This page describes how to find items imported from The Master Genealogist (henceforth “TMG”) within Family Historian, if the import was done as a direct import from TMG (version 9 preferably), using Family Historian version 7.0.9.0 or later. It is recommended reading for all TMG users. For advice on preparing your TMG project for import, see TMG Import: Pre-import Tips. For advice on checking your project after import, see TMG Import: Post-import Checks for Best Results.
For more tips on configuring and using Family Historian, see also General Tips for TMG Users.
| TMG Item | Family Historian Location |
|---|---|
| People | You can view and edit people records (“Individual” records in Family Historian), in the Property Box. The Property Box is accessible from all Family Historian workspace windows and is used for viewing and editing records of all types. By default, it will display details of the currently selected record in the currently active workspace window. You can select an Individual’s record in nearly all workspace windows, but the first workspace window you will encounter if you are new to Family Historian is the Focus Window. If an imported record is flagged as Living, Multibirth, Adopted, Ancestor Interest or Descendant Interest in TMG, it will have the equivalent record flag in Family Historian. Record flags can be viewed and changed for one or more selected Individuals using the Records Flags command on the Edit menu. To quickly view a complete list of people in a project, click on the Records Window button on the Navigation Bar (second button down from the top). The records will be displayed in the Records Window. Use the filter options at the top to quickly locate particular Individuals. The Last Edited date for a person in TMG becomes the Updated date for Individual records, in Family Historian. By default, the Updated date for Individual records is displayed in the last column of the Individuals tab of the Records Window (this is configurable). Click on the column heading to sort on that date, or press the Alt key while clicking on the column heading to reverse the sort. You can also view an Individual’s Updated date in the Property Box when viewing their record. It is displayed on the All tab (rightmost column, first line). |
| Names | People can have multiple names and titles. To view a full list of a given person’s names and titles, click on the ‘more…’ link, to the right of the Name field, in the Main tab of the Property Box. This will display the details in the Names and Titles Dialog. You can also view details of titles in the Facts tab of the Property Box. |
| Families | Both TMG and Family Historian allow Family record details (facts, notes etc) to be viewed as shared items, when accessing records for either of the parents/spouses. So, for example, in Family Historian you can add or view a shared note for a couple in the Notes tab of the Property Box, when viewing the Individual record for either of the 2 parents/spouses. It is also possible to view a list of Family records if required. On the View menu, click Other Record Lists, and then Families. Family records can also be separately viewed and edited in the Property Box, if required. |
| Facts | Facts (that is events and attributes), are be viewed and edited in the Facts tab of the Property Box. Facts can have associated values, dates (and sort dates), places, addresses, causes, notes, media – and of course source citations. All of these details are accessible from the Facts tab of the Property Box. |
| Fact Types and Custom Facts | Family Historian will try to match up imported facts with the equivalent fact type in Family Historian. It will do using the GEDCOM tag associated with each tag type in TMG. If multiple tag types share the same GEDCOM tag, you can opt to merge them when you import. This works best if the tag types within TMG, are either identical or at least very similar to one another. By default, Family Historian will create a new fact type to represent each TMG tag type that is used in the project being imported. Fact types created in this way will be added to a fact set, called “TMG Import”. By default this will be a new ‘project-level’ fact set – that is a fact set which is available for the current project only. A new sentence template will be created for the new fact type which will be the Family Historian equivalent of the sentence template used by TMG, with template codes converted appropriately. Fact types can be viewed in Family Historian’s Fact Types dialog box, by clicking Fact Types on the Tools menu. If any fact types have been created, you will be able to view them by filtering on “TMG Import (project)” in the Fact Set filter at the top of the window (if this filter option is not available, it just means that there was no need to create any new fact types during the import). A project-level fact set can be easily made into a system-level fact set (that is, a fact set that can be shared with other projects), if required. To do that, click the Fact Sets button in the Fact Types dialog box. Then select the fact set, and click the Settings button. In the next window, untick “Current project only”. |
| Customized Sentences for Facts | Both in TMG and Family Historian, it is possible to customize the sentence that will be generated for a given fact, when details of that fact are displayed in narrative reports. In Family Historian, the sentence that will be used for any fact, is displayed in the Sentence field at the bottom of the Facts tab of the Property Box. You can click on the Sentence field to customize it if you wish to. When you click on the Sentence field, any template codes that are used in it, will be displayed as such. If a fact’s sentence has been customized in TMG, the customization will be imported into Family Historian. Any template codes that are used in the sentence will be converted to the Family Historian equivalents. To view a complete list of customized sentences in Family Historian, click on the Tools menu, and then choose the Work with Data submenu, and within that choose Fact/Witness Sentences (in Family Historian you can customize sentences both for facts – i.e. for their principals – and witnesses). If you have never customized any sentences within TMG there will be no customized sentences to view. |
| Places | Place details are primarily associated with facts, and hence can be viewed and edited in the Facts tab of the Property Box. To view full details about a given place (notes, media, etc), double-click on the Place field, or click on the little button with 3 dots to the end of the Place field. This will bring up a place selector with the current place pre-selected. If you click the View in Property Box button, the full details of the Place (latitude and longitude, as well as notes and media) can be viewed and edited. Family Historian will automatically geocode places (locate their latitude and longitude) when you view them in the Map Window, if they haven’t already been geocoded. There are numerous options for viewing places marked on maps – see the Map Window. A list of all Place records can be viewed in the Places tab of the Records Window. |
| Witnesses | All details of witnesses (non-principal participants) for events, can be viewed and edited in Family Historian’s Witnesses Window. The Witnesses Window is a satellite window of the Property Box. Like many other windows in Family Historian, the Witnesses Window is a floating window. This means that you never need to close it. It will show the witnesses for whatever fact is currently selected in the Facts tab of the Property Box. If a person has a role which is not already defined in Family Historian, a role definition will be created for that role in the relevant fact type. You can customize sentences for witnesses in the Sentence field of the Witnesses Window, in much the same way that you can customize principal sentences in the Facts tab of the Property Box. |
| Media | In both TMG and Family Historian, media (pictures, video etc) can be associated with people, families, facts, sources, citations and places. The same media item can be linked to more than one person. In Family Historian you can also link each person to their face in each picture they appear in. All media linked directly to a record (which in the case of people, effectively means pictures of that person) can be viewed on the Media tab of the Property Box. This is not necessarily the same list of media items as would be displayed in the Exhibits window within TMG for that person. This is because the TMG Exhibits window shows not only pictures of a given person but also media attached to facts associated with that person. To view media attached to a given fact in Family Historian, select that fact in the Facts tab of the Property Box, and click the Show Media button on the toolbar below the list, to open the Media Viewer. The Media Viewer is another floating window. If already open it will automatically update when you change selection in the Facts tab, to show media for the selected fact. If a fact has media associated with it, it will have a little image icon next to its entry in the Facts tab. Clicking on this icon will also caused the media to be displayed in the Media Viewer. As well as viewing media in the Media tab of the Property Box, and in the Media Viewer, you can also view media in the Media Window (don’t confuse the Media Viewer with the Media Window – the former is a floating window, the latter is a workspace window). You can use the Media Window to see a similar list of media for a person, that you would see listed for them in TMG’s Exhibits window. If you are already viewing the person’s record in the Property Box, choose the Media tab and click on the cog (menu) button on the toolbar below the media list. Choose “View Media Linked to (person) in Media Window” in the dropdown menu that appears. Then choose appropriate options to see a similar list of media that would be displayed in TMG’s Exhibits window. Another way of doing the same thing, without going via the Property Box, is to select the person in a workspace window such as the Focus Window, click on the Media icon on the main application toolbar, and then choose “View Media Linked to (person)” in the dropdown menu that appears. Family Historian allows you to keep media files (or copies of media files) within your project, if you wish to – and this is normally recommended. When you import from TMG, an option to copy media files into the Family Historian project is ticked by default. If any media files are missing, the images of course will not display. To manage links to media files, click External File Links on the Tools menu to open the Work with External File Links Dialog. If you want Family Historian to automatically try to fix any ‘broken links’ (that is, find any missing files), click the Auto Repair Links button. |
| Sources and Source Citations | A full list of source citations linked to any item of data, can be viewed in the yellow Citation List Pane of the Property Box. Source citations can be attached not just to facts (in the Facts tab), but to many other items of data. When you click on a field in the Property Box, the Citation List pane will automatically update to show you the source citations for the item of data. It will also show citations for witnesses, and other details, when these are selected in satellite windows of the Property Box (e.g. the Witnesses Window or the Names & Titles Dialog). Tip: The Citation List Pane can be configured to list citations using their footnote text, or using their Source record name, or in other ways. If you want the citation list to match the way that citations are normally displayed in TMG, be sure to display citations in Citation List Pane using their Source record name. To do this, click on the Menu button (a ‘cog’ image) on the Citation List Pane toolbar (at the bottom), and choose Display Citation As… and then Source Record. To view full details of a source citation, double-click on the citation in the list, or select it and click the Edit Source Citation button below the list (second from the left). The full details of the source citation will be displayed in the Citation Window. The Citation Window displays not just the citation-specific details, but it also allows you to view and edit the full Source record details. Be aware that if you make changes to the (clearly-labelled) Source record fields, these changes will affect all source citations which refer to that Source record. Changes made to the citation-specific fields however, will only affect the currently-selected citation. Source records, like any other record type, can also be viewed and edited in the Property Box (on the View menu, click Other Record Lists and then Sources to view the full list of Source records in the Sources tab of the Records Window). However, it is more common to view Source record details in the Citation Window. See also discussion of Source Templates below. For more tips relating to sources, see General Tips for TMG Users. For information about embedded source citations in memo fields, see ‘Notes’ below. |
| Repository Records | Source records can be linked to one or more repositories. You can access the repository records from the Source record. By default there is a field for a single repository in the Citation Window, for generic Source records. If you need more fields (either for generic Source records or for templated Source records) you can customize the window to add them (see “Customize the Citation Window” in the Citation Window Help page). Alternatively, you always view and edit all fields stored in a record, without having to customize anything, on the ‘All’ tab of the Property Box, for the record in question. Fields can also be added on this tab. To view a list of all Repository records, click on Other Record Lists on the View menu, and then choose Repositories. |
| Notes | Memos in TMG (called Notes in Family Historian) can have character styles, such as underline, bold or italic. These will be imported with the same style in Family Historian. TMG allows you to specify that a part of note is private, and exclude it from reports, by placing it between special codes, [HID:] and [:HID]. Family Historian has a similar feature, but uses doubled square brackets instead – like this: [[private note]]. The TMG codes will be converted on import, as well other special formatting TMG codes. TMG allows citations to be embedded in notes. Embedded source citations are converted to the Family Historian equivalent on import. Each embedded source citation is represented in a Family Historian note by a small superscript number. Click on this number to view and edit the source citation in the Citation Window. |
| Research Logs and Research Tasks | TMG Research Logs and Research Tasks will be converted to Research Notes on import. Research Notes, for a given Individual, Family record, fact, or Place record, can be viewed in the Notes tab of the Property Box, for the record in question. To view a complete list of Research Notes, click Research Notes on the View menu. Use the filter fields at the top of the window, to filter on a particular type of research note, or on their title or status. |
| Source Templates | Both TMG and Family Historian support source templates. Both also allow the contents of footnotes, short footnotes and bibliography entries, to be specified for any given source template, using special template codes (Family Historian also allows the Source record title to be automatically generated, using a similar mechanism). You can see how footnotes, short footnotes and bibliographies will appear in reports, in the side panel of the Citation Window, when viewing a source citation. If you need to modify the formatting for any of these, you can do so by editing the Source Template record in the Property Box. See Source Template Formats to learn more. Tip: The systems used by the two programs for handling formatting are very similar, but there are some differences. A template code that represents a field value (say “author”) is displayed in square brackets in TMG (e.g. “[author]”) and in curly brackets in Family Historian (e.g. “{author}”). In both programs, you can use angle brackets to link a field value with a preposition or other text (e.g. “<by [author]>” in TMG, or “<by {author}>” in Family Historian). In TMG, angle brackets are used to add not just prepositions, but also spaces, commas, semi-colons, and other forms of punctuation. You can do this too in Family Historian but you usually don’t have to because Family Historian will try to intelligently determine when to use or discard spaces, separator text and punctuation. It does this using rules that are documented in the Help (see Source Template Formats). This means that you only need angle brackets if you have special requirements which these rules don’t satisfy. For this reason, Family Historian formats (the expressions that contain the codes) may be a little simpler. To view a complete list of Source Template records in Family Historian, click Other Record Lists on the View menu, and then choose Source Templates. When Source records are imported into Family Historian that are based on TMG source templates, their equivalent Source Template records will be created within your Family Historian project, assigned to a collection called “TMG Import”. Family Historian comes with two collections of its own source templates: the Essentials collection and the Advanced collection. The Advanced collection is based on the work of Elizabeth Shown Mills’ book, Evidence Explained. It contains 169 source templates. The Essentials collection, which was designed with the help of the Genealogy Program of the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, is much smaller and simpler, and contains only 17 source templates. You can also copy and modify source templates, or create your own from scratch. You can import source templates into your project, or even import entire collections of source templates. And you can mix and match source templates in any way that suits you. Tip: For users who don’t have their own ideas and who are looking for guidance, our recommendation is to use the Essentials collection of source templates. For most people, this small collection is easy to use and may contain all the templates you will ever need. The easiest approach is to add them all into your project immediately (rather than installing them one at a time as-needed – although you can do that too if preferred). They can be added from the Source Template Definitions Dialog (click Source Template Definitions on the Tools menu). Filter on the ‘Essentials’ collection, select them all, and click the Add to Project button. You can use the Essentials template along side any other source templates you may already have, such as any there may be in the “TMG Import” collection. That’s not a problem. Note: Some users have asked why the TMG source templates do not appear, after import, in the list of source template definitions. Source template definitions are external to projects. Before a source template can be used, it has to be instantiated within a project as a Source Template record. Creating a Source Template record from a source template definition is one easy and convenient way of doing that. Source template definitions are stored in files on your PC – not part of any project – and are used as a sort of blueprint for a Source Template record, so you can easily create the Source Template records within any project, from the definitions. If you already have a Source Template record within a project, you have no need of a source template definition. That said, it would be possible to write a plugin that would allow anyone to generate a source template definition file from a collection of Source Template records. This would be like creating blueprints by reverse-engineering from the finished product. To learn more, see Getting Started with Source Templates. |