Menu "File" - "Import from:" - "GEDCOM 5.5 file"

"Import from GEDCOM 5.5 file" dialog interface:

The checkbox "If incomplete family found" defines actions which are necessary to do if an incomplete family is found in the file. The incomplete family is a family with only one member - a husband/father, a wife/mother or a child alone. In principle, such families should not exist, however many genealogic programs allow their creation. Usually there is no useful information in such records, so they can be removed. The program offers a choice:

1. "Make up missed members" - a formal, made-up member with a name "unknown" will be added to the incomplete family. If there is only a spouse the second spouse will be added and if only child alone both parents will be added. In this case it is guaranteed, that all other information about family will be saved at import.
2. "Remove it" - the incomplete family will be removed (its one known member, of course, will not be removed). In this case the information which was contained in this family, will be shown in the special message upon completing the import - if you will find this information useful (if it will be present at all) just repeat import with option "Make up missed members".

Checkbox "Insert space before CONC lines" reflects another problem with GEDCOM files. The matter is that according to GEDCOM standard long lines of text on saving in a file should to be broken into "pieces" no more than 248 symbols each. Each such "piece" is marked with tag CONC (concatenation) so on reading it would be possible to collect pieces back in the integral text. And according to GEDCOM standard splitting should to be done only inside words. However few programs do it - instead they do breaks on spaces, i.e. between words. So on import GEDCOM files there is always a question: to insert spaces between pieces (then in "correct" files there will be spaces in the middle of words), or to not insert (then in "wrong" files words will be merged)? Because it is impossible to tell in advance, what file, "correct" or "wrong" you got, this program offers a choice - insert spaces or not. By default the checkbox is checked (spaces are inserted). Do a trial import with this option set and see long texts in records - if there are words merged together, repeat import with the other option.

Checkbox "Correct wrong tags" also reflects a problem of discrepancy to GEDCOM standard according to which all tags in a file should be either standard GEDCOM tags or the user-defined tags which names begin with underscore symbol '_'. Some programs, however break this rule and apply their own tags which are not beginning with '_' (why they do it is hard to explain - why not simply make them user-defined adding underscores?...). If the checkbox is checked such wrong tags will be considered user-defined with addition '_' to their names. If the checkbox is switched off, the program stops import if meets such tag.

Checkbox "Remove empty elements" allows to remove empty elements from records - such which have no information and are simply unnecessary "dead weight" in the file. In the some GEDCOM files there are thousand of such elements, essentially increasing the size of the files! Why are they there? It is a question to authors of genealogic programs which allow creation of such empty elements...

Other mistakes can be found in GEDCOM files. For example, some elements can refer to records which really do not exist in the file. Such elements should be deleted. Another sort of the mistakes related to references is when the element should refer to a record, but the reference is actually empty. For example, the element "Spouse in family" in Person records should refer to a family in which the given person is a spouse. If such reference is empty, the program will try to restore it. For example, in the above case the program will look up all families and if among them will be such in which element "Husband" (or "Wife") refers to the given person, it is possible to assume this is the lost reference to this family. In all such cases it is necessary, however, to check the logical integrity of the information, on what program will remind after import.
Aside from mistakes, caused by imperfect programs, there can be others which reason are human mistakes. For example, there are situations when a child in a family is specified as the spouse in the same family. Theoretically this, probably, can happen, but most likely it is made simply by inadvertence. Graphic representation of trees in "Relatives" program helps to avoid such mistakes since they are better visible.

Attention! The author of the program tried to provide recognition as much as possible types of mistakes, however he can not guarantee, that has provided all! If you will meet any new erroneous situations, please, contact the author. On the other hand, consider that fact, that GEDCOM files are usual text files - you can always open them in a text editor and try to correct the mistake, the more especially as you will know the erroneous line number from the error message.

Dropdown list "Encoding" allows to set the encoding the file will be read with. Usually it is better to try first to import with option "Use file header's charset". If the file header has an indication of its encoding such file will be imported with it, but if is not present the message will be shown - in this case repeat the import, having set a coding from the list.

Enter the file name in the lower text field and press OK...

If the file has been exported to GEDCOM format from the "Relatives" program the graphical information will be already in it, if not - the program will make automatic tree arrangement.
If there are mistakes and discrepancies in the file you will be informed about them in a special window upon completing of the import. The list of the mistakes/discrepancies can be looked through and saved in a text file.

On import of big files there are usually quite big space in the left top corner of the tree free from person's frames. In order to do not show this empty space in the first moment after the import, the program sets the scale of the image so that a part of the tree will be visible in the right bottom corner of the screen.