I have never used GEDCOM. Could someone please explain how you import a GEDCOM directly into a database when the information is not exactly the same? For instance: I have an Uncle Bob - never heard him called anything else. His "registered name" is Henry Alvin. I enter him in my program as Henry Alvin "Bob". In official records I have seen him listed as 'Bob', 'Henry', 'Alvin' and 'Henry Alvin'. Suppose on the GEDCOM he is listed as 'Bob' - would that be imported into the database? My parents were married June 17, 1923. The license was purchased June 16, 1923. The license was returned to the courthouse but the minister had forgotten to enter the actual date of the marriage so in courthouse records their marriage date is June 16, 1923. If the GEDCOM had the date as listed at the courthouse, how would that be imported into a database? Floreda

"Varick" <tallygators@earthlink.net> wrote: >I have never used GEDCOM. Could someone please explain how you import >a GEDCOM directly into a database when the information is not exactly >the same? Importing a gedcom file is really just importing a new genealogy database. The gedcom format is used because that allows you to import data from other genealogy programs that store their data in different formats than your program. If your cousin calls your Uncle Bob "Henry Alvin" and if you should import his gedcom file into your database where you have Uncle Bob listed as Henry Alvin "Bob", you would end up with two different people in your database which would both be Uncle Bob. You would then need to merge the duplicates, Henry Alvin and Henry Alvin "Bob" to combine them both into just one person. But you should never import a gedcom file into your main database. There's no telling what kind of mess you're going to find in someone else's gedcom database. You should create a brand new, empty database to import a new gedcom file into. There you can inspect the data and change it around if you need to, and decide which parts you want to put into your main database and which parts you don't. Then combining databases causes duplicates where the same people are involved, and merging will be required. Finding and merging duplicates is about the most complicated thing you can do in FO, and for that reason, many folks opt not to combine gedcom files at all. They prefer to enter new data one person at a time either by copying or by dragging and dropping only one person at a time from one database to the other. (When you d&d only one person, you can have FO automatically merge that person with the same person you drop him on.) Wayne League