Reads a CSV file and creates people, adds facts and creates spouse and parent-child relationships in Family Historian. Columns in the CSV file can be mapped to the appropriate fields using an interface in the plugin – fixed column formatting or naming is not essential. See the online Help for additional advice.
The plugin can optionally append a source to every entry, and can create different citation details (i.e. “Where within Source”) for each line of the CSV. Within each row, for each individual, it is assumed that any references to a fact type relate to the same occurrence of that fact. Custom references can be used to identify the same individual in different rows of the CSV either to build a more complex tree or to allow for multiple occurrences of a fact type.
The type of use intended when creating this was for the import of a variety of data that a one-name or place study might be interested in. For example, baptism transcripts that may include birth and baptism names, parental names and address all in one line. Custom references allow for individuals to be linked across lines of the CSV to create larger family records, e.g. where the same parents had multiple children baptised.
This plugin is mostly intended for use in a new Project, but can link to individuals already present in the Project using their Custom Id or Record Id.
Please check the import results carefully and report any bugs in the Family Historian User Group forums or Family Historian at Groups.io email where the plugin author will answer your questions which can be supplemented with screenshots if necessary.
Download Flexible CSV Importer V1.9.4
- Family Historian Version(s): V5 V6 V7
- Plugin Type: Standard
- Written by Mike Tate
- View Source Code
- Downloaded 450 times
- See Help page for more information
Version History
- V1.9.4: Support multiple P._FLGS… record flags; Workaround for Date:Compare(Date) anomaly;
- V1.9.3: Support Given Name Used fields such as P.NAME._USED and P.Name:Used and variants;
- V1.9.2: Support descriptor TYPE subsidiary fields such as in P.NAME.TYPE and P.CENS.TYPE columns;
Support custom facts such as P.EVEN-CUSTOM and P._ATTR-CUSTOM if they are a defined Fact Type;
Allow / date separators, e.g. 10/4/1900; - V1.9.1: Update to Check Version in Store; Fix bug preventing custom facts from adding sources;
New option to treat unsynced integer REFN as Record Id if record has no Custom Id; - V1.9: Improve handling of AGE field; Cater for Unicode characters in CSV file path;
- V1.8: Cater for missing date text; Detect ANSI CSV file and convert to UTF-8;
Cater for UTF-8 characters using utf8data or stringx library;
Run check version in Plugin Store at most once per month; - V1.7: Make fields with any prefix work as intended; Fix problems handling Names;
Update the Directions at Step 3; Update the More Information tab;
Sync current and new data via Custom ID; Added check version in Plugin Store; - V1.6: FH V7 Lua 3.5 IUP 3.28 compatible; Updated to progress bar v3.0;
- V1.5: Has better CSV syntax checks, more Source Citation options, a Help page and new dialogues;
- V1.4: Fixes a bug in mapping note fields;
- V1.3: Fixes a bug that sometimes occurs when creating families using custom references;
- V1.2: Adds option to discard Custom References, and fixes a bug where they are listed multiple times;
- V1.1: Will append to, rather than overwrite, duplicated note fields and citation text fields;
It also creates new facts instead of overwriting data if an individual has the same field type listed in multiple rows of the data;
Hello,
I am working on a project that needs to include quite a few historical facts. I would like to create a csv file that includes notes (details about the events).
1. there seems to be a special way to include historical facts. Minimally, I would just need the date and event.
2. Is there a way to include the notes for each event?
I have been working in Aeon timeline for historical events.
I will be writing the narrative separately and I need this to give me a quick timeline reference for the project.
Thank you for your work.
I am the author and recommend you post in the FHUG Plugin Technical Support & Development forum as this is not the best vehicle for discussing such uses.
See the FHUG Knowledge Base on Timeline Historical Events at https://www.fhug.org.uk/kb/download/timeline-facts-overview/
This Flexible CSV plugin will not help with the Queries and Named Lists needed to support those features and it may be quicker to enter the historical events directly into FH rather than create and debug a CSV file.
Your Flexible CSV Importer saved me! I was stuck, facing the prospect of having to retype data for 974 individuals when the competing SourceForge Excel spreadsheet and its macros to do this CSV to GEDCOM conversion produced corrupted data. But your import process isn’t perfect, either: It threw too many errors such that I had to use CTRL+ALT+ESC to crash out of Family Historian program and then reopen it. So, my suggestion is collect these errors in a way that makes it easy for the user to deal with them rather than keep throwing popup windows that need to be individually closed–impossible in my situation.
Until you include such a feature, here is the workaround I used.
1). In Excel, format whatever columns and entries you need to in order to make the data GEDCOM compliant. For example, things like making the date formats look like (d)d/MMM/yyyy And it is best to use “text” format for the cells so Excel doesn’t try to format the dates on its own.
2). Then collect any notes and put them into a properly labeled column, be sure to delete trailing spaces and special characters with the formula =TRIM(CLEAR(cell-reference)).
3). Use the CONCATENATE function to gather all location data (place of birth, place of marriage, place of death, etc.) in the form of City, County, State, Country producing one block of text in the relevant cells. Then have Excel save the file as .csv
4). Then open Family Historian and run the plugin Flexible CSV Importer and map the columns from the Excel CSV file to the Family Historian database column headers.
5). Complete the import via the plugin process, and inspect for errors. Eventually I got an import with only one tolerable error and considered it success!
6). Finally, export a GEDCOM from Family Historian (UK) and check that it conforms to GEDCOM 5.5.1, according to the Chronoplex Software’s own GEDCOM Validator freeware (it’s download is in the Microsoft Store). After fixing those issues in the .csv file and repeating the import and export process again, then validate again.
Thank you for that feedback but please report it in the FHUG Plugin Technical Support & Development forum as requested above so we can start a dialogue.