Family Historian Import Problems

[n8vz]

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying do to a successful import of a GEDCOM file produced by Family Historian (FH), but I’ve had continual problems with the import, particularly in the area of documents and photos losing their linkages. I should mention that I’m not using FH’s built-in GEDCOM export but this plugin: https://pluginstore.family-historian.co.uk/page/plugin/export-gedcom-file.  It has special GEDCOM outputs for a number of different destinations, including FH.  I’ve used its GedSite option with success in the past.

After doing an import I have the following problems:

1. The Thumbnail regeneration routine just churns and churns and never accomplishes anything.  This is probably because of the other problems listed below.
2.  Most of my media have ended up in the wrong place, particularly documents that are in the photos section.  (I understand through conversations with Darrin that this might be a standard problem, not due to the specific FH>TNG issue.
3. Many media files have had their name changed in the import process, for instance: “0O93 1850 Census Monroe, Centre Township (Denbows).jpg,” which should have been just: “1850 Census Monroe, Centre Township (Denbows).jpg.”     The “0O93” seems to have come out of nowhere.  It inserts similar four digit prefixes to nearly every photo or document.
4. Some notes transfer as straight notes, and others are statements to which a note may or may not be attached.

Some of these problems are more severe that others, with the unlinked media the most pressing.  When I say unlinked, the files with the bogus four digits added to the name show up linked to the right person, they are just inaccessible because TNG is looking for the files original name prior to the strange digits being added.  In other words, you see that icon symbolizing the the broken link instead of the actual photo.

Has anyone else’s seen this kind of issue in importing from FH to TNG?  Is so, did you discover a solution.  

Thanks for any help you can give me.

Carl

 

 

[ADC]

I can answer point (3) in your posting. These prefixes are added by the Export Gedcom File plugin you mention, written by Mike Tate. If you look at the options screen for that plugin, you will see the similiar to the following screenshot, although you will have PREFIX selected most probably. Change this to FOLDER to drop the prefix.

Do you have the plugin set to TNG output? It's very a very complicated plugin and it pays to read all the instructions very thoroughly to understand the outputs. My guess is that your point (4) above is also being set in one of the options screens in the plugin. Media transfers are tricky and you have to get all the parameters correct, it took me quite a while before I could get them to work.

Have you tried posting on the FHUG Forums for help? Mike is very responsive.

 

[n8vz]

Thanks, Adrian.  Yes I'm using the TNG output selection in the plugin.  I did not know, or had forgotten, that it was written by Mike Tate.  I agree he's a very responsive guy.

I will try the Folder option you mentioned under Part Frame File Naming Format.  I had just been using the defaults, figuring, apparently incorrectly, that these would be best for most people.  

In terms of another set of choices, what option would you recommend for this dialogue box:

I've been using the default again, which is PART LMO.  I'm wonder if FULL LMO might give me better resutls. I think that it might give me a better representation of what's in my Family Historian database.  

[n8vz]

Thanks, Adrian.  Yes I'm using the TNG output selection in the plugin.  I did not know, or had forgotten, that it was written by Mike Tate.  I agree he's a very responsive guy.

I will try the Folder option you mentioned under Part Frame File Naming Format.  I had just been using the defaults, figuring, apparently incorrectly, that these would be best for most people.  

In terms of another set of choices, what option would you recommend for this dialogue box:

I've been using the default again, which is PART LMO.  I'm wonder if FULL LMO might give me better resutls. I think that it might give me a better representation of what's in my Family Historian database.  

Made the change you suggested, and it result in the media filies being linked.  However, when I ran the thumbnail resortation routine I get this message:

Thumbnails not generated due to path, permissions, size or file name problems: 410

 

When I examined the list of thumbnail's not generated, every single one of them said "file not found."  But these media files appear to actually be there.  Any idea about this related issue?

Thanks, again. -- Carl

[ADC]

Hi Carl,

For my export, I use FULL~LMO (see screenshot below).

This generates a folder (usually called "[0]") in your Public\Export folder in your FH project folder. It then creates all the media files there, which I then upload to my TNG Media directory via FTP. If you have already uploaded the files independently to your TNG folder you will need to work differently. Do you use the option in FH to keep all media files in the local Media directory, or do you have your own structure? You have to get the TNG directory structure to match your local directory structure. Sorry if this all sounds a bit fluffy, there are a lot of variables at play.

Maybe if you describe your workflow for media I might be able to suggest some pointers. 

Cheers, Adrian.

 

[ADC]

I'm not an expert at this, but do your thumbnail folders in TNG all have write permissions?

[n8vz]

Adrain, I think the folders have write permissions, but I'll double check.  I'll be back with more specific questions after I do some more "fiddling" with this import.  I'm also gong to ask Mike Tate on the FH forum about these settings.  Thanks for your help so far.  I'm finallly making some progress.  Right now I do have two other questions:  What do you do for Witnesses, which TNG doesn't seem to handle direction?  Do you still use FH as your primary genealogical program, or is TNG now primary and you do GEDCOM imports into FH?  -- Carl

[ADC]

Hi Carl,

I just saw your posting on FHUG and hopefully you'll get help there as well.

I use FH as my primary database, I do all my work there and just export across into TNG. I use Mike Tate's Export Gedcom File plugin, make a small change to the resultant file (nothing that affects the problems you are experiencing), and then import into TNG. I upload the media files produced by the plugin file too, although these are only added to if I have added new media, as existing files are not replaced. I do run a little bit of SQL code on the webserver to tidy things up a bit, but again this is nothing that would help your problems. I am happy to share in detail what I do if you think it will help, and I will also send you my site details by private message.

There has been a long-running discussion, bordering on argument, about the definition of witnesses between Darrin in TNG and various FH users. I believe it has to do with the interpretation of the ASSO tag or _SHAR tag or somesuch that FH uses to define a witness, but TNG interprets differently. It has been a long-running saga and I don't expect it to be resolved any time soon. I do believe there is a setting in the Export plugin which will move Witnesses to notes, but I didn't like the way they looked in TNG and so I just don't use them at all. If you search the FHUG archives for TNG & Witnesses you'll soon find what I mean. Whether you go for the fix-it option depends on how important witnesses are for you.

Cheers

Adrian

[n8vz]

Thanks, everyone.  I'm just now getting back to this sticky wicket, as my British friends might say.  Sometimes life gets in the way of genealogy! ;-)  This is turning out to be a much more difficult issue than I had imagined.  If I can manage to get one good import, I think I will start using TNG as my main genealogical program.  I like the ability to have those from various branches of the family edited their own line.  At least that's my thought at the moment. -- Carl 

[Strathglass]

I installed TNG14 in a new local (Mac) install. In my case, I tried to just import the new GEDCOM 7 .gdz export that the latest FH7 just added support for.

That kind of works, with a few hiccups (not sure if it is FH7 or TNG).

The one thing I noticed: in the TNG photos folder, all media there had a "media\ext\" prefix on the file names:
once I removed those, TNG did find the media OK. (Some issues with thumbnails I am still looking into.)

But my point was just that maybe with the new .gdz Gedcom 7 file with images embedded, it could be an alternative to the plug-in you mentioned (at least for a local install: I gather the plug-in might be useful if you are taking your private tree public and need to scrub it in the process.)

[n8vz]

Thanks, Strathglass.  I tried your idea, and I'm still not getting a real clean import.  I'm also experimenting with different settings on the GEDCOM export plugin.  This has been a frustrating experience so far. -- Carl