Then it must be that FTM must have special code to fix the Member Tree “mess”.

I notice amongst my 683 test files, I only have 2 that indicate they are from Ancestry.com Family Trees. I’ll take a look at those and I’ll download a few more from Google using the search: “sour ancestry.com family trees” filetype:ged

Louis

The ‘mess’ isn’t caused by RM5. It is, unfortunately, what you get when you export an Ancestry Member Tree and download it. If you go to this link there is a whole thread about it. Ancestry fixed the problem but it looks like with patching FTM2012 and the new Mac version, etc. they broke it again. Strangely enough, if you do a direct download of a Member Tree into FTM2012 and then export a GEDCOM from FTM2012 you don’t get the mess.

http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?mv=tree&m=1186&p=topics.ancestry.membertree.membertrees

I’ll be sending you e-mail with the other stuff you asked for.

Andy

The organization and indentation within an individual is something I haven’t looked at in a few years and it’s worth revisiting.

My original concept was to start each Level 1 event/fact on each line. Then all the information that pertains to the event/fact would be in the same paragraph.

However, as you point out, often there are many sources pertaining to one of these events. And it is difficult to identify and even compare the sources because they are not easy to read. So yes, now I will definitely be doing something about it and I will make it easier to read.

But there is an aspect of this that you haven’t considered. Some sources are at level 1 pertaining to the person, some are at level 2 pertaining to the event, Some are at level 3 pertaining to the date of the event, or the place of the event, or a note about the event.

If I batch all these sources out by event, then I can do what you suggest. I think I just discovered that GEDCOM 5.5.1 made a change from GEDCOM 5.5 that implied that they were leaning this way. See my post on The Place Record in GEDCOM.

I like this idea. In fact I think I should extend it for Notes as well, and always start them in a new row. Multi-line notes will line up better that way as well.

It might end up looking like this:

1. Martin Avery Godfrey
    Note: Notes about the person
    Source: [Sn-d Source title - Main source detail line]
    Source: [Sn-d Source title - Main source detail line]
    Birth: Sat 25 Sep 1875 in Madison County, North Carlina, USA
      Note: Notes about the birth event
      Source: [Sn-d Source title - Main source detail line]
      Source: [Sn-d Source title - Main source detail line]
    Death: Confirmed.
      Note: Notes about the death event
      Source: [Sn-d Source title - Main source detail line]

Now continuation lines may still look messy, unless I indent them an extra 6 spaces or more so they are obviously continuations.

Also I’ll sort the sources properly, because then they’ll appear in SmartSort order, e.g.:

[S9-199 1900 United States Federal Census - Year: 1900; …
[S10-192 1910 United States Federal Census - Year: 1910; …
[S11-323 1920 United States Federal Census - Year: 1920; …
[S12-311 1930 United States Federal Census - Year: 1930; …
[S67-29 North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 - …
[S71-1 North Carolina Volunteers, Spanish American War - …

Finally, I notice the (let me call it) “mess” that appears as the main source detail line, e.g.:

~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncdeathcerts&h=1833027&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Birth date: abt 1872Birth place: McDowellDeath date: 10 Jun 1933Death place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina

This looks like one of the RootsMagic “messes” I’ve been blogging about. I definitely can do some things to clean this up. Firstly, all the extraneous key/value pairs need not be part of the source detail line. All that’s really required on the source reference at this point is enough information for you to identify generally what the source is, and the rest of the detail can be with the source itself.

As well, I should probably detect inline web links and make them hyperlinks, such as the:

http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncdeathcerts&h=1833027&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt

I’m really glad you brought this up. This is really a good time for me to implement the restructure/indenting. I was wondering how I’d easily identify where you are within the event for editing purposes, By making the sources and notes (and objects as well) start on new lines will make that task a lot easier.

We’ll see how many of these changes I can squeeze into Version 1.0.2.

Louis

Mind if I make one suggestion…Can the sources be made easier to read?
Instead of this-

1. Martin Avery Godfrey
Source: [S67-29 North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncdeathcerts&h=1833027&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Birth date: abt 1872Birth place: McDowellDeath date: 10 Jun 1933Death place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina]. [S1452-43 World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 - Registration Location: Madison County, North Carolina; Roll: 1765688; Draft Board: 0.]. [S9-199 1900 United States Federal Census - Year: 1900; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T623_1205; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 72.]. [S11-323 1920 United States Federal Census - Year: 1920; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T625_1294; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 118; Image: .]. [S12-311 1930 United States Federal Census - Year: 1930; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: 1704; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 11; Image: 795.0.]. [S10-192 1910 United States Federal Census - Year: 1910; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1107; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 82; Image: 309.]. [S110-4 Unnamed Source - Year: 1930; Census Place: District 4, Clay, Tennessee; Roll: 2237; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 8; Image: 943.0.]. [S71-1 North Carolina Volunteers, Spanish American War - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncar-saw&h=2280&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Residence date: Residence place: North Carolina]. [S1152-1 Unnamed Source - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncar-saw&h=2280&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Residence date: Residence place: North Carolina]

Can we get this-

1. Martin Avery Godfrey
Source:
[S67-29 North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975 - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncdeathcerts&h=1833027&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Birth date: abt 1872Birth place: McDowellDeath date: 10 Jun 1933Death place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina].
[S1452-43 World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 - Registration Location: Madison County, North Carolina; Roll: 1765688; Draft Board: 0.].
[S9-199 1900 United States Federal Census - Year: 1900; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T623_1205; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 72.].
[S11-323 1920 United States Federal Census - Year: 1920; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T625_1294; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 118; Image: .].
[S12-311 1930 United States Federal Census - Year: 1930; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: 1704; Page: 6A; Enumeration District: 11; Image: 795.0.].
[S10-192 1910 United States Federal Census - Year: 1910; Census Place: Marshall, Madison, North Carolina; Roll: T624_1107; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 82; Image: 309.].
[S110-4 Unnamed Source - Year: 1930; Census Place: District 4, Clay, Tennessee; Roll: 2237; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 8; Image: 943.0.].
[S71-1 North Carolina Volunteers, Spanish American War - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncar-saw&h=2280&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Residence date: Residence place: North Carolina].
[S1152-1 Unnamed Source - ~http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=ncar-saw&h=2280&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt||Residence date: Residence place: North Carolina]

Yes- it takes a bit more space- but it sure is easier to read and keep track of where you are.

Andy