Converting an old database to GED format

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Trent SC

Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Trent SC » 03 jan 2005 13:14:46

I have an old genealogy database which was created in .dbf format which has
a very simplistic DOS front-end and an nightmarish navigation.

I'd like to extract the data from the database and either import it into a
GED-compliant application, or convert it, dump the old .dbf thing and work
on the new version. Is there an application that will help me do this? I
presume I would need to identify the relevant fields as well as how the
relationships are defined (at the moment, father/mother/spouse etc are
referenced to by line numbers).

And it goes without saying that I'm horribly poor, so a free conversion
utility, or a family tree program which has a time-limited free trial would
be marvellous!

Many thanks in advance.

Trent SC

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Trent SC » 03 jan 2005 23:22:46

I think the .dbf format was used by Family Origins many years ago
(company has been sold now.) If you can locate and old copy it may
load up the dbf for you and allow a direct gedcom conversion. There is
a bit more info at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... edcom.html
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but this was a home-written DOS program created
some years ago, and I doubt whether it follows any of the conventions of a
formally-composed piece of code, which is why I need a conversion utility.
I have a suspicion if I loaded this database into Family Origins, it would
be an utter dog's dinner.

Cheers.

Doug Corbin

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Doug Corbin » 04 jan 2005 02:50:37

This page tells how to convert text files and spreadsheet files into gedcom
format. If you can open your database in a spreadsheet this might be an
answer:

http://www.tedpack.org/text2ged.html

Doug

"Trent SC" <trent@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:41d9c5f3$0$73800$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
I think the .dbf format was used by Family Origins many years ago
(company has been sold now.) If you can locate and old copy it may
load up the dbf for you and allow a direct gedcom conversion. There is
a bit more info at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... edcom.html
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but this was a home-written DOS program created
some years ago, and I doubt whether it follows any of the conventions of a
formally-composed piece of code, which is why I need a conversion utility.
I have a suspicion if I loaded this database into Family Origins, it would
be an utter dog's dinner.

Cheers.


Alan Jones

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Alan Jones » 04 jan 2005 03:38:03

IF it really was completely home written, then NO ONE can give you a
canned program to convert it. A special program would have to be written
to do it. Someone might be able to figure it out by looking at the file,
or they might need to know the logic that was used to create it.

Do you have the old DOS program?

If you send it to me, off this list, I will see if I can tell any more.

alanjones10@cox.net

"Trent SC" <trent@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:41d9c5f3$0$73800$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...
I think the .dbf format was used by Family Origins many years ago
(company has been sold now.) If you can locate and old copy it may
load up the dbf for you and allow a direct gedcom conversion. There is
a bit more info at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... edcom.html
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but this was a home-written DOS program created
some years ago, and I doubt whether it follows any of the conventions of a
formally-composed piece of code, which is why I need a conversion utility.
I have a suspicion if I loaded this database into Family Origins, it would
be an utter dog's dinner.

Cheers.

Doug McDonald

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Doug McDonald » 04 jan 2005 15:46:56

Alan Jones wrote:
IF it really was completely home written, then NO ONE can give you a
canned program to convert it. A special program would have to be written
to do it.

That's true.


Someone might be able to figure it out by looking at the file,
or they might need to know the logic that was used to create it.

If it is a standard database program file, then you can find
a database program to read the file, and figure out from that.
I've done that with Legacy, and it was very easy to do except
figuring out how that attached sources to people (it was backwards,
and required a search).

Writing a GEDCOM from the database data is not terribly
hard. It might be easier to dump the database data
to some sort of text files and work on those, however.

I have successfully taken web sites where each person
is a different web page and converted those to GEDCOMS ... this
is NOT easy. From a set of text files is easy.

Doug McDonald

Trent SC

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av Trent SC » 04 jan 2005 16:20:05

I've emailed you off-group with the prog.

Ta muchly.

IF it really was completely home written, then NO ONE can give you a
canned program to convert it. A special program would have to be written
to do it. Someone might be able to figure it out by looking at the file,
or they might need to know the logic that was used to create it.

Do you have the old DOS program?

If you send it to me, off this list, I will see if I can tell any more.

alanjones10@cox.net

I think the .dbf format was used by Family Origins many years ago
(company has been sold now.) If you can locate and old copy it may
load up the dbf for you and allow a direct gedcom conversion. There is
a bit more info at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... edcom.html
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but this was a home-written DOS program
created some years ago, and I doubt whether it follows any of the
conventions of a formally-composed piece of code, which is why I need a
conversion utility. I have a suspicion if I loaded this database into
Family Origins, it would be an utter dog's dinner.

singhals

Re: Converting an old database to GED format

Legg inn av singhals » 04 jan 2005 16:20:43

I dunno, Alan.

You'd've thought that any genealogist who even tried to write a dB for
it would include Who-What-When-Where and most of us would create space
for Why and How. (g) ... a peek into the export routine of FO might be
entertaining and informative vis-a-vis relationship handling ...

Cheryl

Alan Jones wrote:

IF it really was completely home written, then NO ONE can give you a
canned program to convert it. A special program would have to be written
to do it. Someone might be able to figure it out by looking at the file,
or they might need to know the logic that was used to create it.

Do you have the old DOS program?

If you send it to me, off this list, I will see if I can tell any more.

alanjones10@cox.net

"Trent SC" <trent@invalid.invalid> wrote in message
news:41d9c5f3$0$73800$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net...

I think the .dbf format was used by Family Origins many years ago
(company has been sold now.) If you can locate and old copy it may
load up the dbf for you and allow a direct gedcom conversion. There is
a bit more info at:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com ... edcom.html
Good Luck!

Thanks for the suggestion, but this was a home-written DOS program created
some years ago, and I doubt whether it follows any of the conventions of a
formally-composed piece of code, which is why I need a conversion utility.
I have a suspicion if I loaded this database into Family Origins, it would
be an utter dog's dinner.

Cheers.




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