Genealogy Chat

I downloaded my GEDCOM file from this site yesterday, but looking at it, a lot of the years in the dates have been changed to all zeroes. They still look o.k. in my tree on this site, or at least the ones I've checked do. Has anybody else had this problem? The last one I downloaded (a few weeks ago) was o.k. as far as I know.

This query came up a few weeks ago. It is because the date format you have used on GR is incompatible.

Can you please confirm exactly how your dates appear on GR i.e. 1st Jan 1901, 01/01/1901, 01-01-01, etc

GR seem to be having some problems at the moment, maybe you could try doing it again ,?

See Ron's explanation on the thread called GEDCOM FILE, which I have just nudged.

Thanks, Bilbo, I'll have a look. As far as I know, I just typed the dates in as normal onto my tree e.g. 26/11/1732 appears on the GEDCOM as 26/11/0000 and looking at the previous downloaded GEDCOM (from last month), the date was correct on there - and I haven't changed it in the meantime!
I will have a look at the other thread and see what it says, thanks.

Okay, the info on the other thread doesn't seem to apply to my problem because it is the actual downloaded GEDCOM which has the zero years in, so it isn't a case of being incompatible with a particular tree program (I looked at it using Notepad), and I typed the original dates onto my tree as DD/MM/YYYY like we are supposed to. Also, dates which I haven't changed since I last downloaded my GEDCOM have a zero year in the new file but were o.k. on the previous one. So it must be some kind of glitch. I'll try downloading it again and see if it is the same.

It's the same on today's file. Strange!

OK, worth a try.

Sounds like an email to GR is needed.

I bet they're busy trying to fix that big problem where the site keeps freezing people's computers, but I will try anyway.

Does anybody on here want to try downloading their GEDCOM and look at it in Notepad just to see if any of the years have been changed to zero, please?

Just done mine Kate - same problem - quite a few dates have changed to 0000

I have pointed out this problem numerous times to GR support.

Quite a few of the problems are created by incorrect data entry, typing the date in the wrong format, but there is definitley a problem with some of the files we are being sent from GR.

GR tell me that they are going to issue some guidelines as to how to enter your data but I don't know when that will be.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

I cannot see how the problem can only be related to incorrect data entry.
My gedcom on GR is exported from Family Tree Maker where it would be impossible to enter a date using an incorrect format.

Hi Elaine.

I did not say that the problem is only incorrect data entry but only that this can be one of the causes for incorrect dates to appear in an exported GR gedcom.

You are correct when you say that FTM will not accept an incorrect date format and if you export your gedcom from FTM and import it into GR then all should be okay, it appears that problem is happening only when you enter the data manually into GR and and then you export the gedcom from GR the problem does not appear to happen when you import a gedcom from FTM into GR.

Today, Thursday morning, we have received 3 gedcom files from GR subscribers that they have downloaded from the GR site, every one of them has incorrect dates contained within the gedcom with most of them either having the year missing altogether or the year entered as 0000.

One customer assures me that she entered the dates in the correct format, 1 January 1881 for example.

I imported the GR gedcom into FTM and a lot of the dates do not have a year entered where there should be one.

This customer tells me that there is a button you can click when entering data if you are not sure of the year, this may be another cause of the problem.

I also checked the gedcom file in Wordpad so that I could see exactly how the data appeared following GR export, sure enough the data from that GR export is corrupt as a lot of the year dates are 0000

I have today sent 2 e-mails to GR reporting this but have had no reply yet. It would appear that there is a problem with GR exported gedcoms.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

Quote: .. it appears that problem is happening only when you enter the data manually into GR and then you export the gedcom from GR. The problem does not appear to happen when you import a gedcom from FTM into GR.

This is not the case Ron. I never enter data directly into my GR tree - only into my FTM file - yet I am experiencing the same problem when downloading a gedcom file from GR.

You may enter your data correctly Elaine but a lot of GR users only have their data on GR and I know for a fact that they do enter dates incorrectly.

Some GR users are new to the hobby and they are unaware of what a gedcom file is let alone what the standard is for data entry to comply with that gedcom standard.

GR have now replied to my e-mails, they are aware of the problem and they tell me that they are going to implement a new system for data entry and import/export procedures early in 2009.

Ron
www.genealogyprinters.com

Sorry Ron, was not arguing with you!

I thought you had misunderstood me and if you were contacting GR then it is important to know that the problem is not only affecting people who add data directly into their GR tree, but also those who add data via FTM and upload a gedcom to GR.

Hopefully the new GR system will sort out these issues.

I think this problem highlights the recommendation that no one should depend on an website to store the master copy of their tree, whether it be GR, Ancestry, Tribal Pages etc.
If your data is recorded in a family history program and stored on your own computer then it is completely under your control and not dependent on anyone else.

Hello Everybody,

I have the same problem with 0000 dates, which is why I have been searching this forum today. I have already contacted GR, but I have been sent an unhelpful response that suggested it was my fault for not entering the dates in the correct format. Of course, I had used dd/mm/yyyy for every one of my dates (all of which were entered manually), so the response hasn't resolved anything. However, seeing that I'm not the only one with this problem confirms (to me, at least) that there is something wrong with GR's Gedcom export process.

For the record, these are my observations when I export to a Gedcom file (for convenience, I have used dd, mm, yyyy below to represent known digits and, of course, these have been entered into GR in the dd/mm/yyyy format);

Birth dates entered as dd/mm/yyyy - Gedcom correct
Birth dates entered as mm/yyyy - Gedcom incorrect as 01/mm/yyyy
Birth dates entered as yyyy only - Gedcom correct

Death dates - exactly as birth dates above, for dd/mm/yyyy, mm/yyyy and yyyy.

Marriage dates entered as dd/mm/yyyy - Gedcom incorrect as dd/mm/0000
Marriage dates entered as mm/yyyy - Gedcom correct
Marriage dates entered as yyyy only - Gedcom correct
Baptism dates - exactly as marriage dates above, for dd/mm/yyyy and yyyy (unsure about mm/yyyy, as I don't have any).

I have nearly 1,000 people in my family tree, and over 2,500 dates. With the observations, the outcome is true for 100% of the dates in each of the cases. For example, I have 214 marriage and baptism dates recorded in GR, and every one of them is now in the format dd/mm/0000. It is almost inconceivable that I could have made the same error 214 times. It is far more likely that there is one small bug in the export code, which manifests itself 214 times when dates are being exported to a Gedcom file.

It is rather frustrating having to check and verify all my dates again. Given that this issue was reported in late November 2008, isn't it about time that it was fixed? Please GR, sort it out.

Regards,

Philip Clarke

Kate, sometimes when I export and import my tree, some of the dates are set to 2008, i.e. John Smith 2008-1930

GenesReU have always had problems with dates. I always believed the correct to way to enter a date is to do it completely, with no abbreviation, ie 16 February 1983 - which is what I do on my tree. However, when I upload a gedcom file to here, some of the dates get changed to all number format, why I dont know!. Surely with a web site used all round the world, it it too confusing to use all numbers, as places such as USA use MM/DD/YYYY