GEDCOM Files

The GEDCOM file format was created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, owners of FamilySearch, as a means of transferring family tree data from one genealogical website or software program to another, a wonderful tool for genealogists everywhere. 

GEDCOM is an acronym for Genealogical Data Communication.  The original GEDCOM file specification was released in 1984 and the latest version, GEDCOM 7.0, was released in 2021.  GEDCOM files use the ‘.ged’ suffix (in the same way a Word document has the suffix ‘.doc’). If someone shares a .ged file with you, then you will need to upload it to a family tree website or software to be able to read it.

Virtually all major family history software products and websites support the GEDCOM file format (I've never come across one which doesn't, but am happy to be corrected). This means that if you have your family tree stored on a website or you have created it using standard family tree building software, then you should be able to export your tree easily to upload it elsewhere.

There are limitations with GEDCOM and over the years its various versions have tried to resolve some of these.  This includes changing ideas of what constitutes a family unit (ie same-sex marriages) and the way the format is used slightly differently by different products.

It is important to be aware that not everything you may have added to your family tree will import into a new program from a GEDCOM file in exactly the way you expect.  Attached photographs and documents may not transfer well between products and it is possible to lose things like free form notes when exporting and importing.  So if you are transferring data from one place to another it is wise to check all your data appears as you would expect.