Family Historian User Group

Hi there,

Sorry for another question, but I have googled and no answers have been returned.

I am basically wanting to export and then upload a gedcom file to ancestry so that other people can see my basic tree. I export from FH v4.0 and then when I try to upload to Ancestry I get an error saying:

'Error: The file you have specified (lee.ged) does not appear to be a valid GEDCOM file, please try again.'

Can anyone help?

Thanks.



ID:3903

Check to see that the file you are exporting ends in .ged

Yeah, I've tried various filenames of .ged, with and without spaces etc etc etc.

Try the tips from these threads

http://www.fhug.org.uk/cgi-bin/index.cg ... y&num=2801

and use the export option to remove all irrelevant information such as media and submitters, repositories.

Personally I also remove all living people and only upload my direct ancestors and siblings.

I don't like the T&Cs for the site to upload more.

Thanks, Jane. I'll investigate tomorrow ...

So the ability to upload is being affected by all the other bits of info that are on my FH gedcom such as events/attributes etc?

Thanks again.

Yes, BUT it's not an invalid file, it's valid GEDOCOM, Ancestry (and Genes Reunited) upload routines are just not written to accept all the extensions.

So the simplest route is to remove all the excess baggage before you upload. Especially if you don't want Ancestry taking the option to take all your research and selling it to other people. I know they currently say they won't, but do you trust them?

Thanks jane,

Do you know how I can make a backup file of my FH file? There appears to be no 'Save As' option and when I try to do a simple copy in windows explorer it always fails when I reload.

Help appreciated.

The Save As menu option is hidden away in an unusual place (compared to nearly all other programs that have this option). You'll find it under File->Gedcom File Tasks->Save a Gedcom File Copy...

If you're using Explorer to copy the file there shouldn't be too many problems except if you are using projects when FH will probably expect the subdirectories that exist around the .ged file to actually exist. So if you are using projects, a simple file copy might not be enough and you will need to copy the whole project folder structure.

In any case to make a backup of your data, use the File->Backup/Restore->Backup... menu option.

Alternately, just use the File/Export/GEDCOM option which is new to V4 and allows you to do basic splitting etc.

Jane/Jon

Thanks ever so much for your thorough responses. I really appreciate it.

Thanks again.

What web browser are you using when doing the export to Ancestry?

I use Firefox by default, but following problems like yours, and getting exactly the same error message, I tried doing the export to Ancestry (of the very same ged file that had failed) using IE6 and it worked properly.

Might be worth a try.

David

Interesting, I also use firfox, will give it a stab in IE.

Thanks very much for the suggestion.

Do let us know how you get on, as others might find it helpful.

Good luck.

David,

Thanks ever so much for the suggestion, I have just tried with IE v8.0 and it wores perfectly! So thanks ever so much!!!

Others are sure to benefit from this .....