GEDCOM 2 to GEDCOM 5 conversion of Micro Aid Family History

[Jonathan]

Hello, a bit of a long question, so please bear with me!
The background is that a lot of relatives are counting on me to get at
some data from my late grandfathers old computer disks. After entering
a world of emulators, home-made serial cables and many, many long
nights, I now have the data but am totally stuck! As you will see, I've
done as much research as possible and really have tried to help myself,
but I have reached a dead end (until you good people can help me!).

Here's what I found so far:

In this thread
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... 6c4c7df4b5
I found this post:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... 6c4c7df4b5
which says

-------------------------------------------------
"Another rather ancient Micro-Aid program named 'Family Tree' has a
GEDCOM
exporter that produces files with the first line:

0 @1000@ HEAD

The example file called 'Royals' starts this way.

Maybe the standard was a bit looser in those days?"
-------------------------------------------------

Further on in this thread:
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... fcbdb2f229
I found that the "Family History Program" actually exports GEDCOM 2
format.
Then I saw this
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... 6bc279419a
which said

-------------------------------------------------
"The Ancestry+ program marketed by APDL has a utlilty which will
convert
Family History System GEDCOM files to Anc+ files. which could then be
exported as GEDCOM 5.5 files."

-------------------------------------------------

So, I went searching and found this page:
http://www.apdl.co.uk/progs/ancest.htm and near the bottom, I found
http://www.apdl.co.uk/software/anccon.zip
It was in an archive format, so I ran the emulator, found a copy of
SparkPlug, which seemed to unzip everything else except this one
archive, which just does nothing when you drag it to the taskbar
sparkplug icon.
Stuffed again!


I then found (and successfully installed) GedText (found in this
thread)
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.s ... 956f449edd
Ran it, but it said "not a family history file"

I've also tried Rootsmagic: http://www.rootsmagic.com/demo.htm
and the free Personal Ancestry File:
http://www.familysearch.org/eng/paf/
but again, both reject the gedcom file.

Other things I looked at:
http://www.cyndislist.com/gedcom.htm#Viewers
http://www.three-peaks.net/gedcom.htm


Well, finally, here is the output of the Family History Program GEDCOM
export (v2).
I noticed that there is only one file, but a lot of the programs seem
to want "filename.g00" as soon as I start the import.
Are there some changes I can do by hand as a simple "search/replace" or
is the data format too different?

Many thanks in advance.

-----------STARTS WITH--------------

0 HEAD MAR -0?
1 SYST BBC Easytree
0 @MAR1@INDI
1 FAMI
2 RFN @MAR1@
1 NAME Albert of/Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 18190000
1 DEAT
2 DATE 18611214
0 @MAR2@INDI
1 PARE
2 RFN @MAR87@
1 FAMI
2 RFN @MAR1@
1 NAME Victoria/Queen of England House of HANOVER/
1 SEX F
1 BIRT
2 DATE 18190524
1 NOTE r.1837-1901
1 DEAT
2 DATE 19010122

--------------- ends with --------------------

0 EOF
-------------------------------------------------

[Robert Heiling]

Jonathan wrote:

Hello, a bit of a long question, so please bear with me!
The background is that a lot of relatives are counting on me to get at
some data from my late grandfathers old computer disks. After entering
a world of emulators, home-made serial cables and many, many long
nights, I now have the data but am totally stuck! As you will see, I've
done as much research as possible and really have tried to help myself,
but I have reached a dead end (until you good people can help me!).

Here's what I found so far:
SNIP
Well, finally, here is the output of the Family History Program GEDCOM
export (v2).
I noticed that there is only one file, but a lot of the programs seem
to want "filename.g00" as soon as I start the import.
Are there some changes I can do by hand as a simple "search/replace" or
is the data format too different?

Many thanks in advance.

I happen to have a collection of odds & ends here and among them is a PAF 3.01. It's old enough to still run in
DOS mode and it *might* Import an old gedcom like that. The "documentation"<g> doesn't address the version
issue. I just installed it and tried an Import on that snippet of Gedcom that you posted, but there's not
enough there to work and know one way or the other. I've uploaded the installation file to:
http://home.comcast.net/~robheil/Lookups/PAF301m.exe
If there's any concern on your part, please run a virus check as I'll take no responsibility or if you wish to
zip that gedcom & email it to me I'll be happy to test it. Install it and see if it will IMPORT your old v 2.0
gedcom. The resulting .PAF file, if successful, will definitely import to PAF 5.

HTH
Bob