Synchronization with External Record Identifiers

There are a number of record identifiers that are in common use among all of the genealogy programs which establish a basis for Clooz linking, or what will be called Synchronizing, its records to matching records in external programs. While these mainly apply to person records, similar identifiers sometimes are used with marriage, source A source record in Clooz should be viewed as the higher level components of a source citation. Citation details are pulled from the citing Information Record. or even repository Where a source document or item was found. This could be a physical library facility or online data provider. records. The main focus here will be on person records.

Identifier types recognized by Clooz:

Record Identification Number (RIN; ID) These are assigned by the external program, which may or may not allow users to modify or renumber records. This is the value an external program would display for individual records (although some programs do not display the value to the user; eg., FTM). RIN values in one program are entirely independent of those in other programs, or even other databases generated by the same program.
User ID or Reference No These are arbitrary identification fields containing content defined by the user. These are strictly for the use of and interpretation by the user.
Ancestral File Number (AFN) These identifiers are for records in an obsolete feature of FamilySearch. It is still retained in Clooz since some users may be tracking person records based on this value. Most external programs do not do anything specific with these numbers except to perhaps display it (usually in editable form).
FamilySearch Family Tree Identifier (FSFTID) Person records in the FamilySearch Family Tree are assigned these unique identifiers. Note that if a given person’s identity is duplicated in FamilySearch, there will be multiple identifiers generated for that person. Nevertheless, the objective is to have one FSFTID per person, and be universally identical across all programs interfacing with FamilySearch. Clooz does not interface with FamilySearch Family Tree. FSFTID values are only recorded when data are imported from external programs that do provide such interfaces. These values are only retained to assist the user in identifying external persons.
Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID) These software-generated values are meant to be a unique identifier useable across all programs to identify a specific person. These identifiers are in the form of GEDCOM Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID). For a complete explanation of UUIDs, see The _UID tag (tamurajones.net). Within the Microsoft development world, these are called Globally Unique Identifier (GUID). The standard for UUID creation is described here: Information on RFC 4122 » RFC Editor (rfc-editor.org). Not all external programs use or support such values. They are usually used to assist in merging of imported data records. Since records for a specific person can be initiated in any number of programs, any number of these UUIDs can end up being assigned to a specific person across all the datasets. Internally, Clooz retains a list of all the UUIDs for a person in the Clooz database it becomes aware of. These values are used to assist in the identification of persons in an external file with those in Clooz.

GEDCOM Tags Assciated with Identifier Types

ID Type	GEDCOM 5.5 / 5.5.1	GEDCOM 7.0
RIN	RIN	EXID/ TYPE RIN
AFN	AFN	EXID/ TYPE AFN
User ID / Reference No.	REFN	REFN
FSFTID	_FSFTID (unofficial; custom)	EXID/ TYPE FSFTID ???
UUID	_UID (unofficial; custom)	UID

Linking Clooz Records with External Records

Clooz allows you to link the following record types to records in an external file:

Records that have been linked will appear in the Data Transfer Manager with icons representing the type of file they are linked to. These icons are miniature versions of the respective program icons (Legacy, RootsMagic, Family Historian, etc.).

To link a Clooz record to an external one, do one of the following:

While in the Data Transfer Manager:
- Display the Details Comparison window and select the Link button,
- Click in the RIN or ID column cell of the Clooz record's row on the grid on the right side of the Data Transfer Manager (Clooz list) to place the cell in edit mode, then enter (or clear) the ID number of the record as shown in the external file list, or
- Import an external record or export a Clooz record (automatically establishes a link),
While using the Record Export function:
- Edit the external record ID value,
- Export the record

To unlink a Clooz record from an external one, do one of the following:

While in the Data Transfer Manager:
- Display the Details Comparison window for the linked people and select the Unlink button, or
- Click in the RIN or ID column cell of the Clooz record's row on the Clooz list (grid on the right side of the Data Transfer Manager) to place the cell in edit mode, then clear the ID number.
While viewing the External File A database or GEDCOM file independent of the currently open Clooz database. These usually support other family tree programs, although it could be a different Clooz database. Links screen:
- Right-click an external file to delete ALL links with that file (if you are desiring to remove all of the links)

Automatic Linking using Universal IDs

Many external file types support ID values know as Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs). When you export/import data (outside of Clooz) from one external program to another, or even from one database to another using the same external program, these UUIDs may get carried along into the new program's data (varies depending on the programs involved). Each time Clooz establishes a link to an external record it adds any available UUIDs to a list maintained in Clooz for that Clooz record. These UUIDs are maintained even regardless of what external file is being worked with in the Data Transfer Manager. An Auto-link function is provided in Clooz to scan the external data for matching UUIDs and when a match is found it automatically links the Clooz record to that external record.

To automatically link all records having matching universal IDs, open the Data Transfer Manager for the desired external file and right click anywhere on the Clooz record list to display the context menu. Then select the Auto-link menu item.

Updating ID Values for All Linked Records

There are times when one of the various ID values (other than the RIN or record ID) are modified within the external file. Clooz provides a function to check all of these values and update the value retained in Clooz.

To perform this update, open the Data Transfer Manager for the desired external file and right click anywhere on the Clooz record list to display the context menu. Then select the Update IDs menu item.