Can Sources be imported in a GedCom?

Question

When I construct some pages by hand and export as GEDCOM, sources appear under persons as for example:

 

3 CONT ==Sources==

3 CONT 

3 CONT <references />

1 REFN 4181390

2 TYPE wikitree.user_id

1 REFN 4265095

2 TYPE wikitree.page_id

but I found no source or REFN definitions in the file.

When making a GEDCOM externally for import to WikiTree, can I include REFN pages, and how, or must they all be made by hand like pictures?

Answer 1

David:

GEDCOM uploads to the WikiTree contain whatever information you have put into the files that you plan to upload.  HOWEVER since there is no standardized format for the creation and interpretation of GEDCOM files, what will appear in the WikiTree Profiles created by the upload will not necessarily look like a finished product until some manual editing is done.

There is no simple answer for the GEDCOM uploading questions. So often the better choice is to upload everything manually.  It affords several benefits that we sometimes forget:

1) The opportunity to clean-up minor (and sometimes even major) errors in data, which is a HUGE positive for the overall quality issue;

~while also~

2) We become re-aquainted with relatives whom we haven't looked at (sometimes for years) thus jogging the mind/memory into new modes of search and/or connection.

3) Some grow tired of my saying so, but it really does not take a great amount of time nor effort for most of us to input our files using the keyboard and mouse, we just wish we didn't have to repeat the process.... wishful thinking, in other words... :o)

 

Keith Baker

Answer 2

Hi David,

Regarding exporting a GEDCOM from WikiTree and whether you can include sources: Yes, the sources in the text of the page will be included.

The snippet of a WikiTree-exported GEDCOM you show above is a little confusing to parse through. Here's the profile it's from: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/White-9750

The reason it's showing no sources is that there are no sources on that page, i.e. nothing listed like this: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Sources

There's a  "== Sources ==" headline and then there are footnotes/references, i.e. http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Footnotes

The references are actually inline in the biography, which would appear above what you've cut out here. (And be very long, since it's a nice long biography!).

If you're asking whether references can be pulled out of the text during the export process, that would be tricky.

The REFN numbers you see there are separate. You can ignore them. The are just the WikiTree user_id and page_id. Those are things that only a small, small portion of users would ever care about, or we might care about if we're importing a WikiTree-exported file back into WikiTree. If you imported this file into another system they would be ignored.

Chris