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FTA and LC

Discussion in 'Family Tree Analyzer' started by PhilGee, Jun 22, 2022.

  1. PhilGee

    PhilGee LostCousins Member

    Firstly, I should point out that this is NOT a criticism of FTA - it is a program I find extremely useful. However, I think it necessary to indicate the errors I had from adding to/updating the LC "cousins" list using FTA, caused by my personal "tree preferences".

    It's just over 11 years since joining LC and I must confess to having only 600 "cousin" entries :oops: The first "few" were manual entries, then I became aware of FTA and used it to add the data from a GEDCOM of my embryo tree.

    Fast forward...

    Recently I decided that it was time to remedy the tardiness and, as a first step, re-check (or should that be "check"?) my entries for compliance with the rules and add any new details - certs etc. It was then that I realised how far my tree data was from being "compliant", which FTA would not be able to identify nor correct; for example the NAME entry in the GEDCOM file is frequently not the same as the census and the name I add to the CENSus data is my interpretation from the image (1881 requires the transcription name) - plus the census reference is for the person and not the head of household!

    Fortunately, I made the decision very early on that my main family tree database would be spreadsheet based and I would generate GEDCOM files for use with Family Historian and Family Tree Maker; standard GEDCOM for FH (spot checks with GEDCOM Validator) and Ancestry compatible GEDCOM for FTM. The result is that, with a small change to the generating software, I can now create a LC compatible (but non-sensible *) file for each of the census years to add new entries for that year using the name from the appropriate census information :D - test runs with the existing LC ancestors came up clean (everyone matched).

    I am now ensuring the relevant "head of household" census reference is used for all in these files, creating the 1881 "transcription name" file for entries that differ from the image and a system for manually adding the additional data (name difference etc).

    * The GEDCOM files have one family with a fictitious mother (no census reference!) and everyone else is a child of that family with the appropriate census data :rolleyes:
     

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