diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 2416fdcb2..6601b27c1 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+2007-10-08  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
+	* src/gen/lib/note.py: make independent of MarkupText.py
+
 2007-10-08  Alex Roitman  <shura@gramps-project.org>
 	* src/GrampsCfg.py (get_researcher): Remove old usage.
 	* src/gen/db/dbdir.py (__close_metadata): Store tuple;
diff --git a/src/gen/lib/note.py b/src/gen/lib/note.py
index 2b6be62ab..2bfc17011 100644
--- a/src/gen/lib/note.py
+++ b/src/gen/lib/note.py
@@ -41,9 +41,10 @@ from types import InstanceType
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 from primaryobj import BasicPrimaryObject
 from notetype import NoteType
-from MarkupText import ROOT_START_TAG, LEN_ROOT_START_TAG
 from markertype import MarkerType
 
+ROOT_START_TAG = '<gramps>'
+
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 # Class for notes used throughout the majority of GRAMPS objects
@@ -119,7 +120,7 @@ class Note(BasicPrimaryObject):
         """
         text = self.text
 
-        if not markup and text[0:LEN_ROOT_START_TAG] == ROOT_START_TAG:
+        if not markup and text.starts_with(ROOT_START_TAG):
             text = self.delete_tags(text)
         
         return text