First of all, I would like to know which version of FOW you are using. If it is 8 or above there is a way to drag and drop individuals from one database to another. Every time I do a lookup for someone and send them a GEDCOM file, I add this note: Create a new database to import this GEDCOM into. Once you have reviewed it you can export and copy to your main database what information you are sure you want. Never import an unknown GEDCOM into an existing database without having a couple of good backups first. To Create a new, empty database: (It is probably best to close any open databases by going to the file menu and selecting "Close Database" until all of the databases are closed. Go to the "File" Menu, Select "New Database" You get a new dialog window: "Name for new database?" Then name of the folder it will be in is at the top, you can navigate to where you really want it and/or create a new folder if you want. At the bottom enter a File name for your new database, the first 7 letters have to be different than any existing database in that folder. Hit the save button and the new, empty database is created. While you are in the new, empty database, go to the file menu again, this time choose "GEDCOM" then "Import GEDCOM." Navigate to the GEDCOM you want to import and select it and click on the open button. NOW, look over the new database and make sure everything is truly what you want to add to your existing database, if it is not, now is the time to edit it. If your GEDCOM has a lot of the same people in it as your original database, importing the whole GEDCOM might cause a mess that you will never get cleaned up. MAKE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP of your original database before importing a GEDCOM or dragging new information into it. With version 8 and later, you can open the new database and your original and drag and drop selected individuals, families, or groups of individuals from one to the other. But with a version before 8, you have to import a GEDCOM: GO to the File menu, select GEDCOM and Export GEDCOM and export parts of the file or the whole thing from your newly edited database, then import that GEDCOM into your original. I hope you are not as confused as I am right now, If you are, ask again and I will add more, (Hopefully, more information, not more confusion <};-) Alfred D. Eller http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~adelr/ ========================== ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 11:05 AM Subject: [FO] GEDCOM > I would like to add this GEDCOM, now the instructions say go to the Database > (mine is VanPelt) and add this way (and I have no idea how to do this), but > is there a simpler way? How about the smart merge, this is going to have a > few duplicate names, but really most will be new information. > > Thanks in advance. > > Debby >