen and the Journal report after the 1901 census. Also the 1851 census and the 1841 also get reversed.

Is there any way to make them appear in actual census date order without having to enter a sort date for every census (there are hundreds of census references).

Thanks

Derek

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Yes check the sort date, has it been imported incorrectly?

 

My UK census are fine, but then I have manually eneterd the information with the correct sort dates.

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Census dates are essentially 'undated tags' adding a sort date moves them up into the Name Tags. There must be something internal to TMG that controls the order of 'Undated Tags'. Is there anyone at TMG who knows what this is and can advise on a utility to fix it.

Thanks

D

Edited by Derek Baker

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Census dates are essentially 'undated tags' adding a sort date moves them up into the Name Tags.

 

Most people don't enter them as undated, entering either the official "as of" date or the actually enumeration date if known. If you add a sort date they should be moved to their proper sequesence with respect to all other dated tags. Do you see something different?

 

There must be something internal to TMG that controls the order of 'Undated Tags'. Is there anyone at TMG who knows what this is and can advise on a utility to fix it.

There is an option to but all undated tags at either the top or bottom. Within the list of undated tags, the order is unpredictable. I suspect it has something to do with their order in the files, but I've observed that editing an undated tag can cause it to move.

 

I don't believe there is any reliable way to control sorting other than with the tool provided for that purpose - sort dates.

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I recall that I wanted to re-order my dated tags that had the same date. I was told that to change the order that I would need to use the sort date feature to alter, which I have done.

 

I guess its the same problem that to arrange the order of undated tags you need to use the sort date. I supose in future it would be good to have a feature that enables you to arrange the order of tags that have the same date, by selecting the order they appear.

Shaun

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I have just spent the last hour exporting my family file to a Gedcom and then reloading it into a new family file. Result - the census tags are now in the right order. There has to be something in the background that we can't see that controls the order of undated tags.

Derek

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I have just spent the last hour exporting my family file to a Gedcom and then reloading it into a new family file. Result - the census tags are now in the right order. There has to be something in the background that we can't see that controls the order of undated tags.

Yes, there clearly is - things don't happen by accident. The problem is, whatever that mechanism is, it was not designed for the purpose of sorting tags. I'd guess it was designed for the purpose of efficient processing of data, or something of that sort. Thus, there is no assurance that the tags you find in the "right" order today will be in the same order tomorrow, for the simple reason that tag order was never part of that design. Routine data entry and maintenance is likely to upset the order you currently see. The only function designed to control sort order, and thus can be depended upon to do that consistently, is the sort date.

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