PAF
I -- Class 4:
GEDCOM -- TRANSFERRING, SPLITTING, AND
MERGING DATA
©Copyright 2007 by Donald R. Snow
Sections of the Class Notes
Return to Don's
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updated 22 Apr 2007.
WELCOME AND
SUMMARY OF LAST CLASS
- Instructors
are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow, 801-225-7123 in Provo, Utah
and 435-673-1932 in St. George, Utah (snowd@math.byu.edu,
dms34@juno.com)
- These notes with active Internet links are posted on the
Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group website http://uvtagg.org
under Class Outlines, Don's Listings.
- Last time -- entering notes and
printing reports -- How are the
classes going for you? Questions?
GEDCOM
(= GEnealogical
Data COMmunications) --
WHAT IT IS AND WHEN TO USE IT
- GEDCOM is just a special text file format used
for transferring
genealogy data
- Allows transferring
data between genealogy programs, e.g
between PAF, RootsMagic, Legacy, Ancestral File, TempleReady, IGI,
etc., so you don't need to key in the data again
- Can
be read (and edited) by any word processing program, e.g.
Notepad, Wordpad, OpenOffice, WordPerfect, Word, etc. -- but be sure to
save it as a text file without the control characters
- GEDCOM was developed by LDS Church and now most
genealogy
programs use it
- Use GEDCOM when you
want to:
- Merge two databases, e.g.
your's and your spouse's master
databases, or an AF database into a working database
- Split
your database, e.g. divide it into your's and your
spouse's ancestral lines, or into your four grandparents' lines
- Transfer some part or all of your database to a relative,
friend, or to Pedigree Resource Files
- Fix some
PAF database structure problems
- Make yourself RIN
1 in the database, if you are not already RIN
1 (see instructions below)
- To
transfer only one or two records from one database into
another you can do it without GEDCOM as follows:
- Open one databases in PAF, then the other in PAF
- Click Window/Tile Vertically -- first database opened is on right and second
is on left, both in the same PAF window
- The "active" database is the one with
the bright blue bar at
top -- click anywhere in the other one to make it the active one
- Then to copy data, Highlight/Right click/Copy and the data is on the
clipboard;
then click on the other database to make it the active one, go to the location you want, and
Highlight/Right click/Paste to paste the data there
CREATING
GEDCOM FILES
FROM YOUR DATABASE
- Before making a GEDCOM, run File/Check and repair
any file
structure problems -- see earlier notes (doesn't correct logical data
errors)
- Make a backup of your database so you can
restore it in case
something gets fouled up in the process
- Click on
the Arrow Out icon or File/Export to see export options
- Select the option for the destination of the GEDCOM file --
PAF
5, usually, unless person is using an old version of PAF
- Select the records you want in the GEDCOM file
-- this is the
same screen as for filtering with the same two kinds of filters
- (1) Relationship Filter -- allows you to select
out sets like
All, Family, Ancestors, All
Ancestral Related, or Descendants
- Good
visual representation of Relationship Filter in PAF 5
Lesson 7 Slide 3
- (2) Event Filter --
allows you to select out sets like those
born in Nauvoo, or those born out of USA, but died in USA (immigrants)
- Click OK to form the selection -- you see a mark
» (French quotation mark) by each name selected
- Toggle
"Show Results Only" to alternate between only those
selected or else everyone
- Click OK
to finalize the selection, then click Export to form the
GEDCOM file
- Tell it the drive, folder
(directory), and name you want to
save it as, then click Continue
- DON'T
CLICK ON DELETE, unless you want to delete all the selected
names from your database -- Don't do this by accident!
- This
GEDCOM file can be copied to floppy, emailed, transferred to
another machine, etc.
- to fix some file structure errors you can make a GEDCOM of entire
database and import it into a new
database
- If you want
to make yourself RIN #1 -- (1) form a GEDCOM of your
entire database, including notes and sources; (2) create a new PAF
database with just your name so you are #1 in it; (3) import the GEDCOM
into the new
database, and (4) merge your old record into your new one with you as
RIN 1
CREATING
GEDCOM FILES
FROM FAMILYSEARCH AND
PEDIGREE
RESOURCE FILES
- GEDCOM's from FamilySearch (FS)
- FS is in two versions: DOS version in FHC's and in
Windows version online at http://www.familysearch.org/
- Both versions have data files, but they are not the same
- International Genealogical Index -- online
version is more up-to-date and larger
- Ancestral File (AF) -- FHC
version is larger (online version doesn't have [LIVINGS] nor any temple ordinances)
- Social Security
Death Index (SSDI) -- online version is more
up-to-date
- Military Death
Index (MDI) -- only in FHC's
- Pedigree
Resource File (PRF) -- online only has the index,
not the PRF sources and notes nor ordinance data
- Can
download from both versions in GEDCOM
format
- Online version puts source where it
belongs so it goes into PAF
in sources
- Pedigree Resource File -- PRF
- PRF
consists of GEDCOM's uploaded by anyone through http://www.familysearch.org/
in the Share option -- takes the place of Ancestral File and will be included in New FamilySearch when that is released
- LDS Church produces about one DVD per month (125 CD's
+ 3 DVD's out at
present - Apr 2007) -- each DVD set has a PRF DVD and a cummulative Index DVD to all previous data
- CD's and DVD's contain
thousands of GEDCOM's -- about 1.1 million names
on each CD and 5 million names on each DVD
- Updated Master Index,
but not the GEDCOM data files, is
on http://www.familysearch.org/ , so Index is there, but no notes, sources, nor ordinance data
- Data is not merged as in AF, so same
name may occur many times
- Data can't be corrected
since it has been released and
distributed -- later submissions may correct earlier files, so look at later files first
- Master Index shows all CD's/DVD's containing
that name in any GEDCOM
- After checking Master Index, go to a FHC to
download the GEDCOM
-- only the Index is online, not the sources, notes, nor ordinances
- PRF
includes sources, notes, and ordinances, if they were
submitted -- those are the valuable files, so look for those first
- AF did not include any sources or notes, but when data was
submitted to AF in hardcopy those pages were microfilmed and are
available and some have many notes and sources
- New FamilySearch, when released, will combine AF
and PRF
WORKING
WITH GEDCOM
FILES AND CONVERTING THEM
INTO PAF FILES
- To examine a GEDCOM, create a new PAF
file and import the
GEDCOM by clicking on the Arrow In icon or click File/Import, tell it
where to find the GEDCOM, tell it to put additional data into notes,
click Continue -- can then examine data and see what needs fixing and
decide the parts you really want to import into your master database
- To import a GEDCOM into another PAF database, just click on
the
Arrow In icon or click on File/Import and set the options:
- Option of reusing RIN's means that when you are
importing into
an old database, you want it to fill in "holes" and reuse RIN's of
records you have deleted -- in a new database this doesn't matter
- When importing into an old database not reusing
old RIN's helps
so that all imported data has higher RIN's than old data and you can
tell it at a glance
- Option
of putting the listing file data in the
notes helps so that you get both a
"listing file" showing all problems and also the
problems get put into the individual's notes so you can fix that
data later
- Can import the GEDCOM directly from
a flash drive or
floppy,
but if from a floppy it works faster to copy the GEDCOM to the hard
drive first
- Marker shows you the progress of
importing the GEDCOM and you get
the final count of names and marriages imported
- When importing into an old database you will
probably need to
link some
children to new parents or link new spouses
- Can
set the links by hand -- click on Add Child / Select
Individual Already in
File
- Or if there are now duplicate names in the file use Match/Merge to merge them so you keep all the links -- usually
easier to merge
rather than to link everyone by hand
- GENViewer
(current version is 1.21) is a good program to examine
GEDCOM's without puting them into PAF first
- Has many features to determine what's in the
GEDCOM, for
example, how many "islands" or "trees" it has (separate groups of
people connected)
- Commercial program
(about $20 U.S.), but can download an
evaluation
copy for free and use it for 15 days from http://www.mudcreeksoftware.com/
- A "lite" version is available for free
MATCH/MERGE
- Combines duplicates so you only have one record
for that person
in database
- Use Match/Merge, not Delete, to
eliminate duplicates, since it
retains all family links (H-W, P-C) from both
- See
the PAF User's Guide under Help/Users Guide for helpful
strategies on merging records -- search for "Merge"
- Backup
your file before you Match/Merge since you can't undo the
merge and you may want to start over
- To get to
Match/Merge, click on Tools/Match-Merge or on
Match-Merge icon
- Options in Match/Merge:
- List Possible Matches -- makes list of all
possible matches so
you can merge them later
- Merge for Matching AFN's
-- automatically finds and merges all
records with matching AF numbers
- Use
for data from AF where you downloaded the same individual
two or more times.
- PAF 4 will merge everyone with
same AFN regardless of whether
there are differences in data -- be careful of this if you have made
any changes in records that have AFN's
- PAF 5 will
merge those with same AFN if all data is exactly
the same, but stops and asks if you want to merge them if any data is
different, even if AFN's are the same
- Merge
on Unique ID numbers
- UID's are
numbers that PAF 5 assigns (not in PAF 4) and that
stay with the records, so when you or others work on some of your
data you can reimport and Match/Merge on UID's and it only shows you
the ones that are changed, so you can decide whether to keep the changes
-- very handy tool
- Automatic
Match/Manual Merge
- Automatically
finds possible matches, but lets you decide
whether to merge them or not
- Click on Options to
set criteria of how close you require
matches to be
- May have to go through Automatic
Match/Manual Merge more than
once since it uses Soundex and starts at A and stores possible matches,
but later merges may affect earlier names
- For possible matches you see the two screens side by side --
merge is [ ] <----
[ ] , i.e. from right
screen to left screen
- Click
on Switch to interchange screens if you want to keep more parts and the
RIN from the right screen -- then check the other boxes you want to keep
- Merging fills in empty slots
on the left screen, but retains
the old left data if anything was there already, unless you check that
box on the right
- Can Edit any info in the records
before or after the merge to
keep the data you want; e.g. you can enter duplicate ordinance data or
duplicate AFN's in notes before you do the merge if you want to keep it
- Several
other programs that help with merging, e.g. PAF Insight
from Ohana Software, http://www.ohanasoftware.com
- Merging sources and repositories
- Click on Tools/Merge Duplicate Sources and
Citations
- PAF 5 only merges sources and
repositories where everything is
exactly the same -- may have to edit source and/or repository to get
them to merge
WHERE
TO GO FROM HERE
- This finishes the 4-class PAF I Basic
course and we have gone
through the
basics -- however, PAF has much much more in it
- To
learn more and review what you learned, go back through these
notes again and in more detail, and go through the Lessons in PAF5/Help.
- Can continute on with Intermediate PAF class, or TempleReady,
or
specialty
courses -- many sets of notes are posted online at Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group
- Good luck with your family history.
ASSIGNMENT
- Read through these notes and the PAF 5
User's Guide under
Helps/Users Guide on GEDCOM and
Match/Merge.
- Form a GEDCOM file of some or all of
your PAF data.
- Do a Match/Merge on some
names in your PAF database (or maybe just a
trial database you have set up).
- Set up a new PAF database and import the same GEDCOM file into it twice; then try the Match/Merge on it.
Return to Don's
Class
Listings page or to the home page of Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group .