TreeKeepsake Make your tree

What is a GEDCOM file? A plain-English guide

If you've ever moved a family tree from one website or program to another, you've probably met a file ending in .ged. Here's what it is, what's inside, and what it can and can't do.

Updated 5 min read

The short answer

GEDCOM stands for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. It's a plain-text file format, usually with the extension .ged, that describes people, families and the relationships between them. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which runs FamilySearch, created it in 1984 so that genealogy programs could exchange data. Four decades later it's still the common language of family history: nearly every genealogy website and program can import and export it.

Think of it as a moving box for your research. It doesn't care which program packed it, and almost any program can unpack it.

What's inside a GEDCOM file

Open a GEDCOM file in a text editor and you'll see something like this (the family is fictional):

0 HEAD
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5.1
1 CHAR UTF-8
0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Giuseppe /Rossi/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE 4 MAR 1938
2 PLAC Lucca, Tuscany, Italy
1 DEAT
2 DATE 2015
1 FAMS @F1@
0 @I2@ INDI
1 NAME Maria /Bianchi/
1 BIRT
2 DATE ABT 1941
2 PLAC Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
1 FAMS @F1@
0 @I3@ INDI
1 NAME Antonio /Rossi/
1 BIRT
2 DATE 1963
1 FAMC @F1@
0 @F1@ FAM
1 HUSB @I1@
1 WIFE @I2@
1 MARR
2 DATE 1962
1 CHIL @I3@
0 TRLR

It looks cryptic, but the structure is simple:

  • Each line starts with a level number. A line at level 1 belongs to the level-0 record above it, a level-2 line belongs to the level-1 line above it, and so on. "2 DATE 4 MAR 1938" is the date of the birth (BIRT) of Giuseppe.
  • Tags say what each line is: INDI for an individual, NAME, BIRT for birth, DEAT for death, PLAC for place, MARR for marriage.
  • Records have IDs such as @I1@, and other records point to them. That's how relationships are stored.
  • Families are separate records. A FAM record links the two partners and their children (CHIL). Each person points back to the family they were born into (FAMC) and the families they formed (FAMS). The partner tags HUSB and WIFE are historical names; modern software, TreeKeepsake included, simply treats them as the two partners.
  • Surnames sit between slashes, so programs can tell "Maria" from "Bianchi" even when names have several parts.
  • Dates can be approximate. GEDCOM has words for uncertainty: ABT (about), BEF (before), AFT (after) and BET … AND … for ranges.

What a GEDCOM file doesn't include

GEDCOM moves the structure of your tree very well, but it's not a complete copy of everything in your genealogy account:

  • Photos and documents aren't inside the file. At most it contains links or file paths pointing to them.
  • DNA results and matches are never part of a GEDCOM file.
  • Program-specific features, such as custom fields, colors and research to-do lists, are often stored in custom tags (they start with an underscore, like _UID) that other programs may ignore.
  • Sources and notes usually come across, but how well depends on the programs at both ends.

So GEDCOM is perfect for moving a tree or making a chart from it, but it shouldn't be your only backup. Keep your program's own backup as well.

GEDCOM versions

  • GEDCOM 5.5 (1996) is still widely used, especially by older software.
  • GEDCOM 5.5.1 began as a 1999 draft that most programs adopted anyway, and was formally released in 2019. It's the safest choice when an export asks which version you want.
  • GEDCOM 7 (2021) modernizes the format: it requires UTF-8 text, removes long-standing ambiguities and can package photos alongside the file in a zip (GEDZIP). Support is growing, but not every program reads it yet.

You may also come across GEDCOM X. Despite the name, it's a different, newer data model used mainly by FamilySearch's systems, not a .ged file you'd download.

Why accents sometimes break

A GEDCOM file is text, and text has to be stored in a character set. Modern files use UTF-8, which handles every alphabet. Older programs often used ANSEL, a character set designed for library catalogs, or a Windows code page. If a program guesses wrong, "Wiśniewska" turns into gibberish such as "WiÅ›niewska".

The fix is usually to export again with UTF-8 selected. TreeKeepsake detects the common GEDCOM encodings, including ANSEL and UTF-16, so older files normally import with their accents intact.

How to open a GEDCOM file

  • Import it into genealogy software such as Gramps (free and open source), RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker, or into an online family tree service.
  • Turn it into a chart. Tools like TreeKeepsake read the file and draw a poster from it, letting you choose who sits at the center and how many generations to show.
  • Peek inside with a plain-text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit (in plain-text mode). Don't open and save it in a word processor; that can quietly change the format and corrupt the file.

Don't have a file yet? Here's how to export one from the most common genealogy sites and programs.

Keeping GEDCOM files safe

A GEDCOM file is a neat summary of your family: names, birth dates, birthplaces and mothers' maiden names, which are exactly the details used in security questions and identity fraud. Treat it accordingly:

  • Don't post it publicly. When sharing with another researcher, use your program's options to leave out or anonymize living people.
  • Before uploading a GEDCOM file to any website, check whether the data becomes public or part of a shared tree.
  • Prefer tools that don't need to keep a copy. TreeKeepsake reads the file inside your browser; it's never uploaded to a server.

Quick questions

Can I edit a GEDCOM file by hand?

You can, but it's easy to break the structure. Make changes in a genealogy program and export again.

How big is a GEDCOM file?

Usually small, because it's plain text. Even trees with several thousand people tend to be only a few megabytes.

Does GEDCOM handle adoptions and step-families?

To a degree. A child can be linked to more than one family, and in GEDCOM 5.5.1 that link can be marked as birth, adopted or foster. How those relationships are displayed is up to the program reading the file, so check them after any import.

Do I need special software to use one?

Not necessarily. Any genealogy program can import one, and browser-based tools such as TreeKeepsake can read it directly without installing anything.

Is a .ged file the same as a GEDZIP file?

No. A GEDZIP is a zip archive that contains a GEDCOM 7 file plus the media it refers to. A zip file you download from Ancestry is simply a compressed .ged file; unzip it to get the file itself.