FTMW will now read your GEDCOM 5.3 file, to see what kinds of events (fields) you have in there.
Now you are presented with the dialog box below. Here, I've already told FTMW to import the ADDR field. I'm about to click on the "Import field" button to tell it to import the ADOP field.

Now I'm presented with the dialog box below. Here, I will select which Fact field in FTMW I want the ADOP field to be imported in to. Since this is the first Fact field, I let it default to Fact 1.

Below, I've gone thru all the Extra fields and told FTMW to import them all. Notice that some fields are not assigned to a Fact field. That's because these have a place to go in FTMW. An example would be DIVorce. FTMW will put this in the Marriage Ending fields on FTMW's Marriage screen.
Be sure to write down the info below, just the ones that got assigned to Fact fields.
You'll need this info in just a little bit. In this example, I'd write down:

ADOP 1
BURI 2
CHR  3
GRAD 4
MISC 5
OCCU 6
PROB 7

Below, is what the import messages look like. As you can see, FTMW complained about 3 dates, and one TITL record. FTMW tells you the line number in your GEDCOM 5.3 file where the problem is, so you can go look at it later, to determine if it was important. Most folks will not know how to resolve these errors, so in most cases, the data is simply dropped, and hopefully, the FTMW user will spot the missing data and key it back into FTMW.
As you can imagine, this is so bewildering to most people that it simply never gets done. Rather than just listing the line number, FTMW should list the preceding INDIvidual for which the error occurred, to give folks a better clue. That's my opinion, anyway. Til then, when the GEDCOM process is more automatic, I'm afraid you'll have to consult with your local computer genealogist for answers, or FTMW technical support.
Actually, in this case, to have only 4 errors for 2172 people is not bad at all. The 3 bad dates, you could go back to your original Roots III database and possibly find them.
Go over your FTMW database to see what has been dropped. In this example, it looks like a really good conversion.

Now that the conversion is complete, before we forget it, we need to go customize our Fact fields. From the FTMW menu, select Prefs, then Labels, like below.

You're now presented with the dialog box below. If we left this like this, any reports or charts would show an ADOPtion field as "Fact 1", which would make no sense to you or anybody else. Of course, in this example, our ADOP fields we mapped to Fact1. In your experience, you might a put different event type there, for example, IMMIgration. See the next dialog box to see what I changed.

Below, is the Labels dialog box after I went in and customized the Field Labels. Now you can see why we had to write that down a moment ago. In this example, we only had 7 extra fields, but as you can see, FTMW allows up to 13 custom fields. Yes, you can appropriate one of these later, if you wish. For example, you might want to start tracking those who served in the Military, so in this case, we might use Fact 8, and title it "Military" and then go start putting data into it.

Once you pressed the OK button above, you are back on the Family Page display for some individual in your database. We need to now go find a person who indeed has one of these extra fields, one of these "facts". So, from the Menu, select Edit, then Find Individual, like below.


Below, is the default search dialog box. See the next figure, below.

Below, is the search dialog, after I told it what to search for. Rather than search on the name, I want to search for one of these customized fact fields. Since Burial is something most of us would have in a database, I selected Buried Source Info. If you don't find something there, try selecting Buried Cmt/Location.
Notice that in the for box, I entered "!=". Yes, that's an exclamation point, followed by an equal sign. Rather than making it clear, FTMW uses this odd notation. Yes, it's documented on the manual, but not in the Help file.
You use this to find a Non-Blank field. So, in effect, we're telling it to find persons with something in the Buried Source field, on the Facts screen.
Why are we doing this? To see if our Buried data got put into the proper Fact field. We wouldn't want our Burials to come out on reports as, say, an Adoption! So let's check it out now, right after the GEDCOM import, while it's fresh on our minds.


Below, is the first person to match our find criteria. I wish that FTMW would take us straight to the Facts screen, but it takes us to the Family Page instead.
From here, we can then go to the Facts screen. See the next figure.

Select View from the Menu, then More About, then Facts, like below.


Yes, indeed, this person has Buried data, and yes, the data shows up on the proper Facts field on the Facts screen. You can either go do searches on the other fields, to verify them, or just keep a sharp eye out for any anomalies as you are using FTMW, both on screen and in reports and charts.


For William Blair, on the above figure, notice that there's an 's' to the right of the Buried data. This indicates that there is source data for this field. This source data came from Roots III, in this case. Remember, we told FTMW to search for a Non-Blank Buried source.
There are probably other Buried entries in this database, but perhaps not every one of those has source data. But I would guess that if you have Buried source data, you'd also have Buried data as well, such as a Date, or Comment/Location. That's why I chose to look for Buried sources, rather than Buried Comment/Locations.
To look at, or modify the source data for a field, click anywhere on the field, and then press CTRL + S (hold down your CTRL key, then press your S key). This will bring up the form below. Once you're thru, press OK to update the data.

We've confirmed the conversion from Roots III to FTMW, but let's take FTMW a little further. One of the first things I do upon creating a new FTMW database is to tell it how to format my dates. I like the European format of Day Month Year (example, 6 Oct 1997), which is the recognized standard for serious genealogists. To do this select Prefs, then Dates, like below.

This is what you'll likely see when you first bring up this screen.

Below, is how this looks after I customize it. Notice the sample
date at the bottom, to verify what we've done. I like to change the dates so they take less room on reports and charts.

Below, is an ancestor chart for the William Blair we had a moment ago. I pressed the Ancestor Chart button to get here. As you can see, we have told FTMW to include BIRT, DEAT and MARR data, and notice the dates.

At this time, I'd also like to include Buried data for each person, if it's present. Not everyone knows they can do this in FTMW, which is the reason I'm including here.
Select like below.

Below, is the form for customizing a report or chart.
Here, I've selected the Buried field. I will then click on the first button which has the right-arrow sign on it. This tells FTMW to include this field in the list on the right side of the screen. Once I click on that button, you'll see the next figure.


Buried happens to be one of those fields in which you can further customize how you want it to appear on charts and reports. In this case, I want to include the Full field label, because a simple b: might be confused with a birth event. I tell it to leave out the word 'in' in the chart or report. I don't have to state that such-n-such person is buried 'in' such-n-such place. But I do like to see the source data, so I click on that select box.

Once I've customized the Ancestor chart the way I want it, below is what I see.
Note that the Buried data for William Blair is now displayed. The word 'Buried' should show up here. I can only assume that this is a bug in FTMW.


Hope this information has been useful to you.
The goal here is to bring ALL of your data over from Roots III into FTMW, and once there, show you how to get to it and use it.

If you find this useful, a donation of say, $5, would be deeply appreciated.. Send to:
Kentucky Genealogical Society
PO Box 153
Frankfort KY 40602-0153

Author: Brian Harney, KGS Life Member

Note that R3GED2FT.EXE is available for download.
Click here to download.

You might also find it available on other web sites and on BBSes.
I've released it into the public domain, but a donation of $5 for that also would be appreciated.

Note that the version of FTMW used here was 3.0. Some screens and processes may change in later versions. R3GED2FT may work with some success with GEDCOM files from other programs, such as PAF, but I've not tried it. Feedback welcomed.