How do I split a gedcom file?

[Anne in Carlisle]

Yes, Jane - my posting was made in October 2008!!!! I do now have V4 and am enjoying adding my photos knowing they will stay with the tree!

Anne

[Wortle]

Hi, I have read this with interest and am using FTB. I want to import and attach a small gedcom onto a branch of my existing tree. Anybody know where there is an idiots guide to do that?
Thanks

[PhotoFamily]

I was just going to mention adding to a tree!

Ancestry does not allow importing a GEDCOM after the tree is created.

PAF does allow it, and has some ability to hunt and eliminate duplicates.

I don't use Family Historian, but it sounds like it would do it.

[Wortle]

Attaching.
I have since found instructions on the myheritage website for FTB. I have done a couple of trials with " nonsense" trees and had a little difficulty where there were duplicates. So in an ancestor tree I changed the name of the person I was attaching it too temporarily and the had only one superfluous person to deal with. It looks as if you need to have the incoming tree clean of duplicates as these have to be dealt with individually at the moment. While I was looking for info I came across someone who had attached 800 similar to an existing tree and now has to sort alphabetically and delete each duplicate having cross checked all notes on the individuals. After that cautionary tale I havent yet tried for real. If you know a better way keep googling and see if you can help them!

Attaching in ancestry? Is that FTM or the ancestry site, or both?

Splitting
Still not found a way in Family Tree Builder. I couldnt find help on site so I emailed their help desk but they havent replied yet. Looks like that will need to be the PAF root, but again I am nervous. Things can go so horribly wrong. I only download applications or programs if I absolutely have to. All the LDS stuff has to be some of the best tried software in the world but apparently there have been windows 7 clashes.

[Caroline]

I don't know other software very well, as I use Family Historian. FH makes it very simple to both split a tree to get exactly what you want, which I do often, and also to merge which I have only done once or twice.

You can download a fully working 30 day demo from their site.

More information on the various packages with relevant links, and also working with GEDCOMS, can be found on our Software and Publishing pages.

[PhotoFamily]

Caroline -
Will it search for duplicates? Unfortunately, I have created more than one tree, and some individuals are multiple trees. PAF will search for them once you merge the trees, and query if you want to merge the duplicates that it finds - but it doesn't catch everybody. Some I think it should have caught.

[Anne in Carlisle]

With FH you can compare and/or merge two files. You may THINK you have duplicates but nearly always there is a small difference in the data (eg one has date of birth and the other baptism; or one has the county as well as the town). YOU know that they are two records for the same person but the program will count them as two different ones if there is the slightest difference between them.

With FH you can get two tables up on the screen together and go through them person by person deciding which one can be discarded and which needs information from the 'other' record adding to it. FH does try to match similar ones for you but gets it wrong sometimes.

It is a long process and there are no short cuts to merging two files with the same people on them!!!! You could just click 'merge' but you would end up with an even bigger mess because a few records would be identical but many would not be therefore, for example, you would get a man with two wives -both having the same name and YOU know they are the same person but the computer does not!

Been a bit long winded here - hope you can understand. It will be worth merging but you must keep control of it. ALWAYS SAVE A MASTER COPY of the original files in case of disaster. That way you can play about as you wish and not be too scared!

Anne

[PhotoFamily]

Caroline & Anne -
I have a major headache of merging several overlapping trees. I've downloaded the 30-day trial version of FH. The merge function doesn't seem to offer much info to base the merge on? All I have on the screen is the name of the two candidates for merge. OMG, even in the direct descendant lines I have duplicate names. Then add all the side branches! Am I missing something?

PAF gives side-by-side comparisons of all BMD data, plus spouse name, before asking if the records should be merged.

[PhotoFamily]

OK, I found the documentation on the user group site, and I'm trying what they outlined.

But I would not say I'm enjoying life.

[jtaubman]

Press the + next to the name to see the fields and what FH is going to do.

I would also recommend prior to starting the merge to clean the trees you want to merge in (using the split to remove any families you don't want in your master tree), and fixing any mismatched names. FH will let you open it several times so I open one with the merge and one with the file I want to merge and tidy any issues, before reloading the merge.

Merge is not an easy process because the computer can only help so far. You might know Alex Smith is the same as Alex Finlandar Moriarti Smith, but the program won't.

Take your time and work slowly, and consider splitting your received tree in to chunks to merge in to make it easier to manage.

[PhotoFamily]

I finally used PAF, selected the trees that had little overlap, and threw them all into a new paf file. Then deleted people, or used PAF's merge utility. I still need to merge one more gedcom, that may have many duplicates.

I may also repeat step one, now that I've practiced once.

I didn't figure out the nuances of FH's merges when it comes to things other than people. You must separately accepted the relationships between people? Also, there's no way to "mark all" or "clear all" that I could find.

Maybe because I'm not experienced with FH, but I thought PAF was ultimately easier. But, it may be a case of two tools are better than one. I like FH's screens.

[Wortle]

Attaching: Glad you are sorted photofamily. I think however familiar you are with your software or whatever software you use, duplicates will always be a problem because quite often they are in a tree 3 or three times legitimately ( or even illegitimately!).

Splitting:just in case anyone looks up this thread and wants an answer, a reply was received from FTB with link to instructions

http://www.myheritage.com/help/2008/10/how-do-i-export-or-publish-specific-branches-of-my-family-tree/en/