GEDCOM Tags: SOUR, REPO, PAGE, TEXT

[xCav8r]

I am working with a German user of Ahnenblatt 2.70 who is helping me to do some research. I use Family Tree Maker (FTM) 2012 v21.0.0.529. We have exchanged GEDCOMs, but source citations are lost on import both ways. What follows is my best attempt to explain what is happening, in case this information is relevant. My goal, however, is simply to find a workaround, if it exists, so that I can exchange GEDCOMs with Ahnenblatt using even the simplest of source citations. I will come back to this again after presenting the problem.

From AB to FTM:
FTM fails to import multiple SOUR tags from GEDCOMs created by Ahnenblatt. It will only import the first SOUR, but then that same source is used for all subsequent citations. Here is an example from AB to illustrate.

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[...]
0 @I9@ INDI
1 NAME Maria /FIDLER/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 DATE 25 JUN 1741
1 FAMS @F6@
1 FAMC @F1@
1 SOUR SRA Trebon 4/220
0 @I10@ INDI
1 NAME Anna /FIEDLER/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 DATE 28 MAR 1674
1 FAMS @F7@
1 FAMC @F3@
1 SOUR SRA Trebon 3/68
[...]

When imported into FTM 2012, SOUR "SRA Trebon 4/220" is applied to the name facts for both Maria FIDLER and Anna FIEDLER. SOUR "SRA Trebon 3/68" and all subsequent SOUR tags are ignored. In other words, FTM thinks there is only one source, and it applies that (first) source to the name fact of any individuals that follow with a SOUR tag in the GEDCOM. I hope that makes sense.

From FTM to AB:
Source citations are handled differently in FTM 2012. They are applied to facts, not the whole person. I think AB sources apply to individuals. If I'm correct, this causes problems when passing the GEDCOM back to AB because the sources in FTM will always apply to specific facts. When a fact isn't specified in AB (because it's 1 SOUR XXX instead of 2 SOUR XXX), then it's automatically applied to the name fact in FTM on import. When a GEDCOM from FTM then is imported into AB, all of these fact-specific citations are ignored.) Here is an example of the same two individuals in a GEDCOM exported by FTM.

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[...]
0 @I9@ INDI
1 NAME Maria /FIDLER/
2 SOUR @S1@
3 PAGE Book 04: Baptisms (1721-1760), Image 220, Maria Fidler
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 DATE 25 JUN 1741
2 SOUR @S1@
3 PAGE Book 04: Baptisms (1721-1760), Image 220, Maria Fidler
1 FAMS @F6@
1 FAMC @F1@
0 @I10@ INDI
1 NAME Anna /FIEDLER/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 DATE 28 MAR 1674
2 SOUR @S1@
3 PAGE Book 03: Baptisms (1666-1720), Image 086, Anna Fiedler
3 NOTE @N15@
1 FAMS @F7@
1 FAMC @F3@
[...]
0 @S1@ SOUR
1 TITL State Regional Archives of Třeboň
1 REPO @R1@
0 @R1@ REPO
1 NAME digi.ceskearchivy.cz
[...]

When this is imported into AB 2.7, many relevant tags are ignored. Here is a sample of the related tags that were ignored by AB:

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[...]
BAPM.SOUR._FOOT was ignored. [line 507]
[...]
BAPM.SOUR._FOOT.CONC was ignored. [line 508]
[...]
BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONC was ignored. [line 380]
[...]
BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONT was ignored. [line 379]
[...]
BAPM.SOUR.PAGE was ignored. [line 193]
[...]
DEAT.SOUR.PAGE was ignored. [line 107]
[...]
MARR.SOUR was ignored. [line 1006]
[...]
MARR.SOUR.PAGE was ignored. [line 1007]
[...]
MARR.SOUR.PAGE.CONC was ignored. [line 1008]
[...]
NAME.SOUR was ignored. [line 145]
[...]
NAME.SOUR._FOOT was ignored. [line 481]
[...]
NAME.SOUR._FOOT.CONC was ignored. [line 482]
[...]
NAME.SOUR.DATA.TEXT was ignored. [line 252]
[...]
NAME.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONC was ignored. [line 254]
[...]
NAME.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONT was ignored. [line 253]
[...]
NAME.SOUR.NOTE was ignored. [line 168]
[...]
NAME.SOUR.PAGE was ignored. [line 146]
[...]
OCCU.SOUR was ignored. [line 242]
[...]
OCCU.SOUR.PAGE was ignored. [line 243]
[...]
REPO was ignored. [line 1149]
[...]

My understanding of what I see here is that source citations are not supported by AB for facts such as names, occupations, etc. I also note that some of the more detailed source details from the DATA and TEXT tags are also ignored. It doesn't matter to me that AB does not support these things, because I will simplify the citations in accordance with its capabilities. The problem, however, is that only "State Regional Archives of Třeboň" survives the transition from FTM to AB, but I don't know from which fact this derives. (Seeing that this survives gives me some hope that a workaround is possible.)

My Question:
Hopefully I've explained the problem well enough for someone to propose a solution for us. Is there any way to get a string like "SRA Trebon 13/4" in any part of a source citation from AB to FTM to AB? If so, can you advise how this information should be recorded in both AB and FTM?

[Marcus]

My Question:
Hopefully I've explained the problem well enough for someone to propose a solution for us. Is there any way to get a string like "SRA Trebon 13/4" in any part of a source citation from AB to FTM to AB? If so, can you advise how this information should be recorded in both AB and FTM?

Your descritpion of the problem is plain and detailed. But since I'm not an expert at importing Gedcoms from another software I may only give you a few hints for the import in Ahnenblatt. I don't have FTM 2012 and don't know what you can do there to improve it's import-behavior - but maybe other users will after a first statement .

Ahnenblatt only uses one source field per person. Since there are no source-fields for events you have to import all sources for one person into that one field. You can tweak this in the "Options" (menu "Extras") where you can choose which tags you want to ignore and which ones you just want to adope into Ahnenblatts Source-Field.
See picture 1 below for my Import-Gedcom-Options here.

If they are set like this (there may be even better settings for what you want to do!), then Ahnenblatt imports all the sources of a person.
I get this report while importing your FTM-gedcom-file:

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GENERALLY:

  Source program: Family Tree Maker for Windows Family Tree Maker (21.0.0.529)
  Creation date: 12.05.2012
  Original file: F:\Documents\Genealogy\Bohemia\knops_2012-05-12.ged
  Character coding UTF-8
  
  Number of persons: 52

IGNORED:

REPLACED:

ADOPTED:

  BAPM.SOUR._FOOT added to Sources [line 502]
  BAPM.SOUR._FOOT.CONC added to Sources [line 503]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT added to Sources [line 373]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT added to Sources [line 46]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT added to Sources [line 488]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONC added to Sources [line 375]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONC added to Sources [line 376]
  BAPM.SOUR.DATA.TEXT.CONC added to Sources [line 377]

[...]
Many more lines to follow ... 

Where nothing is ignored anymore and all sources are added to the Ahnenblatt Source-Field of a person.

See picture 2 for the Source of Maria Fidler as an example here.


For the other way (from Ahnenblatt to FTM 2012) you can just export the ged-File and then you're in the hands of FTM and it's possibilities. Or maybe another user here will know more than I know about that.

Best Regards to the Twin Cities!
Marcus