gedcom files in excell

[Bob]

does anyone know how to read gedcom files into exceland insert fomulae so
that i can make lists directly from my ancestor files in any order I want. ie
a list of the names in the first column, dates of birth in the second column
and fathers name in the third column

 

[JLatham]

Bob, It looks like a starting place might be here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/05/XMLFiles/
It (apparently) provides a means of converting gedcom files to XML and that
can definitely be a start toward moving them into Excel.

I'm not sure how much it will help, or if it could read your gedcom files.
I did a little reading and it appears that the gedcom file format 'standard'
is not really a standard, and so the software you're using may have added
extensions to the fields, or types of data stored in the file, that have been
provided by whatever software package you're using to work with them now.

Google also reveals several possible importing applications designed to read
them directly into Excel (search for "gedcom+excel"). Here is a link to just
one of the possible solutions that revealed:
http://erosenbaum.netfirms.com/webtoexcel.shtml

 

[Bob]

Thanks for that J, I have tried to read them and in fact downloaded one of
them and tried it, it only gave me five lines! I think what I need is a
formulae that allows me to make a decision based on the contents of a cell ie
if cell A1 has a '0' in it then put part of the contents of B2 into A12 (each
new field starts with a '0' and the next row and column down and right
carries -in this case- 'NAME Fred /Bloggs/' (in that format). Could a
formulae be constructed to put Fred in one cell (A12) and Bloggs in another
cell (A13) and be able to distinguish between Fred and Bloggs even if they
had a different number of letters in each name? maybe the slashes are a clue!
The sites you put me on to showed me that the lines in a GEDCOM file are
nested and prefixed with the level of the nest
0 @30@ INDI
1 NAME Fred /Bloggs/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 1846
2 PLAC Donnington
1 DEAT
2 DATE 27 OCT 1931
1 NOTE 1871 lived in Birmingham - 300 Broad Street B1 2DE ?
1 RFN 170125098
1 FAMS @F6@
0 @14@ INDI
1 NAME Freda /Bloggs/
might it be possible to check if there is a '1' in column one and the first
word in column two (the left number above is in column one and the rest all
appears in column two) is ,for example, 'NAME' then split the rest of the
line and put the contents in two consecutive boxes, even if both those boxes
contain the relevent formulae to achieve this. if not then move on to the
next line and check this one. When one is found copy the details and then
move on to the next cell? this last bit might be the hardest. I am going to
keep trying different ways but I would appreciate the help.

 

[JLatham]

Bob,
All of that kind of thing is do-able. Actually, since you seem to be at
ground zero on this whole thing, it seems to me it would almost be as easy to
write an import routine in Excel itself, as a VBA macro. Especially if you
just want a 'condensed' version of the information like you said in the
original post.

Would it be possible for you to send me a sample gedcom file for me to look
at? As an attachment to an email sent to (no spaces) HelpFrom @
jlathamsite.com would get it to me and I could look at the raw file and see
how difficult it may turn out to be. I saw mention in one place that the
data may actually be encoded rather than ASCII, so I'd need to see the raw
file to see how what you are working with is set up.