GENBOX-L Archives

Archiver > GENBOX > 2004-02 > 1077468356


From: "Jim Winfrey" <>
Subject: Re: [GENBOX] Witness export
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 11:45:56 -0500
References: <FFEBLNNBNENFDKOPJEBPOEIBEJAA.paulharris@nc.rr.com>


Brant and Paul,

I did some testing last night, and as Paul said, witnesses from both TMG and
GB do not transfer via gedcom. I exported a GB file and TMG did not set up
the witnesses. Next was a TMG export to gedcom - imported by GB. Same
results. I also looked at CFT and BK, two other programs that allow
witnesses to events. They didn't work either.

Years ago when TMG hiccuped the infamous "div/0" error when I updated my
computer, I made a gedcom of my data and transferred the mess to Legacy.
Since Legacy doesn't support witnesses (or multiple links to an event - new
terminology), I chose to attach a witness event for each person who
witnessed an event. Gedcom to most programs handles these events correctly.
Since I'm working with folks with every software known, I chose to leave
these witness events in GB at least for the time being. The capability to
search for witnesses works this way and just about everyone I work with can
use it.

Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul J. Harris" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, February 22, 2004 10:56 AM
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Witness export


| Brant,
|
| I am not an expert at Gedcom, but others here are. It is my belief that
| Gedcom does not support witnesses as used in TMG or Genbox, and they do
not
| survive a transfer from one to the other through Genbox. However, I have
| seen reports from people that are using Genbox Gedcom files with the
Pocket
| Genealogist that claim the witness information is there. There is also a
| utility for TMG that will convert witnesses to notes in Gedcom, so at
least
| the information is not lost.
|
| Hopefully, someone else can give you a more complete answer to your
| question.
|
| Paul
|
| -----Original Message-----
| From: Brant Gibbard [mailto:]
| Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 7:17 PM
| To:
| Subject: [GENBOX] Witness export
|
|
| How does GenBox handle witnesses when exporting to gedcom? Does gedcom
even
| have the ability to handle such things? Do witnesses transfer through
gedcom
| between programs such as GB and TMG that do use witnesses? One of my
| concerns with "non-standard" features of this type is that we will all
| eventually have to transfer our data to other programs, probably many
times,
| during our lives, and I would be concerned about investing large amounts
of
| time in setting up witness events if they were subject to loss in
| translation some years later.
|
| Brant Gibbard
| http://pages.ca.inter.net/~bgibbard/gen/
|
| Toronto, ON
|
|
| ==== GENBOX Mailing List ====
| To join this list, send an email to with the
| word "subscribe" as the subject line. Then email your messages to
| and they will appear on this list.
|
| ==============================
| Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration
| Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more.
| http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237
|
|
|
| ==== GENBOX Mailing List ====
| To join this list, send an email to with the
word "subscribe" as the subject line. Then email your messages to
and they will appear on this list.
|
| ==============================
| Gain access to over two billion names including the new Immigration
| Collection with an Ancestry.com free trial. Click to learn more.
| http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=4930&sourceid=1237
|

This thread: