What do you do when the GEDCOM file you want to upload is too large?

Question

I downloaded a Gedcom from Ancestry and tried to upload but I get a message that the upload failed because the file is too large. It has about 11,000 people.

Comments

relevant Help pages:

Help:GEDCOM

Help:GEDCOMpare

Help:Splitting_a_GEDCOM

relevant G2G posts:

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1007318/a-few-weeks-ago-i-submitted-my-dna-and-gedcom-now-what

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1008517/i-provided-a-gedcom-but-it-does-not-show-up-in-my-wiki-tree

Answer 1

It is always advisable to use a small gedcom the first time to learn the process.  Make a much smaller gedcom, such as one grandparent or great grandparent, work through that one, then get another one.

Comments

Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it!

Answer 2

Realistically Ken, you need to get another program that permits you to parse your tree into separate branches.  Ancestry's "Oh just make a copy, reload it under a different name and delete the names you don't want or need."  You don't want to know how long it takes to remove 6,000 names from an Ancestry Tree.....trust me on that.  LOL

On Ancestry I found it easier to create new Trees and replicate my work as this also permitted me to update some of those in my original file I may have added years ago and hadn't researched again.  Always new data being added to Ancestry..

I used a product called Legacy once.  Nice, but it costs some bucks.  Family Tree Builder has a free version. but I haven't tried it so I can't say Yay or Nay on it.  But it is free to try. A quick Google search also brought up Family Echo, never tried so don't know how good it is, but again...free.

Here is a Free Space Page I made up for GEDCOM users.  I haven't updated it since last fall so some things may have changed, but the help pages it points you to would still be updated.

GEDCOM File Primer

Comments

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. Now a matter of finding time. I understand the reasoning.

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Check out Brother's Keeper.  It is a shareware genealogy program with a ton of reports, etc, still being updated.  I have my genealogy data on that since it was DOS days, so they keep updating.  

http://bkwin.com/

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i used the trial version of Legacy when I first started my tree (years ago), and it worked fine for basic use without buying the full version.

For the task at hand I highly recommend GRAMPS. It's free by design and has better features (for me) than the commercial products I've sampled. Generating GEDCOM for a subset of your tree is near trivial. Design a filter to isolate part of your tree (say, all your ancestors up to 2 generations away), apply the filter, export as GEDCOM, It's not too hard to create more complex filters that will also capture folks not in your direct line, but the example I gave takes literally  4 or 5 clicks.

More about GRAMPS and download for Linux, Windows, or Mac at GRAMPS Project.

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Thank you Dave, I could not remember the name of this program.  I know others have tried and liked it if remember correctly

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Generating a subset of a tree with Gramps is near trivial? The instructions for creating rules are byzantine, and the examples impossible to follow, for me, at least.  Is there a SIMPLE set of instructions somewhere to create a subset gedcom file from an existing tree?  "Gramps for Dummies," maybe?

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Not sure how up to date this is Dave, but it's a start.

Splitting GEDCOMs With GRAMPS