Best ways to update the gedcom
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First of all, thanks to all the people that have helped create PhpGedView. You've done a marvelous job.
Also thanks to everyone that contributed to the "ISP/Host recommendations" thread, a decent host solved many problems. We (it's actually my father's site) ended up going with bluehost.com and are very happy.
As a newbie I'd like some input from anyone else that manages a large gedcom database on the best ways to update the gedcom.
At the moment Dad's site (waltonandninnes.id.au) has 28,000 individuals in the list and any updates are likely to involve several hundred names at a time. With the current update and merge facilities in PhpGedView this appears to be a painful process but if Dad creates a whole new gedcom (Family Tree Maker) and he uploads and installs it then he has to redo all the customisations for the site again.
I'm not complaining about this. I'd just like verification that I've got it right or suggestions for an easier way.
Cheers,
Andrew.
Andrew
<Update the Gedcom> ??
Why would you use a different program. Many of us with quite large GEDCOMs now use PGV exclusively. With few speed issues remaining, and terrific improvements in the interface, I have little use for offline programs any longer. Only should I need to renumber my own GEDCOM or to do a sizeable merge with another database (which I'm always reluctant to do, given formatting, sourcing and fact issues), or do a favor for another admin, do I use GEDITCOM offline. The current update facilities are quite robust and I find little reason to merge more than an occasional INDI that has somehow been entered twice, which, with PGV, is easy-peasy.
For multiple merging of duplicates, there are few, if any, programs that can be intelligent enough to identify all or even many of the actual dupes, as there is almost certainly a variation on the name (middle name vs initial or none), a date, a place and more. Simply adding one person's work to anothers, without duplication detection, is easy with several programs, but none I know do a really good job of avoiding duplication.
Daniel Kionka's GDBI (Gedcom Database Interface) java program had an excellent attribute for suggesting possible duplications as they were entered (similar to autocomplete's functions but more a warning/suggestion) and several of us still pray that this functionality will make its way into PGV sometime soon.
-Stephen
I agree with Stephen - stick to PGV online. That way you and your father can both work on the same data at the same time - even if you live in the same house!
If you really must continue to use FTM or similar, then your assumption "he has to redo all the customisations for the site again." is wrong. Providing you upload a GEDCOM of EXACTLY the same name, and import it, replacing existing data, all config settings will be untouched.
If you'd like to give us a list of the reasons why you want to continue working offline, I'm sure between Stephen and myself we can refute every one :-))
When I first started, I would post to PGV *AND* to FTM (for backup.) Then I realized it was redundant & a waste of time, and I just make sure I download my ged file, i.e. "family03Sep2009.ged," once or twice a week for backup. I use FTM about twice a year to load my current ged file as a secondary "error checker," to check for duplicates, bad dates (10 y/o fathers or mothers,) etc. Now, several years later, all I can say is we've all been there, done that.
Thanks for all the advice. Doing the genealogy thing is actually Dad's game though, I just look after the technical side of things for him and I have no idea about how to manage a family tree, so I'll leave it up to him from here. He's a little bit anal about joining forums but I've got him to read through this thread and he's a lot happier now.
He'll be busy for a few days now though, he's playing with the layout and themes of his new website as well as transcribing another 250 names that someone sent to him, in a Word document of all things. It turns out that there's a whole branch of the family that he never new existed, he went to school with some of these people and played on the same baseball team as one of them and never knew they were related.
I'm wondering how many names you have to research before you find out that you are your own grandfather. :D
Thanks again,
Andrew.
Andrew,
A problem I have found with uploading a gedcom from Family Tree Maker to PGV, is a lot of extra information may appear in the place information.
I've just added a gedcom created with Family Tree Maker version 9 and found that there was more than place names in the location information.
On checking I found that in Family Tree Maker version 9, this field is labelled Comment/Location. Hence a lot more information was added to the place field in PGV.
I'm not sure if this happens with later versions of Family Tree Maker.
You may want to check in "Lists"----> "Place Hierarchy" to see if you have the same problem.