In order to facilitate updating database copies, it is essential that each export from Family Historian is configured identically, with the same set of Facts and same criteria for protecting living people. This is not always easy to achieve with current general purpose export options (either inbuilt or via a plugin), as these are designed to be as flexible as possible, with multiple configuration options.
More consistent results can be obtained by using the GEDCOM export routine built into this plugin, which automatically selects the data for export in a simple and reliable way.
- Only essential core facts are included by default (including most of the standard GEDCOM facts such as birth, baptism, marriage, census, death, burial, probate, occupation, etc.), but additional facts, including user-defined ones, can be included by a simple change to the plugin script, and instructions for how to do this are included in the plugin file.
- Individuals and Facts marked as Private are always excluded from the export. Individuals marked as Living are excluded by default, but can be selected in the plugin options.
- All notes, media, and sources are excluded from the export automatically, as these are not required to support hint generation. It is not practical to maintain synchronization for a “full fat” tree including these features, but that does not prevent the user maintaining two separate Ancestry trees – a fully detailed version that is updated only occasionally, and a stripped down extract optimised for synchronization and hint generation.
- Census facts are converted automatically to Residence facts, as Ancestry does not fully support the Census fact, and treats them as Residence for tree purposes.
The key to ensuring that individuals are correctly matched between Family Historian and RootsMagic is the UniqueID tag, originally introduced many years ago in Personal Ancestral File, but now becoming increasingly supported by different apps, and is fully incorporated into version 7 of GEDCOM. This can be regarded as essentially a very large random number that stays attached to a given individual as their data are transferred between applications. Note that while Family Historian openly displays the UniqueID field, RootsMagic keeps it hidden and it is never displayed in the normal user interface and it can only be read directly from the underlying SQLite database (which is what Family Historian does).
Prior to export, generate any missing UniqueID values using the “Tools > Record Identifiers… > Generate UID (Unique id) for Individual records where missing” menu option. Then select “Export GEDCOM File” from the plugin menu. There are deliberately no complex options for the export, in order to keep the output consistent.
This simplified and sanitized GEDCOM file can be used on its own to generate a summary tree on Ancestry or any other site as an alternative to more complex export and sampling options if required. However, the primary use of this file is for import to RootsMagic with subsequent syncing with Ancestry.
Once a Compare operation is run in version 2.2 or later of the plugin , the export changes to “Export GEDCOM Update File”, which exports only new and updated records, along with their spouses, children and parents. This more selective export greatly speeds the subsequent merging records within RootsMagic, and remains available until either Family Historian or RootsMagic is updated, when it automatically reverts to a full export.
Name Compatibility
Family Historian, RootsMagic and Ancestry all treat the names of individuals slightly differently.
In Family Historian, the focus is on the name as displayed, with additional fields available for Name Prefix (e.g. Dr, Sir, etc), Name Suffix (Junior, the Third, etc), and Nickname. The surname is taken as that part of the name between slashes, and names can be displayed in any order. Family Historian permits recording of separate Given, Surname and Surname Prefix fields (they are included in GEDCOM), but does not do anything with them.
RootsMagic takes the opposite approach, and stores Given, Surname, Prefix, Suffix and Nickname as separate fields, with the full name generated on the fly as needed. It does not support surname-first presentation or the Surname Prefix.
Ancestry is the most limited of the three, and supports only Given, Surname and Name Suffix, which must be presented in that order. It does not support recording of Nickname, Name Prefix or Surname Prefix.
The following rules are followed when exporting names in the GEDCOM file or comparing names between Family Historian and RootsMagic:
- Names are exported as displayed in Family Historian, along with any separate values for Name Prefix, Name Suffix or Nickname. The surname is the part of the name between slashes, or the last word in the name if slashes are not used. Everything else apart from the Surname is regarded as part of the Given name.
- Any values stored in the Given, Surname or Surname Prefix name pieces are disregarded.
- All names are exported in a fixed Given Surname order, irrespective of how they are displayed in Family Historian, to ensure that RootsMagic can read the GEDCOM file correctly (when importing a GEDCOM, RootsMagic assumes anything after the surname is a suffix, not a given name).
- When comparing names between Family Historian and RootsMagic, all of the exported name details listed above are included in the comparison.
- Any Name Prefix or Nickname values are dropped by RootsMagic when uploaded to Ancestry via TreeShare.
Be aware that if you have stored any of the name pieces other than given name and surname in the main Name field in the Family Historian Names and Titles Dialog window, these will be exported incorrectly, so will not be in the required form on Ancestry. This can compromise hint generation significantly. You are therefore advised to correct any issues identified with name structure prior to running this plugin (although names can always be corrected later if necessary).
Plugin Ancestry Synchronization
Help content on this page is owned and provided by Mark Draper, the plugin's author, Calico Pie takes no responsibility for its content.