How to share the marriage contracts obtained from a notarial book in FamilySearch?
Hello
While working on my family tree, I've been reviewing several notarial books written about 200 years ago. I've annotated all the marriage contracts that I've found into an Excel file and I would like to publish this information in FamilySearch for sharing purposes and collaboration.
I would like to ask your support on what is the best way to add this information in FamilySearch.
My first approach was to generate a GEDCOM file containing all the information and then upload it in FamilySearch but It does not seem to work. Please find below the details of this failed test.
Another approach would be to manually introduce the marriage contract information extracted from a notarial book into my Tree. What would be the best approach to include this information?
Should I add the marriage contract as a Relationship Event, Relationship Fact, Relationship Source, or a Relationship Note? I cannot find a specific option for marriage contracts.
Thanks
Xavi
Testing to upload a GEDCOM file containing a marriage contract to FamilySearch
I've generated an example GEDCOM file for testing purposes. It contains a single marriage between two persons. I've included a family with two events: a marriage and a marriage contract. I've also included a single source describing the notarial book. For the marriage contract, I've added a source citation with the text extracted from the book.
I've imported this GEDCOM file in FamilySearch and it only imports the two persons and the marriage event. The marriage contract, the source, and the source citation are not imported.
Best Answer
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I cannot get FS to cough up any information about what version of the GEDCOM file standard they use or support. All I can find is a Help Center article on "What happens to information uploaded from a GEDCOM file" (https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/what-happens-to-information-uploaded-from-a-gedcom-file), which confirms my memory that custom events, notes, sources, and multimedia are not displayed in Genealogies/Pedigree Resource File, and an article on "How should I prepare my GEDCOM file?" (https://www.familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-should-i-prepare-my-gedcom-file), which states that neither notes nor sources can be uploaded. (Which raises some serious questions about the article's preceding advice to put just about everything in notes.)
I cannot find any definition of "custom event" as used in that help article, either.
Given the age of the Pedigree Resource File -- I think some parts of it are as old as the file standard (1984?) -- I'm highly tempted to recommend looking up the very first GEDCOM file standard. If it's already in there, it may transfer. If it's not, it probably will not.
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Answers
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Did you upload your GEDCOM file to the Genealogies part of |Family Search rather than direct into Family Tree?
A possible issue is that the tags used in your GEDCOM file for a marriage contract were not recognised by the system. Are you able to paste the contents of your test file into a comment box please?
Regards
Graham Buckell
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Sources: FS's GEDCOM import does not transfer any source fields. This is true whether you stop after upload and leave the file in Genealogies (the approach recommended by most users of this Community) or keep going and try the (badly flawed) compare-and-add process.
Marriage contracts: as far as I know, this is not a standard data type in the GEDCOM standard. If I'm right, and it is a custom field/tag, then FS's system will not transfer it. (Yes, the process is Really Dumb.)
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Thank you @Graham Buckell and @Julia Szent-Györgyi for your feedback!
Yes, I uploaded the GEDCOM file using the option Genealogies->Upload your Individual tree. Is there any other way?
Please find below the contents of the GEDCOM file. I've removed the sources in order to simplify it.
Marriage contracts are part of the GEDCOM file format 5.5.5. It is specified in the page 126 of the file format specification v5.5.5 released on 2 Oct 2019. It uses the tag "MARC".
Best regards
Xavi
GEDCOM file Contents
0 HEAD
0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Francisco /Noves Barral/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 PLAC Aravell, Montferrer i Castellbò, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
1 DEAT
1 FAMS @F1@
0 @I2@ INDI
1 NAME Catalina /Trullà Roca/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 PLAC Aravell, Montferrer i Castellbò, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
1 DEAT
1 FAMS @F1@
0 @F1@ FAM
1 HUSB @I1@
1 WIFE @I2@
1 MARR
2 DATE ABT 1758
1 MARC
2 DATE 1758
2 PLAC La Seu d'Urgell
2 NOTE ACA-N-V-1647, foli 125: Caps Mats entre Francisco Noves Barral alias Barral
3 CONC fill de Josep i Margarida d'Aravell amb Catalina Trulla Roca, filla de
3 CONC Miquel i Margarida d'Aravell
0 TRLR
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Thank you @Julia Szent-Györgyi for your detailed feedback. Now I have a better understanding of what information is read from the GEDCOM file when is uploaded to FS. It is a pity that this information cannot be uploaded. I will think about how to share this information in other ways.
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I tried uploading your GEDCOM file with the same result that the marriage contract did not appear. The MARC tag in your file is certainly valid. I tried to upload it into Personal Ancestral File - a program that is now many years out-of-date and only supports GEDCOM 5.5. That recognised the marriage contract as a separate event.
So I do not believe that it is using an extremely old version of GEDCOM but is using a stripped down version where non standard events, as well as the items Julia lists, are not recognised.
Looking at the alternatives you suggest, ideally it should be added as a relationship event but the system only gives limited options that do not include contracts, banns or licences or even an "Other" event. You could add a Relationship Note but I think the best option is a Relationship Source. You could add your excel file to Memories (need to convert to a pdf file first) and then use Select from Gallery when creating the Relationship Source.
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