I'm using RM 6.3.1.4, and have discovered an issue with not being able to exclude sort dates from an exported .ged file. Sort dates are typically found in a pair with an approximate date for an event, or else on their own where no date is known: 2 DATE ABT 1823 2 _SDATE 1 JUL 1823 I gather that the underscore indicates that this is a RM-specific tag. One program I tried to import this file to seems to simply ignore the sort date, but in another one the existence of the sort date appears to cause all kinds of problems with any event address following, such as not including it at all, or mapping it to the wrong field. I appreciate that there may be issues to raise with the other program, but there is a RM issue too: if I try to get round this by excluding RM-specific data from the GEDCOM export, this _SDATE tag is still created. Other RM tags such as _COLOR are excluded, but the sort date remains. Have I missed some setting? Thanks for any help, Arthur

I don't think you have missed anything. _SDATE is a de facto standard recognised by many other programs. I do not know if it originated with RootsMagic. Even so, a well-designed import procedure would ignore unrecognised GEDCOM tags and log them in its error log; it would not trip up on them. Some software allows you to specify tags to be ignored. Failing that, you can use a text editor such as NotePad++ to do a global search and replace of lines containing _SDATE to overcome your problem. Tom On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Arthur & Pauline Kennedy via < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm using RM 6.3.1.4, and have discovered an issue with not being able > to exclude sort dates from an exported .ged file. > > Sort dates are typically found in a pair with an approximate date for an > event, or else on their own where no date is known: > > 2 DATE ABT 1823 > 2 _SDATE 1 JUL 1823 > > I gather that the underscore indicates that this is a RM-specific tag. > > One program I tried to import this file to seems to simply ignore the > sort date, but in another one the existence of the sort date appears to > cause all kinds of problems with any event address following, such as > not including it at all, or mapping it to the wrong field. > > I appreciate that there may be issues to raise with the other program, > but there is a RM issue too: if I try to get round this by excluding > RM-specific data from the GEDCOM export, this _SDATE tag is still > created. Other RM tags such as _COLOR are excluded, but the sort date > remains. > > Have I missed some setting? > > Thanks for any help, > > Arthur > > > > =================================== > RM list Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ROOTSMAGIC-USERS/ > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=ROOTSMAGIC-USERS > WISH LIST: http://www.rootsmagic.com/forums/ BLOG: > http://blog.rootsmagic.com/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >

Sort date? I've never heard of it. I'm familiar with birth date, christening date, marriage date, death date, and burial date, and lately some software has adopted some version of "living" dates, which can be, living in New York City on the 1900 census, or living at this date. Those dates are enough for me. If the software just prints out "23 Jul 1610 or 1597-1602" when that's what I put in, I am happy. Dora -----Original Message----- From: Tom Holden via Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 2:31 PM To: [email protected] ; [email protected] Subject: Re: [RMagic] Sort Dates in exported GEDCOM I don't think you have missed anything. _SDATE is a de facto standard recognised by many other programs. I do not know if it originated with RootsMagic. Even so, a well-designed import procedure would ignore unrecognised GEDCOM tags and log them in its error log; it would not trip up on them. Some software allows you to specify tags to be ignored. Failing that, you can use a text editor such as NotePad++ to do a global search and replace of lines containing _SDATE to overcome your problem. Tom On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 3:21 PM, Arthur & Pauline Kennedy via < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm using RM 6.3.1.4, and have discovered an issue with not being able > to exclude sort dates from an exported .ged file. > > Sort dates are typically found in a pair with an approximate date for an > event, or else on their own where no date is known: > > 2 DATE ABT 1823 > 2 _SDATE 1 JUL 1823 > > I gather that the underscore indicates that this is a RM-specific tag. > > One program I tried to import this file to seems to simply ignore the > sort date, but in another one the existence of the sort date appears to > cause all kinds of problems with any event address following, such as > not including it at all, or mapping it to the wrong field. > > I appreciate that there may be issues to raise with the other program, > but there is a RM issue too: if I try to get round this by excluding > RM-specific data from the GEDCOM export, this _SDATE tag is still > created. Other RM tags such as _COLOR are excluded, but the sort date > remains. > > Have I missed some setting? > > Thanks for any help, > > Arthur > > > > =================================== > RM list Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ROOTSMAGIC-USERS/ > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=ROOTSMAGIC-USERS > WISH LIST: http://www.rootsmagic.com/forums/ BLOG: > http://blog.rootsmagic.com/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > =================================== RM list Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ROOTSMAGIC-USERS/ http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=ROOTSMAGIC-USERS WISH LIST: http://www.rootsmagic.com/forums/ BLOG: http://blog.rootsmagic.com/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. http://www.avast.com

Sort Date is used to do a sort of proper order of events thus not showing the burial before birth or a birth after the parents died. PAF had that and I'm sure that is where it started. Only way around that would be to import the GEDCOM into a new database and replace each estimated date with one not showing abt,est, or a year without day and month. This means correcting the database 1 fact at a time. For importing purposes the fact order is necessary for a program to be readable. I used the "Sort Date" all time to put Birth, Death and Burial in proper order Jon On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Arthur & Pauline Kennedy via < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm using RM 6.3.1.4, and have discovered an issue with not being able > to exclude sort dates from an exported .ged file. > > Sort dates are typically found in a pair with an approximate date for an > event, or else on their own where no date is known: > > 2 DATE ABT 1823 > 2 _SDATE 1 JUL 1823 > > I gather that the underscore indicates that this is a RM-specific tag. > > One program I tried to import this file to seems to simply ignore the > sort date, but in another one the existence of the sort date appears to > cause all kinds of problems with any event address following, such as > not including it at all, or mapping it to the wrong field. > > I appreciate that there may be issues to raise with the other program, > but there is a RM issue too: if I try to get round this by excluding > RM-specific data from the GEDCOM export, this _SDATE tag is still > created. Other RM tags such as _COLOR are excluded, but the sort date > remains. > > Have I missed some setting? > > Thanks for any help, > > Arthur > > > > =================================== > RM list Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/ROOTSMAGIC-USERS/ > http://archiver.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/search?path=ROOTSMAGIC-USERS > WISH LIST: http://www.rootsmagic.com/forums/ BLOG: > http://blog.rootsmagic.com/ > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the quotes in the subject and the body of the message > -- -- *Jon P Czarowitz*, NHC, GF, GGF, IGC Hempel Genealogist since 1986 Retired International Genealogist for http://www.clancunninghamintl.org RootsMagic 7 http://www.rootsmagic.com CUNNINGHAMS TOGETHER - CUNNINGHAMS WORLDWIDE!