Making sure GEDCOM is precise & accurate
Dec 10, 2012 11:04:31 GMT -5
Post by Doug 周 on Dec 10, 2012 11:04:31 GMT -5
Follow up from my previous post on GEDCOM veracity circa 2009-2010click
definition: GEDCOM=computer file used for transferring genealogy data to/from a genealogy software program. It is old but the de facto standard, the last update is unicode-capable version 5.5.1 (published 1999). It will not store the media within the file, but will indicate which media file is connected to the proper person, family, or source. You must back up the media into a separate folder.
note: This information is not specific to Chinese family history. This post is meant for genealogists already using software for their family tree. For newcomers, this stresses the importance of choosing software which can export to a standard GEDCOM.
Background
I wrote about the importance of having a good GEDCOM (digital genealogical file). If you believe that your computer hardware, operating system, and genealogy program will continue to function for the next 50 years, then it is tempting to let your descendants inherit the workstation. If your system does not backup to the standard GEDCOM format, they will need very advance programming skills to decode the data to transfer it to their more modern software. Remember how the Apple II grew to the Mac OSX, MSDOS became Windows 8, WordPerfect was dominated by MS Word 2013, or the 5.25 floppy made way to Cloud computing.
The printed paper Chinese genealogy booklet (zupu 族谱) has sufficed for thousands of years as the archive of clan history. Printing the computerized family tree information onto paper gives the modern genealogist satisfaction that their researched data is backed up. Descendents eventually taking over the family history project will need to again re-enter the information into digital format. Even with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), they will have to manually organize the tree branches, notes, sources, and media, connecting the information to the correct family and individuals.
Classical Chinese genealogy is patrilineal, and usually works its way back through time to a single father figure (progenitor). It might have only very few stunted branches above the great great grandfather. Western style genealogy (and now modern Chinese genealogy, because of the one-child policy) follows both the father’s and mother’s family tree. Archiving your genealogy data onto paper will thus result in a huge booklet, and requires a good table of contents and index. These latter features were not even present in the older zupus. The GEDCOM is meant to handle these multiple branching branches.
With the increased powers and capabilities of organizing your family tree data in a genealogy software program, you want a universal digital backup of your family tree. GEDCOM is far from perfect. Because of GEDCOM problems, programmers, in order to make their software run smoothly and be user friendly, they use their own ‘dialects’ of GEDCOM. However, they will not declare how their dialect of GEDCOM might differ from version 5.5.1. How software imports from, or exports to, GEDCOM is dependent on the author and has resulted in these various dialects.
Make sure your current software program can backup or export your data to a 5.5.1 compliant GEDCOM. The file will have a .ged extension.
Check the GEDCOM yourself
You can always open your GEDCOM with your text editor, word processor, or spreadsheet. Looking at the previous post GEDCOM veracityclick the file is merely a long list of recognizable words and phrases you had already typed via your user interface of your genealogy software program.
Use these sites to see if the data on your exported GEDCOM is verified and consistent with the latest GEDCOM version 5.5.1.
Bonkers: The GEDCOM Sanity Checkerclick
VGedX: The GEDCOM Validator online or downloadableclick
GED-inline: Validate your GEDCOM files here!click
GedPadclick
GedCom Explorerclick
GEDCOM Validator Chronoplexclick
Experiment with their settings and options. I personally have the most experience with the first three. Explore the many options of using these GEDCOM checkers. If there are errors, then go back to the user interface of your software program, try to adjust the words, and re-export and recheck the GEDCOM file. The two area of most trouble are adoptions and locations or addresses.
IMHO
definition: GEDCOM=computer file used for transferring genealogy data to/from a genealogy software program. It is old but the de facto standard, the last update is unicode-capable version 5.5.1 (published 1999). It will not store the media within the file, but will indicate which media file is connected to the proper person, family, or source. You must back up the media into a separate folder.
note: This information is not specific to Chinese family history. This post is meant for genealogists already using software for their family tree. For newcomers, this stresses the importance of choosing software which can export to a standard GEDCOM.
Background
I wrote about the importance of having a good GEDCOM (digital genealogical file). If you believe that your computer hardware, operating system, and genealogy program will continue to function for the next 50 years, then it is tempting to let your descendants inherit the workstation. If your system does not backup to the standard GEDCOM format, they will need very advance programming skills to decode the data to transfer it to their more modern software. Remember how the Apple II grew to the Mac OSX, MSDOS became Windows 8, WordPerfect was dominated by MS Word 2013, or the 5.25 floppy made way to Cloud computing.
The printed paper Chinese genealogy booklet (zupu 族谱) has sufficed for thousands of years as the archive of clan history. Printing the computerized family tree information onto paper gives the modern genealogist satisfaction that their researched data is backed up. Descendents eventually taking over the family history project will need to again re-enter the information into digital format. Even with Optical Character Recognition (OCR), they will have to manually organize the tree branches, notes, sources, and media, connecting the information to the correct family and individuals.
Classical Chinese genealogy is patrilineal, and usually works its way back through time to a single father figure (progenitor). It might have only very few stunted branches above the great great grandfather. Western style genealogy (and now modern Chinese genealogy, because of the one-child policy) follows both the father’s and mother’s family tree. Archiving your genealogy data onto paper will thus result in a huge booklet, and requires a good table of contents and index. These latter features were not even present in the older zupus. The GEDCOM is meant to handle these multiple branching branches.
With the increased powers and capabilities of organizing your family tree data in a genealogy software program, you want a universal digital backup of your family tree. GEDCOM is far from perfect. Because of GEDCOM problems, programmers, in order to make their software run smoothly and be user friendly, they use their own ‘dialects’ of GEDCOM. However, they will not declare how their dialect of GEDCOM might differ from version 5.5.1. How software imports from, or exports to, GEDCOM is dependent on the author and has resulted in these various dialects.
Make sure your current software program can backup or export your data to a 5.5.1 compliant GEDCOM. The file will have a .ged extension.
Check the GEDCOM yourself
You can always open your GEDCOM with your text editor, word processor, or spreadsheet. Looking at the previous post GEDCOM veracityclick the file is merely a long list of recognizable words and phrases you had already typed via your user interface of your genealogy software program.
Use these sites to see if the data on your exported GEDCOM is verified and consistent with the latest GEDCOM version 5.5.1.
Bonkers: The GEDCOM Sanity Checkerclick
VGedX: The GEDCOM Validator online or downloadableclick
GED-inline: Validate your GEDCOM files here!click
GedPadclick
GedCom Explorerclick
GEDCOM Validator Chronoplexclick
Experiment with their settings and options. I personally have the most experience with the first three. Explore the many options of using these GEDCOM checkers. If there are errors, then go back to the user interface of your software program, try to adjust the words, and re-export and recheck the GEDCOM file. The two area of most trouble are adoptions and locations or addresses.
IMHO
