[PAF] FTW makes broken GEDCOM -- how to import cleanly into PAF 5?

[John Reynolds <jjreynold@home.com>]

Hello all, I'm hoping that one of you guys/gals can help with a big problem
I'm having. It seems that the fine folks at Broderbund don't understand how to
produce correct GEDCOM files. Here's a little history.

I've got LOTS of genealogy information which I started creating/editing with
FTW 3.x. Then I upgraded to 4.x. Then to 5.0a. Years passed doing nothing with
it. Now I've got the genealogy bug again and have decided to do it "for real"
in PAF (so that I can eventually submit the names, etc. with less hassle). So,
I'm trying to import all this information in GEDCOM format into PAF. I've
ALMOST got it working with one snag.

FTW 5.0a *eliminated* the ability to map "fact" fields onto particular GEDCOM
identifiers. Instead it exports ordinance information as "other events." When I
import this into PAF I see the data such as endowments, baptisms, etc. but
they're not in the "native" fields--they're under the "other events" section
for individuals. This is not good.

So, I save the FTW file in 4.x format and load it with a copy of 4.4 I had
installed. This version DOES let you map "fact" fields onto GEDCOM idents. Once
I figure out how FTW mangled things when saving from 5->4 and get the "correct"
mapping for all of the LDS ordinance info, the export itself works fine; but I
get billions of errors related to the SLGP tag (sealing to parents) when I
import it. The errors in the .lst file are something like:

 ERROR N: filename, etc.: RIN N: Unexpected tag 'SLGP' in Individual Record.

Being a computer science nerd I check the grammar for GEDCOM 5.5 and sure
enough SLGP *is* illegal to have in an individual record. To follow that up, I
downloaded the "gedchk" program from ftp.gedcom.org and ran it on the GEDCOM
file and sure enough it told me that there were these and other problems with
the file. I've been able to find the 5.5 standard on the web several places and
it doesn't even mention the 'SLGP' tag--but instead talks about how "seal to
parents" now falls under the INDI-FAMC structure using the 'SLGC' tag.

Soooooo ... has anybody seen this particular problem before? Is it fixed in
later versions of FTW (I *refuse* to buy another copy of the bug-ridden piece
of garbage unless they've fixed this)? Does anybody have utilities, scripts, or
other techniques that might fix this particular conversion problem? This whole
situation is extremely frustrating as GEDCOM is supposed to be a "standard."
Sigh.

Thanks,

-Jr

-- 
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John Reynolds         Chandler Capabilities Engineering, CDS, Intel Corporation
jreynold@sedona.ch.intel.com  My opinions are mine, not Intel's. Running
jjreynold@home.com        FreeBSD 4.2-STABLE. FreeBSD: The Power to Serve.
http://www.reynoldsnet.org/  Come join us!!! @ http://www.FreeBSD.org/
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