diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 7ce567b04..2cb5583f3 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+2007-07-30  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
+	* src/DbLoader.py (DbLoader.do_import): catch unicode encoding errors
+
 2007-07-30  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
 	* src/GrampsDbUtils/_GedcomParse.py: assign inline note to the referencing object
 	* src/GrampsDbUtils/_GedcomLex.py: fix UNKNOWN gender
diff --git a/src/DbLoader.py b/src/DbLoader.py
index 17a92c310..f6c3d5bd4 100644
--- a/src/DbLoader.py
+++ b/src/DbLoader.py
@@ -492,6 +492,12 @@ class DbLoader:
             importer(self.dbstate.db, filename, self.uistate.pulse_progressbar)
             dirname = os.path.dirname(filename) + os.path.sep
             Config.set(Config.RECENT_IMPORT_DIR, dirname)
+        except UnicodeError, msg:
+            QuestionDialog.ErrorDialog(
+                _("Could not import file: %s") % filename, 
+                _("This GEDCOM file incorrectly identifies its character "
+                  "set, so it cannot be accurately imported. Please fix the "
+                  "encoding, and import again") + "\n\n %s" % msg)
         except Exception:
             _LOG.error("Failed to import database.", exc_info=True)