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Import from TNG (The Next Generation)

TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding) is a popular program for publishing genealogy research on your own website. PastPaths has particularly good support for TNG export.

Export from TNG

  1. Log in to the TNG administration on your website
  2. Go to Admin → Data Import → Export tab
  3. Choose export options — you'll normally want to include media
  4. If you want to include photos and other media, check the box to zip the file
  5. Click Export

Import into PastPaths

PastPaths automatically detects TNG files and handles TNG-specific markers:

  • _LIVING — TNG's own rule is strict: ONLY an explicit _LIVING Y counts as living. If the tag is missing, the person is treated as deceased, just as in TNG itself (overrides PastPaths' otherwise automatic 110-year rule)
  • _LIVING Y despite old age — if the person would still be older than 110 years based on the birth date, they're automatically flagged with the system tag -HighAgeReview for manual review. The source's "living" value isn't changed — it's imported exactly as TNG states, wrong or not.
  • ADDR (without an enclosing RESI) — TNG's own move/residence records are imported as residence events, just like the standard RESI tag
  • _PRIVACY — privacy-marked persons get a note about it
  • _PHOTO — profile photos are imported as media files and linked to the person
  • Place register (_PLAC) — TNG's central place register is imported in full as real, searchable places, with GPS coordinates where the register has them
  • _TNGURL/_TNGSITE — your TNG website URL is saved on imported sources
  • _MARSTATUS — marital status of couples (married, divorced, cohabiting, engaged)
  • _TNGID — TNG's internal ID is saved as a mapping so the undo feature works correctly

→ General GEDCOM import guide

Auto-tag

All persons, places, events, and media that are imported are automatically tagged with tng-import-YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. tng-import-2026-05-09). This makes it easy to later filter for everything that came from TNG.

Photos from TNG

This is one of the strongest arguments for using the TNG import in PastPaths: the photos are actually imported and linked to the right person.

When PastPaths finds a _PHOTO field on a person:

  1. It scans all subfolders in the same folder as the GEDCOM file for image files
  2. It looks for the correct image file — even if it's in an unexpected subfolder
  3. It searches case-insensitively, so Erik.JPG is found even if the GEDCOM references erik.jpg
  4. It imports the image file into the media library and sets it as the person's profile picture
  5. It creates a link between the image and the person in the media library

Original names are kept

PastPaths doesn't rename your photos during TNG import. The file erik_andersson.jpg is still called erik_andersson.jpg in PastPaths.

Place register and coordinates

TNG keeps its own central place register with GPS coordinates for the places you've chosen to register there — regardless of whether a specific person or event in your TNG database references them.

PastPaths imports the entire register as real place objects:

  • Every registered place becomes searchable in PastPaths' places list, with coordinates if TNG had them
  • A place that exists in the register but is never used by any person or event is still imported — it's up to you as the researcher to decide what to do with it
  • Person and family events are linked to the correct place object by matching the text in the event's place field exactly against an entry in the register

The same place name can become several places

If the same farm or village belonged to different parishes or counties over time (e.g. after a parish reorganization), TNG often saves that as several different place texts — e.g. "Bengtstorp, Tived (R)" and "Bengtstorp, Undenäs (R)". PastPaths treats these as different places, since the texts differ — this preserves the historical affiliation, but can mean the same physical farm shows up as several places. Use the place duplicate tool if you want to merge them — try lowering the threshold a bit if you suspect such pairs aren't caught with the default setting.

Privacy-marked persons

Persons marked as "Privacy" in TNG (_PRIVACY Y) get a note about it in PastPaths. Since your data is local, it's your call how you handle them going forward.

Things to review after import

  • The living flag. Check that people are marked correctly — TNG's _LIVING tag is imported, but since only an explicit _LIVING Y counts as living, people without the tag may show as deceased even if they're actually alive. Double-check younger relatives in particular.
  • Old age despite "Living". Review persons tagged -HighAgeReview — they have _LIVING Y in the source but would be older than 110 years based on their birth date, usually due to a mis-click in TNG. Correct manually as needed.
  • Profile pictures. Check that the right image became the profile picture for each person.
  • GPS on places. If you show places on the map — double-check that the coordinates are correct.
  • Possible place duplicates. If the same farm or village changed parish or county over time, it may have been imported as several places in PastPaths (see above) — check place duplicates if you want to merge them.
  • Marital status. Check couples who are divorced or cohabiting — PastPaths interprets _MARSTATUS, but there may be variants TNG writes that aren't recognized.

Undo an import

The TNG import shows up in the same import history as regular GEDCOM imports and can be undone from there.

→ More about import history and undoing