Cleanup from Ancestry.com #2

Ancestry files require a lot of clean-up before they are really useful or accurate.  As I noted earlier, the files themselves need to be scrubbed of duplicates, overlapping records and more.

In order to accomplish these repairs, I use numerous tools to address the requisite tasks including:

• GRAMPS (a Linux Genealogical Toolset)- I like this tool a lot because it provides wonderful facilities for performing the following functions:
  • Merging duplicate Sources
  • Merging Duplicate Places
  • Identifying and Merging duplicate People
  • Database clean-up
• RootsMagic 4 provides nice facilities for:
  • Pruning branches and limbs
  • Problem analysis
• TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding): (Note: I no longer use TNG-  28 Jul 2010)
  • Merging duplicate Sources
  • Merging Duplicate Places
  • Identifying and Merging duplicate People
  • Web Presentation of Information (see our Genealogy page)
• Gedit (a Linux Text Editor):
  • for building quick Gedcom files to import into the various tools
• Geany (a programming editor):
  • to modify TNG for blending with WordPress
  • to edit files and text off-line

The clean-up of a 500 person tree took me about three days (25 hours) of effort. Each of the tools alone would not have done the job by themselves.  Numerous tools were required to repair the problems both introduced and allowed by Ancestry.com.

In a subsequent article, I’ll cover additional pointers to watch-out for when you embark on a conversion and clean-up effort.