Hi,
The DESCRIPTION fields in FACTs are too short.
In Ancestry, I have wonderfully long description fields.
This information is also included in the Ancestry GEDCOM export.
But when exporting from Ancestry to RootsMagic via Treeshare, almost all of it is lost; RootsMagic only displays a fraction of it.
So why is a large portion of the DESCRIPTION missing in RootsMagic?
Would it be possible to use CLOB instead of TEXT as the data format?
I’m not sure that is exactly right. There is a custom Fact Type called Life sketch that got created in my database when I synched to FamilySearch records long ago. (I didn’t create it). In that field as part of the synch, I have seen multiple paragraphs of information. Here is an example from my data:
Just to make sure my comment above was not only true for the Life sketch fact type, I decided to add a built in Miscellaneous fact type and paste the Description date from the Life sketch. So, it seems the width limitations of the Description column in the database are not the problem you are facing.
The FamilySearch Life Sketch may import everything in the description field, but with a GEDCOM exports you will lose anything over 255 characters. Could be over 100 characters. I can’t recall which right now. That is why we recommend copying it from the description field and moving it to the notes.
Renee is correct, whilst many programs can create Gedcom files which are outside the standard it is not the wild west and compatibility must be maintained.
I have read 90 characters limit for a Description field but remember discovering about 120 character limit in Rootsmagic. It would be very easy to count the characters which have been imported.
The Gedcom standard is available online, you can go read it for reference. Another suggestion would be to run the Ancestry creation through a Gedcom validator to discover other possible areas where you might lose data. There are several available online.
Thank you, Renee. With which version of GEDCOM is RootsMagic compliant? The official GEDCOM 7.0 release has no character limits for descriptions anymore.
Thank you. I did, and have been keeping tabs on it for quite a while… Here is the link to the official release documentation for ver 7.0.18 published 17 February 2026.
RM12 is using GEDCOM 5.5.1.
According to A-I when asked what genealogy programs use Gedcom 7
Various genealogy software programs have adopted GEDCOM 7 standards.
here is the list of possible lose when using GEDCOM 5.5.1 as posted by @TomH and @thejerrybryan previously
and yes Renee-- last time we checked it was a max of 255
@rzamor1, based on the awesome “who’s on 7th base” list provided by @nkess, when do you think RM will start moving in that direction?
In my very long time visiting RootsMagic forums, I’ve never seen the use of that adverb regarding planned features ever result in a tangibly informative answer. ≡÷þ
that “desc” should be moved from DESC field to Note Field – likely came from Family search
This is not a RM problem – the desc is designed to be short to transfer to other software.
of nearly all the software I have seen - most software has only a limited use of Gedcom 7. when it came out they annouced they would move in that direction – but I would bet you will not likely see much change in next 2 years,
so: why lost by RootsMagic-Treeshare?
We users cannot be sure that the truncation is on the RM side of the Ancestry.com API used by TreeShare from only its behaviour. It’s insufficient evidence; could be truncated on either side of the API or by the API itself.
Compare it with the behaviour of Family Tree Maker FamilySync: if not truncated, then it’s RM that cuts off. If it is truncated, then it’s still ambiguous.
I now use a fully Gedcom 7 compatible genealogy program but I see no reason on going wild on verbose data entry just because I can. For a start I would lose data transferring to Gedcom 5.5.1 program.
Perhaps someone who has both Rootsmagic 12 and FTM could perform the test for a more accurate picture. I notice FTM is also missing from the AI Gedcom 7 list.
That’s true enough… That’s why I qualified it with “…do you think…” 
Information in DESCRIPTION is cut after 255 signs.
Who cuts, RootsMagic or ancestry-API ?
My guess is Ancestry.
I’ve tested how many characters of the Description field get exported in a GEDCOM output by RootsMagic and it had 1190 characters.
