Return of GEDCOM Import

Gedcom import is not working in Finland. In Finland we are normalizing the names of our ancestors from swedish names to finnish names (before 1900). People translate swedish names to finnish names differently.

That means that gedcom import doesn't recognize very well the duplicates and doesn't stop adding profiles.

It would be great if adding gedcom tool needed permission from curator. If it is possible for everyone it means a lot of mess in Finland.

Then maybe the soulution could be to stop normalizing the names and stick to how the primary sources write the names, them being written in swedish or not.

How can you stop the manner that almost all the users in Finland do? :)

The thing is that the names have been originally Finnish names but they are translated to Swedish in the primary sources.

Remi Trygve Pedersen , sorry - no can do.

Instead, the Gedcom -feature must be either stopped or fixed.

Then you will need to work with your problem the way it is. I don't think Geni will stop or fix what you see as a problem in the gedcom import routine.

Remi Trygve Pedersen - strange attitude from a Curator - not helpful at all !?

...well, according to geni support, they are working with the duplicate issue. Hope they find a solution.

Private User not strange at all since we curators are privy to more information from Geni.com than the rest of the users.

Yes, they are working with the duplicate issue, but that will probably not have any effect on names written differently, and since you are, according to Sami, normalizing the swedish names to finnish differently, the problem will persist.

The easiest solution would be to write the names exactly how the primary sources write them, but obviously there has to be an attitude change among the finnish genealogists. If you are not willing to change how you write the names, you most probably need to live with this problem.

Generally speaking, as a genealogist, normalizing names should never happen.

Remi Trygve Pedersen, isn't geni able to read all language pages?

There is also an existing issue with the import - the tool seems to generate dublicates by itself - in some circumstances multiple identical families are beeing created.

Shortly, the tool is not working properly and should be stopped until tested enough.
All curators that I know, agree eith this.

In a gedcom import geni.com reads the names and how they are written in the gedcom file being imported. It is only geni.com that uses multiple language fields in the namefields, there are not different languages in the namefields of the gedcomfile being imported.

When importing a file, geni.com checks for duplicates, but can only find them if the names are written exactly same way as the existing person on Geni. If a user has added one of the finnish persons and written the name as it is writen in the primary source, in swedish, and you are importing a gedcom with the same person but with a normalized name in finnish, geni.com will not interpret it as a duplicate because the names are written differently.

Maybe there are issues with the import, but for the check for duplicate to work, the names need to be written the same way.

Personally I have imported just two files with 5 persons in each file. Geni.com found the duplicates and stopped my import in both circumstances.

Remi Trygve Pedersen - Try with a file including -say 1000 profiles (as I have heard up to 7000 prof gedcoms have been imported, or tried). No way all profoles are written "correctly".

(your way, five profiles , or so, at the time would be a correct way to start)

You seem to try to find excuses to keep gedcom alive. Why don't you just admit that for now it does not work correctly, creates unintended duplicates and causes untolerable problems & situations for those who are serious about geni in the first place.

Me pesonally (quoting yourself) have been enjoyig this excellent hobby for over 10 years now, but am now getting fead up with the response geni is giving regarding this problem, and your response as well.
You just don't seem to realize what genealogist is, from our point of view - we all do have our point you know. In a bilangual country there are some other facts to consider. And as a matter of fact, norwegian is mixed within names in Finland as well.

...and there are other countries like us as well...

Further, it seems now that most of the people using gedcom are those who know understand least about geni.

What do you think?

[[@lars bertel söderström curator]]
[[@reijo savola curator]]
[[@riitta anneli leinonen curator]]

PS do not take me wrong - I do not oppose gedcom, but it should work properly!

PS Private User

Reijo Mitro Savola, Geni Curator

Riitta Leinonen, Geni Curator

Perhaps this works - for comments...?

Geni only imports 5 persons at a time in a gedcom, so no need to have gedcoms larger than that. Then you also have more control and can check things up for duplicates and correctness. No need to import gedcoms with several thousands persons, it will only make a mess.

And for gedcoms. I don't wish them, and I whish that the possibility to import gedcoms get removed just because of all the work it makes merging the duplicates and for all the mess it makes. It was like this when it was possible 10 years ago, and it is the same problem now, just as most of us curators said in advance. But I don't think my wish will come true.

Remi Trygve Pedersen, OuKei - now we are talking!

Are you saying that geni has now modified the gedcom-import-tool after all that mess? This would be great news!
Did I understand correctly?

PS. my apologies about spelling mistakes in the previous post - tablet is not my favourite tool in writing posts/letters

I need to correct myself, Geni imports gedcom files with 5 generations instead of 5 persons as I said, but that shouldn't make gedcoms with 1000 profiles possible. The limit of 5 generations at a time has been there from the start.

5 generations could easily be 1000 persons or more - one person has a dozen children, each child has a spouse and children and .....

Remi Trygve Pedersen, ...well - so there are issues with gedcom which cause big problems (I am sure that this concerns not only Finland), and these issues should be solved before the result is a really big mess - meanwhile it should be stopped or at least shrinked to f.ex. two generations.

Mike Stangel Remi Trygve Pedersen

Who fixes these

- https://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000041094826088 - perfectly good tree separated from big tree as a result of bad gedcom-import and attempts to fix the same
- ...seems to be Mr/Ms "Customer Service"

- Jaakko Matinpoika Näykki

I agree with Lassi that gedcom import should be stopped until a solution is found. I can only enter profiles in swedish and I certainly don't mind them being converted into Finnish by who ever wants to.In fact I encourage it. The mess that a poor gedcom import creates is far worse.
Tom Tolska

Mike Stangel

Please Have a look at this cry for help! It is in finnish, but you can translate it with mr google if you want.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/yhteissukututkimus/permalink/112713...

Mike Stangel - f.y.i. this happens when people with little knowledge/skills abt geni start using GEDCOMs

Request #108225 - GEDCOM -story continues - Today at 12:40

"It seems that this person (XX) has been bringing several(?) GEDCOMs, huge amount of duplicates, other geni-members have been contacting him, trying to stop the GEDCOM-activities, resulting to that this person has left geni leaving the GEDCOM-worms alive.

You should stop & remove these GEDCOMs. How do you do that ?"

I applaud this initiative. Yes, there will be work involved, but ultimately it should bring in a major influx of data into GENI, which is a good thing. I do have one suggestion to be implemented ASAP: it seems that Source data from the GEDCOM files is not being picked up by the upload (unless I am doing something wrong). This is super important because Source data makes a profile much more valuable to other researchers.

Another less urgent suggesion is that instead of declining the entire upload if any profiles were born prior to 1800, the protocol should be to reject pre-1800 profiles but accept the rest in the upload.

G'luck y'all.

Follow up on Source comment: I have discovered that Sources for Facts are picked up by the GENI upload but not Sources for Person Information (such as Name or Gender).

So the question is whether there is a way I could modify the GEDCOM file so that GENI will read the Name Source during the upload and print this information as GEDCOM Source in the Overview section of the profile as it is doing with the other Facts from the Gedcom file? Thanks.

More specifically this code does produce Source information in the About section:

1 DEAT
2 DATE 1941
2 SOUR @S56@
3 PAGE http://yvng.yadvashem.org/n...

but this code does not:

1 NAME David /Blyakher/
2 SOUR @S56@
3 PAGE http://yvng.yadvashem.org/n...

Any idea why this might be?

Thanks,
Adam

Private User thanks for your support (yes, it's been a great source of new data) and bug report. We've released a fix for the missing sources.

Gedcom again, It is fine with 3 generations.
But not this:
https://www.geni.com/family-tree/index/6000000094451697926#60000000...

I'm not sure what you mean, Roy?

...middle ages - thought gedcoms should not be allowed to reach that?
Also - all duplicates, who clears them - what about conflicts ? You?
Many unqualified importers seem to leave job half way, or quarter, or just like that. This leaves the potentially false gedcoms alive, no-one finishing the job...

Geni seems to be ignorant to this fact?!

Where does this lead to? A messed up "world-tree"?

Please pay attention, before it is too late!

Rgds, an eager paying geni-member, until...

Mike - did you see this https://www.geni.com/discussions/192543?msg=1300004 -- I assume curators are helping fix the mess (sure hope they are able to do so) -- but this was someone who wanted to do right, failed, and at least knew enough to post in the Public Discussion -- you may want to think if you can come up with any ideas on how to prevent similar problems

Private User I was last in contact with Kelvin Olav Jonck May 30th about his gedcom import and told him about the duplicates he is making. His answer being "Sorry about that. I didn't realise that's how it works.
I'm happy to delete the entire upload. I just can't work out how.

Can you please advise?"

I linked him the pages:
https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018818893-How-do-I-delet...
https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018818713-Can-I-undo-a-G...
https://help.geni.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018819213-How-do-I-handl...

No response yet. But please do not merge any of his duplicates, and those already linked should be undone and marked not being the same profile.