Hi, Dorothy!

Yes, it will have to be aGEDCOM format file for the data to be accessible to the functions in the package. It could be a lot of work to create that file by hand because there should be cross-referencing between individuals and families via the pointers. You might try creating a trial account in Ancestry.com just to make it easier to enter your persons and families, and then export the family tree as a GEDCOM file. That way all the cross-references are automatically generated.

If other users are interested, I could add some functions to the package for adding persons, spouses, and children to make this task easier.

Bob

Hi, Marco!

I'm sure you'll find some interesting uses of the data.

The package should work with your files, and let me know if you have difficulties.

There are differences between applications and some of the details. For example, the NAME record uses slash characters to separate the surname from the given name and suffix:

1 NAME Franklin Delano /Roosevelt/

If the surname is unknown, some apps (e.g., Ancestry.com) omit the slashes

1 NAME Franklin Delano

and others (e.g., Geni.com) retain them

1 NAME Franklin Delano //

The real problem comes when a user uses the slash to indicate alternatives:

1 NAME Elizabeth/Elisabeth /Johnson/

Another divergence is pedigree data. The GEDCOM specification defines only the PEDI tag in the FAMC structure in the INDI structure, but Ancestry.com uses FREL and MREL tags in the CHIL structure in the FAM structure. The former assumes the relationship applies to both HUSB and WIFE of the family, while the latter has uses FREL for the HUSB and MREL for the WIFE. The latter is, of course, more accurate. Unfortunately, a variety of relationships are given with various spellings in actual files, and I've not written the code (yet) to make use of these data.

I have over one hundred GEDCOM format files I've found on the web that I can use for examples, and I've identified 20 different applications among them. It just takes time to sort them all out and make the test cases.

Bob

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