Family Historian User Group

I've been trying to use the Export Gedcom File plugin with ANC- settings to generate a GEDCOM file for upload to ancestry.

The resulting gedcom file looks OK, but when I try to upload to ancestry it appears to work (100% when importing appears), but I end up with zero people in the tree.

Any ideas what might be the problem?

Hi Andrew,
I am the Plugin author and when I tried an (ANC) Ancestry export and upload last April it worked OK.

Is this the first time you have used the Plugin, or has it worked before and now it has started failing?

If this is your first time, a common mistake is to use the option at the end of the Plugin to open the GEDCOM in FH.
You may have overlooked the warning that doing that may disrupt the GEDCOM for the target product (Ancestry).

Try using the Plugin with the Family Historian Sample Project and upload that to Ancestry.
If that works OK, then there is something about your Project that is unusual.
Firstly, check out the plugins:help:export_gedcom_file:export_gedcom_file|> Export Gedcom File Plugin Help & Advice especially where it says: "To avoid potential problems, it is advisable, before running the Plugin, to use the following"
You can ignore the Media checks as they do not get uploaded to Ancestry, so perform:
File > Validate to detect Gedcom structural errors.
Tools > Uncategorised Data > Find Uncategorised Data or Tools > Plugins > UDF List to detect UDF.
Tools > Plugins > Show Project Statistics to find invalid Dates and other potential problems.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. To answer your questions:

1. First time to use the plugin, but did not open in FH.

2. Sample project works fine.

3. File>Validate: reports no errors found
Tools > Plugins > UDF List reports No UDF items found

4. Screenshots of project statistics attached.

Many thanks!

I have just uploaded my test GEDCOM to Ancestry and like your FH Sample Project upload that was OK.
The simple checks I suggested look OK, so we now need to dig deeper.
Show Project Statistics suggests there are 2668 issues to review although they may not be the Ancestry problem.
All the figures in red indicate an exception, but many may be very minor.
The exceptions are all listed when you click Close & Report
e.g.
8 Individuals have Undefined Sex.
More significant is that several Facts have exceptional Min@ & Max@ Age values such as Baptism at -31 and 100, or Marriage at -85 and 120, which suggest perhaps Birth Date or other Date errors.

In Ancestry, from the Home page, when you click on Trees presumably it lists Lewis-Slater tree ANC UTF8 which when selected displays what? Just an empty grey screen?
In the bottom left corner does the overview show any family tree boxes?
Top right click Tree Search and List of all people ~ what gets listed?

Thanks, Mike.

In Ancestry, from the Home page, when you click on Trees presumably it lists Lewis-Slater tree ANC UTF8

correct, however I see no family tree boxes, and list all people says there are no people in the tree.

I'll start going through the exceptional values in the report, to see if I can narrow down why the import fails. I might try ancestry support, in case they can provide an error log for importing, to see what is causing it to fall over.

Try importing the Lewis-Slater tree ANC UTF8.ged file into FH via File > Project Window > New Project to see if it raises any report log exceptions and check that Individual records exist.

BTW: Since it was your first time, presumably you just accepted the Export Gedcom File Plugin default settings?

You could post a screenshot of the start of the Result Set produced by the Export Gedcom File Plugin.
I might spot something out of the ordinary.

If you don't mind making it public you could attach a large chunk of the start of the Lewis-Slater tree ANC UTF8.ged file.

Thanks for your patience with this, Mike.

I attach the exceptions log and the results set from the plugin.

I'd need to anonymise some of the living data in the GEDCOM to post it publicly, although happy to mail you a copy, if it helps.

Cheers,

Andrew

I can see nothing out of the ordinary in those attachments, so if you are happy then send the exported GEDCOM file to me as an attachment via post at tatewise.co.uk

Hi Mike,

I have just tried re-generating the GEDCOM and uploading again to ancestry, and this time it worked fine!

A bit mysterious: perhaps something was broken on the ancestry side of things... (I did tell them I was having problems)

Thanks again,

Andrew

One follow-up question: is ANC- intended to strip type 1 sources from the GEDCOM?

I am still seeing the sources in output (and therefore also on ancestry after uploading).

Andrew

No, the Plugin tries not to remove any records if possible.
Common exceptions are Media which some products do not upload, and Place records that are not standard GEDCOM.

You may be misunderstanding the Extra Options tab option for Source Type (1 _TYPE) which refers to the non-standard GEDCOM Source record Type field, rather than Method 1 'splitter' Source Citations.

To exclude all Source records, or other record types, you need to use File > Import/Export > Export > GEDCOM File beforehand and run the Plugin on that exported GEDCOM file.

That technique and associated advice is in how_to:exporting_gedcom_with_multimedia|> Exporting a Family Tree with/without Media.
In that you should review how_to:exporting_gedcom_with_multimedia#export_to_website_without_sensitive_data|> Export to Website Without Sensitive Data to ensure that living people details are not put online.

For a detailed breakdown of the Export Gedcom File processes for the (ANC) Ancestry Family Tree export mode see plugins:help:export_gedcom_file:anc_ancestry_family_tree|> Export Gedcom File ~ (ANC) Ancestry Family Tree.