I created a source template for artifacts held by family. I don’t want the family member’s name and location following a GEDCOM should I happen to export the record and import it a service like Ancestry or Wikitree. Source Templates support the Private Switch feature, but it does not seem to apply when I do an export to GEDCOM, even though I don’t have the boxes checked to export private information. Is there a way to make Private Switches work with GEDCOM exports? I really don’t want to have to make a separate Fact and mark it as private, which would be my workaround. And yes, I know this reduces the value of the source reference, but that’s the way it is.
Example:
[Collection]. <! [Place Held]|The location is private>. [DateYearOfAccess].
The private option on a GEDCOM does not include the source template language. The private switch for sources is only used in reports under the Sources privatize option.
Though I’ve never exported GEDCOMs to either of those facilities, there’s a fair chance that they do not even import/retain/understand/incorporate those extra details (RootsMagic specific tags that can even be excluded during the export).
Not sure what you mean by references. I was referring to RootsMagic GEDCOM tags that preserve sentence template language constructs. They’re RM-specific in most cases.
My original post mentioned private switches in source templates, which get used in sources and then citations, or references. These will contain the name of the family member who has the item, and I don’t want to put their name out on the Internet.
On GEDCOM export the option “Extra details (RM specific)” retains the source template and the private switch. If imported back into RM the source template and private switch will be there. If you import into a different program it will more than likely be a free-form source and not have the private switch. It would be the same when uploading the GEDCOM to a website. We don’t have control over how it is received by third parties.
You can request it however before you do, pay attention to this line from Renee’s reply, “We don’t have control over how it is received by third parties”.
This means they can’t control how third party software/websites deal with the privacy switch so there isn’t anything they can do to make this happen.
Private switch is in the GEDCOM export already. The RM specific details are the only way to send it so RM can receive it back. It’s third parties that may not support it.
It’s not that I want the private switch setting in the GEDCOM, I want an option for RootsMagic to write the citations and sources into the GEDCOM using the private values I set in the source template.
In a GEDCOM file, sourcing is divided into two parts…
the actual source description and the source citation attached (or linking) to a specific individual or event.
RootsMagic (or other genealogy software/websites) help deal with a separation of concerns that involves two things:
facilitating the entry, storage and actions upon the data.
providing a means of presentation (screen, filetype, print)
RootsMagic’s templating is the presentation piece offering options on how to display that data “internally” to itself, but a GEDCOM standard is aimed at the data exchange interoperability with those others that may or may not offer all of the same data fields or means of presentation (because they all do it differently).
So, because there is no GEDCOM tag scheme that supports what you’re asking (RootsMagic would already use it if there was)… the program, instead, chooses to offer the RM-specific GEDCOM tag scheme that defines its presentation scheme (templating) as an optional part of the exported .GED file.
The GEDCOM contains the presentation form of the sources and citations for use by other programs. I assume it also includes the source templates, but those are not a problem. What I want is for when RootsMagic interprets the source templates to write the presentation forms of the sources and citations to the GEDCOM file, that it have an option to write the second choice from the private switches rather than the first one.
Source templates are unique to RM, they typically import as free form sources to third parties. So basically you are asking for RM to determine any source template with a private switch exclude that information so it is lost on export.
I am not concerned about what happens to the source templates when they get imported into third party systems, because they do not contain personal information. I assume the big web services will just ignore the source templates, and that’s fine. My concern is that the GEDCOM also contains the final form of the sources and citations resulting from them being applied to the source template.
As an example, here’s a source from a GEDCOM I exported. I have replaced the names with made-up ones for privacy. Susan Jones does not want her name and location getting out to the Internet, so I have private switches in the source template to hid those if the private flag is set. I would like the GEDCOM export to include a private flag checkbox to achieve this.
0 @S1288@ SOUR
1 ABBR Ed Smith driver’s license
1 TITL State of Ohio BMV, Ed Smith’s driver’s license, driver’s license
2 CONC , Ohio, 7 July 1975, ;Smith Family Papers West; privately held by Su
2 CONC san Jones, Winslow, Arizona, 2026. The driver’s license was collec
2 CONC ted from Ed Smith’s possessions after he died.
1 _SUBQ Ed Smith’s driver’s license, Smith Family Papers West.
1 _BIBL Smith Family Papers West. privately held by Susan Jones, Winsl
2 CONC ow, Arizona. 2026.
Sounds like implementing copies of such Source templates, where these concerns might lie (renamed to reflect purpose and minus the templating constructs that are breaking privacy), would accomplish your aim?
So what you want is for RM to have to go through every source in your file, check to see if there is a private switch in the source, if so include the ‘private’ value from the citation, otherwise include the original value. I am feeling more likely to win the lottery than to have this happen, but good luck.