GEDCOM Tips and Tricks

GEDCOM Tips and Tricks

<h3>GEDCOM tips and tricks</h3> <p>GEDcoms in general do not always tag photographs and provide links to other text files. When choosing a genealogy program it is vital that you choose one which can handle the latest version of Gedcom, as well as one which exports all your data including media, photographs and notes to a Gedcom file. For example, with Family Tree Maker you cannot (2014) separate the address fields, nor do the notes transfer.</p> <h3>Utilities</h3> <ul> <li>Tim Forsythe has a number of useful GEDCOM tools on his website <a href="http://gigatrees.com/" target="_blank">Gigatrees</a>, notably: <ul> <li>the <a href="http://gigatrees.com/tools/vgedx" target="_blank">GEDCOM validator VGedX</a>.</li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="http://gigatrees.com/toolbox/centar">CenTar</a> will build a concise listing of all census records found in your database and display them in tabular format so that you can see which individuals are lacking census records.</li> </ul> <ul> <li><a href="http://timforsythe.com/tools/bonkers">Bonkers</a>, an improbability checker.</li> </ul> </li> <li>OrbaDesign has written a free on-line converter from Gedcom to surname word list, <b><a href="http://orba-design.com/genealogy/ged2wordle/" target="_blank">Ged2Wordle</a></b>. It doesn't matter what type of computer you use or what software so long as it can produce a Gedcom file.</li> <li><b><a href="http://www.logicmill.com/" target="_blank">GEDmill</a></b> is an easy-to-use program for building family tree webpages from your family history data. It is free open source software, meaning it is supported by a community of volunteers. The current version is 1.11.0.</li> <li><a href="http://alainlecomte.free.fr/Download.htm">SmartGenealogy</a> allows you to <b>convert Excel to GEDCOM and back.</b> Suggest experimenting with a few of your known GEDCOM files first to work out the correct layout to get your Excel files ready for input. It takes time and effort, but could save you in the end.</li> <li><b><a href="http://winmerge.org/" target="_blank">Winmerge</a></b> is a free program for comparing 2 files including Gedcoms. It is useful for determining what has changed between versions and, if wished, merging changes between versions.</li> <li>Alexander Bisset's <b><a href="http://ftanalyzer.codeplex.com/" target="_blank">Family Tree Analyser</a></b> enables you to investigate your family tree in new and interesting ways. <ul> <li>Find errors in your tree such as children's birthdates before parent was born.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>See lists of who is missing from census searches then click their name to search automatically on Ancestry, FindMyPast, Familysearch.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Load your GEDCOM and analyse the location strings and display them as "big endian" i.e. starting with Scotland and "drilling down" to greater and greater detail. Helps a lot with finding spelling mistakes and data that are mis-matched.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>See where your ancestors lived and moved to over time, using Google Maps and the new maps feature.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>How do I view family trees on my iPad Air (Wifi only)?</h3> <ul> <li>If you have a PC then you have at least two options; if on the other hand you have an Apple then your options may be rather limited in being able to view or edit your records with the Ipad.</li> <li>If you have a GEDCOM why not put it into the free version of <a href="http://www.rootsmagic.com/App/Videos/" target="_blank">Roots Magic</a>, which has a free app which you can download. This will allow you to search your data, both exported via Gedcom into RootsMagic.</li> <li>A viewer may depend on the programs being used as several have their own viewers <a href="http://goodiware.com/goodreader.html" target="_blank">GoodReader</a> was recommended on the Second Sight mailing list for viewing their HTML files on an iPad. This program will also enable you to have all the Guild Journals on your iPad as well as lots of other PDF files such as Parish Register scans (YPRS). This allowed the enquirer to view the HTML and PDF files created from the Excel database, with hyper-linking between the files (useful when offline).</li> <li>The application <a href="http://www.telgen.co.uk/families/" target="_blank">Families</a> will allow you to edit files from Legacy and Roots Magic. One part goes on your computer and the other on the Smart phone/Ipad. Although not free, it is not that expensive either.</li> </ul> <h3>How do view my ONS, which is in Excel, on my Ipad?</h3> <ul> <li>You can create a Gedcom file from your Excel database and view that using RootsMagic, with the free iPad viewer.</li> <li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QuickOffice" target="_blank">Quick Office</a> for an Android phone is available for <a href="http://download.cnet.com/Quickoffice/3000-18483_4-75210829.html" target="_blank">download</a>. It allows you to open and view Word documents and multi-page Excel spreadsheets with no problem and also to access files on your Google drive.</li> </ul> <h3>How do I produce web pages from my ONS workbooks?</h3> <ul> <li>You can use a utility such as SmartGenealogy to convert Excel worksheets to Gedcom, and another to convert the Gedcom to web pages.</li> </ul> <h3>How do I make the hyperlinks in my local workbooks work on my iPad?</h3> <p><i>I've not found a way of displaying "local" HTML pages where the hyperlinks between pages work. The private ones web pages don't go online. Spreadsheets on iPad don't appear to support macros, so I can only get a limited view, one workbook at a time, with no way to switch to the correct place in another workbook (which is what the most frequently used macro does). Dropbox displays the pages OK, but doesn't follow the links.</i></p> <ul> <li>The enquirer did not succeed with finding an app that allowed him to view the Excel database successfully - several apps (including Numbers, Dropbox and GoodReader), allow spreadsheets to be viewed (although large files take forever to load), but none allow any form of linking between one spreadsheet and another.</li> </ul> <h3>How do I export my ONS from the program GreatFamily, unsupported since 2007?</h3> <p><i>While GreatFamily offered the opportunity to include photographs and long notes, these are not tagged or included in the Gedcoms it produces. The program contained information on 17,000 persons, 5,000 text files and 200 images, collected over 30 years.</i></p> <ul> <li>The enquirer was very relieved have received considerable help from Les Hardy (<a href="mailto:les@webmayo.com">les@webmayo.com</a>), the author of <a href="http://genscriber.com/genappsd/" target="_blank">GenScriber</a> who wrote a transfer program <a href="http://genscriber.com/genappsd/greatfamily-gedcom-fix-132.html" target="_blank">GfGedFix</a> which takes the files (data, Gedcom, images and text) and forms a new GEDCOM (standard 5.5.1) which includes the image files and embeds the text. The Gedcom file generated by GfGedFix has been tested on Family Historian, Legacy and Gramps and in all cases the full data was transferred. GfGedFix is free for non-commercial use.</li> </ul> <h3>How do I correct old data input flaws?</h3> <p><i>I've been researching for a very long time, and when I started I made some eccentric choices which haven't stood the test of time. My database contains 17,000 individuals and the Gedcom file comprises 500,000 lines. <br /> </i></p> <ul> <li><i>I decided that the default country was Scotland, so didn't enter it.</i></li> </ul> <ul> <li><i>I decided that Glasgow was a county so put that in county and still omitted the country.</i></li> </ul> <ol> <li>You can edit your Gedcom file, which is just a text file, after all. Make a fresh Gedcom file and back it up.</li> <li>Use Word's Search and Replace function to insert the country data. Use a list of (Scottish, or as appropriate) shires/counties and go through searching one county at a time.</li> <li>When you think you are done, make another Gedcom file and call it something different from the first one.</li> <li>Use <a href="http://winmerge.org/" target="_blank">Winmerge</a> to compare the 2 files and check for any new errors you may have introduced. If necessary, merge the changes from one file to the other.</li> <li>Create a new empty copy of your database and reimport the second, corrected, Gedcom file.</li> </ol>