Replies: 3 comments 10 replies
|
I’m traveling now so I don’t have access to all my stuff. Does ancestry allow you to add a REFN value to its GEDCOM. If you create a unique number/value for each of your individuals and store it in the REFN this should be preserved in all GEDCOM exports. |
|
Oh good idea. I don't think Ancestry implements this inherently, but I think if I add REFN in FTM and then sync with Ancestry, those will appear as custom facts in Ancestry's exported GEDCOM. Then I can use that as a reference in the Ancestry GEDCOM export to convert all the Ancestry custom tags to custom facts that FTM will see. I'm not sure if there is a workflow that would work here for a normal user but I will do some experimentation. I had no idea when I was first building my tree in Ancestry that the custom tags were not standard or portable. |
|
So I've added REFN in FTM and see a "Person ID" on my profiles there (e.g. Unless you can think of a simpler option! |
|
I dont use either FTM or Ancestry for the exact reason that they dont support GEDCOM very well, either by creating their own tags that have real GEDCOM equivalent or that they dont read into their databases actual GEDCOM tags from the specification. That being said, I would be interested in seeing what FTM calls a “Person ID” in the GEDCOM export, just to be sure that the actual REFN tag is created properly! I would check to see if the REFN is in the FTM GEDCOM export, then see if Ancestry.com will load the exported GEDCOM from FTM and retain the REFN tag. I’d do that before creating a custom fact tag, that will have not value to any other program. This is why I maintain a strict GEDCOM compliance on any software that I use! |
|
This is, and has always been, an issue with various genealogy software, "they don't talk well to each other!" This is one of the main points to this GEDCOM upgrade project to make GEDCOM a little more accessible, but if the software does not implement changes to their GEDCOM export/import based on these upgrades nothing will change! I've been involved in genealogy since the 1980's tried a lot of different software, written some software as well. |
|
I am kind of surprised that after enabling REFN that you can directly add a key to that field in FTM. One of the reasons I asked to see if FTM's Person ID is actually a REFN, rather than some other tag. Check to see that if now that you have enabled REFN, that you have the ability to add a new unique key to that field. This is the way I manage my connection from my electronic software to my filing cabinet of paper documents. Every individual in my database has a unique REFN I call "Accession Number", just like a library (I trained in Librarian school) every individual and document has a unique key (REFN) that never gets lost via GEDCOM, and also is marked on all paper documents in my file cabinet! Unlike the XREF which can be changed in a GEDCOM transfer to other software, a REFN is like any other "fact" or name associated with an individual it can't change unless the receiving software ignores it! |
|
I suppose the other approach I could take, at least for purposes of this GEDCOM Navigator app I'm building, is just write a script that looks at the two exports (one from FTM synced with Ancestry, and one from Ancestry directly), which then outputs a single GEDCOM collating the information in a standards-compliant way. The script would not have a true common index field like REFN to work with, but if the assumption is the two GEDCOM files actually represent the identical family tree exported in two different ways, it could get 99% of the way there by indexing on name+birth+death. These are almost always unique identifiers when combined, and it could also flag any instance where they are not in fact a unique key (ie two people named John Smith with same birth and death dates--obviously this happens but in one person's tree it's more likely they are actually a duplicate that should be fixed anyway). |
|
Back to my original purpose for this: My app currently uses _mttag to find DNA matches, because that is how they are exposed in an Ancestry export. I want to universalize so users of other platforms can leverage the feature that finds the closest DNA matches to any selected person. Do any of you know what is the most common way to express this in standard GEDCOM files or files exported from other platforms or applications? |
As far as I know, there is no common way across applications currently. DNA discussion is tracked in: |
|
Here's a proposed approach -- any feedback? https://github.com/ajkessel/ancestry-tag-converter |
Uh oh!
There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.
Uh oh!
There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.
I'm developing a free GEDCOM tool called GEDCOM Navigator and am hitting a problem: Ancestry "MyTreeTags" (as well as any custom tags) are not synced to Family Tree Maker or exposed in an FTM GEDCOM file. If I export the GEDCOM directly from Ancestry, the custom tags are there, but Ancestry does not expose media in any usable way. So by default, I have these two options:
(1) Use the Ancestry export, which includes tags but not images.
(2) Use the FTM export, which includes images but not tags.
It would be quite time-consuming for me to implement all of the Ancestry tags as custom facts on the Ancestry profiles, since I have thousands of tagged people in my tree.
I'd like to find a way to do both. Has anyone found a workaround for this problem?
One possibility I've considered is writing a script that takes the Ancestry GEDCOM export and extracts the tags, adding them to the FTM export. But it appears that Ancestry and FTM don't use the same INDI identifier for individuals. Matching on names alone won't work because there are too many people with the same name.
Any other creative suggestions?
All reactions