Question Partial import

Once in a while, I have found it convenient to hand-edit several GEDCOM records and add them to my DB. There are currently two ways to do this:

1. Export the entire DB, add the new stuff, and re-import (deletes everything and recreates it).

2. Import it as a separate tree and then merge trees (I think—haven't tried it). Requires also putting a HEAD record on the new stuff.

I'd like to be able to merge a partial GEDCOM into an existing tree as a shortcut to the second method. I'm not comfortable with deleting umpteen thousand records and then creating the exact same records. Is the change history lost when method 1 is done?

Hello Wes,

a GedCom file is not complete without a HEAD record and the other associated parts.

So if you receive new data as a GedCom file that you want to include, the second way is the easier one.

For the first way there are Gedtools.

Luenissla wrote:

a GedCom file is not complete without a HEAD record and the other associated parts.

Of course. But if I am creating a GEDCOM fragment to ADD to my data, there is little reason to also write a new header that will be discarded on merge.  And creating a new tree, merging it, and deleting it are three steps that would be unnecessary if "import" had a merge option.  If the file to be merged has a header, that can be used to determine options (encoding/charset) and if not, the header already in the DB can be used.

Luenissla wrote:

For the first way there are Gedtools.

Where/what is there a "Gedtools" that can add records to a webtrees DB?

Luenissla wrote:

For the first way there are Gedtools.

Where/what is there a "Gedtools" that can add records to a webtrees DB?[/quote]

Excuse me. I assumed that as a Platinum Member you had already heard of it
GedTool is a great Excel-based tool for working with the data in a GedCom file. You can also compare and merge two files.
Here will you find it: www.gedtool.de/index.php/en/

Luenissla wrote:

Luenissla wrote:

For the first way there are Gedtools.

Where/what is there a "Gedtools" that can add records to a webtrees DB?

Excuse me. I assumed that as a Platinum Member you had already heard of it
GedTool is a great Excel-based tool for working with the data in a GedCom file. You can also compare and merge two files.
Here will you find it: www.gedtool.de/index.php/en/ [/quote]
OK, so it cannot add records into a webtrees DB.  One would have to download the entire DB as GEDCOM, do the merge, then re-import.  That's MORE work than what I was trying to avoid.

WGroleau wrote:

Of course. But if I am creating a GEDCOM fragment to ADD to my data, there is little reason to also write a new header that will be discarded on merge.  And creating a new tree, merging it, and deleting it are three steps that would be unnecessary if "import" had a merge option.  If the file to be merged has a header, that can be used to determine options (encoding/charset) and if not, the header already in the DB can be used.

Of course, you can add a header to data that is in GedCom format. There are then a few more lines than just "0 HEAD". You must also not forget the last line of a file "0 TRLR"
A file compiled in this way can easily be imported into webtrees as a new family tree and the data from two family trees can then be merged. However, webtrees does not check for duplicates immediately. You may need to do this yourself later.

WGroleau wrote:

OK, so it cannot add records into a webtrees DB.  One would have to download the entire DB as GEDCOM, do the merge, then re-import.  That's MORE work than what I was trying to avoid.

Yes, when importing, webtrees always takes the complete file and overwrites the old one. I make additions like you want via a second family tree. This is also helpful if you have copied some data records from a file via the clippings cart.

Perhaps there's a language barrier, but you are telling me that I can do exactly what I said in the beginning I can do. I know I can do both of those things.

But the import of a partial addition like I suggested would be convenient.

Hello Wes,
I don't know if it's the language barrier or maybe we didn't understand the processes exactly
You had written:

I'm not comfortable with deleting umpteen thousand records and then creating the exact same records.

I understood that you have a GedCom file from which you want to transfer some people to another file. This should not be done manually if possible. webtrees offers the quite simple way of setting up a second family tree file and importing the GedCom file there. Then you can tell webtrees which persons you want to select and keep them in the collection car and finally export them to a new GedCom file. You then import this reduced file back into the second file and copy the data into your family tree file. Then you can delete the second file again. Now you have all the data you want in your family tree file and the access statistics have not been lost.
By compiling the data in the collection trolley, webtrees already collects all the information it needs.
With a manual selection, you could forget data.

Me sumo a la discusión, ya que es un tema que me interesa y también tengo mis dudas.
Voy a detallar los pasos uno a uno y por orden para que veáis sin son correctos o erróneos o mejorables.
Partimos, en este ejemplo, de una página webtrees con UN solo árbol genealógico.

-1º Hacer un fichero GEDCOM de copia de seguridad.

1º Exportamos nuestro árbol actual a un NUEVO GEDCOM (podemos llamarle, GEDCOMCOPIA (por ejemplo)

2º IMPORTAMOS el nuevo GEDCOM que quieres insertar en tu fichero original.

3º Después del paso anterior tendremos TRES gedcoms ( o tres árboles en tu página webtrees). 1-El original y bueno, 2 El que hemos llamado GEDCOMCOPIA que, por ahora, será idéntico al tuyo original y el 3-que será el NUEVO que acabamos de importar.

4º Seguidamente vamos a FUSIONAR dos GEDCOM. El que hemos llamado GEDCOMCOPIA y el NUEVO.

5º El resultado será un nuevo fichero (o árbol) GEDCOM que podemos llamar RESULTADO. En este último GEDCOM tendremos, posiblemente, algunos individuos DUPLICADOS.

6º Manualmente y despacio, vamos FUSIONANDO los que aparecen duplicados.

7º Al terminar tendremos un fichero/árbol GEDCOM TOTALMENTE ACTUALIZADO Y DEFINITIVO. (Debemos de asegurarnos que esto es así antes de continuar).

8º Una vez cerciorados que este último árbol está totalmente correcto, lo exportamos (con el nombre que queramos), (O pasamos directamente al punto 9. Es lo mismo)

9ª Ahora vamos a IMPORTAR el nuevo GEDCOM CORRECTO y en este paso, webtrees elimina el tuyo actual y lo sustituye por el nuevo (que, te recuerdo, debe estar libre de errores)

Notas.
-Si todo falla en los procesos 1 al 8, no pasa nada grave. Todo lo que tenemos que hacer es volver a empezar ya que estamos trabajando con copias.
-Si, a pesar de todo, hay algún fallo, puedes recuperar (importando) el fichero GEDCOM de copia de seguridad o ver en el servidor las últimas copias correctas que seguro se hacen, por snorma, cada cierto tiempo.
-Si el GEDCOM nuevo que quieres fusionar es muy grande, puedes seleccionar lo que te interese con la “cesta de recortes”. Esto de dará un fichero GEDCOM mucho más pequeño y, por lo tanto, todo será más rápido y con menos posibilidad de errores.
-Otro punto a tener en cuenta. Mientras trabajes en las fusiones no actualices ni añadas nuevos datos tu árbol original, pues estos si se perderan cuando hagas el punto 9.

Esto que he escrito lo he hecho de memoria y al momento. Como es un tema que también me interesa a mí, quisiera que dijerais si es correcto o no. O cómo hacerlo mejor.
Disculpar la extensión del texto, pero quiero dejarlo todo muy claro.
Gracias por vuestra paciencia.

Bernat, that is even more complicated than the option (2) that I would like to avoid, which is create a GEDCOM with the new records, import it as a new tree, and then merge the two trees. I don't need to export the old tree nice (I already back up the whole DB AND export the old GEDCOM automatically with cron every day)  What I would like to do is merge a new GEDCOM (with or without a HEAD) directly into the existing DB.  Saves a couple of steps and a bit of time.

Saves a LOT of time compared to manually adding individual children, parents, spouses from looking at an obituary, history, or other document.

Este es aún más complejo que mi opción dos (crear GEDCOM, nueva DB, combinar). Quiero combinar directamente los registros nuevos, sin otro GEDCOM extra i sin descargar, redactar, cargar. Para que sea más simple.

Sí. Lógicamente, disponer de la opción que tú buscas, sería muy útil. Espero y deseo verla implementada próximamente. Me sumo a tu propuesta.

Mi explicación anterior es la que utilizo yo (siguiendo el consejo de algunos compañeros), pero me produce mucho estrés el riesgo de hacerlo mal y perder muchas cosas. De hecho, ya no suelo realizarlo por norma. Actualmente, me han pasado tres ficheros gedcom con datos muy interesantes que podría fusionar, pero lo estoy retrasando hasta encontrar una solución más sencilla, práctica y segura.

Saludos WGroleau.