I’m really trying to get Gramps working, but I’m losing my temper… I have been using a Swedish program called Genney. I have exported my tree as GEDCOM 5.5. Almost everything transferred correctly, but the places are a real mess! Everything is ‘unknown’ (not categorized as country, city, etc.). Nothing is nested, and I have duplicates. I can’t go through this manually as I have over 5,000 places. Is it supposed to be like this?
1 _DNA (a)D3(a)
2 _VERI Y
1 NAME xxxxxxxxxx /xxxxxxxxx/
2 GIVN xxxxxxxx
2 SURN xxxxxxxxxxxxx
1 NAME xxxxxxxxx /xxxxxx/
2 GIVN xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
2 SURN xxxxxxxx
2 RESN confidential
2 SOUR (a)S1425(a)
1 NAME /xxxxxxxxx/
2 SURN xxxxxxxxx
2 SOUR (a)S1425(a)
3 QUAY 3
1 SEX M
1 RIN I15893
1 RESI
2 DATE 1980
2 PLAC Arlöv, Burlöv, Malmöhus län
3 MAP
4 LATI N55.6367
4 LONG E13.11315
2 _PLC (a)0(a)
2 SOUR (a)S4239(a)
3 PAGE ArkivDigital: Störst i Sverige på släktforskning
3 QUAY 3
Im using Gramps AIO64-6.0.6–1 on Windows 11.
Not in front of Gramps at the moment. There is an add on that will build the place names in a hierarchical tree, grouping and removing duplicates. There are a few options. Read the help pages. Ensure you backup the database before using it, you may have to try a couple of times before you pick the right option. It also takes a few minutes to run, be patient.
The problem seems to trace back to the feature Genney boasts of as being a “dynamic format” for Places.
A proper v5.5.1 GEDCOM should have a FORM line after the PLAC. That would indicate the Administrative divisions for the previous line’s comma separated data.
Because their export is not structured and can contain “alternative” names, they probably do not enforce harmonized Place descriptions. So you are going to have extra work cleaning their Place hierarchy.
There IS a free “Multimerge” addon gramplet from the Isotammi project. It has an “Automerge” tab (when in the Place category sidebar) that will consolidate exact duplicate Places.
And their Place Tool addon gramplet has a feature to parse a comma-separated place title into a Hierarchical structure.
(The Isotammi project was a Finnish Genealogical Society team that built Gramps tools for a special project. They ran a server to collate research as GEDCOM snippets. The research was received from their Society’s membership.)
As a member of Isotammi project and long time user of the addons advocated by Emyoulation I conform that they are very suitable for cleaning of this place mess. Study how to install them and start to play.
