Family Gathering to Reunion

[Fred Van Veen]

I spent long hours some years ago loading genealogical data into Family Gathering, which was a very good program (which came with a terrific manual) but has since disappeared. I can run what I have on Classic in my Mac OS10.4, but I would like to export all the data into a new program, and I gather that for the Mac, Reunion is the best bet. Question: Has anyone accomplished this transfer? What are the pluses and minuses? Does anyone know of a software translator to handle this job?
Fred

[theKiwi]

I spent long hours some years ago loading genealogical data into Family Gathering, which was a very good program (which came with a terrific manual) but has since disappeared. I can run what I have on Classic in my Mac OS10.4, but I would like to export all the data into a new program, and I gather that for the Mac, Reunion is the best bet. Question: Has anyone accomplished this transfer? What are the pluses and minuses? Does anyone know of a software translator to handle this job?
Fred


Does Family Gathering create a GEDCOM file - you can find this either in the Manual, or look in the File menu, and see if there's anything there called something like Export GEDCOM or GEDCOM.

If so, you're all set.

If not, can you point to any online documentation about this software - who made it - when etc?

Roger

[dseifert]

I did just that. I exported a gedcom file from Family gathering and imported it to Reunion. Seemed to work fine for me

[Fred Van Veen]

Does Family Gathering create a GEDCOM file - you can find this either in the Manual, or look in the File menu, and see if there's anything there called something like Export GEDCOM or GEDCOM.

If so, you're all set.

If not, can you point to any online documentation about this software - who made it - when etc?

Roger

Yes, Family Gathering (from Palladium Software, which is apparently defunct) does allow you to create a GEDCOM file, and I'll do this. Thanks.

[Fred Van Veen]

I did just that. I exported a gedcom file from Family gathering and imported it to Reunion. Seemed to work fine for me

Thanks, Don. One more question: In your opinion, is Reunion as good as Family Gathering? Better? About the same?
Fred

[dseifert]

Thanks, Don. One more question: In your opinion, is Reunion as good as Family Gathering? Better? About the same?
Fred

Well.... In my opinion "Reunion" is just as good as "Family Gathering". I guess I'd have to grade "Reunion" much higher since The company who makes "Family Gathering" is now defunked and FG only runs in the classic environment.

When I first purchase Reunion I was only interested in the web site posting features. The Reunion web site boasted easy site building. I initially was disappointed because I found web posting no more doable with reunion than it was with family gathering. I soon found that my lack of knowledge was the root of all my problems and it was help from people in this forum that got me up and running on the internet. I shot my mouth off to Tech support and forever regret it.

I guess this is a great time to apologize to them for that!! I do sincerely if y'all are readiing :)

So....yeah... bottom line is Reunion is an excellent program. I think you'll be very happy with it. I use it every single day.

[Fred Van Veen]

Well.... In my opinion "Reunion" is just as good as "Family Gathering". I guess I'd have to grade "Reunion" much higher since The company who makes "Family Gathering" is now defunked and FG only runs in the classic environment.

When I first purchase Reunion I was only interested in the web site posting features. The Reunion web site boasted easy site building. I initially was disappointed because I found web posting no more doable with reunion than it was with family gathering. I soon found that my lack of knowledge was the root of all my problems and it was help from people in this forum that got me up and running on the internet. I shot my mouth off to Tech support and forever regret it.

I guess this is a great time to apologize to them for that!! I do sincerely if y'all are readiing :)

So....yeah... bottom line is Reunion is an excellent program. I think you'll be very happy with it. I use it every single day.

Thanks again, Don.

[Frank Mitchell]

Yes, Family Gathering (from Palladium Software, which is apparently defunct) does allow you to create a GEDCOM file, and I'll do this. Thanks.
Just be aware that, although it works fine with basic family files using standard tags, the GEDCOM spec has not been updated for several years. By now it has its limitations, especially with files containing a lot of miscellaneous information with tags it may not recognise.

Also different software companies may not have interpreted the spec in the same way.

One 'problem,' mentioned frequently in this group, is that all the source numbers scattered about a person's Miscellaneous Notes field are all moved to the end of the notes field.

After creating the new Reunion file, it is a good idea to compare the source and destination files to ensure that each person's data have been transferred in the way you want it to, and that it is all there.

Frank

[SVass]

One suggestion:

Do NOT throw the GEDCOM file away after you import the data into Reunion. Some data may not have been imported. You can always open the file later as a text file with any word processor and copy information from it to paste into Reunion. sam