Syncing Between 2 computers--anywhere

Syncthing

Dick Eastman · July 15, 2020 · Off Topic, Software · No Comments

This article is “off topic.” That is, it has nothing to do with the normal topics of this newsletter: genealogy, family history, DNA, and related articles. However, I believe it will interest many people, genealogists included, who use more than one computer.

Do you use two or more computers? Perhaps you have a desktop system and a laptop computer. Perhaps you use one computer at the office and a different one at home. Then again, perhaps you have two homes; a summer cottage or perhaps one home in the sunbelt and another “up north.” Do you keep separate computers in each location?
Perhaps you and a relative who is also working on the family tree want to keep genealogy information and old family photographs updated all the time in both of your computers in your homes. Whatever your situation, the question this article hopes to answer is, “How do you automatically keep some of the information up-to-date on both (or all) of the computers?”
The question can be answered with one word: Syncthing.

Here is a quote from the Syncthing.net website:

“Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, whether it is shared with some third party, and how it’s transmitted over the internet.”

In short, the name of “Syncthing” is appropriate. It is a FREE and open source piece of software that is designed to keep some (or all) of the information in 2 or more computers automatically synchronized all the time with minimal human action required. It works amongst side-by-side computers at home or computers separated across the country or even across the world.
Syncthing apparently can copy everything although I suspect the more common use is to duplicate only one or more folders (sub-directories) in two or more computers.
Syncthing is available free of charge for Macintosh OS X, Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and OpenBSD. The program has been available for several years and has many thousands of satisfied users. In short, it is well tested.

NOTE: Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software defines FOSS as:

“Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software that can be classified as both free software and open-source software. That is, anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source code is openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software. This is in contrast to proprietary software, where the software is under restrictive copyright licensing and the source code is usually hidden from the users.”

Syncthing is Private & Secure
Again, quoting from the Syncthing web site:

Private. None of your data is ever stored anywhere else other than on your computers. There is no central server that might be compromised, legally or illegally.

Encrypted. All communication is secured using TLS. The encryption used includes perfect forward secrecy to prevent any eavesdropper from ever gaining access to your data.

Authenticated. Every node is identified by a strong cryptographic certificate. Only nodes you have explicitly allowed can connect to your cluster.

Also:

Easy to Use

Powerful. Synchronize as many folders as you need with different people or just between your own devices.

Portable. Configure and monitor Syncthing via a responsive and powerful interface accessible via your browser. Works on Mac OS X, Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and OpenBSD. Run it on your desktop computers and synchronize them with your server for backup.

Simple. Syncthing doesn’t need IP addresses or advanced configuration: it just works, over LAN and over the Internet. Every machine is identified by an ID. Give your ID to your friends, share a folder and watch: UPnP will do if you don’t want to port forward or you don’t know how.

In short, Syncthing is easy to use and doesn’t share any of your data on some questionable company’s web site. In fact, it doesn’t even upload anything to a web site or corporate server; all data is sent directly between the computers you specify and to no place else. If you still have concerns, you can even examine the source code yourself and even compile your own version of Syncthing. Syncthing is available FREE of charge.
I have been using Syncthing to keep several folders on two computers up-to-date with each other for more than a year and have been pleased with its operation. Even though these two computers are 1,200 miles apart, Syncthing has proven to be very reliable.
The local power companies and internet companies have dropped power and/or internet connectivity at each location several times. Once the power and internet connectivity has been restored, each computer has powered up, rebooted (see the owners’ manuals for information on how to automatically re-boot your computers after a power outage), and continued running Syncthing in normal operation.
You can read more about Syncthing or even download the free program at: https://syncthing.net.

A Word About the Privacy of Your Genealogy and Other Information

Dick Eastman · April 24, 2020 · Genealogy Basics, Privacy · 4 Comments

A newsletter reader wrote recently and asked a question that I think many people should think about. I replied to him in email but thought I would also share my answer here in the newsletter in case others have the same question.
My correspondent wrote:

I am relatively new to genealogy technology. Are there tips you can provide to ensure the security of personal information? Would building a family tree in software only my computer be more secure than syncing it to a webpage (like MyHeritage)? Is it a good idea to not include details (name, date and place of birth) for all living relatives and maybe back a generation or two? Thanks.

My reply:

Great questions! However, I don’t have a simple answer. In fact, I can offer several answers and suggestions.
The various web sites have lots of options to control your privacy, except for Facebook, a web site designed to steal as much of your personal information as possible and then to resell that info. You do need to read about each site’s privacy policies before using it. However, most of today’s online services have excellent methods of protecting your personal privacy and your sensitive information.
Unfortunately, the computer on your desk and your laptop computer and tablet computer probably have no such controls. Neither does your “smartphone” which probably contains more personal information about you than does any other computing device you own.

Hackers around the world are constantly trying to access your computer at home (and millions of other computers) through the Internet. In addition, there is even more danger when you take your laptop or tablet computer or smartphone out of the home where it is exposed to loss, theft, and other risks.
Generally speaking, placing genealogy information or any other information in the cloud is more secure than keeping the same information in your own computer. I speak from experience; I had a laptop computer stolen a few years ago from the trunk of my automobile. The thief obtained everything: my bank account info, my credit card numbers, my Social Security number, the email addresses and phone numbers of most of my friends and business acquaintances, my family tree info, and more. Had I been smart enough to only keep that info in a secure area in the cloud, the thief would have obtained nothing.
I do that now. I still have backup copies of my family tree info stored in my own laptop and desktop computers. After all, family tree information isn’t secret anyway. Almost all genealogy information is publicly-available info available in various public government records and elsewhere. (Hey, that’s where I found it!) However, I now keep my bank account info, my credit card numbers, my Social Security number, the email addresses and phone numbers of most of my friends and business acquaintances, and more ONLY in the cloud and only by encrypting it first before sending it to a cloud web site. I never keep sensitive information in plain text on my own computers, not even in my home computer(s), where it can be accessed by online thieves and/or visitors to my home.
The backup copies are created automatically every few minutes by the backup software I use, even if I am sleeping at the time or out of the house on an overseas trip.
For the information I store on MyHeritage, I know the web site (and almost all other genealogy web sites) have excellent controls where names, dates, places of birth, and other personal information for all living people are never displayed to anyone else. When I log in with my user name and password, I can see that information. However, if you or anyone else looks at the information there that I made public, you do not see the personal information for living people.
I also keep backup ENCRYPTED copies in various locations, including one encrypted copy on my laptop computer, one encrypted copy in a plug-in external hard drive connected to my desktop computer, one encrypted copy in a backup service in the cloud that I pay for, one encrypted copy in Google Drive (which obviously is also stored in the cloud), and one UNencrypted copy in a relative’s computer. (She has an interest in genealogy and the two of us share a lot of ancestors. I am sure she will preserve my data in case I predecease her.)
By the way, I do keep a lot of non-sensitive information in my own computers where it is available to me and probably to thieves at all times, even without an Internet connection. Copies of most things are also kept online. My calendar, my shopping list, my favorite recipe for vegan chili, the jokes I collect, copies of my past newsletter articles, and hundreds of other items are not secret. I don’t encrypt those and don’t lock them up. Probably 98% of the things I save online and offline are not secret. Heck, if anyone wants a copy of those things, just drop me a note and I will send them to you! I don’t see a need for security for those items.
In contrast, anything that I wish to keep secret is kept under lock and key (the key is called “encryption”) only in secure web sites where I can access the information whether I am at home or traveling. Sometimes, “traveling” means that I am at the grocery store or at the doctor’s office, but I still might need to access the information while I’m out and about. I strive to have all information securely available at my fingertips at any time, regardless of where I am.
I also want to keep my information away from thieves, whether they are located overseas or if they are standing behind my automobile, attempting to break in and steal my laptop or tablet computer.
Your need for security will undoubtedly be different from my needs. However, I strongly suggest you think about what you need to protect and then create your own security plan to make sure your private information remains private. The word “encryption” should be a major item in your plans.

Suggestion: You also might want to read my other web site: the Privacy Blog at http://privacyblog.com/

Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map

Randy Majors Releases a Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map

Dick Eastman · March 24, 2020 · Current Affairs, Software · One Comment

Randy Majors is a well-known programmer who creates applications from Google Maps that perform function the programmer at Google never dreamed of. To see some of his past accomplishments, read some of my past articles about his creations by starting at: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site%3Aeogn.com+%22Randy+Majors%22.

Unlike most of his early projects, Randy’s latest product is not genealogy-related. He writes:

“To try to help get the information out there, I’ve compiled and have been maintaining a live up-to-date map of all of the U.S. states, counties and cities that have implemented Stay-at-Home/Shelter-in-Place Orders (as well as states with order to close all non-essential businesses. It’s a very actively changing map as you can imagine.

“The map shows where Stay at Home, Shelter in Place and Non-essential Business Closure orders are CURRENTLY in effect or IMMINENT according to official government websites or reputable news sources.”

You can find the Coronavirus Stay-at-Home and Shelter-in-Place Map at: https://www.randymajors.com/p/coronavirus-on-google-maps.html

Ancestry now offers FREE Access to Millions of Historical Records from the U.S. National Archives

Ancestry now offers FREE Access to Millions of Historical Records and Images from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Dick Eastman · March 25, 2020 · Online Sites · One Comment

The following is an extract from an article by Ancestry CEO Margo Georgiadis describing the company’s actions to support our community during this time of uncertainty during the CoronaVirus pandemic. The article was published in the Ancestry Blog at https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/:

Ancestry has collaborated with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration to offer temporary free access to millions of historical records and images from the federal government. And we will continue providing free online tutorials and video courses to help people get started with family tree building. For more information, click here.

You can read the full article at: https://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry.

The Cost of Getting Genealogical Records from the Government Could Go Up Nearly 500%

The Cost of Getting Genealogical Records from the Government Could Go Up Nearly 500%. An Effort is Underway to Stop That.

Dick Eastman · December 30, 2019 · Current Affairs, Legal Affairs · No Comments

I have written before about this outrageous proposal to increase fees nearly 500%. However, it is great to see CNN pick up the story and give the effort to stop the increase even more publicity. With millions of readers, a story in CNN can generate a lot of publicity.

The new article by Harmeet Kaur on CNN may be found at: https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/29/us/immigration-records-uscis-fee-hike-trnd/index.html.

My earlier articles may be found here and here.

Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is Now Online

The Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is Now Online

Dick Eastman · December 24, 2019 · Legal Affairs · One Comment

Thanks to Reclaim the Records, the Nebraska Death Index (1904-1968) is now available to everyone online. Even better, access is available free of charge.
According to the Reclaim the Records web site:

“In May 2019, citing Nebraska’s Public Records Law, Reclaim The Records made a request for “a copy of the Nebraska Death Index and/or finding aid to deaths, from its onset to 1968”. You can read the whole request on our website (PDF), if you want, because we like making all our correspondence and court cases public.”

You can read much more at: https://www.reclaimtherecords.org/records-request/26/.

FamilySearch Releases GEDCOM Version 5.5.1

Dick Eastman · December 24, 2019 · Genealogy Basics, Software · 11 Comments

GEDCOM is an abbreviation that stands for GEnealogy Data COMmunications. In short, GEDCOM is the language by which different genealogy software programs talk to one another.
GEDCOM was developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints (LDS Church) to provide a flexible, uniform format for exchanging computerized genealogical data.

(See my 2014 article, GEDCOM Explained, at https://blog.eogn.com/2014/05/24/gedcom-explained/ for a more detailed explanation of GEDCOM.)

GEDCOM is not a program. Instead, it is a specification of the method that different genealogy programs should use to exchange data. The purpose is to exchange data between dissimilar programs without having to manually re-enter all the data on a keyboard. A GEDCOM file is a plain text file (usually either UTF-8, ANSEL or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and meta data linking these records together.

All of today’s more popular genealogy programs will import and export GEDCOM data. However, the GEDCOM standard first adopted in 1985 did not envision today’s environment of multimedia files, such as digital pictures, video, audio, text files using non-English alphabets (Cyrillic, Bulgarian, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and other languages), links to external data stored in the World Wide Web, and many more commonly-used standards of today.
Over the years, the GEDCOM standard has been updated several times with each update adding new functionality and significantly improving the standard. However, because of the constantly evolving improvements in genealogy programs, data transferred via GEDCOM often has not been perfect. After transferring from one program to another, manual “clean-up” has often been required to fix any data that was not transferred properly.
Now FamilySearch has released a new update: GEDCOM 5.5.1
This is the first update in ten years. The new GEDCOM 5.5.1 standard may be found at: https://edge.fscdn.org/assets/img/documents/ged551-5bac5e57fe88dd37df0e153d9c515335.pdf. The most important part of that document is listed in the section entitled Modifications in Version 5.5.1 that starts on page 6 of that document.
While there are numerous changes and clarifications, perhaps the most interesting items are the new tags added in GEDCOM 5.5.1:

EMAIL electronic mailing address
FAX FAX address
FACT A fact or characteristic.
FONE Phonetic variation of a text.
ROMN Romanized variation of a text.
WWW Web Home page address.
MAP Pertaining to maps.
LATI value of a latitudinal coordinate pertaining to the place of an event
LONG value of a longitudinal coordinate pertaining to the place of an event.

What will the impact of GEDCOM 5.5.1 mean to non-programmers?
Nothing will change immediately for most users. However, the new update does mean that the programmers who write the many genealogy programs will need to update their products and then release new updates. As these updated products become available, anyone using a newly-updated genealogy product that conforms to GEDCOM 5.5.1 can exchange data with more accuracy with anyone else who is also using a GEDCOM 5.5.1-compatible genealogy program.

New York City’s “Island of the Dead” to Become More Accessible

Dick Eastman · December 6, 2019 · Current Affairs · No Comments

I have written about Hart Island several timers. See http://bit.ly/36eLN8L for my past articles.
Hart Island has long served as New York City’s “Potter’s Field,” the place of burials of mass graves containing the remains of paupers, unidentified individuals, still-born babies, and AIDS victims. More than one million people are buried there.

Approximately 1,200 burials, some of them unidentified people, still take place every year. Adults are buried in pine coffins stacked three deep; children five deep in plots of 1,000. The boxes are marked with numbers not names, and there are no gravestones. Small white markers indicating the trenches dot the island’s burial grounds.

Relatives are only allowed to visit on two designated days a month, while correctional officers escort media to Hart Island just twice a year.
Until recently, the island was maintained by inmates from nearby Rikers Island, one of America’s most notorious jails. Last month, New York’s city council voted to end prison control of Hart Island by transferring jurisdiction to its parks department, in a move hailed by activists. It also pledged to start regular ferry services. Relatives may soon start visiting the graves of the deceased.
You can read more in an article by Peter Hutchison at https://yhoo.it/2OUdzBI.

Reclaim the Records Introduces the Online New York City GEOGRAPHIC Birth Index

Dick Eastman · October 31, 2019 · Online Sites · 2 Comments

The following is a quote from the latest Reclaim the Records newsletter:

INTRODUCING THE NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC BIRTH INDEX

A new tool to find people born in New York City in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, especially if their birth records had spelling variants or poor handwriting

Hello again from Reclaim The Records! We’re that little non-profit activist group of genealogists, historians, teachers, journalists, open government advocates, and other troublemakers who fight for the release of historical and genealogical materials from government agencies, archives, and libraries.

Today, we’d like to tell you about some new historical records that we’ve acquired, which we’ve put online for free public use, for the first time anywhere! They’ve never been available outside of New York City before.

Introducing the New York City GEOGRAPHIC Birth Index! This record set is an index to all births in New York City from roughly 1880-1912 (or 1917-ish in some cases outside of Manhattan). But unlike a typical birth index arranged by surname or by date, this one is arranged by the child’s place of birth, the actual exact street address! Hence the term Geographic.

We think there’s about 2.8 million names in here, maybe more.

You can read more in the newsletter’s web site at: https://mailchi.mp/reclaimtherecords/introducing-the-new-york-city-geographic-birth-index.

Don’t Want to Lose (Parts of) Your Genealogical Data?

Dick Eastman · November 5, 2019 · Genealogy Basics · 8 Comments

The following is an article written by guest author Bob Coret and is copyright by him. The article is published here with the permission of Bob Coret:

Don’t want to lose (parts of) your genealogical data?

A recent research report by Genealogy Online shows that genealogists have a high risk of losing (parts of) their genealogical data when transferring a GEDCOM file from their family tree program or service to another family tree program or service. This is caused by the fact that most family tree programs and services do not follow the GEDCOM specification to the letter and because a lot of undocumented “user-defined tags” are used.

Recently, Nigel Munro Parker, made his GEDCOM validator GED-inline [http://ged-inline.elasticbeanstalk.com/validate] available for re-use. GED-inline reads a GEDCOM file and checks if the file follows the rules of the specified GEDCOM specification. You get a report nearly instantly (and free). Besides statistics it shows the number of warnings and user-defined tags, as well as a list of all warnings. Genealogy Online (a service for easily publishing your family tree online) recently deployed the open-sourced GED-inline in its infrastructure. Genealogy Online [https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/] now checks all GEDCOM files it receives to publish online. When there are warning in regards to the GEDCOM file, Genealogy Online notifies the user.

In order not to lose genealogical information when it is transferred from “A” to “B”, agreements on how the information is recorded are of great importance. If both “A” and “B” adhere to these agreements, then the information will come across properly – without loss of information! Agreements about the format of genealogical information are laid down in the GEDCOM specification. The most recent GEDCOM version is 5.5.5, which is published on http://www.gedcom.org [https://www.gedcom.org/].

As a genealogist you do not have to dive into these GEDCOM specifications. The specifications are intended for the suppliers of family tree programs and services (more specifically, their developers). But as a genealogist you should make sure that the GEDCOM function of your family tree program or service adheres to the GEDCOM specifications! After all, if a family tree program or service does not adhere to the GEDCOM specifications, then there is a risk of information loss during the transport of the genealogical information!

As a genealogist you can check the quality of your GEDCOM too! If you’re not using Genealogy Online, just go to GED-inline [http://ged-inline.elasticbeanstalk.com/validate] directly and upload your GEDCOM. See how many warnings are in the validation report. The number of warnings says nothing about your genealogical information, you didn’t do anything wrong. The warnings relate to compliance of the GEDCOM file with the GEDCOM specification. If there are warnings, there is a good chance that the GEDCOM file will not be fully understood by another family tree program or service and that there is a risk of information loss!

Another number that you should pay attention to in the GED-inline report is the User-defined value. This number represents the number of lines in the GEDCOM file where a so-called user-defined tag is used. Such tags are valid within GEDCOM, but the meaning of this is not laid down in the GEDCOM specification. And often, these use-defined tags are not documented publicly. So if program “A” places a certain information in a user-defined tag, chances are that program “B” does not know what information it is and what it should do with it. In a best case scenario these values are included as a comment, in the worst case scenario, these values are ignored. So, the user-defined tags also increase the risk of information loss.

Genealogy Online’s ‘GED-inline validation statistics’ [https://www.genealogieonline.nl/en/GED-inline/] report show that 1,215,130,449 lines of GEDCOM were inspected, 8,129,466 warnings were given (that’s 0.7%), and 93,365,260 lines contained user defined tags (that’s 7.7%). With these shocking numbers, you have to wonder, just how much genealogical data is lost when transferred?

What can you, as a genealogist, do to reduce the risk of information loss?

If you – after checking the quality of your GEDCOM file – find that there is a risk of information loss, contact the supplier of your family tree program or service. Ask them to improve GEDCOM support (and minimize the use of user-defined tags and document them), so that parts of your genealogical data are not lost during export (and import)!

In your contact with the vendor you can send the GED-inline report of the validation of your GEDCOM file and the link to www.gedcom.org where the GEDCOM specifications are published. If the supplier does not consider the quality of the GEDCOM export (your genealogical data!) as important, it may be time to look for another family tree program of service.

8 Comments

Stefan Mettenbrink November 5, 2019 at 11:49 am

“The most recent GEDCOM version is 5.5.5, …”
Informations from FamilySearch (by asking about 5.5.5):
“The Church of Jesus Christ has the copyright on the Gedcom Specification since 1987. There has not been a legal transfer of the rights we have to the Gedcom Specification.”
So 5.5.5 is not a legal GEDCOM version.

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Dick Eastman November 6, 2019 at 10:34 am
—> So 5.5.5 is not a legal GEDCOM version.
I am not a lawyer but I don’t believe having a copyright has anything to do with version numbers under U.S. laws. I am not sure about other countries, however.
In this case, Company A can create version 1.0 of anything and copyright the product. Company B can then legally create version 2.0 of the same thing. Company C can then legally create version 3.0 of the same thing.
If either Company B or Company C then attempt to SELL their new versions, then U.S. copyright laws will be involved. But simply announcing a new and improved standard is never illegal. U.S. copyright laws only deal with the rights to copy a product and reproduce it elsewhere, not for simply suggesting improvements to something and then publishing the new improvements’ specifications.
FamilySearch owns the copyrights for GEDCOM and probably will do so forever. However, that does not affect your right or my right or anyone else’s rights to suggest improvements.

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ahnenblatt November 5, 2019 at 1:43 pm

This article says in other words “User defined tags are evil! The more lines with user defined tags your GEDCOM file has – the lower is its quality.”
But it is not as easy as it sounds.
There are some user defined tags like “_UID” you find in nearly every GEDCOM file which causes no problems at all.
User defined tags are a valid way intended by the GEDCOM standard to save data for which no other standard tag exists (home person, personal tasks, additional location information, …).
What should a vendor do, when users asking about “disturbing” user defined tags? Left out some of the information? No! The goal should be to write all user data in the GEDCOM file.
The better way is that a.) software should give an detailed import report of what data is ignored and b.) vendors should share informations about user defined tags (like German GEDCOM-L group do – see here: http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/GEDCOM/_Nutzerdef-Tag).
And believe it: standard tags are no guarantee for being not ignored by importing software. Sometimes the importing software has fewer capabilities and the user looses data for this reason.
Regards, Dirk (www.ahnenblatt.com).

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Keith November 5, 2019 at 8:12 pm
Dirk, nearly all data can be stored in GEDCOM files without the use of user-defined tags. Just use the EVEN.TYPE or FACT.TYPE tags that are already defined.
I have written many articles about different applications’ compliance (or lack thereof) with the GEDCOM 5.5.1 standard. I have also notified all the developers about the problems. Most of them are not interested in improving their GEDCOM compliance.
Keith Riggle (GenealogyTools.com)

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Stefan Mettenbrink November 6, 2019 at 12:52 am
I don’t agree.
I’m in the same German GEDCOM-L group as Dirk. We have searched a way to export
the german “Rufname”. It is no Nickname and no way to do it in any GEDCOM version. So we agreed to _RUFNAME as a new tag and it works fine for all represented developers of the GEDCOM-L group.
Or locations that stored in a place management. We have agreed to this (a complete new record):
0 @@ _LOC
1 NAME {1:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 _NAMC {0:1}
2 ABBR {0:M}
3 TYPE {0:1}
2 LANG {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
1 TYPE {0:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
1 _FPOST {0:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
1 _POST {0:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
1 _GOV {0:1}
1 _FSTAE {0:1}
1 _FCTRY {0:1}
1 MAP {0:1}
2 LATI {1:1}
2 LONG {1:1}
1 _MAIDENHEAD {0:1}
1 EVEN [|] {0:M}
2 <> {0:1}
1 _LOC @@ 0:M
2 TYPE {1:1}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
1 _DMGD {0:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
2 TYPE 1:1
1 _AIDN {0:M}
2 DATE {0:1}
2 <> {0:M}
2 TYPE {1:1}
1 <> {0:M}
1 <> {0:M}
1 <> {0:M}
1 <> {0:1}
How can you manage this only with tags from any GEDCOM version.
Greetings from Germany, Stefan.
()

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Stefan Mettenbrink November 6, 2019 at 1:00 am

The webside destroy my posts Stefan

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Dick Eastman November 6, 2019 at 8:04 am
Your earlier posts are still on this web site and are still visible to everyone.

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Keith November 6, 2019 at 8:20 am

Stefan, which major apps or websites outside the GEDCOM-L group are using your new record type? Family Tree Maker? Roots Magic? Family Tree Builder? The problem with user-defined tags is that other apps can and will ignore them.
You can represent any type of name, not just nickname, with the NAME.TYPE structure that is mandatory, anyway. The PERSONAL_NAME_PIECES with NAME_PIECE_NICKNAME is optional. So, for example, you could have:
n NAME
+1 TYPE RUFNAME
You can have as many name structures attached to an INDI record as you want.