Family Search should allow zip files to upload larger Gedcoms
I have a GEDCOM with over 94,300 individuals listed. It is now too large for updating the older GEDCOM I have posted on Family Search Genealogies. Other genealogy sites allow the use of zip files to upload the larger sized GEDCOMs. Perhaps the techs at Family Search could find a way for zip files to be used on this site, too. It would be very appreciated by dedicated researchers.
Answers
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If it were up to me, I would block uploading GEDCOM data entirely. There are too many examples of really bad research being mistaken as fact because somebody thought a GEDCOM had merit. They're OK for backing up, and they're OK for copying data between researchers who know what the standard of work is, but they're only as good as the sources that they reference, and there are many examples in trees on FS where people have quoted GEDCOM as some kind of guarantee of validity without any sources at all.
If you were to upload 94,300 individuals that may (or may not) be correct, there's a high probability that they'd already match existing PIDs. That would cause the "research help" hints to invite contributors to merge them, and there are far too many examples of merges that went wrong because the "research help" prompted and the contributor didn't expand the potential candidate to discover that they were not a match. The thought of another 94,300 of those will give me nightmares.
This might upset a lot of people, but this is my opinion. Please don't.
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If the upload is ONLY to replace an existing tree in the Genealogies section, it will not create hints or suggest merges.
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I have had my Genealogies section tree on Family Search for many decades. I do not add it onto the community tree. There has never been a problem with updating it until it grew slightly larger. All data on it is backed up with documentation, such as birth, death, and marriage records. It is unique because it includes the ancestry for many smaller towns in Germany back 300 years. The "corrections" that have been made are generally adding the exact dates or places that have become available, rather than estimates.
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I suggest breaking the file into two (or more) parts and uploading them separately. It's not a perfect solution, but as they say, you get what you pay for: free cloud storage/archiving of your file at the cost of needing to break it up is still free cloud storage/archiving.
(Looked it up: yes, text files can be highly compressible, and GEDCOM is a text file, so zip files could be useful — but then FS would need to deal with uncompressing to make it searchable/viewable, and that could get complicated.)
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I agree with ReSearching completely. Please Don't
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Melville...As I mentioned, I have made updates on my large tree for DECADES. This is in the individual "Genealogies," and not in the community tree. If I cannot make updates to my personal (underline that) tree on Family Search, I will continue to do so on my Ancestry.com tree, Geni, MyHeritage, Geneanet, etc., all which allow larger trees and zip file uploads. It is a shame that researchers on Family Search cannot have the benefit of my research - Again, it is ALL well-documented data gathered over the past 50 years.
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