Monday, February 17, 2020

Excel2GED Version 3 Program Now Available

I received an email last week from Brian Smith who is one of the authors of the Excel2GED computer program.  He wrote:
"The new (and free) Excel2GED Version 3 is now available for download and use: 
https://sourceforge.net/p/excel2ged/wiki/Home https://sourceforge.net/projects/excel2ged/files
and 
https://github.com/socrtwo/excel2ged
Here is the screen for the Excel2GED Wiki home page:


The page says:
"Excel2GED is an Excel spreadsheet with a macro for converting genealogy data into a GEDCOM formatted text file with a .ged file extension.  A GEDCOM file is generated by clicking the VBA-coded macro buttons 'Export' or 'Export to GEDCOM' after creating & selecting a recipient folder.  That file can then be imported into a genealogy program, with family relationships already defined, BMD data included, and source notes attached."
I wondered why researchers might use a spreadsheet rather than a genealogy program.  I thought of two reasons:

*  A One Name study where a researcher might use an EXCEL file to list names, birth date/place, death date/place, spouse name(s), marriage date/place, parents names, etc. data.

*  A DNA match study where a researcher might use an EXCEL file to list DNA match information (e.g., relationship, number of segments, centimorgan count, common ancestors, and more).

Brian offered another example:
"As a deputy historian for my local town, we work on all local family name genealogies, i was able to export a list of all the local cemetery interments with the old findagrave into spreadsheets, I am able to copy paste the census data from ancestry for my town into spreadsheets. 
"From there i needed a tool to convert the spreadsheet into GEDCOM, import into family tree maker, but keep the individuals separate, then when we start to work on families, i can start merging people into their families. We all relate eventually :) especially northern New York.  Doing this i work with large amount of data.  Each cemetery has thousands of people in it.
...
"I so far have the local files in excel, and hope to put into 1 big family tree and start merging."  
The same individual has also built a spreadsheet with people who attended high school in his hometown. He saw Excel2GED as a way to get the listed people into Family Tree Maker without having to retype it all. Once in the genealogy program, he could link those who married others of the same school.
I asked Brian "Are there any GEDCOM to Excel programs?"  I can see a researcher wanting to use the superior sorting ability, and other features, of a spreadsheet to translate a GEDCOM file into a spreadsheet.

He responded, saying:
I had not been aware of a GED2Excel tool, but a Web search with "convert GEDCOM to an excel file" turned up a few things, e.g.: 


If any of these programming options interest you, please click on the links and install the programs and use them.

What other purposes would you want or need an Excel2GED or GED2Excel program?

Thank you to Brian for reaching out to me about this program.

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The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/02/excel2ged-version-3-now-available.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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5 comments:

MCC said...

Hello Randy I'd like to know if you have tried this and what your opinion is, wondering if I should/could try it for the purpose of helping me search for B.B.F.? I value your opinion!����‍����✍Maria C.

Randy Seaver said...

Hi Maria,

No, I have not tried it. If I had a big Excel spreadsheet with many persons and their BMD data and relationships, I probably would try to use it. I know that some one-name study researchers use spreadsheets, and government units may use spreadsheets for vital record or other data, and this may be a great way to turn the spreadsheet data into a GEDCOM file.

This came to me unsolicited, and no one else has posted it, so I thought it might be of interest to some genealogists.

Cheers -- Randy

WanderingGirl said...

Hello! Thank you for your site. I wanted to chime in to say I'm interested in a GED2Excel capability (for Mac) so that I can list names, ages, DOB/DOD, causes of death. I'm conducting research to gain information on genetic disorders in our family trees, to gain insights on autism and dementia, along with other things.

You asked upthread about the reasons people might want a searchable Excel file - that's mine. If anyone has ideas on how to make this work, or better ways I can do this, I'd welcome them. Thanks!

Hazem Shams al-Din said...

I've used it several times, and am actually trying to get it to work with a database of around 17k people, but the information is poorly organized, so a lot of power queries! Anyway, this script is awesome. I can convert a whole towns census record in a weekend if the data is properly formated. You may not think you need to do it, but having a whole town in a database allows you to make connections very easily. Check out the FAN Method.

If you are able to pick up how VBA works, and how GEDCOM is written, you can configure it to do just about anything, even custom events or format it to suit your genealogical program of choice. ie- webtags and sharing events in RootsMagic.

Brs4Gen said...

Excel2GED3.23.11.11 is now available (released 2023-11-11).