Family Trees...?

Question:

Gedcom Files/Family Trees...?

I currently am working on my family tree and have it on genesconnected. I have exported the gedcom file and have acquired Family Tree Maker 10 but I'm very new to it.

What I would like to know is that obviously as your tree grows you find matches with other people etc etc, well if someone should email me their gedcom file so that I can copy details over then is there a way/program to incorporate that file into yours without retyping the details?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: yes

But very important....

Save a backup of your own files as they are with only your information! You will find that some people aren't as interested in facts & exact information as you are. If you start importing files it's sometimes hard to fix mistakes if you import a file full of problems. Always best to have that original to go back to if necessary. Even make a couple of copies of your original. Then work from one of these copies as you find more facts. You can always import a file into the original once you've found it's free of mistakes.

That having been said, on Family Tree Maker, you would go to File & then APPEND/MERGE a gedcom file. It's been a while since I've done this, but I believe it will ask you who you want to import from this file. You can narrow it down by say choosing all the people that are related to Emily Jane Smith from that file, who you know is the same Emily Jane Smith you have in your own file. It will probably ask you questions about some or even each of the people you import, depending on how much information you already have on that person in your own file. It's trying to make sure that the duplicate names you are merging are indeed the same people you have from your own file. You may sometimes find, that depending on how close the information is, you may have to later manually verfiy that yes, the two David Smiths are in fact the same person by going to PEOPLE & then MERGE TWO SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALS.