Import 'my' tree from GEDCOM?
Hi everyone 😃
I'm new here but have been pottering about trying to research my family tree for a little while now. I started with My Heritage years ago, but gave up when it seemed to be a money pit, then tried out Find My Past when they did a free weekend for Remembrance Day in 2019. I've just started up again after taking a break for Christmas that ended up being longer than I intended, and was directed here from Reddit.
I know from reading various help posts that I haven't strictly got my own tree here, but as I understand it, I've effectively got a private one for my living family, so I can add living relatives and then branch off their deceased ancestors. I'll refer to that as my tree for now to try to avoid confusion.
As I was starting out yesterday, I was given the option to import an existing GEDCOM file into my tree. I got the file from Find My Past and imported it. The import seemed to go smoothly, but of the 165 records, it told me that about half a dozen were in my tree, a dozen or so could be added, and 134 were living or invalid. This is where I'm getting confused.
The site let me add a few of the 'Add to Family Tree' group, but not the last nine. I'd started by adding myself and my parents, so I added my maternal grandfather and then my wife and her mother, as these were the branches with the most names. I thought that this might let me add the remaining names from the group as they now had someone to link to, but it didn't help. My maternal grandfather was in the 'Already added to tree' group and had an ID assigned to him, so I copied that ID to his slot on my tree, and it linked in a portion of his branch, along with two further generations that I hadn't found yet. I've tried doing the same thing with both of my grandmothers and my wife's grandparents, making sure that they're in my tree first, but it's only worked for my wife's maternal grandfather and great-grandfather, and ignored everyone else in that branch, including her maternal grandmother.
I'm also confused as to why I can't add the living relatives to my private tree so that I can add their ancestors. Surely that's the point of importing files?
I'd be grateful if someone could help me out and explain this to me please.
Thanks in advance, Ryan 😃
Best Answers
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@RyanDavies9 RyanDavies9
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Firstly, it great to see you have been reading up on how "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch" works.
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Secondly, probably best NOT to refer to "... my private tree ...".
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Finally, we do have "Private Spaces" in "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch", where we can include our "Living", Family; and, Relatives; and, extended Family/Relatives ...
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But ...
That said ...
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I have not done so; but, as far as I was aware, uploading a GEDCOM File in "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch" DOES NOT allow one to upload any "Living" individuals/person from that GEDCOM File in "Family Tree" of "FamilySearch".
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Here is a "Knowledge Article" in "FamilSearch" on this:
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How do I copy information from my GEDCOM file into Family Tree?
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Quote:
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Please note that you cannot transfer the following information from your GEDCOM file into Family Tree, though it can of course be entered manually:
- Living people. (If your GEDCOM file contains living people, you can see it in the Pedigree Resource File, but no one else will.)
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I hope this helps.
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Brett
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the only people in your "private space" are the living persons.
all other (deceased people) would be in the shared collaborative database that we all share. The GEDCOM process is very tedious and cumbersome (for intentional reasons to prevent people from creating thousands of duplicates)
you are better off just adding your living persons manually.
For deceased persons you may find that the vastly majority of them are already in the system and you merely need to link yourself to them
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You can add living relatives to the database . . and then you can link them to deceased ancestors. but the deceased ancestors are not private.
to add a person either living or deceased who is not already in the system (and who is not directly linked to the pedigree that you initially see)
click on "Family Tree, Tree, Recent, "Add unconnected person"
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To you, the difference between people in your "private space", and those not in your private space - is virtually transparent - you will still see both of them on a single page all linked together etc. - it is a seemless connection between private and public that you dont even really see explicitly
BUT to anyone else besides you - they will not see the living people in your private space - almost like they dont exist.
but the "private space" from your perspective - is not some disjoint area in the system
it is merely the name used for those living persons that only you can see - that no one else can.
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Answers
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Thanks for the replies both
I think where I'm getting confused is with the Pedigree Resource File. I thought that was what essentially acted as my family tree and let me see my living relatives (my private space), before linking them to deceased relatives in the public tree. I thought that importing a GEDCOM file would populate this and let me edit and research from there, like I would with a family tree in Find My Past, for example.
I understand that importing hundreds of entries directly into the public tree is a bad idea, but at the same time there must be a way to bulk import into the private space, otherwise it would take hours, or even days to rebuild a large existing tree. As an example, my father was one of six children, so I have about 25 cousins just from his side, most of whom now have children of their own. My wife's family is similar. Even just with direct family we're looking at over a dozen people.
Am I missing something, or would I have to manually enter each one again here?
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The Pedigree Resource File - is a totally different animal and totally disjoint from your FamilySearch FamilyTree.
The majority of people dont create a PRF - but just add stuff to Family Tree.
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@RyanDavies9 RyanDavies9
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Here are a couple of other "Knowledge Articles" in "FamilSearch" that may help:
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What is the Pedigree Resource File?
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How do I search the Pedigree Resource File and other genealogies?
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Brett
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Thanks again Dennis, they are interesting links. The names in the story gave me a good laugh
I'm going to leave this for tonight, as it's almost 3am, and I'm going to do some more reading tomorrow while I enjoy the benefits of lockdown.
Thanks again for your help
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