Genealogy Chat

I've downloaded my Genes Reunited family tree and have it in my email and documents but after several unsuccessful attempts Ancestry.co.uk will not accept it as it has "does not appear to be a valid GEDCOM file. Can anyone help please. :-(

I have just tried an export from GR and import to Ancestry and it worked (3000 entries).

Have you recently exported the tree from GR or is the file you are trying to import a GEDCOM that was produced some time ago?

What size is your tree?

Have you tried googling "does not appear to be a valid GEDCOM file" there are many responses to that which may help you.

If you use Notepad to look at the first few lines of your GED file it should start something like this:

0 HEAD
1 SOUR GRUExport
2 VERS 3.0.6103.29019
2 NAME Genes Reunited
2 CORP Genes Reunited Ltd
1 DATE 2 OCT 2016
2 TIME 21:02:59
1 FILE XXX family tree.ged
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR ANSEL

Can you confirm that?

Thanks Kense, I'll do as you suggest and let you know how it turns out,

Hi Kense, I don't use Notepad, there are about 2,300 in my tree and I have googled for info on the invalid GEDCOM but cant see anything that appears to relevant. I uploaded my tree Ancestry a couple of days ago. I have a feeling that I'm overlooking something that is blatantly simple. lol

You can use Word to look at it.

You have presumably stored the email attachment in a directory such as Documents.

If you right click on the gedcom listed in that directory and then select Open With, it should offer you some apps which may include Notepad or Word.

Just select that app and it will open up the gedcom in a readable format, which should start similarly to the example I gave.

The size of your tree is quite reasonable so that shouldn't be a problem.

I have had similar problems GR appear to have made a change recently and the exported file does no longer come down with a .GED format - I corresponded with GR over this for about a week and they seem to have given up on me as I have heard nothing for a few days now.

Since then I spoke to my son and he suggested renaming the file to for example

NEWTREE1.GED

and guess what it works - so try renaming as I have done and see what happens when you upload or use in your own software.

If the file you are trying to import to Ancestry does not have a .ged suffix then that would probably explain it.

However the one the GR export software produced for me a couple of days ago did have a .ged suffix.

Is the problem the way your email handles attachments?

Thanks folks, not sure what I did right but its worked, cheers