diff --git a/gramps2/ChangeLog b/gramps2/ChangeLog
index 5936d640c..4704bd0a5 100644
--- a/gramps2/ChangeLog
+++ b/gramps2/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2005-09-24  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
+	* src/latin_utf8.py: removed
+	* src/ReadGedcom.py: added latin_utf8 functions
+	* src/Spell.py: better error checking on import
+
 2005-09-23  Don Allingham  <don@gramps-project.org>
 	* doc/gramps-manual/C/faq.xml: more updates
 	* doc/gramps-manual/C/getstart.xml: more updates
diff --git a/gramps2/src/ReadGedcom.py b/gramps2/src/ReadGedcom.py
index cdd6ca8f4..02eb19aeb 100644
--- a/gramps2/src/ReadGedcom.py
+++ b/gramps2/src/ReadGedcom.py
@@ -54,13 +54,27 @@ import Date
 import DateParser
 import DisplayTrace
 from ansel_utf8 import ansel_to_utf8
-import latin_utf8 
 import Utils
 import GrampsMime
 from bsddb import db
 from GedcomInfo import *
 from QuestionDialog import ErrorDialog
 
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# latin/utf8 conversions
+#
+#-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+def utf8_to_latin(s):
+    return s.encode('iso-8859-1','replace')
+
+def latin_to_utf8(s):
+    if type(s) == type(u''):
+        return s
+    else:
+        return unicode(s,'iso-8859-1')
+
 #-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 #
 # constants
@@ -312,7 +326,7 @@ class GedcomParser:
             if self.override == 1:
                 self.cnv = ansel_to_utf8
             elif self.override == 2:
-                self.cnv = latin_utf8.latin_to_utf8
+                self.cnv = latin_to_utf8
             else:
                 self.cnv = nocnv
         else:
@@ -1791,7 +1805,7 @@ class GedcomParser:
                 elif matches[2] == "ANSEL":
                     self.cnv = ansel_to_utf8
                 else:
-                    self.cnv = latin_utf8.latin_to_utf8
+                    self.cnv = latin_to_utf8
                 self.ignore_sub_junk(2)
                 if self.window:
                     self.update(self.encoding_obj,matches[2])
diff --git a/gramps2/src/Spell.py b/gramps2/src/Spell.py
index 289cbcd4c..eadccfb55 100644
--- a/gramps2/src/Spell.py
+++ b/gramps2/src/Spell.py
@@ -29,26 +29,40 @@ present, we default to no spell checking.
 
 import GrampsKeys
 
+#-----------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# Attempt to instantiate a gtkspell instance to check for
+# any errors. If it succeeds, set a success flag so that we
+# know to use the spelling check in the future
+#
+#------------------------------------------------------------
+
 success = False
 try:
     import gtk
     import gtkspell
     import locale
 
-    text_view = gtk.TextView()
-    spell = gtkspell.Spell(text_view)
     lang = locale.getlocale()[0]
-    spell.set_language(lang)
+    gtkspell.Spell(gtk.TextView()).set_language(lang)
     success = True
 
 except ImportError, msg:
-    print "Spell.py:", msg
+    print "Spell.py: ", msg
 except RuntimeError,msg:
-    print "Spell.py:", msg
+    print "Spell.py: ", msg
 except SystemError,msg:
-    print "Spell.py:", msg
+    msg = _("Spelling checker is not available for %s") % lang
+    print "Spell.py: %s" % msg
 
+#-----------------------------------------------------------
+#
+# Spell - if the initial test succeeded, attach a gtkspell
+#         instance to the passed TextView instance
+#
+#------------------------------------------------------------
 class Spell:
+
     def __init__(self,obj):
         if success and GrampsKeys.get_spellcheck():
             self.spell = gtkspell.Spell(obj)