Genea-Musings Scenario 1 (Roots Magic 4 to FTM2012) - Follow Up

As a Follow up to:Genea-Musings Scenario 1 (Roots Magic 4 to FTM2012)

Another user of Family Tree Maker posted feedback on Scenario 2, and posted her results in the comments to Randy's post.

I want to complete Randy's comments and observations where he said:

• When I create a GEDCOM file in FTM 2012, my assumption is that any Media links associated with selected Persons and Facts included in the FTM 2012 database should be included in the GEDCOM file.

This is a true statement. The file that I talked about, using Roots Magic 4, was a GEDCOM file created by FTM2012.  When this was done, and the GEDCOM file was imported into Roots Magic 4, the image was NOT in the newly created Roots Magic 4 file.

One thing I learned about GEDCOM files, between genealogy programs, is to Review the .LOG file. That .LOG file will contain error messages about information that was not imported into the receiving program.

• Unknown info (line 18472)
      0 @M40@ OBJE
      1 FILE C:\Users\Russ\Documents\Family Tree Maker\Inferential Genealogy Study-2012_Current Media\Howard-James_M-DavidR.jpg
      2 TITL James M and David R Howard Co. A, 1st Md. Inf. (Dave Mark, Baltimore, Md.)
      2 DATE 7/23/2011 5:01:14 PM
      2 TEXT First and Second Maryland Infantry, C.S.A., page 205

That error message is why the image was not in RM4 when I opened it. The Link was there, however, and this is only a guess, that the format used in the GEDCOM from FTM2012, was NOT what RM4 expected.

This is one of the many GEDCOM issues, that will not be addressed on this Blog. I am not a GEDCOM expert, only know that there are far to many technical issues that I am not qualified to address. I am a user of Family Maker and I have experienced GEDCOM issues between applications in that past.

To answer Randy's comment, yes the Link is there. Did it work, No!

Randy continued:

• When I created a GEDCOM file in FTM 2012 from the Scenario 1 database, and then imported that GEDCOM file back into FTM 2012 (I could have used another program), the links to the Media items were included  the Scenario 1 database and are in the /Family Tree Maker/"Scenario 1"/Media file folder on my computer.

I think I answered this in my earlier post on this topic. Opening that GEDCOM file back into FTM2012, (GEDCOM to FTM2012), yes, the links AND images will be there. However, the actual Media files will remain in the "Scenario 1" Media folder. The GEDCOM points to where that Image is located, Opening that GEDCOM in FTM2012 will find that image in that folder.

But, Randy said "I could have used another program", the answer is different. The Link is there, but the format of the Link may not be implemented the same in FTM2012 or Roots Magic 4. As a user, I don't know, which is right nor which is wrong, but the hand off did NOT work between the two, as seen in the .LOG file.

Randy continued:

• However, when I created a GEDCOM file in FTM 2012 from the Scenario 2 database, and then imported that GEDCOM file back into FTM 2012 (I could have used another program), there were no links to the Media items in the Scenario 2 database and no Media files in the /Family Tree Maker/"Scenario 2"/Media file folder.

The above also applies to "another program"


Copyright © 2011 by H R Worthington