The Gedcom Converter is not a native TNG program; it is installed by the
Gedcom Converter mod.
The converter modifies Gedcom files to achieve four primary purposes:
To set the media file path in Gedcom media records so that TNG can import media records to multiple TNG Family Tree subfolders - necessary only when you have multiple family trees in one TNG database and you separate media files from each family tree into separate subfolders.
To modify Gedcom files generated by Family Tree Maker (FTM) so that they can be fully uploaded to TNG.
FTM Gedcom files can be uploaded without modification, but certain data in them are lost if they are not converted. For a more detailed description of why FTM Gedcom files need to be converted,
see the documentation
page for Steven Connor's FTM-to-TNG Gedcom Converter
(which is described in the TNG Wiki),
and/or see my description below.
To make a number of data modifications that are driven by the author's personal data entry habits
and place formatting preferences - and that may be useful to others.
Gedcom Converter options determine which translation steps are taken,
and determine specific values to be changed and/or to be the result of changes
To support a process that formats Placenames consistently.
That is, when supplemented by the Placename Format mod,
the Gedcom Converter can change Placenames in the Gedcom file so that, for example,
"Houston, Harris, TX", "Houston, Harris County, Texas", "Houston, Harris Co, TX, USA", etc.
all wind up in the same format.
Rules defined by Placename Formatting options determin the final format,
which would typically (but doesn't have to) be "Houston, Harris County, Texas, USA".
As this is being written, the Placename Formating process can only modify USA placenames,
and can do so only within the Gedcom Converter;
It cannot (at present) modify placename in the TNG database.
However, the Placename Format mod does install a program that intelligently
assigns Place Levels to a set of existing Places.
An upcoming update to the Placename Format mod should support formatting of existing placenames,
and provide some kind of intelligent formatting of some non-USA placenames.
Gedcom Converter Options
The Gedcom Converter process is driven by a set of options that are viewed and/or updated in a "Kickoff form"
(much like the form that kicks off the Gedcom Import process) that starts the Gedcom Conversion process.
The Gedcom Converter mod installs the kickoff form in a new "Gedcom Converter" tab at Admin>>Import/Export.
The Gedcom Converter options are stored in a configuration file that is similar to the TNG system configuration files
in that
The file consists of a series of PHP assignment statements that load option values in PHP variables,
The file is loaded in to programs (in this case, just one program) as a PHP "Include file",
The settings are updated by a form whose "submit" action is to completely rebuild the config file, and
The filename (rrgedcomconverter_config.php) follows the pattern *config.php.
The Gedcom Converter configuration file is different from the TNG Configuration files in that
It is stored in the TNG extensions folder, not in the subroot where the TNG System Configuation Files are stored, and
The form through which it is updated is not in the Admin>>Setup menu.
Instead, it is presented in two places:
As part of the form that kicks off the Gedcom Converter, and
In a new Admin>>Places tab next to a new tab for the Place Levels utility mentioned just above.
,
The Gedcom Converter Kickoff Form
The kickoff form has three sections that are described in detail just below:
Fields that establish the input and output files.
These fields are essentially the same as the input file selection at the top of the Gedcom Import kickoff form -
though this form also has a field where you name the Gedcom Converter's output file.
A fieldset (i.e. a group of form fields surrounded by a labeled box) labeled "Gedcom Options".
These options control the way that a Gedcom file is modifid by the converter.
The Gedcom Options can be saved to their configuration file independently of submitting the form;
that is, there are separate buttons for saving the options and for submitting the form to the Gedcom Converter.
A second fieldset labeled "Placename Formatting Options" that
is available only if the Placename Format mod is installed.
These options control the process for formatting USA placenames to make them consistent in their values and their format.
Placename formatting is performed by within the Gedcom Converter by code that is installed by the separate Placename Format options.
The formatted placenames are thus put in the output Gedcom file that is to be imported into TNG.
Annotated Gedcom Converter Kickoff Form
This annotated form serves both to illustrate the kickoff form,
and to describe the Gedcom Converter options that the form updates.
Hide the annotationShow the annotation
First section - Fields that establish the input and output files.
Select a Gedcom File to Convert:
From your computer:
This control - the button and filename or message - is identical to the corresponding control on the Gedcom Import page. And, like on that page, the button and filename/message look different in different web browsers.
But their functionality is the same in all browsers; that is, this control lets you select a Gedcom file on your PC.
OR From web site (in GEDCOM folder):
Again, this control - a button an a field - is identical to the corresponding control on the Gedcom Import page.
This control uses a TNG function to select a Gedcom file that has already been uploaded to the Gedcom folder on your TNG site.
Filename of converted file (in your Gedcom folder):
The default filename of the converted file (that is, the output) is the input filename, with "-c" added before the ".ged" file extension; e.g. myGedcomFile.ged becomes myGedcomFile-c.ged. You may enter a different name, of course. The converted file is always stored in your TNG Gedcom folder. It is not downloaded to your PC.
This its the kickoff form's submit button.
It launches the Gedcom Converter. (There is a duplicate button at the bottom of the page.)
Do not confuse it with the "Save Gedcom Options" or "Save Place Options" buttons,
which only save their respective sets of options to the appropriate configuration file.
Gedcom Options Fieldset - The second section of the Gedcom Converter Kickoff Form
If you want to omit any specific Events or the MAP structure, list their tags here.
This option cannot suppress tags in SOUR, REPO, NOTE, or OBJE records.
Format USA Places
If the Placename Format mod has not been installed, this option is not available.
If the Placename Format mod has been installed, this option
Tells the Gedcom Converter to use the code installed by Placename Format to modify USA
placenames in the Gedcom file so that they are consistent with patterns defined by the Placename Format options.
This capability is motivated by the fact that Ancestry.com's hints system
- and many genealogists' data entry habits - generate very inconsistent place names.
Sometimes they'll say "Houston, TX", sometimes "Houston, Harris County, Texas, United States", and so on.
Toggles the display of the Placename Format options below.
You may simultate the action of this checkbox,
and toggle the display of a screenshot of the Placename Format options by clicking on
this link
(which may or may not becompletely up-to-date.)
Note that, as of this writing, the Placename Format mod can modify only USA placenames,
though it may at least try to modify non-USA placenames at some point.
Third section of the Gedcom Converter Kickoff Form - The Placename Formatting Options
The Placename Formatting options are available only if you have installed the Placename Format mod,
and, even then, are visible only if the "Format USA Places" checkbox
(the last item in the Gedcom Converter fieldset above) is checked.
The Placename Formatting Options subform will will look a lot like this:
To learn more about the Placename Formatting process and its options, see
the Placename Wiki article,
or, if the mod is installed, see
the Placename Format help file.
(Both links open in a new browser tab that may hide this window.)
When the Gedcom Converter mod is installed, it adds a tab labeled "Convert Gedcom File" to the Admin>>Import/Export tab menu.
That tab opens the Gedcom Converter "kickoff form".
As described above, in the kickoff form section of this help file,
the kickoff form lets you review all of the Gedcom Converter and Placename Formatting options,
and to save those options independently of running the Gedcom Converter.
When you submit the Gedcom Converter kickoff form by clicking the "Convert Gedcom File" button,
the Gedcom Converter program is launched.
The Gedcom Converter
Reads the options that were passed to it and
Writes them to the HEAD section of the new Gedcom file, and
Writes them to the web page (but puts them behind a button so that they are visible only if you want to look at them.
Reads the "old" Gedcom file line-by-line, looking for tags that it needs to modify.
(See the descriptions of Gedcom Options and Place Options in the annotated kickoff form above.)
As it runs, it
Modifies, removes, or adds Gedcom lines as directed by the options
Displays a running count (in increments of 100) of the 0-level Gedcom records that it encounters.
Builds a list of sources that have been referenced,
If it is formatting placenames, keeps track of USA placenames that appear to be ambiguous,
Builds a list of all converted placenames so that it can simply look up the new value
for placenames it has already seen, and
Writes lines to the "new" Gedcom file.
As it processes the Sources section of the Gedcom file (which it assumes follows all Person and Family records) it:
Skips unused sources (if directed by the "Omit unused Sources" option), and
Find sources with "FindAGrave" in their titles, and save them in a list.
When it encounters the zero-level TRLR tag or the end of the input file, it
Closes the input and output files,
Write a list of ambiguous filenames to the web page,
Writes a list of unused sources to the web page, and
Writes some object counts to the web page
Then, if directed by the "Merge all FindAGrave Sources" option, it
Looks at its list of FindAGrave Sources and identifies what it thinks is the best one to keep.
The "best" one is either the first source it encountered whose title is simple "FindAGrave",
or the very first FindAGrave source that it encountered.
Takes a second pass at the Gedcom file, in which it looks for all FindAGrave source references
(that is, the source ID's in its list of FindAGrave sources)
and replaces them all with the sourceID of the source it chose as the best one to use.
Writes lines to the 'newer' Gedcom file.
When it is finished, it displays a message with a link to convert another Gedcom file,
and a link to Import the Gedcom file it just produced.
Next, you'll probably want to import the new Gedcom file to TNG
Fixing the problems in Family Tree Maker Gedcom Files
From TNG's perspective, FTM-generated Gedcom's have (or, in some cases, had) the following problems:
Issue: TNG does notdid not support citation medialinks.
That is, TNG ignorednow processes
media object references within Gedcom citations. (It started doing so in TNGv12.)
Problem TNG does not necessarily handle citation medialinks in the way you might want or expect.
Specifically, as of TNGv12.2:
If a citation is associated with more than one event in a Person or Family record, then
in the Person Profile, the media item will be displayed with every one of those events.
Some people may like this behavior but others may prefer to see the media item only once.
Neither the admin nor end-user media search programs display the events or sources associated with the media item;
they only display the Person or Family.
Again, some people may like this behavior, but others may want to see the events associated with the media item.
Resolution:
The Gedcom Converter can suppress citation medialinks; that is, leave them out of converted Gedcom file it produces.
(But see the caveats listed with item c below.)
Issue: See (b) just above
Problem If you suppress citation medialinks and don't do anything else,
then there may be no reference at all to those media items. As a consequence
The media items may not be displayed at all in the Person Profile, and
The media search programs will see the media items, but may not associate them with any records.
Resolution: (This was the converter's original way of handling citation medialinks.)
Citation medialinks can be copied to the Person or Family associated with the citation.
As a result.
The image will be displayed once in the Person Profile, and
The media item search programs will show a link to the Person or Family associated with that image.
Caveats: It is very important to note that
You would probably never want to select options b and c, and
In some Gedcom files, the media items associated with citations may already be associated with the person or family. may already have a direct link to the media objects specified in citation medialinks.
If that is the case, then you would not want to specify option c,
even if you do select option b.
However, the Gedcom Converter does not offer a ways to suppress medialinks to people or families;
thus, if you want to keep the citation medialinks,
the Person Profile will display the media item with each associated event,
and in in the Person's list of medialinks.
In level 0 OBJE (media item) records,
Problem: Some versions of FTM omit the subordinate FORM attribute that specifies the type of media object.
Resolution: The converter looks at the filename extension specified in the FILE record,
and, if there is no FORM record, it creates a FORM record that specifies the filename extension as the format.
Problem: FTM creates a level 1 FILE record that is subordinate to the OBJE record,
and then places TITLE, DATE, and TEXT segments at level 2, subordinate to the FILE record.
But TNG needs the TITLE, DATE, and TEXT segments to be at level 1, not level 2.
Resolution: The converter can simply change the level number of all records
that are subordinate to the FILE segments.
Problem: To FTM, Media Object dates represent the date associated with the media item's content
(e.g. when a photo was taken, or when a story took place).
But that sense of date is unknown to the TNG (and to the Gedcom standard);
it can only be stated in a note.
Instead, TNG expects a Media Object date to represent the date the media object was last updated
(a concept unknown to FTM).
Resolution: The Gedcom Converter offers three mutually-exclusive choices:
Represent the media object date as the date of last update by inserting
a level 1 CHAN (for 'change') tag just above the DATE tag,
and making sure that the DATE tag is at level 2,
Or, since FTM's media object date values are not dates of last update,
add change the DATE record to a NOTE (and add "Date: "), or
Suppress FTM's date tag altogether.
The following FTM-to-TNG coversion steps are no longer performed
Former Problem: FTM puts values on some Gedcom lines where TNG cannot handle them.
More specifically, according to the Gedcom standard, and as implemented by TNG,
Some Events/Facts (e.g. NAME, SEX, OCCU, EDUC, and NATIonality)
are expected to have a value that corresponds to the meaning of the tag.
Some other tags (e.g. BIRT, DEAT, BURI, CHR, and LDS ordinance tags) are not allowed
to have such values. They may have NOTEs, but not event values.
Many genealogy applications, including FTM, have a 'description' field for essentially all events.
TNG "custom"events also have a description field (in the field 'info', but labeled 'detail' in the person and family editors)
but but TNG "built-in" eventtypes (BIRTH, CHR, DEAT, BURI, MARR, DIV, and LDS ordinance tags) do not.
To make matters worse, Ancestry.com does not have a way to specify event notes at all.
(Strangely, FTM does have event notes in addition to the description file,
but FTM event notes are not passed to Ancestry.com when FTM and Ancestry.com trees are synced.)
As a result, the Gedcom records for TNG's "built-in" events may supply description values for events
where TNG doesn't have a coresponding database field.
Resolution:
For TNG's built-in events, the converter looks for descriptions on its "built-in" eventtypes,
and treatstreated those descriptions as though they were a note.
Thus
1 BURI As Annie Johnson 2 PLAC Dallas, Dallas, TX
is not valid, and is converted to
1 BURI 2 NOTE As Annie Johnson 2 PLAC Dallas, Dallas, TX
Former Problem: FTM represents a person's primary photo with the Gedcom record
1 _PHOTO @Mnnn@,
but TNG expects expected
1 OBJE @Mnnn@ 2 _PRIM Y
Resolution:
The Gedcom Converter can change the FTM structure to the structure TNG prefers.
Handling Multiple Trees
In TNGv12, there are two ways for you to make sure that the media files in a given collection are separated into tree-specific subfolder below the collection folder. That is, if you have trees with the treeID's "mom" and "dad", you can store mom's photos at "maintngfolder/Photos/mom", and dad's photos at "maintngfolder/Photos/dad/" (where 'Photos' is the foldername you have defined for the Photos collection).
The two processes are dependent on the value you have specified for new (with TNGv12)
TNG system option "Separate media in tree folders" at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media.
If you have specified "No" for "Separate media in tree folders" at Admin>>Settings>>General Settings>>Media
When you run the Gedcom Converter, use the "Replace the media filepath with" option in
the Gedcom Converter kickoff form to specify the tree subfolder name for the tree that is the
intended destination for this Gedcom file.
The Gedcom Converter will then replace the entire file path for every media file
listed in the Gedcom file with the folder name you specified.
As a result, all media files in a given collection must be in the same folder.
In this situation, the five "Local .. Path(s)" option values at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media are irrelevant, and you can name
the tree-specific subfolders under each Media Collection folder anything you want.
Examples:
A Gedcom file generated by a Windows application like Family Tree Maker that does not separate
media files into folders corresponding to the Mediatype
Conditions:
The various mediatype-specific folder names you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Paths and Folders
are all "Media"
The FILE tag value for a media item in the Gedcom file might be
"C:\users\genealogist\Documents\FTM\mom media\JacksonPhoto.jpg", where
The foldername "Documents" is the user's "Documents" folder,
and has no relationship with a "Documents" mediatype,
The path to the the genealogy application is
C:\users\genealogist\documents\FTM\", and
All of this tree's media files are in the subfolder nammed "mom media".
Results:
The file specification in the new Gedcom file produced by the Gedcom Converter will be
"mom\JacksonPhoto.jpg",
The Gedcom Import process will not change the file specification,
(except to change backslashes to slashes),
In TNG, this file's Media record will have the "path" value
"mom\JacksonPhoto.jpg", and
This file, and all of the media files for this tree, will be stored in the folder
"Media/mom/", below the main TNG folder.
A Gedcom file generated by a Windows application that does
separate media files into folders corresponding to the Mediatype,
and allows media files of a given mediatype to be organized into subfolders
below the mediatype-specific folder.
(An example of this kind of organization might be to store birth and death records in separate folders under the documents folder.)
Conditions:
The "Documents" folder name you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Paths and Folders
is "Documents"
The "Documents" folder value that you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media
contains the string
"c:\users\genealogist\Documents\FTM\mom media"
The FILE tag value for a media item in the Gedcom file might be
"C:\users\genealogist\Documents\FTM\mom media\births\JSmithBirthcertificate.jpg"
The "Replace the media filepath with" value that you specify in the
Gedcom Converter kickoff form is "mom"
Results:
The file specification in the new Gedcom file produced by the Gedcom Converter will be
"mom\JSmithBirthcertificate.jpg".
After a Gedcom Import, this file's Media record will have the "path" value
"mom/JSmithBirthcertificate.jpg", and
This file, and all of the media files for this tree, will be stored in the folder
"Media/mom/", below the main TNG folder.
Note that we have lost the "births\" subfolder specification.
If you have specified "Yes" for "Separate media in tree folders"
When you run the Gedcom Converter, make sure that the "Replace the media filepath with"
option in
the Gedcom Converter kickoff form is unchecked
This will leave the media file paths in the Gedcom file unchanged.
Make sure that the values that you have specified for the five "Local ... Path(s)" at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings > >Media reflect the file paths used in your Gedcom file.
(Since these path values will be matched literally against filepaths in the Gedcom file,
they must use the same folder separator (slash or backslash) as the filepaths in the Gedcom file.)
When you do a Gedcom Import, the portion of each media filepath that matches a filepath value
in the "Local .. Path(s)" system options will be replaced with one foldername whose value is the treeID of the tree that you are importing into.
In this situation,
Subpaths under the primary media folder in the source Genealogy system
are retained in the Gedcom media filepaths.
As a result, in the genealogy application that generated the Gedcom file,
media files in a given TNG collection (i.e. with a given TNG Mediatype)
can be organized in subfolders.
However, you cannot specify the name of the tree-specific subfolder
(below each Collection folder) under which all of this tree's media files
(whether they separated into additional folder layers or not) are stored.
TNG will always use the treeID as the name for that folder.
Examples:
A Gedcom file generated by a Windows application like Family Tree Maker that does not separate
media files into folders corresponding to the Mediatype
Conditions:
The TreeID for your "mom" tree is "mom".
The various mediatype-specific folder names you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Paths and Folders
are all "Media"
The FILE tag value for a media item in the Gedcom file might be
"C:\users\genealogist\documents\FTM\mom media\JacksonPhoto.jpg", where
The foldername "documents" is the user's "Documents" folder,
and has no relationship with a "Documents" mediatype,
The path to the the genealogy application is
"C:\users\genealogist\documents\FTM\", and
All of this tree's media files are in the subfolder nammed "mom media".
The various mediatype-specific folder names that you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media
contain the string "c:\users\genealogist\documents\FTM\mom media"
(along with corresponding values for your other trees)
In the Gedcom Converter kickoff form you leave the "Replace the media filepath with"
checkbox unchecked
Results:
The file specification in the new Gedcom file produced by the Gedcom Converter will unchanged
The Gedcom Import process will remove
"c:\users\genealogist\documents\FTM\mom media"
from the filepath, and replace it with the treeID, "mom",
In TNG, this file's Media record will have the "path" value
"mom/JacksonPhoto.jpe", and
This file will be stored in the folder "Media/mom/",
below the main TNG folder.
A Gedcom file generated by a Windows application that does
separate media files into folders corresponding to the Mediatype,
and allows media files of a given mediatype to be organized into subfolders
below the mediatype-specific folder.
Conditions:
The "Documents" folder name you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Paths and Folders
is "Documents"
The "Documents" folder value that you have defined at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media
contains the string
"c:\users\genealogist\Documents\FTM\mom media"
The FILE tag value for a media item in the Gedcom file might be
"C:\users\genealogist\Documents\FTM\mom media\births\JSmithBirthcertificate.jpg"
In the Gedcom Converter kickoff form you leave the "Replace the media filepath with"
checkbox unchecked
Results:
The file specification in the new Gedcom file produced by the Gedcom Converter will be unchanged
After a Gedcom Import, this file's Media record will have the "path" value
"mom/births/JSmithBirthcertificate.jpg", and
This file will be stored in the folder
"Documents/mom/births", below the main TNG folder.
Note that we have retained the "births\" subfolder specification
though we have lost the ability to name the tree-specific subfolder under
"Documents" anything other than the TreeID value of "mom".
A Detailed look at the mod author's process for handling multiple trees
I'll just describe how I keep up with the media files for each tree.
My process is slightly different from the process I used prior to TNGv12,
because I now turn on the TNG system option "Separate media in tree folders",
which is defined at Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media.
On my PC, I use Family Tree Maker to produce Gedcom files that I will import into TNG -
after I process them with the Gedcom Converter.
FTM's "main" folder, which holds its data files, is "H:\FTM",
though it could just as well be "C:\Users\myaccount\Documents\FTM".
For each FTM database (which is equivalent to a TNG tree) FTM always
creates exactly one media folder within the main TNG folder,
and names it "xxx media",
where xxx is the name of the FTM database,
and there is always a space character before the word "media".
FTM always puts all media files for a database into that one media folder.
I have three FTM databases, which I'll identify here as "rr" (my family), "mom"
(for my wife's mother's family), and "dad" (for my wife's father's family).
I thus have three media folders, "H:\FTM\rr media",
"H:\FTM\mom media", and "H:\FTM\dad media".
Gedcom files created by FTM use the full filepath for each media file, e.g. 0 @M341@ OBJE
1 FILE H:\FTM\mom Media\JamesMadisonPortrait.jpg
In TNG,
My three FTM databases correspond to three TNG trees whose treeID's are
"rr", "mom", and "dad", matching my three FTM database names.
TNG can, of course, organize a tree's media files into separate folders
corresponding to Mediatypes, but since FTM necessarily uses one folder,
I can't readily take advantage of that level of file organization.
Since "H:\FTM is the parent of all three media folders on my PC,
my primary TNG media folder is named "FTM
rather than "Photos" or "media", etc.
Using the same folder name on my PC and my web server make FTP setup and operation easier.
Ostensibly, to keep the FTP process simple for media files,
I could put mom's TNG media files in "FTM/mom Media" (under the TNG home folder),
dad's TNG media files in "FTM/dad Media", and so on.
But, unfortunately, Linux and TNG don't like spaces in folder names.
(They seem to be able to handle spaces in media filenames just fine, but they don't seem to like the space in the media folder name.)
Therefore, on the TNG server, I store the three trees' media files in "FTM/rr",
"FTM/mom", and "FTM/dad" - all directly under the main TNG folder
In TNG's system configuration options at "Admin >> Setup >> Configuration >>
General&8203;Settings >> Paths&8203;and&8203;Folders",
I specify "FTM/" as the relative path for each of the Mediatypes -
Photos, Documents, etc.
In TNG's system configuration options at "Admin >> Setup >> Configuration >> Media",
I specify my FTM media paths of all three tress in each of the mediatype folders.
That is, I repeat the value "H:\FTM\rr media,H:\FTM\mom media,H:\FTM\dad media" five times.
In the TNG System Configuration screen at "Admin >> Setup >> Import Settings",
I select the radio button labeled "Import Entire Path" for the option called
"If no local path match"
New with TNGv12:
I set the TNG system option "Separate media in tree folders" to "Yes" at
Admin >> Settings >> General Settings >> Media.
File transfer & conversion
When I FTP media files from my PC to my server, I copy files in
"H:\FTM\mom media" to the folder "FTM/mom" underneath the TNG folder, and
"H:\FTM\dad media" to "FTM/dad" etc.
When I run the Gedcom Converter on a Gedcom file exported from FTM,
I leave the Gedcom Option "Replace the media filepath with" checkbox unchecked