GEDCOM import broken

[Lklundin]

I have opened a bug report with FTDNA, that since a while (6 weeks) I can no longer upload GEDCOM to my FTDNA accounts (as usual I have not received an email confirmation that the bug-report has been properly logged).

A few seconds after "Your GEDCOM is being processed.

This might take a few minutes"

I get the error message: "An error occured while processing your GEDCOM file.
Please try again or attempt to use a different file."

I have tried a few different GEDCOM-variants, but in vain - and the utterly uninformative error message does not help.

Has anybody else experienced this problem and perhaps found a workaround?

Maybe this is a good time to point out that anyone can get a free, state-of-the-art comparison of their GEDCOM-file at GEDCOMP:
http://www.lklundin.dk/gedcomp/english.php
This actually working service has been around for about 20 years, some 10 years ago the New York Times saw fit to write about it:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/te...tory.html?_r=0

[MikeP]

I had problems for years uploading a gedcom created from Family Tree Maker. I never got it to work. However, I finally tried creating a gedcom directly from ancestry.com and that loaded.

[Lklundin]

I had problems for years uploading a gedcom created from Family Tree Maker. I never got it to work. However, I finally tried creating a gedcom directly from ancestry.com and that loaded.

Well, before it even makes sense for FTDNA to think about supporting the idiosyncrasies of the GEDCOM export of various genealogy software, FTDNA would need to first have basic support for the GEDCOM standard.

And they don't have that. When I was last able to check, they did not even have support for the ANSEL-character encoding, which is the one actual GEDCOM-encoding that supports non-English characters. Instead, what appeared to be a usable but non-standard work-around was to use a HTML character-encoding. The upload would also fail on individuals without both a first and last name, although that is entirely permitted by the standard.

Your upload problem must have been different from mine, since mine only appeared about 6 weeks ago. My problem by the way prevents upload of GEDCOM from the open-source gramps (version 4.2.2).

[jstressman]

I came here to post about this same problem.

I'd created accounts for both of my parents a few weeks back, and at the time was able to import a GEDCOM for both of them just fine (from an export of my own Ancestry tree.)

Now when I try to import the tree it no longer works, even when using the old GEDCOM file that worked before.

I think that's what makes it doubly frustrating... that it worked a few weeks ago, and doesn't now.

I'd really rather not have to manually enter all the information for a thousand people again.

[Lklundin]

I came here to post about this same problem.

I'd created accounts for both of my parents a few weeks back, and at the time was able to import a GEDCOM for both of them just fine (from an export of my own Ancestry tree.)

Now when I try to import the tree it no longer works, even when using the old GEDCOM file that worked before.

I think that's what makes it doubly frustrating... that it worked a few weeks ago, and doesn't now.

I'd really rather not have to manually enter all the information for a thousand people again.

Right, that describes my problem. What software do you use to create your GEDCOMs?

[jstressman]

Right, that describes my problem. What software do you use to create your GEDCOMs?

I was exporting these right from Ancestry's website.

I even tried cutting the tree in half by making a second tree for each of my parents, and on my father's I removed all my mother's ancestors, and vice versa on my mother's. Even those "half" trees wouldn't import to FTDNA.

I might try importing them to GRAMPS and then exporting and trying those next (I have GRAMPS, but I found the interface to be an absolute obfuscated nightmare to use and gave up on it.)

I only run Linux here these days, so I don't have FTM or anything to try exporting my Ancestry trees from, and my tree on MyHeritage isn't remotely as up to date as my Ancestry tree. (And of course FTDNA itself offers no real support for GEDCOM when it comes to internal storage or exporting for backup etc, so it's not even an option.)

[Lklundin]

I even tried cutting the tree in half by making a second tree for each of my parents, and on my father's I removed all my mother's ancestors, and vice versa on my mother's. Even those "half" trees wouldn't import to FTDNA.

No, the problem is not the size of the GEDCOM-files, it is the content.

By trial and error I have observed that FTDNA's GEDCOM-handling no longer supports all but the simplest of DATE formats, namely what the GEDCOM-standard refers to as 'DATE_JULN'.

Computer users with a command-line interface can post-process such dates away from their GEDCOM-file by copy-pasting this:

perl -pi -e '/^2 DATE / and s/\b\/\d\d$//, s/ \@\#DJULIAN\@//, / (ABT|CAL|EST|BEF|AFT|AND|BET|TO|FROM)\b/ && undef($_)' mygedcom.ged

- where the GEDCOM-file to be post-processed is called `mygedcom.ged`. (Julian dates are not actually removed, but changed to Gregorian for a small loss of accuracy).

This is obviously a brutal work-around, but one has to accept that IT is not FTDNA's strong suit.

[ifiru]

I add to this thread my perceptions. FTDNA received gedcom file displays nothing what is wrong. I need error messages, so I could be able to fix my gedcom.

[jstressman]

No, the problem is not the size of the GEDCOM-files, it is the content.

By trial and error I have observed that FTDNA's GEDCOM-handling no longer supports all but the simplest of DATE formats, namely what the GEDCOM-standard refers to as 'DATE_JULN'.

Computer users with a command-line interface can post-process such dates away from their GEDCOM-file by copy-pasting this:

perl -pi -e '/^2 DATE / and s/\b\/\d\d$//, s/ \@\#DJULIAN\@//, / (ABT|CAL|EST|BEF|AFT|AND|BET|TO|FROM)\b/ && undef($_)' mygedcom.ged

- where the GEDCOM-file to be post-processed is called `mygedcom.ged`. (Julian dates are not actually removed, but changed to Gregorian for a small loss of accuracy).

This is obviously a brutal work-around, but one has to accept that IT is not FTDNA's strong suit.

I don't have any dates in my gedcom other then simply "DATE".

[email protected]:~/Downloads$ grep "DATE" StressmanVanderJagt\ 20160505.ged | wc -l
2241
[email protected]:~/Downloads$ grep "DATE_JULN" StressmanVanderJagt\ 20160505.ged | wc -l
0
[email protected]:~/Downloads$ grep "DJULIAN" StressmanVanderJagt\ 20160505.ged | wc -l
0

For example, they all look something like:

• 2 DATE 23 November 1941
• 2 DATE 14 Jul 1934
• 2 DATE 1893

I haven't dug into the standard, and my regexp is weak... so I'm not sure if I'm missing something... but the Julian dates don't seem to be my issue?

I add to this thread my perceptions. FTDNA received gedcom file displays nothing what is wrong. I need error messages, so I could be able to fix my gedcom.

Yes, error messages would be wonderful. Just sitting there telling us to wait while it processes... forever... isn't helpful at all. :/

[Lklundin]

I don't have any dates in my gedcom other then simply "DATE".



For example, they all look something like:

• 2 DATE 23 November 1941
• 2 DATE 14 Jul 1934
• 2 DATE 1893

...


Yes, error messages would be wonderful. Just sitting there telling us to wait while it processes... forever... isn't helpful at all. :/

The above example dates are all of type DATE_JULN, and after limiting myself to those I was able to import.

But: Since last night something else has stopped working at FTDNA:
1) The attempt to render an already imported GEDCOM hangs (or takes more than 6 hours).
2) Consequently, GEDCOM upload is currently not possible.
3) The attempt render to render a GEDCOM from a match returns a HTTP error 500 (Internal Server Error) along with the text 'The wait operation timed out'.

So it appears the FTDNA does not actually have a procedure for testing their software changes but that they just try out their changes directly on the production system.

So I will boldly point to my above link regarding GEDCOM comparison. Another free service, gedmatch.com, also accepts GEDCOM-uploads, but I have no experience with that (Only because I would rather that they spend their limited CPU power on analysing DNA-data).

[Lklundin]

Import still broken...

GEDCOM display occasionally causes a pop-up window indicating that FTDNA does not properly validate their code changes:

DataTables warning: table id=ff-matches-table - Ajax error. For more information about this error, please see http://datatables.net/tn/7

[ThirdNoel]

I'm having the same problem with the same sequence of events and messages. My gedcom was created by RootsMagic. I've uploaded other gedcoms created by RM in the past with no problems. Does FTDNA monitor the forums so they would know what's not working?

[minnesotakent]

Same problem for me, too.

Nothing seems to work to get a GEDCOM to upload.

[MtnJim]

Yeah, I get to the point where it says "this might take a few minutes" then the blue dots keep going for at least an hour before I kill the transfer. The GED file isn't that big.

[MichaelWK]

Ancestry GEDCOM import fails

I've been attempting to upload my Ancestry GEDCOM for the past 4 days, leaving it sit for literally hours, and nothing happens.