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Archiver > FAMILY-ORIGINS-USERS > 1997-04 > 0862281368


From: Patricia SummersSmith <>
Subject: Re: FO5x - Importing Non-Standard Facts
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 19:36:08 -0700


Bill,

Thanks for your reply. I have been hoping there might be some way to
accomplish a global change of one fact type to another fact type within the
program without having to export a gedcom, change them in the gedcom and
then reimport the gedcom. But perhaps there isn't. I wish Parsons would
add that capability to the program. There have been several times I wanted
to do that.

I created some user-defined facts in my database that I would like to
change to another fact type -- maybe to "MISC." for some that I haven't
used that often -- and delete the infrequently used user-defined fact that
I created. Of course, the program won't let you delete it as long as it is
in use by a record. (And I wouldn't want to just *delete* it anyway.) But
I WOULD like to be able to find out where all I have used it so I could
change them manually, if necesssary.

I wonder if the custom report could be used to locate a given user-defined
fact by record # or name of the person it was associated with.

Some of these facts, however, I would like to globally change.

For instance, the program provides a "CENSUS" fact.
However, I also created a "CENSUS HOUSEHOLD HEAD" fact, a "CENSUS WITH
PARENTS" fact and a "CENSUS WITH SPOUSE" fact because I wanted better
visibility of the specifics and to be able to print them out more
descriptively in the Book of Descendants and on the FGS sheets.

The CENSUS HOUSEHOLD HEAD fact prints out in the Book of Descendants as: "
. . . appeared in the federal census as head of household in 1850 in City,
County Co., State." The CENSUS WITH PARENTS fact prints out within the
same report as " . . . appeared in the federal census in the parents'
household in 1850 in City, County, State." The CENSUS WITH SPOUSE fact
prints out in the same report as ". . . appeared in the federal census
living with spouse in 1850 in City, County, State."

They also are defined in the "Abbreviation" to print differently on the FGS
as CENSUS/HH, CENSUS/PAR, and CENSUS/SPOUSE. This abbreviation definition
for a FGS is the same one used for GEDCOM.

This works beautifully for my own purposes. It incorporates census data
consistently, thus creates consistency in my reports, saves a lot of
typing, and enables me to have better visibility of the census data I have
accumulated for the persons and families. BUT . . . it DOES create a
problem when I want to share data with someone else because it won't import
that census data into their program.

So I thought perhaps I really should change these non-standard census facts
into standard ones and incorporate the additional info in the census note
instead. I would much prefer a global way to change them above having to
find each and every occurrence and manually change them within FOW, because
there are LOTS of them. I would also prefer NOT to have to export a gedcom
of the data, change them and then reimport the data.

Bill, I really appreciate your exchanging your ideas. Your input is always
helpful. It looks like you haven't discovered a global way to do it either
except for the search and replace method in the gedcom. If you think of
any other ideas, please let me know.
Thanks,
Patricia SummersSmith

At 06:46 PM 4/28/97 GMT-0500, you wrote:
>Patricia,
>
>At 12:51 PM 4/27/97 -0700, you wrote:
>>In FO, the user can both 1) use standard fact types that are provided in
>>the program, and which are gedcom standards, and they can also 2) create
>>user-defined fact types. It is my understanding that the user-defined
>>facts are contained in a gedcom exported by FO, but that other programs do
>>not import them. At least, folks with Brothers' Keeper and Family Tree
>>Maker, tell me they were not imported, but wound up on the *.lst file of
>>stuff that didn't import into the other program.
>>
>>Does anyone know if there is a way in FOW5 to globally change a
>>user-defined fact type to a standard FO-provided fact type? There are some
>>cases in my own database where, if this is technically possible, it would
>>solve some import problems to other folks programs.
>>
>>The only way that is apparent, is to individually find each and every place
>>within the database where a person has entered a user-defined fact and
>>manually changing them one at a time, re-linking the sources.
>
>NOTE: Easier to change the GEDCOM with "Search and Replace".
>
>>Thanks for sharing anything you might know about this possibility.
>>Patricia SummersSmith
>
>I have encountered the reverse problem importing non-standard fact types
>from a GEDCOM sent to me. I checked, and it was in the GEDCOM OK, but FO
>would not recognize it. It did place it in the .lst file. I then created a
>new database for importing the GEDCOM, created a fact type like the one in
>the GEDCOM, then retried importing the GEDCOM. FO 5a STILL WOULD NOT
>IMPORT; however, the fact information no longer showed up on the .lst file!!
>
>Subsequently, I edited the gedcom to change all occurances of the fact type
>to a standard type: Burial. Then when I imported, the fact appeared as a
>"burial" fact. The fact "place" information made the correct usage
>evident, and all of the original real "Burial" facts were unchanged. I
>think I could go thru the resulting database and change the resulting
>"facts", but I have not done so, because they should have been in Sources or
>Notes, anyway.
>
>I used Write word processor in text mode (No Conversion) and "search and
>replace" to change the GEDCOM.
>
>I would suspect that anyone wanting to import a GEDCOM from someone else
>which used non-standard facts could also use "Search and Replace" to change
>the items in the GEDCOM to a seldom used standard fact type. How to handle
>it from there would depend on the specific fact information.
>
>Evidently, LDS GEDCOM specifications do not cover adequately the usages of
>non-standard fact types in GEDCOMS. A suggestion to LDS might be to specify
>automatic creation of the fact types on importing. I should think any
>program such as FO, FTM, PAF, Brother's Keeper, might do this automatically
>without violating any LDS standards.
>
>Is Parsons listening?
>
>Hope I am being helpfull.
>Bill Case - retired on the Space Coast of Florida

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