Migration from GEDCOM Guide

Guide for manually converting GEDCOM files to GENEALOGIX format.

Note: This guide describes the manual migration process. Automated import/export tools are not yet available but are planned for future releases.

Key Differences

Aspect	GEDCOM	GENEALOGIX
Format	Tag-based	YAML
Evidence	Basic sources	Complete chains
Quality	QUAY (0-3)	Quality (0-3)
Version Control	File-based	Git-native

Migration Process

1. Initialize Archive

mkdir my-family-archive
cd my-family-archive
glx init
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial: GENEALOGIX archive structure"

2. Convert Entities

Manual conversion process:

1. Extract individuals → persons/
2. Extract families → relationships/
3. Extract events → events/
4. Extract places → places/
5. Extract sources → sources/

3. Create Evidence Chains

GEDCOM sources need to be expanded into complete evidence chains.

GEDCOM:

0 @I1@ INDI
1 BIRT
2 DATE 15 JAN 1850
2 SOUR @S1@
3 QUAY 2
3 PAGE Page 23

GENEALOGIX:

sources:
  source-birth-cert:
    title: "Birth Certificate"
    type: vital_record

citations:
  citation-birth:
    source: source-birth-cert
    quality: 2
    page: "Page 23"

assertions:
  assertion-birth-date:
    subject: person-john-smith
    claim: birth_date
    value: "1850-01-15"
    citations: [citation-birth]

Field Mapping

Individual Records (INDI)

GEDCOM	GENEALOGIX	Notes
INDI	Person	Core entity
NAME	Person.properties.given_name, family_name	Structured format
BIRT	Event (birth)	Separate entity
DEAT	Event (death)	Separate entity
OCCU	Event (occupation)	Separate entity

Family Records (FAM)

GEDCOM	GENEALOGIX	Notes
FAM	Relationship	Family connections
HUSB/WIFE	Relationship.participants	Role-based
MARR	Event (marriage)	Separate entity

Source Records (SOUR)

GEDCOM	GENEALOGIX	Notes
SOUR	Source	Original material
TITL	Source.title	Title
REPO	Source.repository	Repository reference
PAGE	Citation.page	Moved to citation
QUAY	Citation.quality	1:1 mapping

Quality Translation

GEDCOM QUAY maps 1:1 to GENEALOGIX citation quality field (maintained for compatibility). However, the idiomatic GLX approach is to use assertion confidence levels instead:

# GEDCOM QUAY preserved in citation (optional)
citations:
  citation-from-gedcom:
    source: source-census
    quality: 2  # From GEDCOM QUAY

# Idiomatic GLX: Use assertion confidence
assertions:
  assertion-birth:
    subject: person-john
    claim: birth_date
    value: "1850-01-15"
    confidence: high  # Preferred approach
    citations: [citation-from-gedcom]

See Confidence Levels for the vocabulary.

Common Challenges

Name Conversion

GEDCOM:

1 NAME John /Smith/

GENEALOGIX:

properties:
  given_name: "John"
  family_name: "Smith"

Place Hierarchy

GEDCOM:

2 PLAC Leeds, Yorkshire, England

GENEALOGIX:

places:
  place-england:
    name: "England"
    type: country

  place-yorkshire:
    name: "Yorkshire"
    type: county
    parent: place-england

  place-leeds:
    name: "Leeds"
    type: city
    parent: place-yorkshire

Date Formats

GEDCOM:

2 DATE 15 JAN 1850
2 DATE ABT 1850
2 DATE BET 1849 AND 1851

GENEALOGIX:

date: "1850-01-15"
date: "1850?"
date: "1849/1851"

Post-Migration

Validation

# Validate converted data
glx validate

# Fix any errors
# Re-validate
glx validate

Enhancement

After migration, enhance evidence quality:

• Add transcriptions
• Verify quality ratings
• Complete evidence chains
• Add research notes

Git Tracking

git add .
git commit -m "Migration from GEDCOM complete

Migrated:
- 150 individuals → persons/
- 45 families → relationships/
- 200 events → events/
- 50 sources → sources/

Next steps:
- Enhance evidence quality
- Add transcriptions
- Complete place hierarchy"

See Also

• Entity Types - Entity specifications
• Best Practices - Workflow recommendations
• CLI Documentation - Command reference