Don’t be put off by the strange-sounding name of this file format. At some point in your research program you are more than likely to come across a GEDCOM file. It can be very useful if it is used correctly and its limitations are taken into account.
GEDCOM is an acronym for Genealogical Data Communication. It was first introduced in 1984 and the present 5.5 standard plus dates from 1996. It was the brain-child of the LDS Church which has been active in the sphere of genealogy for a century now. It was developed by their Family History department to facilitate the exchange of genealogical information between different software programs.
The file is a plain text type and the format incorporates some meta data to link together records of Individuals on a Family Tree. It can contain data on important family events such as births, baptism, marriages and deaths. Baptism dates can be very useful if birth dates have not been recorded, or are now missing beyond recall. Sometimes we may be fortunate to find included details of people’s occupations, and even physical characteristics. The number of children may be recorded if not the time and the place of their birth.
There are two basic choices here. If you are using Family Search you can upload a GEDCOM file of your family tree from your computer onto their website. This means of course that it can be viewed by other researchers needing to consult these same ancestral files. The other option is to download a free PAF file [Personal Ancestral File] from their website and save your tree on your hard disk as a PAF file.
You might like to check out My Heritage and be welcomed to their Family Tree Builder. The Quick Start Wizard offers you four options, one of which is to import a GEDCOM or genealogical file. It’s a breeze! There are other choices of course. The writer has been very satisfied with Genes Reunited for some years now. Their Free Family Tree Searcher allows you to browse in excess of 750 million records. Then there is Free Genealogy software available from Legacy Family.
Finally, if you are only likely to consult a GEDCOM file occasionally you might like to download Gedscape. It’s available both in free and paid versions. You can browse, convert or exchange data and lots more. For further information it is well worth consulting their website which provides comprehensive notes on all aspects of what they are offering.