XPost: alt.genealogy   
   From: G6JPG@255soft.uk   
      
   On 2026/2/10 20:45:51, Tahiri wrote:   
   > On 09/02/2026 23:45, J. P. Gilliver wrote:   
   > snip   
   >>   
   >> I'm very interested, as - seeing the writing on the wall for BK - Family   
   >> Historian looks the best (for me) one to switch to; I'm interested to hear:   
   >>   
   >> what you found in moving from BK to FH - what went wrong (especially   
   >> things you only discovered long after the change), what to look out for   
   >> (including how to prevent the things that went wrong), and similar   
   >> questions; (date formats especially)   
      
   In brief: thanks for replying; I've marked your post as "keep". (I   
   address some of your points below.)   
      
   >>   
   >> how you think the _support_ compares. In BK, there's a user group   
   >> (mailing list), with lots of helpful people, and occasionally JS   
   >> himself; he also provides minor upgrades free. As far as I can see, FH   
   >> has just a support group (a forum) - no pariticipation from the authors,   
   >> and no upgrades other than major paid. (But it is more in line with   
   >> modern Windows conventions.)   
   >>   
   >>> and accepts quarter years as Q1 1900. All mine were as 1Q1900 which it   
   >>> put in inverted commas and called a 'date phrase'! I have gradually   
   >>   
   >> Mine are mostly just year, with Q1 etc. among the comments for that   
   >> event. (If I do have any in the date field, they'll be e. g. 1960Q2,   
   >> which BK will just store as text.)   
   >>   
   >> I _may_ be able to get ChatGPT (or similar) to create something to   
   >> extract those, though I suspect not as "Q2" etc. is often not the _only_   
   >> thing I have in the comments (for example, I might have further address   
   >> details for e. g. BMDs - I tend only to record the town/village in the   
   >> location box, with house number and street name, or church, in the   
   >> comment box - so my list of "locations with events" remains usable).   
   >>   
   >>> swapped them around so that it is now happy and the age calculations   
   >>> work. I am still running Brother's Keeper as well because I am   
   >>> continuing using it's reference numbers. Family Historian has many more   
   >>> features but you don't have to use them.   
   >>   
   >> Hmm. (Have you ever gone from FH _to_ BK? If so, what problems?)   
   >>   
   > I still like BK because it is straightforward and simple, but FH has far   
   > more options to set your preferences. The trial version has a sample   
   > project(the author's family) included so you can see how the information   
   > is laid out.   
      
   Unfortunately, no trial version (if it's limited-time, anyway) is going   
   to last long enough to find out the snags. (BK's trial version isn't   
   time-limited, although I do have a paid version.) [IIRR, FH's trial os   
   something like a month.]   
      
   > I hadn't previously been in the habit of creating gedcoms so I did have   
      
   That's right, isn't it, FH's native format _is_ GedCOM; that does appeal.   
      
   > a false start or two when transferring data. (my mistakes rather than   
   > anything going 'wrong') I was taking the opportunity to split my   
   > database into four (families of my parents and his parents) and my first   
   > attempt lost various outlying relatives beyond BKs interpretation of   
   > 'family'. I also had to run through the database numerically adding the   
   > ref number field to each of 12000 people so that it would be included.   
      
   Yes, I'd be reluctant to lose my BK numbers - a lot of my supporting   
   files (e. g. census scans, baptism record scans) use them. (Though only   
   7467 names in my case.)   
      
   > I haven't used the support on either program enough to compare them. The   
   > FH help file is reasonably good, and the program asks you straight away   
      
   The BK one contains a lot of what's needed, but you have to know what BK   
   calls something to find out about it - i. e. its search facility is poor.   
      
   > if it thinks you may have made a mistake. I did take a preliminary look   
      
   You mean like died before born? That sounds good. I _think_ the only   
   checking-on-entry BK does (if you have it turned on, though I think it's   
   on by default) is date format. (It does have a reasonableness check and   
   others, but you have to invoke them, they're not running all the time.)   
      
   > round FHUG the FH forum early on, which seemed reasonably easy to   
   > search. There are people on the forum making free add-ons to do specific   
   > tasks in FH so they presumably have access to the underlying code? There   
      
   That sounds good! Though if they're to do things to GedCOMs, they _may_   
   not need the source code; depends on specifics. (But I'd certainly like   
   it if BK could have addons!)   
      
   > was a program update some time ago which was definitely free.   
   > Using AI to make amendments sounds like overthinking the problem. A   
   > GEDCOM file is only a text document. I would expect Find and Replace in   
   > Notepad to deal with many data quibbles fairly easily.   
      
   The specific case I have in mind is where I have e. g. "Q2" in an event   
   comment (where the year is in the date field) being transferred to FH's   
   quarter-acknowledgement. I doubt a search-and-replace would do those.   
   (And I must have hundreds if not thousands.)   
      
   > I had previously tried a few free trial versions of other software,   
   > which resulted in some frustrations with place names. I am happy to say   
   > neither BK nor FH have ever told me a place name is invalid! (That was   
      
   Me neither! Though I wish BK's autocomplete would work with "includes"   
   rather than "starts with" (as among other things that'd allow me to   
   reverse my place orders from little-endian to big-endian).   
      
   > particularly annoying when it was a Registration District name!) FH also   
      
   Yes, that would be frustrating! (I don't think BK has _any_ placename   
   lists other than what you've entered.)   
      
   > has auto complete available which saves a lot of typing. I try and avoid   
      
   So does BK, but only based on "starts with".   
      
   > making 'custom events' because I am never sure what another program   
      
   Me too.   
      
   > would do with them. I have yet to discover what FH did when encountering   
   > BK's event 'military' which FH surprisingly doesn't have, but I expect   
   > 'occupation' will cover it.   
      
   I suspect so - but what happens: is that information just lost? I don't   
   have _that_ many "military" entries, but wouldn't like to lose them.   
      
   > I have lots of the various notes fields in use and haven't found any   
   > problems or deficits in the FH version.   
      
   Good to know.   
      
   > No, I haven't tried converting back. Yet.   
   > What I have been doing is working up and down a section of tree in BK   
   > extending addresses, adding information that was not available last time   
   > I looked at that person, clearing things that aren't dates out of the   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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