FTAnalyzer questions.

[Alexander Bisset]

You can also get to Tim's documentation page by clicking Help menu in FTAnalyzer and selecting What's New.

Note most users using the click once facility will be auto updated to the latest version every time they run the program so the combined list of what's changed usually suffices for them. Tims more detailed breakdown is best for those that want to see exactly what changed between minor versions.

 

[Bryman]

Thanks Tim, your link seems to circle endlessly, waiting for the Codeplex site to respond, but I did read a per release breakdown of changes by switching from Issues to Documentation. Previously, I had only read the info on the announcement email which seemed to include a mention of all changes since v5.0.0.0.

I didn't know that a What's New page existed nor that it was updated by you. Sorry. One further thought/suggestion . . .
When you add details for a new release, could you please add the date of availability to the release level heading? I don't always get the latest level immediately, only when I next start FTA. Often, it remains active for several days at a time.

(I don't know what happened to this post. I submitted it and went away, only to find it still sitting here when I returned.)

 

[Tim]

I just tested the link again, it works ok. Not sure what was up with the site. Hopefully if I remember I'll add a date.

 

[Gillian]

I think this is a good place to record - in public - my thanks to Alexander for all the help he gave me - in private - after I'd sent him my Gedcom. Not only is my FTA beginning to look more reasonable but so are my own records in Legacy. Many many thanks, Alexander.

 

[Bryman]

V5.0.3.0, just released, contains an update to "Add support for 1881 Canadian LC Census pattern". It is too early to expect all aspects of the documentation to have full details included already but can anyone please tell what the 1881 Canadian LC Census pattern might be?
For instance, I have one individual with "District 146/D, Page 5, Family 22" in a note but that does not seem to be recognised by FTA. What should I change it to or does it need further information added?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

If you go to your Lost Cousins My Ancestors page then you will see something like this test person...

If you cut n paste the reference as :

123/A/35/1 Canada 1881

then it will recognise it.

 

[Tim]

Hi Bryman, I've added the release date as requested, try putting / between your data i.e. District 146/D/Page 5/Family 22

Edit, Alexander has already replied

 

[Bryman]

If you go to your Lost Cousins My Ancestors page then you will see something like this test person...
View attachment 809
If you cut n paste the reference as :

123/A/35/1 Canada 1881

then it will recognise it.

Oh dear! Rather than change the content of the Note, I decided to create a real CENS record, or two in fact as this individual was reported twice, at two locations in the same census. Neither has been recognised. Must go to bed now but just to whet your appetite . . .

1 CENS
2 DATE 1881
2 PLAC Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada
2 SOUR @source00040@
3 PAGE 146/B/59/273
3 NOTE 1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273 - living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada.
. . .
0 @source00040@ SOUR
1 TITL 146/B/59/273 @@ 1881 Canada Census
1 PUBL Publication Date: 1881
2 CONT Media: Census
1 NOTE 1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273 - living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada.

Please tell me what I have done wrong, or I will investigate further in morning.

 

[Tim]

Try adding this into your notes.

146/B/59/273 Canada 1881

This is the format that would be expected if you copied it from the Lost Cousins website.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The ONLY currently support Canadian format is the one copied and pasted from the Lost Cousins My Ancestors page. Why? Well as has just been demonstrated in the space of a couple of postings we have 5 different possible formats.
146/B/59/273
District 146/D/Page 5/Family 22
146/B/59/273 @@ 1881 Canada Census
1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273
146/B/59/273 Canada 1881

Throw in formats from Ancestry which doesn't even mention district or sub district
Year:1881; Census Place:Richibucto, Kent, New Brunswick; Roll:C_13184; Page:32; Family No:144

Then Family Search has no specific format only several lines if you cut n paste it. eg:
Event Place: Dumfries South, Brant North, Ontario, Canada
District Number: 160
Sub-District: C
Division: 2
Page Number: 1
Family Number: 3
Affiliate Film Number: C-13264

but would someone actually cut n paste all that? Would they include the place? Would they include the film number?

See all this different types and you start to see how incredibly difficult it is to recognise any references at all. Note the first one couldn't possibly be treated as a reference as there is nothing at all to go on only slashes I couldn't tell from that if it was a census reference or a reference to wills or anything else of a similar nature. The third which is similar at least has the words Canada Census which makes finding a reference easier. Not sure why there is two @ symbols though this might cause GEDCOM issues as they have a special meaning in GEDCOM files.

Note that if you have added a CENS record then really the census reference for non UK census entries adds absolutely nothing whatsoever more, it's just text. The only time a census reference outside the UK actually means anything is if you don't already have a CENS record and it manages to work out from the census reference what the pattern is and adds an FTAnalyzer created census fact.

 

[Gillian]

Is it best to copy and paste all census refs from the Lost Cousins My Ancestors page? I'm thinking particularly of the 1911 census, which is so-0-0 long unless you take it from the Lost Cousins M.A. page. I've barely started my huge job of updating my Events and Facts so this would be a good time to get it right from the word go.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The reason I added support for cut n paste from Lost Cousins My Ancestors page was to make it very easy for people to add census references to their census facts so a quick cut n paste from your ancestors page into the notes for a person or into the source for a census fact will suffice. This is easily checked by doing one family then looking at the result in FTAnalyzer. This should show a census ref added to the facts report for that family. Also if you haven't yet added a census fact and paste the reference into a persons notes then it will auto add a census fact which it will work out from the census ref.

 

[Gillian]

Oh dear. So much for trying to do things right. I can almost hear Bob chuckling away in the background. I uploaded a new Gedcom into FTA, intended to show how brilliantly I was now entering the census info into Events/Facts (Legacy), that is, by taking the ref from Lost Cousins My Ancestors . But what do I get? Unknown census ref. 826/134/7 England & Wales 1881 . So, please, Alexander, what am I doing wrong? Have I put the ref in the wrong place? Should I not have added The Hut, Mitcham, Surrey at Place. How can it be unknown if it comes straightaway?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Hmm that should be ok let me check the code in case something is wrong.

The place is good the ref is in right place I'll check. Can you export that one individual's GEDCOM so I can check what's in the file it looks right from the screenshot though.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Sorry that was my mistake a typo in the matching string. Instead of looking for 3 digits it was looking for 3 letter d's. For the technically minded Regex string was (d{1,3}) when it should of course have been (\d{1,3}).

I need to add more test cases to the test class to pickup these sorts of things. Thanks for the report Gillian a new version 5.0.3.1 should be available for you now.

 

[Bryman]

Try adding this into your notes.

146/B/59/273 Canada 1881

This is the format that would be expected if you copied it from the Lost Cousins website.

Thanks Tim but I was trying to avoid coming up with lots of differing formats within my own system. Ultimately, I need to enter those details from Notes properly into the program to produce standard CENS records in the Gedcom. That is what I thought I had done as the alternative. I tried to enter details in a similar way to that which is appropriate for England and Wales.

I have never tried to copy/paste details from the LC My Ancestors page so would prefer not to start now, just for Canadian census details. I normally create the Notes before I enter the details into LC, not the other way round.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Bryman, is there a particular website you'd get the reference format from? I can add support for particular formats that are likely to be used widely. If I were to add recognition for a format like

1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273 - living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada.

Would that work? I'd probably make the "- living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada." part optional unless it would be expected if it was entered by someone from a website or other source. So I guess the question is. Is this your own format or a format that's been used elsewhere?

Edit : I've added that format for v5.0.3.2

 

[Bryman]

The ONLY currently support Canadian format is the one copied and pasted from the Lost Cousins My Ancestors page. Why? Well as has just been demonstrated in the space of a couple of postings we have 5 different possible formats.
146/B/59/273
District 146/D/Page 5/Family 22
146/B/59/273 @@ 1881 Canada Census
1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273
146/B/59/273 Canada 1881

Throw in formats from Ancestry which doesn't even mention district or sub district
Year:1881; Census Place:Richibucto, Kent, New Brunswick; Roll:C_13184; Page:32; Family No:144

Sorry Alexander, I had not understood that you were expecting references to be copied from the LC My Ancestors page. I have never tried that. I fully appreciate that multiple possible formats are a pain in the **** and was trying to keep as close as possible to the 'standard' used with census references for England and Wales (and Scotland?).

The format used in the Notes is purely mine and I am not requesting that to become a standard for anyone else. It is just easy for me to enter as a temporary measure. I then copy the details into my software's standard panels/fields from which the Gedcom is produced. I included some of those Gedcom records in my earlier post just so that you could see what gets output. BTW, the double @ is written by my standard report writer and presumably means that 146/B/59/273 is part of the 1881 Canda Census.

If FTA is able to recognise census references from my Notes then that is a bonus but my intention is to conform to my standard software design as much as possible.

Note that if you have added a CENS record then really the census reference for non UK census entries adds absolutely nothing whatsoever more, it's just text. The only time a census reference outside the UK actually means anything is if you don't already have a CENS record and it manages to work out from the census reference what the pattern is and adds an FTAnalyzer created census fact.

I don't understand this from your post. My CENS records are created by my software from the data that I have entered, whether that be for England and Wales or for some other country. When I say that I have added a CENS record, I mean that I have entered the data from which the software will create a CENS record when writing the Gedcom file.

 

[Bryman]

Bryman, is there a particular website you'd get the reference format from? I can add support for particular formats that are likely to be used widely. If I were to add recognition for a format like

1881 census - District 146/B, Page 59, Family 273 - living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada.

Would that work? I'd probably make the "- living at Rainham, Haldimand, Ontario, Canada." part optional unless it would be expected if it was entered by someone from a website or other source. So I guess the question is. Is this your own format or a format that's been used elsewhere?

Edit : I've added that format for v5.0.3.2

The format for these notes is totally my creation and is regardless of where the information comes from. It was simply my way of trying to introduce some form of order to this information, years ago, before I knew how else to record these details within the software. For instance, another reference might be:
1881 census - Piece 2170, Folio 5, Page 3 - visitor at Seaview Cottages, Babbacombe Road, Newton Abbot, Devon.
I normally omit the country if it is England/Wales as these notes are only temporary (although never actually deleted!).

 

[Bob Spiers]

I can almost hear Bob chuckling away in the background

I would normally of course, but I read the FTA postings with great reverence; understanding very little and admiring those who know what is being discussed. I like and use FTA and have even been known to ask Alexander the occasional 'what does this mean' question (usually via personal message) but have no desire to analyse or dissect Gedcoms so leave that respectfully to the cognoscenti who do.