GEDCOM export isn't taking birth order of children or date order of marriages into consideration?

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#1

I have a GEDCOM file that was used to create one of my RootsFinder trees.

When I import that file into a desktop genealogy program it sorts the children and marriages meaningfully.
However if that file has been imported into RootsFinder, then exported again as a GEDCOM, and finally imported to the same desktop genealogy program, the children and marriages are not sorted meaningfully. This can be corrected with some intervention, but takes time.

I’m looking for a reliable option to back up RootsFInder trees and am presuming GEDCOM exports to do the majority of what is needed. However it would be helpful if they exported in such a way as to respect the birth order of children and date order of marriages.

Is there some logic that can be added to the GEDCOM export to create the file in such as way as birth order and marriage order is preserved?

Twins don't export properly in GEDCOM
#2

I will need to do some testing to find out how other programs sort children and families when they import a GEDCOM. I wonder why they don’t use birthdate to sort children? Maybe they simply use the order that the children are listed in the GEDCOM file? What program are you using?

#3

I currently use Reunion 12 on Mac as my desktop program and haven’t had any trouble importing other GEDCOM files exported by other programs, but hit this issue when importing GEDCOM exports from RootsFinder.

#4

We’ve modified the order of children in the GEDCOM export to correspond to their birth order, and modified the order of spouse-families in the GEDCOM export to correspond to the marriage date. I just tested this by importing the GEDCOM into RootsMagic. Children are showing in the correct order now, but marriage still aren’t. However, I’m unable to determine why RootsMagic isn’t obeying the order of the spouse-family references in the GEDCOM. Hopefully both children and spouses are listed in the correct order in Reunion now. If not, please let me know.

#5

Thanks Dallan. I look forward to verifying this over the next couple of days. Will let you know if there are any related issues.

#6

I’ve done some checking of this change and found what appears to be a new bug. There is a problem with the way twins are represented in the GEDCOM. When imported into Reunion each of the twins is there, with their parents, but they don’t both appear on the family group and don’t appear on exported descendant charts as they did previously. I’ve checked tis by changing the date of birth of one of the twins by 1 day in RF, then exporting another GEDCOM and that file imports and displays normally.

In one file I have several sets of twins and they all have the same problem.

#7

I’m sorry for the late reply. I’ve been out on holiday. We’ll get to work on fixing the bug - thanks for reporting it! I apologize for the trouble.

#8

Thanks Dallan. I only found the bug in the last 24 hours, but wasn’t sure whether you would pick up the comment on this closed feedback, hence raising separately as a bug. Took me a little while to work out what was going on, but somehow the birth order change has messed with the twins. They are both on the file, when looked at individually they have the correct parents, but don’t get picked up correctly as a family.

#9

Would you mind if I looked at the exported GEDCOM as I investigate this? If you wouldn’t mind, could you give me the name of a twin that didn’t show up in the exported family that should have? It will make the investigation go a bit faster.

#10

Actually, I just created a GEDCOM with twins and can see the problem. We’ll get it fixed and let you know.

#11

Excellent. Thanks for that.

Ability to control order of spouse relationships