PAF II -- Class 4:

IMPORTING AND EXPORTING DATA AND

COMPARING TWO DATABASES

©Copyright 2007 by Donald R. Snow

• Welcome and Summary of Previous Class
• Importing Data Without GEDCOM
• GEDCOM = Genealogical Data Communication
• Exporting a GEDCOM
• Importing a GEDCOM
• Match/Merge
• Comparing Two GEDCOM's or PAF Databases
• Assignment

• 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.
• Additional details on some of these topics about GEDCOM are in my online PAF I class notes at Don's Class Listings .
• Review of reports, custom reports, web pages, and additional PAF tools -- Any questions?

IMPORTING DATA WITHOUT GEDCOM

• For transferring only a few items into a PAF databases, can use copy-and-paste as follows:
  • If data is coming from another PAF 5 database, open both databases in PAF 5.2 in side-by-side windows by running PAF, then open one database, then the other -- then click Window/Tile Vertically -- you will see them side-by-side in two PAF windows -- the one with the bright blue bar at top is the active one -- click anywhere in the other window to make it the active one
  • If data is from email or a text file, open PAF 5.2 in one window and the email or text file in another, e.g. your mail program or WordPerfect, Word, Wordpad, or Notepad
  • To show these windows side-by-side, first make each full screen by clicking on their corresponding "Maximize" rectangles in the upper right corners
  • Then between their rectangular boxes on the bottom bar (in the gray area), right click to get the menu, then left click Tile Vertically -- the program windows will be side-by-side and will fill the screen (you may have to widen one or both if you had other programs running too)
  • For smaller monitors the programs are easier to use when the windows are "cascaded" or else used full screen and you click back and forth between them -- blue bar or lighter box on the task bar shows the active one
    
• Can now copy and paste between them -- to copy, highlight and right-mouse/Copy or else use Ctrl-C; to paste place cursor where you want it and right-mouse/Paste or else Ctrl-V

GEDCOM = GENEALOGICAL DATA COMMUNICATION

• GEDCOM files are special forms of text files -- can be copied, emailed, edited, imported into other databases, etc.
• GEDCOM file format has numbers and tags in the left column like  0 IND, 1 BIRT, 2 DATE, ..., and you can think of these as indents as follows:
• 0 Individual's Name
• 1Birth
• 2 Birth Date
• 2 Birth Place
• 1 Christening
• GENViewer (current version is 1.21) -- very helpful commercial program to examine a GEDCOM or PAF database -- can read the GEDCOM without having to put it into PAF
  • Has many features to determine what's in the GEDCOM, e.g. how many people, what pedigrees, notes, how many "islands" or "trees"
  • Full version costs about $20 U.S., can contact http://www.mudcreeksoftware.com/ for a free FHC version -- can also download the evaluation copy of the full version and use it free for 15 days
  • GENViewer is a viewer, not an editor so you have to use PAF to edit the file, not GENViewer -- allows you to analyze GEDCOM's in many ways
• GEDCOM's are just special forms of text files and can be edited with a word processor (Notepad or WordPerfect), but it's tricky to keep in the GEDCOM format and you have to save it as a text file without any control characters, since PAF can't handle control characters

EXPORTING A GEDCOM

• Before making a GEDCOM, run File/Check-Repair/Check to be sure there are no file structure errors -- see the notes for Class 1 for info
• Make an up-to-date backup in case something goes wrong
• Click on the Export icon (floppy disk icon with arrow out) or else File/Export
• Select destination (purpose) of the GEDCOM, e.g. PAF 5, Pedigree Resource File, etc. -- select PAF 5 if you want to retain the Unique ID numbers (see description below under Match/Merge)
  • Also select what parts of the records to include in the GEDCOM, e.g. notes, LDS data
  • Select All or Partial
    
• Partial/Select gives you the same selection screen as for Custom Report (see class notes for Custom Reports)
• Relationship filter on left side of screen and Field filter on right side of screen -- set these to have the people you want in the GEDCOM
• When done, click OK
  
• When done selecting records (All or Partial), click on Export, tell it the drive, folder, and name you want for the GEDCOM file, then click Continue
• If you store the GEDCOM on a floppy (A:\ drive), and it needs more than one floppy, it will prompt you to put in additional floppies until it has enough
• GEDCOM'ing keeps the records in your database and only makes copies of them to send out
  • If you want to delete the selected records, click on the Delete button at bottom -- Don't do this by accident!
  • To separate your database into parts, Export the GEDCOM, click on Delete to delete those records, select another block to export, etc. -- can "decompose" your database into parts this way, but make a backup before you start in case you have problems
    
• GEDCOM'ing entire database out and importing it into a new database sometimes straightens out file structure problems that can't be corrected with File/Check-Repair

IMPORTING A GEDCOM

• Can work with small GEDCOM's directly from the floppy disk, but for large ones, copy them to hard drive first, since it works so much faster
• To import a GEDCOM into a PAF database, open the database you want to put it in or set up a new one
• First determine the highest RIN in your database by clicking on File/Properties and noting the Record Count -- Record Count is the highest RIN -- the total number of names in the database is Record Count minus Deleted Records
• Click on the Import icon (Arrow In) or File/Import, and tell it where to find the GEDCOM
  • Click on the box to have it put additional data into notes -- this puts any problem data into the notes of the imported individuals as well as in the Listing File
  • Remove the check on Reuse Deleted Records so all imported names will be numbered higher than your highest RIN -- if you leave the check in Reuse Deleted Records, the imported names use up old deleted RIN's and are then scattered throughout your database, rather than all being together at the end
  • Click Continue -- progress bar shows you that it is working to import the GEDCOM
• After importing the GEDCOM form links of children to new parents and/or individuals to new spouses
  • Can set the links by hand -- click on Add Child / Already in File, etc.
  • Or use Match/Merge if there are duplicate names in the file and some already have the correct links
  • Usually better to merge, rather than try to link everyone by hand, so you keep all the correct links
    
• If you are not RIN #1 and you want to be, you can do this as follows:  (1) create new PAF database with just your name; (2) form a GEDCOM of your entire old database; (3) import the GEDCOM into the new database, and (4) merge your old record into the new one with you as RIN 1

MATCH/MERGE

• Combines duplicates so there are not two or more records for same person
• Use Match/Merge, not Delete, to eliminate duplicates, since that retains all family links (H-W, P-C) from both records
• See the PAF 5 Users Guide for helpful strategies on merging records -- search the Users Guide for "Merge" and read the information
• Make a backup of 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 the Merge icon (4th from right on upper Tool Bar) or click on Tools/Match-Merge
• Options in Match/Merge:
  • Can make a list of possible matches by Print/Lists/Duplicate Individuals -- makes a list of all possible matches so you can merge them later
  • Click on Options to see and set different criterion to consider in the possible matches
  • Merge on 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 merges everyone with same AFN regardless of whether there were differences in data -- be careful of this if you have made any changes in records that have AFN's since you don't know which parts will be saved
    • PAF 5 merges those with same AFN if all data is exactly the same, but stops and asks what parts you want to merge when it finds that any data is different, even if AFN's are the same
  • Merge on Unique ID numbers
    • UID's are numbers that PAF 5 assigns to each individual when you set up the database and they stay with the records when you form a GEDCOM -- very useful when you have others working on same database
    • Merging on UID's automatically merges the records when they are exactly the same, but stops when record has been changed so you can decide which parts to bring in, like AFN merges -- very handy tool
    • Can get PAF 5 to merge all UID's that are unchanged in the two databases by holding down the Enter key so it ignores the ones that are changed and merges all those that are exactly the same -- then you can go back and decide for the changed records what data you want to import
      
  • Automatic Match/Manual Merge
    • Automatically finds possible matches, but lets you decide whether to merge them or not
    • Can select criteria of how close you require matches to be
    • May have to go through Automatic Match/Manual Merge several times since it goes through the alphabet using Soundex and stores possible matches, but later merges may affect earlier names
• For possible matches you see the two screens side by side
  • Merge is from right screen to left, i.e.   [TO]  <----  [FROM]
    
  • Can Switch screens and/or decide what parts to keep
  • Can see Marriage and Family Info by clicking on the tabs at top
    
  • Merging fills in empty slots on the left screen, but retains the old left data if anything was there already -- to replace the old left hand data you need to put a check by data on the right side
  • Click Merge and you see the record after the merge is done
  • Can Edit any info in the records before or after the merge to save any data you want to correct or save and not lose; e.g. enter duplicate ordinance data or duplicate AFN's in notes before you do the merge
• Merging sources and repositories
  • Click on Tools/Merge Duplicate Sources and Citations
  • PAF 5 only merges sources that are spelled identically -- no merge if there is any difference, even an extra space or period -- you may have to correct the spelling and/or copy and paste from one of a duplicate pair into the other in order to get them to merge
  • PAF 3 was better for this since it allowed you to select which sources to merge even if not spelled exactly the same, and this is what you usually have

COMPARING TWO GEDCOM'S OR PAF DATABASES

• New program that compares two databases -- PAF Insight, http://www.ohanasoftware.com -- very helpful
• If GEDCOM's are mostly the same data they can be compared using a word processor like WordPerfect or Word, since they are text files and most word processors have ways to show the differences between text files -- this only works if the GEDCOM's are almost the same, since otherwise there are too many differences and few similarities
• To compare two different GEDCOM's or PAF databases using only PAF, do the following:
1. Set up a temporary PAF database by clicking File/Open/<highlight database>/Right mouse/Copy/Paste
   • This forms a copy of the database called Copy of .... in the same directory (This is so you don't foul up your original database.)
   • Click on File/Properties and write down Record Count -- Record Count is highest RIN in this database -- remember that the number of actual records in the database is Record Count minus Deleted Records
2. Import a GEDCOM of the other database -- turn off Reuse Deleted Records so the RIN's of added database will all be higher than original RIN's
3. Run Print Menu/Lists/Duplicate Individuals and print it to a text file or hard copy
4. Find the matches between the two databases -- RIN's less than the max RIN are from the original database, RIN's higher than max RIN are from imported database -- print this report or else make note of the RIN's to import from second database
5. Now, knowing the RIN's from the second database, make a GEDCOM of individuals or families you want to import from it and import them into original database

ASSIGNMENT

1. Read through these notes and the PAF 5 Users Guide about GEDCOM and Match/Merge.  Use Find GEDCOM and Find Merge features of Adobe Acrobat Reader to find these to read them.
2. Form a GEDCOM file of some or all of your PAF data.
3. Import a GEDCOM file into some working database, maybe just a trial database.
4. Do a Match/Merge on some names in a PAF database (maybe just a trial database to see how it works).