Send Me a Disk, Ok?

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Send Me a Disk, Ok?

• -Sharing Genealogical Information With Your
  Relatives

Beau SharbroughPO Box 3170Grapevine TX
76099-3170
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www.sharbrough.net

• Is the location for the syllabus material for
  this class. The author mailed his materials to
  Oregon instead of Washington DC as instructed.

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This is the time when

• we remind the speaker to turn off his cell
  phone.

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General Topics

• Five steps to understanding what theyre saying
• Update on software developers plans for merging
  files
• Update on GENTECH GEDCOM TestBook Project

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Five Steps to Combining Your Research
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Step 1. Determine What Form the Data Is in.

• Which program do they use?
• What type of disk drives do they have?
• What general field usage have they adopted?
• Are they a crypto-genealogist?

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Step 2. Exchange Pedigree and Group Sheet
Examples.

• Look for detail, accuracy, thoroughness.
• Are there full or partial dates?
• Do the citations for US places include counties?
  Streets? Cemetery names?
• Are nicknames used in place of real names?
• Are sources cited?

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Step 3. Agree on Usage of Fields.

• RESIdes or ADDRess?
• Will you both use CHRIsten?
• Are there any user-defined tags?
• How will you document sources?
• How will you document the research of others?

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Step 4. Convert Your Information.
Nobody Can Avoid This Step.

• Agree with your relative what information you
  will convert and how
• Normally, this means saying things like, "Ill
  put in the counties after I get it from you"

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Step 5. Exchange Only the Individuals You Want.

• NEVER just import the whole family on top of the
  information you already have.
• No computer routines for merging data effectively
  exist today.

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There Are Simply No Effective Routines for
Merging Data Sets at Present.

• The problems of
• identity
• merging methods and
• data formats
• are too new for generalized solutions to be
  available in the marketplace
• Good theoretical solutions dont even exist

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Merging Data Sets
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WHY?
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Customers who just assume that someone will know
what they want
and have it ready when they recognize that need
had parents that spoilt them rotten.
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WHY?

• Family history record-keeping is increasingly
  becoming a digital process.
• Linking ones information to the information
  already gathered by other family members and
  researchers is becoming more and more common.

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Downloading GEDCOM files isnt all there is to
doing genealogy.

• Its more like finding another researchers
  conclusions.
• Or their group sheets.
• You still have no scholarly investment.
• Genealogy includes adding your mark to the
  tableau.

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We Have to Put Our Information Together Somehow
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A Few Basics

• Computer programs store the data that we enter in
  FILES
• Each genealogy program stores the information in
  its own way, called a PROPRIETARY FORMAT
• Most programs can also read and write in GEDCOM
  format

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A Few Basics

• Merging is copying
• From a SOURCE
• To a TARGET
• Sometimes called the SURVIVING INFORMATION

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MERGING DATABASES

• merging the databases
• merging the duplicated individuals
• merging the rest
• sources
• repositories

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The database merging process is evolving

• More input sources
• More freedom to choose the features you like.
• GenBridge

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Freedom has a price

• Enter a name
• Program wont break it up
• Enter a place
• Program wont break it up

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Legacy Trick

• You can open two family files at the same time,
  and copy and paste a person and their descendents
  from one set into another, like grafting a tree
  branch from one tree to another.

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Making automatic citations

• Legacy individual level
• TMG and FTM field level

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MERGING INDIVIDUALSThe old way

• Copy the info
• Delete one of the people
• Type the info into the new one

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MERGING INDIVIDUALSThe middle way

• View both persons
• Select what you want
• The program does the rest

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MERGING INDIVIDUALSThe future way

• Computer spots likely dups
• Recommends them to you
• You control the process

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Limits to Storage

• Some programs have really limited storage, and
  only store conclusions
• If you have two birth dates, they put your
  favorite one in and throw the other away, or
  store it in a note.
• Some programs have a lot of storage, and let you
  make your own tags such as executrix.

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Merging The Rest

• source citations, master sources, repositories,
  and places
• Most programs just combine the tables, creating
  duplicates
• LG will combine a source, with exact spelling
• UFT and FTM merge master sources
• PAF and TMG merge master sources and repositories

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SPOTTING DUPLICATES

• Some programs have merging routines based on
• Soundex
• Spelling of name
• Birth date
• TMG and Legacy use a large variety of match
  choices

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MERGING SUMMARY

• Users can merge from a wider variety of data
  formats than in the past.
• Users can merge individuals more easily.

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MERGING SUMMARY

• Routines to help identify candidates for merging
  are becoming quite sophisticated.
• More programs store the resultant conflicting
  data today.

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Its also encouraging that they are not all doing
the same thing.

• The resultant diversity and innovation offer us
  more chances to connect
• Where-Weve-Been to
• Where-Were-Going
• than weve ever had before.

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The GEDCOM TestBook Project

• Purpose The purpose of this exercise is to
  test as many aspects of the GEDCOM 5.5 standard
  as possible.

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The events and notes provided below, depending on
the program into which they are entered, will

• utilize all but four of the available GEDCOM tags
  and
• all levels in the lineage linked hierarchy.

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How it works

• Once data entry is complete, a GEDCOM file is
  created.
• This file is compared with the original data and
  the GEDCOM tag of each item recorded.

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How it works

• Any item not being transferred by GEDCOM is
  noted.
• The GEDCOM is then checked for conformance to the
  5.5 standard.

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The Story

• Reginald Edward Smythe was born August 3rd 1780
  at Little Chesterford, Essex, the third son and
  fifth child of Sir Charles Smythe by his first
  wife, Jane Edwards. Sir Charles was a successful
  East India merchant and maintained residences in
  Little Chesterford and London. His staff was
  composed of native Indians whose service had
  impressed him during his years in India.
• Reginalds life was destined to be a difficult
  one from his birth. His mother died during
  childbirth. His father, while providing for the
  child, seemed to favor him less than the other
  children, possibly blaming him for his mothers
  death. The newborn Reginald was turned over to
  the wife of Sir Charles gardener who would wet
  nurse the child and serve as a nanny. This
  woman, Anna Chordray, was a Hindu of the Sudra
  caste. Sir Charles did not attend the
  christening of Reginald at St Margarets Church
  in Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, leaving Anna to
  attend to that detail.

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Individual 2 Elizabeth Conyer
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Sources

• Source 1
• AUTHOR Township of Brighton
• TITLE Township Papers
• PUBLISHER Archives of Ontario
• REPOSITORY 5
• Source 2
• AUTHOR Clarence Alexander Smythe II
• TITLE Smythe Family Records
• PUBLISHER Vanity Publishers, The Strand, London,
  England
• REPOSITORY Repository 2
• NOTE Condition Fair. Indexed. This is a limited
  edition book. Only known copy is in the Saffron
  Walden Library.
• CALL NUMBER 93 V 32mn

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TMG to FTW transfer

• TMG offers its users a wide variety of GEDCOM
  export choices to compensate for some of the
  variations found in importation requirements of
  other programs. Users must read the GEDCOM
  export section of the manual before creating a
  GEDCOM file. For this test the standard options
  were used.

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TMG to FTW transfer

• TMG recorded but did not export the following
• Role (ROLE) tags
• Alias (ALIA) tag
• Physical description (DSCR)
• LDS temple location if Temple Code present
• Individuals address

• Tags exported in unexpected manner
• Ordination (ORDN) tag data (Deacon) exported as
  note
• Nickname exported using NAME tag not the
  expected NICK
• Cause of Death (CAUS) exported as NOTE
• EVEN tagged events described the event exported
  using the NOTE tag. E.g. Type rebellion.

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TMG to FTW transfer

• Sources
• TMG exports Citation detail using PAGE and CONT
  tags. The PAGE tag is limited to 248 characters
  resulting in data being truncated.
• Call numbers were added to source title. This
  can result in the use of the CONT tag.
• FTW did not recognize
• NMR, number of marriages .
• NCHI, number of children, reported as at wrong
  level. TMG exported it properly.
• OBJE, the series of tags identifying image
  location.
• Dates using the From-To convention. E.g From 1826
  to 1834. Other date ranges using months and year
  transferred.

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TMG to FTW transfer

• Summary.
• Of the data contained in the TMG GEDCOM
  almost all of it transferred properly. Aside
  from source data, which will require editing, the
  only data loss that might create problems are
  those events using the EVEN tag and the date
  ranges using the From-To convention.. In these
  instances the event will have to be properly
  identified and the sources linked. The missing
  dates would have to be recovered from the GEDCOM.
  Citation information that was truncated as a
  result of TMGs use of the PAGE tag will have to
  be recovered from the GEDCOM.

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Send Me A Disk, Ok?

• Dos and Donts
• Merging Technique
• GEDCOM limitations

Beau SharbroughPO Box 3170Grapevine TX
76099-3170beau_at_sharbrough.netwww.sharbrough.net
More on GEDCOM tomorrow at 3. Dont forget
GENTECH 2002
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The End
www.sharbrough.net contains syllabus
matl www.gentech.org contains GEDCOM TestBook