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GEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid in their extensive genealogical research. A GEDCOM file is plain text (an obscure text encoding named ANSEL, though often in ASCII in the United States) containing genealogical information about individuals, and data linking these records together. Most genealogy software supports importing from and/or exporting to GEDCOM format. The GEDCOM TestBook Project evaluates how well popular genealogy programs conform to the GEDCOM 5.5 standard. Additionally, many tools exist to convert GEDCOM files to HTML pages.

Contents 1 GEDCOM file structure 2 Versions 3 Software limitations 4 Example 5 See also 6 External links

A GEDCOM file consists of a header section, records, and a trailer section.

Records represent people (INDI record), families (FAM records), sources of information (SOUR records), and other miscellaneous records, including notes.

Every line of a GEDCOM file begins with a level number. All top-level records (HEAD, TRLR, SUBN, and each INDI, FAM, OBJE, NOTE, REPO, SOUR, and SUBM) begin with a line with level 0. All other level numbers are positive integers. Although it is theoretically possible to write a GEDCOM file by hand, the format was designed to be used with software and thus is not especially human-friendly. A GEDCOM validator that can be used to validate the structure of a GEDCOM file is included as part of PhpGedView project, though it is not meant to be a standalone validator.

The current version of the specification is GEDCOM 5.5, which was released on 12 January 1996. A subsequent draft GEDCOM 5.5.1 specification was issued in 1999, introducing nine new tags, including WWW, EMAIL and FACT, and adding UTF-8 as an approved encoding. This draft has not been formally approved, but its provisions have been adopted in some part by a number of genealogy programs. On December 6, 2002 a beta version of GEDCOM 6.0 was released for developers to study and begin to implement in their software. GEDCOM 6.0 will be the first version to store data in XML format. This will further change the preferred character set from ANSEL to Unicode, allowing for example the storage of East Asian names in their original CJK characters, without which they could be ambiguous and of little use for genealogical or historical research.

The file structure handles basic relationship information very well. However, some genealogists feel that keeping track of records and events is just as important as keeping track of relationships. GEDCOM stores these as details under the individual and family records. This makes them more difficult to organize and add further details. Another problem is that it is not clear which record should "own" an event. For example, the record for adoption details could be associated with the child, the adopted parents, the birth parents, or the family of which the child becomes part.

Another perceived weakness of the GEDCOM specification is that it has not been adopted by any formal standards body and thus is still developed and controlled by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some believe this fact has contributed to infrequent releases and slow evolution of GEDCOM. Although a draft of the next version was released in 2002, further development appears to have stagnated.

As a result of the limitations of the GEDCOM format, some genealogy software incorporates the use of proprietary extensions to the GEDCOM format, which are not always recognized by other genealogy programs.

The following is a sample GEDCOM file. The first column indicates an indentation level.

The header (HEAD) includes the source program and version (Reunion, V8.0), the GEDCOM version (5.5), and the character encoding (MACINTOSH).

The individual records (INDI) define Adam (ID 1—@I1@), Eve (ID 2), and Cain (ID 3).

The family record (FAM) links the husband (HUSB), wife (WIFE), and child (CHIL) by their ID numbers.

 0 HEAD 
 1 SOUR Reunion
 2 VERS V8.0
 2 CORP Leister Productions
 1 DEST Reunion
 1 DATE 11 FEB 2006
 1 FILE test
 1 GEDC 
 2 VERS 5.5
 1 CHAR MACINTOSH
 0 @I1@ INDI
 1 NAME Adam //
 1 SEX M
 1 FAMS @F1@
 1 CHAN 
 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006
 0 @I2@ INDI
 1 NAME Eve //
 1 SEX F
 1 FAMS @F1@
 1 CHAN 
 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006
 0 @I3@ INDI
 1 NAME Cain //
 1 SEX M
 1 FAMC @F1@
 1 CHAN 
 2 DATE 11 FEB 2006
 0 @F1@ FAM
 1 HUSB @I1@
 1 WIFE @I2@
 1 MARR 
 1 CHIL @I3@
 0 TRLR

• Ancestral File Number
• FamilySearch
• Genealogical numbering systems
• Genealogy software
• International Genealogical Index
• Personal Ancestral File

• FamilySearch.org — Genealogy site operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that contains information related to GEDCOM including the draft of GEDCOM XML 6.0
• GEDCOM specifications are documented on the FamilySearch website: [1]
  • GEDCOM 5.5 Standard (Executable file in Envoy format)
  • Draft Specification for GEDCOM XML 6.0 (PDF)
• GEDCOM 5.5 specification (Paul McBride's HTML version)
• Overview of GEDCOM and its uses on Encyclopedia of Genealogy
• Annotated sample GEDCOM file
• Cyndi's List — GEDCOM
• Mapping GEDCOM to XML
• GEDCOM TestBook Project
• The GENTECH Genealogical Data Model
• on LDS Church's Adoption of the XML Standard