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FTAnalyzer questions.

Norman

Norman

LostCousins Member
I wondered whether we should have a discussion (thread) to hold questions related to FTA that aren't answered in the on-line help.

Here goes:

In FTA there is a "Families" tab that reports on all the families within the tree (Gedcom).

  • What does the "Count" signify?
  • Why have I got families with no Husband, Wife or Children?
I can understand not having a husband or wife if the child has no parentage entered (husband of cousin etc.) but why have I got families with no names just a marriage date? I can understand that this could well be problems I've created myself, maybe people I've deleted, but how can I trace the entries in my FT program to correct this problem.
 
Hmm interesting one. First the easy bit the count at the bottom of the page signifies the number of families ie: the number of lines in the report.

A family with no one in it is indeed odd. It will depend on how the FT program you use records families, and how it handles deletes. Is there somewhere in you FT program you can view the family id? All the IDs shown in FTA are what were created in the GEDCOM thus it was your FT program that gave the family that ID, so it is likely you can find the family using that ID in your FT program?

The alternative is that it may be a record against an UNKNOWN person. Does nothing at all show in the family list or does it say the forename/surname is "UNKNOWN"? If so then it might be you could find the details by looking for a person with no name or surname?
 
Norman said:
In FTA there is a "Families" tab that reports on all the families within the tree (Gedcom).
  • What does the "Count" signify?
Click to expand...
Well, I think it is the total number of people in the "family". So a count of 5 would be 2 parents and 3 children. Now there are other variations that you could have, 2 parents only would have a count of 2, and a mother and child (unknown father) would also have a count of 2.
  • Why have I got families with no Husband, Wife or Children?
Click to expand...
A very intriguing question, as I also have a count of zero with only marriage details and one with a count of zero and no details.
However, the Family number is given and so opening the gedcom in Notepad and using CTRL F and entering F477 (the family number for my marriage only line) I can see the data in the file.
I can now see that there there isn't a definition of who is in the family, but fortunately for me, I have added notes to the marriage which appear in the gedcom file, so I can go look in my FT software to see what's wrong.
A good family looks like this, so you can see the family defined as having a husband (and the individuals identity number), the wife, and 4 children and the relationships to the parents.
Code: 
00 @F602@ FAM
1 HUSB @I2478@
1 WIFE @I2482@
1 CHIL @I2481@
2 _FREL Natural
2 _MREL Natural
1 CHIL @I2483@
2 _FREL Natural
2 _MREL Natural
1 CHIL @I2479@
2 _FREL Natural
2 _MREL Natural
1 CHIL @I2480@
2 _FREL Natural
2 _MREL Natural

The one with no data looks like this
Code: 
0 @F643@ FAM
And the one with just a marriage looks like this. Which is also complete rubbish. Both notes refer to a marriage I removed so I guess something remained behind, but from the notes I got a name so I can go and look. But seeing as I removed him it could be a bit tricky :confused:
Code: 
0 @F477@ FAM
1 MARR
2 DATE 17 DEC 1904
2 PLAC Toxteth Park, Liverpool
2 NOTE @N2996@
2 SOUR @S7@
3 PAGE Marriage
3 DATA
4 TEXT NameJames Tomlinson
5 CONT Birth Date1848
5 CONT Age22
5 CONT Spouse's NameJane Murray
5 CONT Spouse's Birth Date1845
5 CONT Spouse's Age25
5 CONT Event Date12 May 1870
5 CONT Event PlaceLeyland,Lancashire,England
1 NOTE @N2997@
 
Ah ok yes the count per row is the number of people in that family. Count at the bottom of the page is number of families.

The delete issue sounds like the family tree program didn't properly clean up all the data when it did a delete. This might be one for the relevant technical support for the FT program in question?
 
It would also be a good idea once we get answers to these question if we can appropriately update the documentation for future visitors. So keep the questions coming.
 
I deleted quite a lot of people in my tree a short while ago. The tree was becoming too big and I decided I didn't want or need anyone in the tree who were not direct relations or married to relations. I therefore deleted all the cousins' spouses ancestry. I now only have direct relations and their spouses.

I know I can find the data in the gedcom file (I have already done so) but it gives me no clue as to the origin of the family data with no individuals. I could, of course, delete those lines of the gedcom file but they will only re-appear when I next generate a gedcom.

The count issue is a bit baffling. I have a family with no parents but has a male name in the children column. It has a count of one. When I look him up in the tree he has a wife and three children in the family. That family appears later in the list with his name as a husband together with his wife and three children with a count of five.

I use FTM2012 and haven't found a way of finding the spurious family entries.

Here's a sample of the gedcom entry

0 @F6@ FAM
1 MARR
2 DATE 31 MAY 1874
2 PLAC The Parish Church, South Hackney
 
I've just used the export to Excel (very useful) and sorted the families data by count. There are 169 families with no individuals but with some other data (marriage or location) all with a count of zero.
 
Norman said:
I've just used the export to Excel (very useful) and sorted the families data by count. There are 169 families with no individuals but with some other data (marriage or location) all with a count of zero.
Click to expand...

I love that Export feature!

What we need to do though, is to list what we've used it for and what it fixes, so that others can use what has already been worked out. I'll start a new discussion. :)

New discussion is here.
 
Norman said:
The count issue is a bit baffling. I have a family with no parents but has a male name in the children column. It has a count of one. When I look him up in the tree he has a wife and three children in the family. That family appears later in the list with his name as a husband together with his wife and three children with a count of five.

I use FTM2012 and haven't found a way of finding the spurious family entries.

Here's a sample of the gedcom entry

0 @F6@ FAM
1 MARR
2 DATE 31 MAY 1874
2 PLAC The Parish Church, South Hackney
Click to expand...


Remember that an individual can appear in many families. They will typically appear in a family as a child, then also appear in a family as a husband/wife (possibly more than one family as a husband/wife). Thus in your example he is a child in one family and a parent in another different family. As far as GEDCOM is concerned a couple + children are a distinct family unit.

I too use FTM 2012 I'll investigate if I have any spurious families when I get home this evening.
 
What happens Norman if you do a compact and repair from the Tools menu of FTM 2012? Does that fix the issue?

Compact and repair is meant to fix problems in your tree caused by removing old data as well as re-organising the tree on disk to take up less space whilst keeping all the data. It prompts you to make a backup first always a good idea :)
 
Norman said:
But is a child with no parents or spouse or children a family unit?
Click to expand...

A person on their own is a family unit. I have several of these in my tree as I've found a reference to an individual from my one name study but don't yet know how they link to anyone else. These are identified on loading a GEDCOM to FTA as "lone individuals".
 
Alexander Bisset said:
What happens Norman if you do a compact and repair from the Tools menu of FTM 2012? Does that fix the issue?

Compact and repair is meant to fix problems in your tree caused by removing old data as well as re-organising the tree on disk to take up less space whilst keeping all the data. It prompts you to make a backup first always a good idea :)
Click to expand...

No a compact reduced the file by 16%. I then re-sync'd the file with Ancestry and re-compacted with a tiny further reduction. The "count=0" entries are all still there as are the "count=1" entries.
 
I also use RootsMagic and this has the ability to "count trees". This lists any/all the individual trees in the file or, in other words, where you have destroyed or removed a link between individuals. I do not have any in my tree, there is just one tree with no lone individuals.
 
Hmm it would appear that the database in FTM2012 is hanging onto marriage facts for deleted individuals. How do you get the data into Roots Magic does it just read the GEDCOM? Perhaps Roots Magic is intelligent enough to ignore these redundant bits of data? FTA doesn't ignore them as a big part of using FTA is understanding potential errors in your database.
 
Norman said:
But is a child with no parents or spouse or children a family unit?
Click to expand...

And does a circle have a start or a finish? But I digress.

I have the same error in mine, a marriage record but no other details. I've emailed their support, but in the meantime I'm going to try the compact that Alexander suggested.
 
I have imported the gedcom into RootsMagic where it has some good database utilities.
  • Test Database Integrity
  • Rebuild Indexes
  • Clean Phantom Records
  • Compact database
Before doing any of those I exported a gedcom from RootsMagic and the problem was still there in FTA. I then cleaned the phantom records and re-indexed and compacted the database and re-exported a gedcom. This time the spurious data has been purged from the database.
Now, if only I could do that in FTM2012. I'm reluctant to import the cleaned gedcom into FTM2012 as I have it sync'd with Ancestry and wouldn't want to lose all the links to the record images.
 
Norman said:
Before doing any of those I exported a gedcom from RootsMagic and the problem was still there in FTA. I then cleaned the phantom records and re-indexed and compacted the database and re-exported a gedcom. This time the spurious data has been purged from the database.
Click to expand...
Does it tell you what records it cleaned and purged?
 
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