Friday, July 24, 2009

Fact Lists in RootsMagic 4

When I posted Comparing Genealogy Software - RootsMagic 4 - Part 1, I mentioned that there were more "Events" in the GEDCOM upload of my Family Tree Maker 16 database than in the native file upload of the same database. I wondered why.

Bruce Buzbee, the creator of RootsMagic, commented on Facebook that:

"I'd be curious about this too, especially that big difference in the events. It looks like the GEDCOM contains a lot of events that RM doesn't see in the FTM file. If you go into Lists > Fact type list do you see any fact types in the GEDCOM import that aren't in the direct one?"

I spent awhile this morning trying to figure this all out using Bruce's guidance. I'm a bit more confused than I was before!

The native file upload to RootsMagic 4 has 80 Fact Types, while the GEDCOM upload has 71 Fact Types.

The Fact Types in the native upload file that are not in the GEDCOM upload are:

* Facts 1 through Fact 13 (0)
* Medical (0)

The Fact Types in the GEDCOM upload that are not in the native file upload are:

* Friends (6)
* Other- Begin (4)
* Partners (3)
* Single (2)
* Unknown - Begin (4)

The numbers in parentheses are the number of entries on the Fact List for those Fact Types.

The other Fact Types on the Fact Lists include:

* Adoption
* Alternate Names
* Ancestral File Number
* Annulment
* Baptism

* Bar Mitzvah
* Bas Mitzvah
* Birth
* Blessing
* Burial

* Caste
* Census
* Census (family)
* Christen
* Christen (family)

* Confirmation
* Cremation
* Death
* Degree
* Description

* Divorce
* Divorce filed
* Divorced
* DNA Test
* Education

* Election
* Emigration
* Engagement
* Excommunication
* First Communion

* Graduation
* Illness
* Immigration
* LDS Baptism
* LDS Confirmation

* LDS Endowment
* LDS Initiatory
* LDS Seal to parents
* LDS Seal to spouse
* Living

* Marriage
* Marriage Banns
* Marriage contract
* Marriage License
* Marriage Settlement

* Military
* Miscellaneous
* Mission
* Namesake
* Nationality

* Naturalization
* Occupation
* Ordination
* Probate
* Property

* Reference Number
* Religion
* Residence
* Residence (family)
* Retirement

* Separation
* Social Security Number
* SSN Issued
* Stillborn
* Title (Nobility)

* Will

I did not go through all of the Fact Types in each database to determine where the "extra" 40,000 "Events" were. I did go through the Facts that I thought might have high numbers, such as:

* Births - 594 pages in native FTM upload, 623 pages in GEDCOM upload
* Marriage - 430 pages in native FTM upload, 452 pages in GEDCOM upload
* Death - 317 pages in native FTM upload, 318 pages in GEDCOM upload

There are about 45 names on each page, so that accounts for about 2,300 in the difference of Events uploaded. The total number of Births, Marriages and Deaths for the native FTM upload is about 60,300 - which is more than the reported number of "Events." [Note that the number above assumes 45 persons per page of each Fact Type. If the assumption was 40 persons per page, the sum would be 53,640. I didn't count all of the names, and the Fact List doesn't count them either.]

This is not unique to RootsMagic - I noted that there was an even larger difference between the two different uploads for Family Tree Maker 2009!

Like I said, this only adds confusion to the question raised about the difference in the number of Events in the summary statistics between the two different uploads.

2 comments:

Cousin Russ said...

Randy,

I may have a couple of comments:

To address these entries in your post:

The Fact Types in the native upload file that are not in the GEDCOM upload are:

* Facts 1 through Fact 13 (0)

The FACTs 1 - 13 are from a very early Family Tree Maker version. I think that the Fact Names were added about Version 5. So, I am guessing that you have been using Family Tree Maker for quite a while with the file that you generated the GEDCOM file.

Interesting Statistics. I have seen, that if were to compare some of the Stats in Family Tree Maker Version 16 against that of Version 2009, you will see some differences, EXCEPT for the Number of Individuals. I think they changed the way that counted some of those statistics.

Russ

Earline Hines Bradt said...

Randy, do you know if the custom Fact Types that are added will be exported?