Corrupted GEDCOM import

[Kevin L]

I had a family tree of about 600 people, in a PhpGedView database, hosted on my web server. Unfortunately, I lost the ability to import or export GEDCOMs due to a php upgrade.
I rebuilt the database in Mac Family Tree 10 and imported the GEDCOM into TNG version 14.
The GEDCOM imported correctly.

Last week I connected Mac Family Tree to the LDS Family Search site using the integrated connection of Mac Family Tree. I added a number of people using their people match function.

Unfortunately, I then over wrote the original GEDCOM which is now lost to the ether.
Subsequent imports of the MFT GEDCOMS result in weird errors such as people married to themselves and original spouses erased from the database. This required lots of corrections for several generations until parents could be found with the add parents search function.

Needless to say, I am hesitant to use this TNG GEDCOM for any import export since the original Mac Family Tree GEDCOM exports perfectly into other programs such as GRAMPS and Geneanet and I'm afraid to import the TNG GEDCOM into Mac Family Tree.

Here's the corrupted family tree:

http://www.sspfrance.com/gen/pedigree.php?personID=I20&tree=test

Here's the corrected family tree:

http://www.sspfrance.com/gen/pedigree.php?personID=I20&tree=tree1

Any insights or advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Kevin

[JMM]

Kevin,

Just curious, is it normal to have individuals' IDs with letters, such as I19WJ-R for John Christopher Thompson?  I'm wondering what software/website is creating such ID numbers (i.e. with letters in the part after the I-prefix), instead of just numbers after the I-prefix.

I'm not saying that it is wrong, just that I've never seen that before .

Regards,
John

[ADC]

22 minutes ago, JMM said:

Just curious, is it normal to have individuals' IDs with letters, such as I19WJ-R for John Christopher Thompson? 

It isn't necessarily wrong, but it is unusual. It appears they are being derived by adding the letter I in front of the AFN, which is the Ancestral File Number, a unique identifier used on FamilySearch, and specifically from it's now-outdated Ancestral File. It normally has two digits after the dash so it may be misformed in this instance. As long as they are unique for each person, it shouldn't cause problems whatever format Person IDs are in. It is usually best to have a 'master' genealogical software program that assigns these and for all the other programs to fall into line with it.

I don't have a solution to Kevin's problem, other than to ensure you select to "Replace All Current Data" when doing an import, otherwise there is always the danger of duplicating people. That's what I'd suggest doing here - a new import, but making sure Replace All Current Data is selected.

I would add that swapping data between different applications using GEDCOM is always going to cause headaches. Nearly every program has it's own foibles which means it cannot shoe-horn its data into the GEDCOM standard, and that will prevent some data crossing to the next program. This is the case with TNG in fact - for example, cemeteries and media albums will not export into your GEDCOM file as they are not a GEDCOM-defined record. It's best to restrict yourself to one desktop program and one online program and only allow the data to flow one way (desktop > online). You can do other workflows of course, but be prepared for the work!

[Kevin L]

The ID number was generated by PhpGedView. There are also numbers generated by Family Search and TNG (for the corrections).

I have created several empty TNG test trees with the same kind of results. Sometimes with different self-married people. 

It's a mystery. 

Thanks,

Kevin

[ADC]

I would say that if you've imported the GEDCOM into an empty test TNG tree and you get the problems straight away, the problem must lie in the GEDCOM file itself.

Looking at your 'problem' site, the issue seems to be that John Christopher Thompson is assigned to two different family records:

 

Family F8997916, the second one on the list is definitely incorrect as it has the same father assigned to it twice.

I would suggest that correcting things directly in TNG is going to be fruitless, as any import will introduce the same errors again. So assuming the GEDCOM file itself is the problem, can you explain clearly where that file is (or was) being generated from? I lost track a bit in your original explanation. That program will be the source of the errors you are seeing.

I know you said you have lost access to PhpGedView, but do you have access to the last good export you had from that site? A backup somewhere perhaps. You may have to work your way back to a GEDCOM that did not contain these errors and restart from that point.

[Kevin L]

Thanks Adrian,

I suspect that my downloads from Family Search created duplicate, and sometimes erroneous records.

I did find the original file on my site with FileZilla but it's quite old and 1/3 the size of my current file. I did try to upload it to TNG with the same result. I also downloaded my file from Geneanet.org. Same. I am using a trial version of Family Historian to really inspect the GEDCOM file. The TNG site is a mess now but I'll figure it out eventually. Thanks for taking the time to check it out.

Kevin

PS. You guys are all really helpful. What a nice community.

[ADC]

I use Family Historian too Kevin, it's my main desktop program, so if you need any help there, please ask. There's a great forum for FH - https://www.fhug.org.uk/forum/index.php - the guys there are very helpful.

It's a shame the file's ended up in such a mess, as it looks like you've done some hard work on it. I hope you work it out and if you need any help just shout.

Cheers, Adrian

[Kevin L]

Thanks, Adrian. I"ll keep that in mind. Family Historian is a bit overwhelming at first glance. It looks great, though. It took me a while to figure out how to delete a record. I'm combing through the chart and weeding out some of the people that were automatically added by Family Search. I'm doing this project in honor of my late father. He had a lifelong passion for genealogy. I remember him dragging us reluctant kids through many graveyards. He spent a lot of time at the LDS Family history Library and was a member of several Historical and Genealogical societies. So I'm going to enter what he had in his big binder of handwritten charts. I'll use web resources to check and add people manually now.

Thanks again,

Kevin