My Gedcom has 35.000 entries, but different conventions

Question

My Gedcom file has 35,000 entries, but the naming conventions are different.  For example, surnames are all CAPS. and unknown maiden names are noted as: 
? Mrs Surname
Also, some of my Colonial families have assigned individual numbers or codes.  For example, Thomas Macy carries Macy ID Number M00001.   We carry that in the suffix field.  These codes are published in family genealogy books and documents, and are consistent across documents, so we hope to preserve them.   

In addition, very old entries list the "house" as the surname.  For example Charlemange's house was CAROLINGAN.  We found this kept the families more or less together better than the "of France" or other place names, especially since these could change over time, and were many times acquired well after birth.   

Are we beyond hope of loading this file?  

Any suggestions on making mass changes without destroying the original data?  

Comments

Once you get back a few generations you will probably find many ancestors already here in Wikitree, especially if you connect to European aristoctracy.  Starting small with parents, gandparents, and greatgrandparents seems to work well for many people.

Answer 1

Hey Barry,

First of all: the entry limit for a GedCom file to the compare process is 5000 which will already take a lot of time. GedComs do not get imported, but indivduals are matched to existing profiles.

There are very good rules on naming, you will need to follow those to make the matches and preventing creating duplicate entries and a lot of UNKNOWNs.

My strong advice: import this file into Gramps, work on cleaning it up there, making sure you know which sources are real and good, and then export a family line.

You can add your personal IDs here, but only as plain text. Wikitree works with its own IDs. A hidden number and a public Name-ID.

One of our mentors created a tutorial for the GEDCOMpare process that others found very helpful. I would start there.

Answer 2

Wikitree is ONE world tree and therefore marking one set of profiles as different from all the rest wouldn’t make sense.

You can add each person manually so you can avoid all caps. Please don’t put non-suffix entries in suffix box, it will only raise suggestion reports requiring alterations to be made.

It is best not to add more than about 50 per gedcom if you really must upload them, as you have to check each one