Home > Technical Support > Importing a GEDCOM File

1. From Family Tree Detective's File menu, select Import.

   Family Tree Detective displays the Open Family File dialog box.

   
   Figure 1: The Open Family File dialog box

2. Click the Look in drop-down list and select the drive where your file is located.

   If the file is located in a folder on the selected drive, double-click that folder. For example, suppose the GEDCOM is on a floppy disk: Place the diskette in the drive and choose 3½ floppy (A:) from the drop-down list (where A: is the letter assigned to your floppy drive).

3. Select the name of your file in the box above the File name field and then click Open.

   Family Tree Detective displays the New Family File dialog box.

4. Click the Save in drop-down list and select the drive where you want to save the new file.

   A list of files and folders on this drive will appear in the box underneath the Save in field. If you want to save the GEDCOM file in a folder on the specified drive, double-click that folder. For example, suppose you want to save the file in Family Tree Detective's working directory--usually C:\FTD. Click the Save in drop-down list and choose your (C:) drive, then double-click the FTD folder that appears in the box below.

5. In the File name field, you can either keep the name that Family Tree Detective suggests or type another name for your file. It's best if the name you choose is eight letters or less and has the extension .FTD. For example, you could type myfamily.ftd or smith.ftd.

6. Click Save.

   Family Tree Detective displays the Import from GEDCOM dialog box.

   
   Figure 2: The Import from GEDCOM dialog box

   Make your selections in this dialog box. If you are uncertain which settings to use, please use the default settings provided and skip to the next step.

7. Click the Facts to Import button.

   Family Tree Detective displays the Facts to Import dialog box.

   
   Figure 2. The Facts to Import dialog box.

   There are two lists in this dialog box. The list on the left, Fields to Import, contains all of the fields that you can import from the GEDCOM file. The list on the right, Resulting Fields, contains the Family Tree Detective fields into which the information is being imported. All of the facts, dates, locations, and other data were assigned labels when this GEDCOM was originally created. Family Tree Detective doesn't import all of this information by default and it doesn't necessarily label things the same way. You need to tell Family Tree Detective which data to import, and for those pieces of data Family Tree Detective doesn't recognize automatically, you need to specify which fields in Family Tree Detective they should correspond to.

   To import a GEDCOM field that does not have a resulting field entry in the Resulting Fields list on the right, select the name of the field and click Import Field. If you can use more than one resulting field to import the information, Family Tree Detective displays the Change Fields dialog box. In this dialog box, select the name of the field that describes the information you selected to import and click OK. If you can use only one field for that information, Family Tree Detective automatically inserts the field in the list on the right. If you want to remove a field from the Resulting Fields list, select the tag name and click Don't Import.

8. Once you have finished choosing fields to import, click OK to return to the Import from GEDCOM dialog box.

9. If you are satisfied with all the settings in this dialog box, click OK.