GEDCOM FILES

[CatrionaL]

1st posted by AnnetteR at 3.21pm 30 January 2005

When wanting to transfer a GEDCOM file from one software package to another this is how I do it. Go into to the software package where the file you want to transfer lives. Open the file and click on file on top left hand corner and the drop down menu should give an option saying Import/Export. From that option select export gedcom file. You should be given a choice of where to save the gedcom file on your C drive e.g., my documents etc or to floppy disc on the A drive. Depending on what package is being used it might be better to save to floppy but it is really down to choice.

To transfer this file to the new software package you should open a new family file and name it appropriately. Repeat the above in the new software package with the new file open but this time choose the Import option. Some software packages (like Legacy) have an Import wizard which makes it easy peezy and finds all the gedcom files on your C drive and it is just a case of clicking on the file you want and following the instructions. If there is no wizard just find the gedcom file you want to import from wherever you saved it on your C drive, or if saved to a floppy then insert the floppy into the A drive, and import it from there again following the instructions on screen.

If I can do it, it must be simple. Surprised

Cheers

Annette

[Malcolm]

What is a GED COM file

[LesleyB]

Hi Malcolm
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM

http://genealogy.about.com/library/weekly/aa110100a.htm


Best wishes
Lesley

[mallog]

I recently lost all my family trees when my computer decided to die. I had skeleton trees on ancestry and I have the vast majority of my information in some form or other on paper but you can imagine the work it will be to transcribe it all.(I have literally thousands of people on different family trees) I did have some slightly out of date GEDCOM files but when I went to import them into my new program it wouldn't accept it saying it had to be a newer version of GEDCOM. It is very annoying to find when you update to a new operating system that many of the programs you had before are just not compatible but I would have thought GEDCOM would have been universal. P.S. I have bought an external hard drive with this laptop

[Currie]

Hello Mallog,

It’s probably your Family History program that is rejecting the Gedcom rather than anything to do with the operating system. You could try temporarily installing another free genealogy program and see if that will open the Gedcom and then export the Gedcom again in a version that will open in your current FH program. It doesn’t hurt to have more than one FH program running on your computer.

You could try emailing a copy of the Gedcom to another computer to see if it can be opened elsewhere and then returned as a later version. You may need version 5.5.

This fellow suggests an interesting solution. “open it in a text editor and change the version number to 5.5” (also see the rest of that thread) http://boards.ancestry.com.au/topics.so ... .1/mb.ashx

I’ve made a test Gedcom to try it out.

First (very important) make a COPY of the Gedcom.
Right click the COPY and click ‘open with’
Select notepad
You’ll see the Gedcom in notepad starts something like this, depending on what program you used to create it etc (Your version line may be further down)

0 HEAD
1 SOUR PAF
2 NAME Personal Ancestral File
2 VERS 5.2.18.0
2 CORP The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
3 ADDR 50 East North Temple Street
4 CONT Salt Lake City, UT 84150
4 CONT USA

Change only the VERS line. In my case I’ll change it from 5.2.18.0 to 5.5

So that you end up with (or whatever your variation is)

0 HEAD
1 SOUR PAF
2 NAME Personal Ancestral File
2 VERS 5.5
2 CORP The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
3 ADDR 50 East North Temple Street
4 CONT Salt Lake City, UT 84150
4 CONT USA

Save the changes – file/save.

Open a new file in your family history program and import the Gedcom. Don’t import it into your current file in case things didn’t work as hoped, and also because you’ll get duplication if you’ve already made entries there. Examine the results, make sure all your notes and sources etc are there etc, and hopefully Bob will be your Uncle.

I just tried all that and it seems to have worked ok. If it doesn’t work properly then you still have the original Gedcom and you’re no worse off than when you started.

If things get desperate go to this site, type gedcom as the keyword, and tick the freeware license, and you’ll find some possibly useful little programs. Remember to work on a copy of the Gedcom. http://www.softpedia.com/progFinder

Hoe that’s useful,
Alan

[LesleyB]

Hi Mallog
Just a thought...have you chnaged the Family history software that you use as well? Just wondering because some Family history software, unless told otherwise at the time of creation, may create a GEDCOM only for use in its own software, not the universal GEDCOM 5.5 which other family history software can open.

As well as backing up on your external HD, it is a good idea to also back up to somewhere external e.g. if you have a Hotmail account you have access to online storage called "skydrive" (a free extra) where you can upload files which you can then access from anywhere that you are able to access an internet enabed device, or even give others access to the files. I think GoogleDocs (also free) offer a similar thing too.

Best wishes
Lesley

[mallog]

Thanks Lesley. As usual great advice from you. I have changed my software to FTM from Family Tree. Old software wasn't loading properly on Windows 7

[mallog]

You could try emailing a copy of the Gedcom to another computer to see if it can be opened elsewhere and then returned as a later version. You may need version 5.5.

Allan Thank you for taking the time to give me all that information. Much appreciated. I am hoping to use another computer to try to change it to another form. I will give your method a try but will have to wait till I'm off work cos I think I'm going to need to concentrate When I created the file I probably didn't realise at the time there were other versions. FTM is asking me for Version 5.5

[mallog]

Alan

By mentioning PAF you gave me the idea of importing it to that and then exporting it as the later version. FTM accepted it. Thanks

Mallog

[Currie]

That’s great Mallog,

I’m glad to see you sorted it out.

All the best,
Alan