Help:GEDCOM-Created Biographies
Categories: WikiTree Help | GEDCOM Help | Profile Editing Help | Styles and Standards
You may have seen text like this on a profile:
- This biography is a rough draft. It was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import and needs to be edited.
When a profile is created using a GEDCOM, the system aims to preserve everything that was in the original GEDCOM. Any data that cannot be neatly imported into a data field is put in the text of the page. Admittedly, the results are not pretty.
This page helps you decide how best to edit a GEDCOM-created biography. The goal is to make it more readable, remove extraneous information, and make it conform with style guidelines.
Note: Clean-up is now easy with Automatic GEDCOM Clean-Up in the WikiTree Browser Extension!
Contents |
Sections you can delete
Here are examples of sections you can simply remove.
Technical Information
Data Changed
- Data Changed:
- Date: 24 JAN 2011
- Prior to import, this record was last changed 24 JAN 2011
User ID
- User ID: 013AF76825EF4E448FE47A3022EDC24D7B51
COLOR
- COLOR 3
PHOTO
- PHOTO @M24@
Object
- Object: @M24@
Additional Content
- Image: Data: CONT
The CONT tag just tell the GEDCOM importer that information continues on the next line. It should be removed along with the hard return separating the lines.
Repetitive Information
In general, you can delete anything that duplicates information found elsewhere, for example:
- Birth:
- Date: 15 February 1563
- Place: Norbury, Shropshire, England
- Removed ABT from Birth Date and marked as uncertain.
An exception is when it includes source information. In those cases, be sure to incorporate that source into the narrative. For example:
- William Hicks was christened 15 February 1563 in Norbury, Shropshire, England.<ref>England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975, index, FamilySearch [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/J38F-6JR entry for William Hicks] (accessed 05 Nov 2013): 15 Feb 1563.</ref>
Similarly, the GEDCOM will repeat the family structure if there is family-related information, such as a source, that could not be neatly fit into a single profile. For example:
- === Marriage ===
- Husband: Ezekiel Scoville
- Wife: Mindwell Barber
- User ID: C087BAD4A7BF9B45B8611804CDCCC06F18EF
- Child: Mary Scoville
- Child: Hannah Scoville
- Marriage:
- Date: 23 OCT 1740
- Place: Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut<ref>Source: [[#S15]] Page: Birth year: 1712; Birth city: Lyme; Birth state: CT. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepool&h=3075855&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt3 _APID 4725::3075855 Data: Text: Birth date: 12 June 1712Birth place: Lyme, New London Co, CTDeath date: 5 August 1791Death place: Harwinton, Litchfield Co, CTMarriage date: 23 October 1740Marriage place:</ref>
If there is source information for the marriage, convert it to a proper source citation. For example:
- Ezekiel Scoville and Mindwell Barber married in Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut on 23 October 1740<ref>Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?db=genepool&h=3075855&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt for Ezekiel Scoville] [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000: Marriage date: 23 Oct 1740; Marriage Place Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut.</ref>
You may then wish to list the children under a separate header; for example:
- === Children ===
- Ezekiel and Mindwell had the following children:<ref>Place the source of their identities here (if the same source), or after each person if they each have a different source</ref>
LDS Information
Many GEDCOMs include information specific to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS/Mormons) which can be found on the FamilySearch.org website and can be deleted from WikiTree. For example:
LDS Baptism
- LDS Baptism:
- Date: Completed
LDS Endowment
- LDS Endowment:
- Date: Completed
An exception is the FamilySearch ID, which will look like this: LXCD-Y7S and might be prefaced by FSFTID. It's best to move these to the Sources section, for example:
- * FamilySearch ID: LXCD-Y7S.
These FamilySearch ID numbers can be useful for finding information on the individual on FamilySearch.org and in other LDS sources. It is the equivalent of our WikiTree ID.
Another exception: Events such as LDS baptisms that occurred during the lifetime of the person. These should be included as part of their biography.
See this G2G discussion for more information.
Private Information
It's important that public biographies not reveal private information or personal notes. Here are examples.
Descendant lists
You might see something like this:
- "This is my 7th great-grandmother"
or
- "Ancestor of Elijah Willoughby and of Francis Griswold (Chad Joy and Nathan Beeman, Gertrude Estelle Huff, née Smith), of Thomas Meador (Nancy Haile) and of Haute Wyatt."
Since WikiTree is a universal tree, first-person commentary or references to living people should be deleted from the narrative.
Sources that are living people
In Sources, sometimes a Repository will include information about someone's personal library, complete with address and phone number. The personal contact information should be deleted but the reference to the person's library should be preserved if the source is unusual.
Badly-Formatted Source Information
Broken links to repositories
Something like this can usually be integrated with the source citation:
- Repository: #R-1939516511
- Title: Ancestry Family Trees
- Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.
- Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.
Abbreviated formats
Sometimes you'll see "Abbreviation", "Subsequent Source Citation", or "Footnote" in the text of a source. These can be deleted.
Examples:
- Abbreviation: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island by John Osborne Austin
or
- Subsequent Source Citation Format: Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island by John Osborne Austin
- Name: Footnote
Links to File Names
Sometimes you will see a source that refers to the name of a file that was on someone's computer at some point in time. If there is no information beyond a file name you can delete this reference. For example, you could delete the following:
* Source: <span id='S566'>S566</span> Title: Robison Master File 08JUN02.FBK.FTW NOTESource Medium: Other
If you do, be sure to delete the <ref>S566</ref> wherever it appears in the narrative, replacing it with {{citation needed}} or a better citation if you have one.
Delete only after checking
Links to Ancestry.com Trees
Many uploaded GEDCOMs include as sources links to user-generated family trees such as those on Ancestry.com. The entry will often look something like this:
- Source: #S-1939516510
- Page: Ancestry Family Trees
- Note:
- Data:
You should feel free to delete these unless:
- No other source is available on the profile, and
- The link is not broken (many are).
We retain such links in the absence of better source information even if the link goes to a private family tree. However, our goal is to provide better, more original sources.
Note that these links can be opportunities to make contact with other descendants of an ancestor. If it's a relatively modern or less commonly-shared profile you may want to leave the tree links for this reason.
Note that Ancestry no longer uses links formatted to point to "trees.ancestry.com" (such as the one in the example above), so none of these links work any more. However, in many cases the content is still available on Ancestry with a different link format. See Help:Links to Ancestry for advice on replacing old link formats with WikiTree external link templates. For example, the link in the example above can be replaced by {{Ancestry Tree|26833486|1942554678}}.
Sections to keep, but edit
Old-Style Sources Subheaders
If you see a Sources section like this:
- === Sources ===
Change it to:
- == Sources ==
- <references />
- See also:
- *
In early profiles we made Sources a third-level section and didn't include references like we do now.
Badly-Formatted Sources
If the reference looks like this:
- <ref>Source: [[#S15]] Page: Birth year: 1712; Birth city: Lyme; Birth state: CT. Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepool&h=3075855&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt3 _APID 4725::3075855 Data: Text: Birth date: 12 June 1712Birth place: Lyme, New London Co, CTDeath date: 5 August 1791Death place: Harwinton, Litchfield Co, CTMarriage date: 23 October 1740Marriage place:</ref>
First check the link; in this case the link is this:
This link doesn't go to an individual family tree, but to a collection of family information on Ancestry.com called the "Family Data Collection". (Notice the "db=genepool" in the URL.) This is not the strongest source, but if no other exists, it's okay to retain. However, it should be reformatted into a more readable and accurate source, like this:
- <ref>Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records [http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=genepool&h=3075855&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt3 about Ezekiel Scoville] [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000: Birth year: 1712; Birth city: Lyme; Birth state: CT.</ref>
This will appear as a footnote like this:
- Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection - Individual Records about Ezekiel Scoville [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000: Birth year: 1712; Birth city: Lyme; Birth state: CT.
Even better would be to use the Ancestry link template, e.g. {{Ancestry Record|genepool|3075855}}.
This page was last modified 20:00, 23 January 2024. This page has been accessed 19,146 times.