Suggestion for GEDCompare import

Question

I realize this might be a very basic issue, but many of us experienced genealogists (25+ years) are new to WikiTree. We find the GEDCOM import area, select our GEDCOM file, and import. We watch the counter apparently import 100% of our file... then nothing. Then we have to search and realize the limit is 5000 persons. :( I would like to see a notice on the GEDCOM import page regarding this limit. Maybe I believe I'm < 5000 but have actually 5001. I'd like to see a message happen after the failed import saying "Sorry, your file contains more than 5000 persons and cannot be imported." It's simple, but might address a lot of user's issues (even experienced ones) when a GEDCOM fails to import.

Now please excuse me while I go do some pruning so I can import sections of my tree. LOL. Thank you.

Comments

Hi Susan. Don't forget that you will need to:

1. volunteer to contribute so you can be confirmed,

2. sign our community's nine-point Honor Code.

As a Family Member account, you can upload GEDCOMs to take advantage of GEDCOMpare as a search tool but cannot create or edit profiles with GEDCOMs.

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Thank you Steven. I have signed the Honor Code and am investigating ways to volunteer. I am not sure if I have to volunteer for something specific or not but will keep looking into it.

Thank you!

Susan

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No, the volunteering is just, I think, a legal thing that you are offering your services without any expectation of compensation (not work for hire).  You can join a project or not--as you please.

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This has been added to the to-do list.

Answer 1

Here's a problem. No one is allowed to have more than 5000 profiles that they control. so if you have more than 5000 profiles in a GEDCOM you'd have to either not have all of them in your control or you'd have to have just have some lower number of profiles available to add and control.  But the problem is that you'd never get around to checking all the profiles you've entered.  So it's far better to start out only adding small parts of your larger GEDCOMs and then practice seeing what you can and can't enter.  

I know that I'd given up importing GEDCOMs into my databases long before I joined WikiTree because there was always things I had to change and I always spent  more time changing them than if I'd just entered them by hand.  So I have some 3xxx profiles which I work on and I still haven't got around to putting in all the sources for more than a handful of them.

Comments

The 5000-person limit on GEDCOM size is a technical limit that is independent from the 5000-profile limit on watchlist size.

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I do agree with Dave's point, that it does not seem possible for anyone to be able to manage 5000 or even 3000 fully sourced profiles, with well written biographies.  When I hear of some wanting to upload their 10000 person database, I'm rather sure many, if not most of them are poorly sourced, if at all.  Of course, I would expect much better quality from experienced genealogists, like Susan. Welcome to WikiTree, Susan!

But, and this is somewhat off-topic, I've often wondered why this technical limit is applied, why we require people to split them up.  Wouldn't it be a very helpful improvement if the system would allow limiting filters on any GEDCOM, so that any GEDCOM could be imported, but only a limited selection of persons are available for import from that GEDCOM.  I'd love for the system to see that a user has never imported a GEDCOM before, so only allows the first 25 to be selected, or some other selection of 25.  If someone, with GEDCOM experience, wants to load a 10000 person GEDCOM, then allow it but only make the first 5000 available.  Or allow other selection filters, such as only those persons matching up to 3 different surnames, plus their spouses and children.  Or only those born within the 1800's, plus their spouses and children.  Or only those within 3 degrees of a specified name.  Or only 200 persons, beginning at the 1300th person. Etc, etc...  Then the same GEDCOM can be reused over and over, applying different selections, no splitting needed.  (It might be nice to limit all selections to maybe 200 persons at most, per session.)

Answer 2

I agree that it would be helpful if the page https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:UploadGedcom included an indication that GEDCOM uploads are limited to 5000 people. I don't think it would be awfully hard for the WikiTree tech team to add that.

This wouldn't prevent all of the technical issues that can prevent GED files from uploading (inconsistencies in GED file formats sometimes cause even small GEDCOMs to fail to upload), but it would allow folks to rethink their plans before attempting to upload a very large GEDCOM.

Answer 3

Regardless of the number of profiles in your GEDCOM, you cannot actually IMPORT them en masse into WikiTree.

At WikiTree, we now use GEDCOMpare, in which you upload your GEDCOM for comparison to existing profiles. If you find a matching WikiTree profile, you can import your data by editing that profile; you can do that immediately. If you don't find a match, you cannot add a new profile until ALL suggested matches are processed; only then will you see the ADD button.

Basically, you process each profile individually - so it's not much different than manually creating profiles.

My synopsis may be simplified, but I believe it is reasonalby accurate, based on my limited experiences with GEDCOMpare - so don't quote me on any of the above text!

Comments

I thought your synopsis was fairly accurate. I agree with the original poster that perhaps the whole process of importing GEDCOM, going through GEDCOMpare, etc., perhaps could be better explained. We seem to see so many questions about this here on G2G. I know there is a limit mentioned on one of the help pages, but perhaps it is not as prominent as it should be.