FTAnalyzer questions.

It definitely sounds like FTM is hanging on to data it shouldn't.

 

Yeah but no but!

You still have them in your FTM tree?

I'm going to see who the families where before and after and see if that sheds any light on mine.

 

Ok, so compacting didn't work to fix these entries.

Looking at the families before and after, it seems that FTM re-uses family numbers, hence why one of my entries is a bit screwed (wrong notes with the text). I would have though that they would have used new numbers, and only re-ordered everything during a compact.

 

Indeed that would have been the sensible thing but...

 

Hmmm who are we to question are our Ancestry?

 

Ahhh you have dates with space slash space? I can add that for the next version if you could just list the dates it has problems with. It does currently do ...
MAR QTR
MAR Q
Q1
QTR1
QTR 1
JAN-FEB-MAR,
JAN FEB MAR,
JAN/FEB/MAR
JAN\FEB\MAR
but not JAN / FEB / MAR.

Any other variants I should add?

 

Do we want to add other variants? In FTM2012 for example, it suggests you enter dates in this format, 21 Feb 1895
Now, I entered a couple of dates as 21/2/1895 and 21 2 1895 and it accepted both. And when I exported my gedcom from FTM2012 pc it imported into FTA with no errors. But when I exported from on-line Ancestry, and opened in FTA, it listed both of these as errors.

 

I often tweak the Date interpreting code as I get more sample data and see what ingenious date formats people have used in place of the GEDCOM standard date formats

The hope is that as best as possible I eliminate as many reasonable forms of date error. I obviously can't eliminate date errors of the sort "Not sure really" as I've seen in the past. Or ones that completely violate the spirit of the GEDCOM standard eg: dates of format 9/11/2011 which is to us the 9th November 2001 but to Americans is of course an infinitely more emotional date. The GEDCOM standard specifically prohibits numeric dates for months to remove any possibility of ambiguity. The program would need to read minds to work out what someone means if they use numeric dates, and their family tree software should also prohibit that. Just as it should prohibit 2 digit years which is meaningless rubbish for family historians dealing with any date from typically 1600s to 2000s.

 

FTM stores these in the GEDCOM as 21 FEB 1895. If the Ancestry online GEDCOM export is exporting as numerics then that is a MASSIVE BUG in their export as it is a serious violation of the GEDCOM standard.

 

Lol, well I actually used those dates in the example of an issue I raised on codeplex today. I'll check the gedcom now.

 

Yes, I do the same.

 

drum roll......

Code:

0 @P1675@ INDI
1 DEAT Age: 72
2 DATE 10.2.1905

 

and found the other

Code:

0 @P1968@ INDI
1 BIRT
2 DATE 26/6/1900

 

Ouch. BAD BAD BAD!!! Those a fundamentally invalid GEDCOM dates. The standard is online the bit about dates is extensive as it is quite complicated the "top level" of a date is here. It can be tricky to follow if you aren't used to reading such diagrams but basically MONTH can be

MONTH: = {Size=3}
[ JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN |
JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC ]
Where :
JAN = January
FEB = February
MAR = March
APR = April
MAY = May
JUN = June
JUL = July
AUG = August
SEP = September
OCT = October
NOV = November
DEC = December

NO numerals.

 

Apologies for appearing thick if I view my tree on Ancestry what steps are needed to export the GEDCOM? I can't see the button to export. I want to test my own tree in FTM 201x where x is undisclosed, then bitterly moan about the bug on the private forum for 201x.

 

Thick? Never!

Under Family Trees, You may have a More option if you have lots of trees.

You should see an option for view or manage under each tree name.

Click on manage, on the right handside is a green button for Export.

 

Nope sorry only the list of 8 trees, Start a new tree and Upload a GEDCOM. No options under a treename, see image