Geni Forum » General Discussion
HOW TO: Merge your GEDCOM file(s) into your EXISTING tree
(25 posts)-
For those of you who do not know how to import your GEDCOM file into your existing tree: you can do this by uploading your GEDCOM file to http://www.geni.com/gedcom/start/ using a different email address than is associated with your existing tree on Geni. After the import is complete make sure your name (http://www.geni.com/profile/edit_basics/) is set the same on both accounts and then you can enter your other email address into your existing profile (additional email at http://www.geni.com/profile/edit_basics/) and it will ask you if you want to do a self merge, which will merge both accounts and trees. If it does not ask you to do a self merge, login to your other account and it will ask you if you want to merge trees.
Note: At this time any one GEDCOM file cannot contain more than 15,000 people. However you could break up the GEDCOM file and repeat this process using a different email address (or after the merge removing ONE email address from your profile to use). See http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/GEDCOM for known issues regarding addresses/locations, maiden names, and more.
Additionally note that you will have to spend lots of time running the merge wizards if there are lots of duplicates. See http://forum.geni.com/topic.php?id=23011 for my concerns and suggestions regarding GEDCOM merging, tree merging, and more.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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Ahhh! Why didn't anybody explain it that well before?!? Thank you.
I tried a GEDCOM import once, to see how it would work. OK, it was to add something to a historic profile way back, so it doesn't quite fit the scenario. Anyway, I thought I followed the instructions exactly, and I did get the profiles imported, but I ended up creating two new accounts in the process, and I have a whole bunch of records owned by "Hilderic the Vandal", who also appears as a tree creator. Which is all a little confusing to anybody else.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@ffunch I think that in the process of closing the Hilderic account you can ask Geni to get that profiles back to you.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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I didn't think of that. Thanks. Yeah, I don't think Hilderic will log in much, as he's been dead for 1500 years.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I didn't know that you can invite yourself to your tree, so I did it in my husband's name. Help@geni.com said they were not able to transfer ownership of the profiles when they deleted "his" account.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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Note: At this time any one GEDCOM file cannot contain more than 15,000 people. However you could break up the GEDCOM file and repeat this process using a different email address (or after the merge removing ONE email address from your profile to use). See http://wiki.geni.com/index.php/GEDCOM for known issues regarding addresses/locations, maiden names, and more.
@Ben - "breaking up" a GEDCOM file is not as easy as it sounds and can cause many problems with plinter trees and dups. I have been at a stand-still because of the 15,000 limit. The smallest I can dice my GEDCOM down to is 25,500 without causing splinter tree issues, etc. Then again, until Geni fixes their CPU/bandwidth issues I would rather not import the remaining 300,000 profile GEDCOM...
Thanks for taking the time for explaining it...just hope people trying to import into our tree don't read this! GEDCOM Merge has to come a LONG way before it can be used without causing a boatload of problems (I'm speaking from a 15,000+ profile GEDCOM view).
@Sarolite - I have found that what you need to do in order to both maintain profile pwnership as well as "get the points" for an import you need to add yourself onto the GEDCOM you are importing, then use your profile on your tree as the merge-point for the GEDCOM and take care of the dups after the merge is complete.
Posted 1 year ago # -
@ScotHibb: I wouldn't recommend splitting a GEDCOM either but I was just saying it could be done.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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Hi,
thanks for the discussion above, would like to add a question:
I have a "established" Geni account with email "email1" - here we have a flourishing tree etc, and I was an early Geni user.
Now I have, as described in http://help.geni.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=631 - imported a GEDCOM that I would like to add/merge with my "established" account. This "new" account is currently registered on me, but with email "tempemail"
The actual merge process is pretty clear to me, my question is:
From which of these two accounts ("established" vs "new") shall I add my other email? Is there a difference? I would like to keep my "established" Geni profile and profile ID (http://www.geni.com/profile/index/1492030) as an end result!Hoping for a fast response so I can do the merge :-)
Posted 1 year ago # -
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Again, I suggest that until people know what the heck they are doing this post should not be highlighted to PUSH more and more traffic to an already huge tree. I have been rendered useless since the last TON of merges into "our" tree, including the inability to even complete a simple search for a surname! Each day i find more and more merge issues with totally IDIOTIC reasons for being issues (a data is c but the same year, a name has a middle name field and a double name in the first, etc, etc, etc).
I think merging should be haulted all together (especially GEDCOM Import merging) until Geni can fix their CPU issues and brand the merge as a ALPHA or BETA item and fix the problems during a merge rather then after a merge is complete.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I agree. Until the blood relative performance problem is a thing of the past, this is just asking for trouble.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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I was under the impression, especially from ScotHibb, that performance was not enough of an issue on your large trees to restrict merging, or importing larger gedcoms, etc. Has this changed recently?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Performance is keeping me from merging my own two accounts together.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Maybe there is more to the storyline. Is this just a huge ploy to teach people a lesson? for me, performance was great up until about a ton of blokes merged with my tree without asking, now I have to wait for hours just to load a view or fix a merge issue!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Are you suggesting the blood relatives bug was done on purpose? I doubt it. More likely a programmer thought it was a good way to set things up without considering what would happen if someone got 20,000+ blood relatives.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The above instructions were HELPFUL!!! But after you specify the second email address, and complete all your merges, can you delete the other email address from the profile and know that all your data is merged into the one profile?
Posted 1 year ago # -
@RogerSnook, yes, just go to your preferences page, and you can delete any extra email addresses.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Go to http://www.geni.com/profile/edit_basics/ and select remove next to the email addresses you do not want listed.
Posted 1 year ago # -
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<p>Are you suggesting the blood relatives bug was done on purpose? I doubt it. More likely a programmer thought it was a good way to set things up without considering what would happen if someone got 20,000+ blood relatives.
</p>I don't think it was done on purpose, but I think nothing was done against it on purpose. Performance has always been an issue and fixes has been patchwork. Whoever is the architect just didn't do his job to start with.
Geni has from the beginning been driven too much by creating noise and a buzz and they have made the classic mistake of so many other badly managed network marketing companies of pushing more than is sustainable.
I would guess the initial strategy was to create a buzz, get as many users signed up as possible and then sell of to a bigger company with massive resources before the buyer would understand that they cannot make money on the never returning Geni profiles (at least 80% are deceased) and that quick money strategy is failing.
The short term greedy plan is now backfiring and Geni is stuck with badly written code because of it and cannot get new features to work because of it. The steam is just peeping out of all the cracks and releases get more and more cumbersome because they also have to pretend to the investors and users that everything is honky dory.
Just my 2c....
Posted 1 year ago #
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