Genealogy Online came to life when Norfolk Family History Society (NFHS) came to us with a unique problem. They were in dire need of a new website/ database for all their genealogy data since their current system was hard for their staff and society members to use. However, the problem was coming up with a way of importing over 4 million records from their old Content Management System Frontis, into a new CMS. Typically we would deal with this kind of import by uploading a CSV with all the data into our CMS Cubane. However, because of the sheer volume of records, this method was not ideal since accuracy is key, and any records being imported incorrectly would be very hard to spot.
As a result, we created a custom importing system for importing directly from the Fronts database into Cubane, which made the whole process of migration incredibly easy. We were able to specify which fields were mapped on behalf of the customer, though the customer can also define the mapping himself. After creating this import and finding how seamless the migration was, we thought this was something that other genealogy societies could benefit from. Each unique case would require some customisation, but it offers an easy way to transfer genealogy data from a potentially outdated system, into a new, user-friendly system.