Great initiative Barbara - although I'm not sure I want to be thought of as a REFUGEE. Personally I'm going to stay for some time in my TMG Castle and watch the refugees passing my door, to see where they attempt to go and whether they survive the journey.. I note with some amusement that the TMG List convenor thinks discussion of TMG -> RootsMagic issues belong in the RootsMagic forum, while the RootsMagic forum Admin thinks issues with TMG migration to RM belong in the TMG List.. Don Ferguson

I'm not getting off TMG anytime soon myself--it's going to take some time to identify all the issues and a strategy, let alone get my data in shape to export. I figure I can clean up my information and it will benefit me no matter what program I'm using. Refugees is probably the right place for that TMG-Rootsmagic discussion. Barbara On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 4:44 PM, Don Ferguson via <tmg-refugees@rootsweb.com> wrote: > Great initiative Barbara - although I'm not sure I want to be thought of as > a REFUGEE. > > Personally I'm going to stay for some time in my TMG Castle and watch the > refugees passing my door, to see where they attempt to go and whether they > survive the journey.. -- Barbara Zanzig Kirkland, WA Zanzig one name study

First, thank you for creating this list. I had my qualms about posting on the TMG, RM, Leg, TNG, FTM (Yuk), et. al. lists/forums because I wasn't sure what could be said about various products without offending someone or some business. Plus, some of it was over my head and other parts just didn't seem applicable. With the exception of FTM, I am looking at the products listed above. I did (yesterday) purchase the latest TMG upgrade; I was still on version 8. Like many of you, I will stick with TMG -- for the time being. I still need to upgrade SS. Heck, I don't even know what version I'm running! LOL That gives me some stability for the near-term, but I'm not getting any younger. Funny how we always get older, but we never get younger. Who will I turn all of these books, notes, materials, software, website, research, etc. over to when I am no longer capable? It looks like my daughter is the only one in the running. Nobody else cares or has the desire. Problem #1: My daughter cannot use TMG/SS and refuses to attempt to learn it. She is more of a researcher and hates all the data entry things I make TMG accomplish. She is totally clueless when it comes to SS and putting a website online. Problem #2: I am a stickler for Sources. I have big ones, small ones, fat ones, and skinny ones. Yes, I do have some material not sourced, but logic has led me to include it. I see that RM may be leading the pack in the area of Sources with their 400+ Evidence Explained sources. I don't know how well they are implemented, don't know how modifiable they are, and don't know how they "feel". I guess that's enough rambling for now and I hope you are all well :) Tom

-----Original Message----- from Tom: > Problem #2: I am a stickler for Sources. I have big ones, small ones, fat ones, and skinny ones. Yes, I do have some material not sourced, but > logic has led me to include it. I see that RM may be leading the pack in the area of Sources with their 400+ Evidence Explained sources. I don't > know how well they are implemented, don't know how modifiable they are, and don't know how they "feel". I have experimented quite a bit with RM sourcing and I am impressed. Their implementation allows for lumpers as well as the detail folks (I forget our nickname for them...) without having to jump through a bunch of hoops. You create a RM "master source" that includes the information that would be common to all specific references to that source. The master source could be as general as "1940 census" or it could be as specific as individual households if you want to go that far. But you take all the values required to complete a source and you divide them into master source parts and detail source parts. You can customize as you see fit. When you reference a master source, you are then prompted to fill in the details necessary to complete the specific source reference. The really nice feature is you can move data values back and forth between the master source portion and the details. So you can "lump" as much as you want, or you can have almost everything in the details, if you like it that way. As you enter your source data, a second window shows the footnote, short footnote and bibliography entries being built as you type. I found that to be extremely good feedback. You can also create custom source templates if you feel the need. Also, as you are doing data entry and you get a specific source reference defined the first time (like perhaps for a census), you can click a "memorize" button that records that source reference. Then you can paste that source into as many different source instances as you might want to use it (Census, Birth, residence, marriage, occupation, etc, etc.) My impression (I'm no expert) is Roots has a very good implementation for sourcing. I would say it is one of their major strengths.