Family Historian, am I thick? Gedcom disaster

[Beeonthebay]

Thank you all so much, TBH I was a bit embarrassed to come back here after my vent last night made through tears of sheer frustration. 

However I got over myself and I am soooo relieved I'm not the only one who's had difficulties with FH.

I have been onto Family Search (or the IGI) as I still call it and Angela you better keep hold of your copy of PAF as it's no longer being released.  They recommend 3 free programmes that work with their data, so I think I'm going to get one of those and upgrade later as I'm sure it will be just basics only with the freebie.  In fact I might get all 3 and have a play around and see which one I like best.  They are Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic. Funny enough it was a tossup between FH and RootsMagic when I was deciding, looks like I backed the wrong horse for me.......

Thanks once again everybody I feel much less foolish today. 

https://familysearch.org/PAF/

[smudwhisk]

Angela, and for that matter anyone else, if my postings have shed light on Family Historian for you then that's great.   It can be a bit mind boggling to use but it is a very good program and more gedcom compliant and customisable than any of the others.

Unfortunately it would seem that Bee had already made her mind up last night that she didn't want to use FH and in spite of asking for help on several things, has decided not to persue it any further (that's the impression I got from Bee's last post).   Bee, that's a shame, because it is a very good program.  However, I note that some of my posts are actually repeating advice that you were given on FHUG in July so I'm a little confused as to why you posted them on here as you appear to have already fixed the problem (namely custom facts not importing correctly because they aren't gedcom compliant).  I appreciate that on FHUG you stated you had a "steep learning curve" but, rather than getting more and more frustrated, perhaps it would have been better if you had returned to FHUG since the beginning of August and asked a few more questions.  I've posted "silly" questions on there since starting to use the software and have found helpful answers.  I've also found that others have posted the same questions as I and the replies they received saved me reposting again.

One word of caution, you may find that if you import your original gedcom, rather than the "fixed" one from Family Historian, into another program, you may find you have the same problem with custom facts because they aren't gedcom compliant.

In the end, its very much down to how you want to use the software to record your family history and how much you want to spend learning a new program.  The more customisable the program, such as Family Historian, the steeper the learning curve but in the end I do feel you get a better solution rather than using default reports.  That said, I have used Roots Magic, and its predecessor Family Origins, for many years simply for their report functionality because they had always been better than what was available in Family Tree Maker.  However, having got my head around how to customise the Narrative Reports in Family Historian in the last few months, and not needing to "share" a gedcom with any other program, going forward I shall just be using Family Historian.

[Beeonthebay]

Can I just say please I made that last post 1.36pm today.............before I read any further.

*updated to add*

I didn't realise I was so obviously findable on the Internet    whatever happened to privacy?

[Beeonthebay]

I should also add that when I worked in a big office with lots of colleagues who were up to speed and IT guys and whatever it wasn't this difficult as somebody always had an answer to my questions.

Nowadays I am a lone worker and it's really hard to keep up with technology sitting in an office on your own.

Anyway I have downloaded Ancestral Quest and I don't like it lol so that is off the list.

I'm actually wondering now if I shouldn't re-do the whole thing and stick with FH as of course I've paid good money for it.  I haven't done any serious research for quite a number of years just the odd month here or there on FindMyPast or Ancestry to help a friend out or whatever.

Maybe that would be a good thing for me to do, because I'm sure I have forgotten many things and they say you should re-visit old censuses etc. with fresh eyes.........

[smudwhisk]

Can I just say please I made that last post 1.36pm today.............before I read any further.

*updated to add*

I didn't realise I was so obviously findable on the Internet    whatever happened to privacy?

Bee, you said yourself you had posted on FHUG so I had a look through the posts and found what looked likely to be yours based on the contents of your original posting on this thread.  This I did only after seeing your post from earlier this afternnon when you basically gave the indication you weren't interested in resolving the issues you were having and just moving to another program.  The reason I looked was I wondered why you bothered to word your original post on this thread the way you did in these circumstances.

For privacy reasons I did not post a link to the thread.  As to the comment about you not having been back to FHUG since the beginning of August, it was simply to highlight the fact that you appeared to have given up then which made me wonder why you had worded your original posting as you did.  From memory, the last visit to the FHUG site is only viewable anyway if you have a login account to the forum and I simply said beginning of August, nothing more specific.  Lets face it, both FHUG and RC are searchable via google so nothing posted on these forums is exactly "public".  Perhaps you shouldn't have mentioned you'd already used FHUG.

Sorry, but I still wonder why you asked for specific advice on the software on RC when you obviously had already decided not to use it any further based on your post from earlier this afternoon.  And yes I did spend quite a bit of time replying to your posts yet you didn't bother to respond to any of them so I am a little bit annoyed.  At least they may help others.

[smudwhisk]

I'm actually wondering now if I shouldn't re-do the whole thing and stick with FH as of course I've paid good money for it.  I haven't done any serious research for quite a number of years just the odd month here or there on FindMyPast or Ancestry to help a friend out or whatever.

Maybe that would be a good thing for me to do, because I'm sure I have forgotten many things and they say you should re-visit old censuses etc. with fresh eyes.........

There isn't really any need to re-do anything, just a bit of editing is needed.  And the offer stands, if you'd like some help with anything to do with the software, I'm happy to help or there is of course always FHUG.  If you don't want to post specific questions on RC, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do.  But be warned, I don't necessarily follow the "proper" way of doing things a la FHUG.

[Beeonthebay]

I'm sorry if I annoyed you I *did* read your posts but I felt overwhelmed  and as you yourself said it's not an easy programme to learn.

And I was being  tongue in cheek about the privacy issue.

I already have that book you posted but thank you anyway, I appreciate your time and also everybody else who has answered my post.

I find, like Ruskie, that I too have a low tolerance for anything that is too complicated and tend to throw in the towel rather than persevere.  I am not a "fix it" kind of person.  Even when you said you had created your own reports with [ xxx ] and so on I just had a "I can't do it" attitude so perhaps like Ruskie said that says more about me too.

I really would like to see a FH book for Dummies laid out in simple terms, because then I could understand things though I'm not computer illiterate, sometimes these fancy pancy programmes give you TOO MUCH rather than keeping it simple for beginners.

Sorry if I have offended, I will ask admin to delete my post.

[smudwhisk]

I really would like to see a FH book for Dummies laid out in simple terms, because then I could understand things though I'm not computer illiterate, sometimes these fancy pancy programmes give you TOO MUCH rather than keeping it simple for beginners.

Sorry if I have offended, I will ask admin to delete my post.

You haven't offended, it is just somewhat frustrating when you post a detailed response and it appears to be ignored.

I can't somehow see a Family Historian for Dummies book getting written unfortunately as the market wouldn't be sufficient to justify it.

As I said, though, if you have a basic question on how to do something, just ask.  Its easy enough to post screen dumps highlighting things.  Something I often feel they could do with doing on FHUG rather than directing you to read the Knowledge Base.

And I was being  tongue in cheek about the privacy issue.

OK I may have over reacted a little there but I did explain why I posted that.

[Beeonthebay]

I'm actually wondering now if I shouldn't re-do the whole thing and stick with FH as of course I've paid good money for it.  I haven't done any serious research for quite a number of years just the odd month here or there on FindMyPast or Ancestry to help a friend out or whatever.

Maybe that would be a good thing for me to do, because I'm sure I have forgotten many things and they say you should re-visit old censuses etc. with fresh eyes.........

There isn't really any need to re-do anything, just a bit of editing is needed.  And the offer stands, if you'd like some help with anything to do with the software, I'm happy to help or there is of course always FHUG.  If you don't want to post specific questions on RC, send me a PM and I'll see what I can do.  But be warned, I don't necessarily follow the "proper" way of doing things a la FHUG.

Thank you for your kind offer it is much appreciated.  How do you think I should best start to go about fixing my errors?  Delete all censuses with to start with so they say something rather than "experienced"?