Genealogy-Geneology.net - GEDCOM

Sharing Genealogy Information

At some point during your research you may want to exchange files of information on your computer with fellow genealogy researchers. In order to exchange information effectively you need to be competent in sending email attachments.

The Email Attachment Process

Following is a description of the standard email attachment process:

The person sending the attachment opens their email client program (e.g. Outlook Express) and composes an email message addressed to a fellow geneology researcher. Before sending the message, they select the attachment option of the client program (usually by clicking an icon or selecting an item on a menu).

When requested to add an attachment to the message, the email program brings up a dialogue box displaying the local hard disk and the user locates the file they want to attach (a family group sheet for example). The sender locates the file and clicks on it to select it as an attachment. More than one document can be attached to the message by repeating this step.

After selecting the file to be attached, the user clicks the Send command. The email client program encodes the document and sends it off along with the message text.

Upon arriving at the recipient's email system, the receiving program separates the transmission into two parts: the main part of the message is posted in the users inbox and if possible, the attachment is decoded and stored in some appropriate holding location. When the recipient opens the message containing the attachment, they will typically see some sort of indication at the bottom of the message (either a text reference or special hot link) that an attachment is included.

The recipient can then click on the icon or the reference to either display the attachment in the appropriate program or save the file on their local hard disk for later use.

GEDCOM

What is GEDCOM and why do I need it?

GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. It is a method of formating your family tree data into a text file which can be easily read and converted by all geneology software programs.
GEDCOM was developed in 1985 by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

For example, let's say I want to share information from my Family Tree Maker file with a researcher I meet through a surname specific newsgroup. The only problem is that this researcher uses a different genealogy software than mine.

I need to send the information in GEDCOM format since I know his/her genealogy software will accept a GEDCOM file.

In order to generate a GEDCOM file, I open the file in Family Tree Maker I want to share and use the SAVE AS command to tell Family Tree Maker to encode the data in GEDCOM format.

Once the GEDCOM file is created, the information can be given to the researcher either as an email attachment or on a disk.

Once the intended person has received the GEDCOM file, it can be imported into the geneology software being used and incorporated into their family tree.

What does a GEDCOM file look like?

A GEDCOM file is made up of six sections.

1.Header
2.Submitter
3.Individuals
4.Families
5.Sources
6.Trailer

Each section of a GEDCOM file is made up of one or more lines of information. Every line contains three elements:

1. Level (each level 1 line refers to the previous level 0 line. Level 2 lines refer to the previous Level 1 lines and so on).

2. Tag - FAM for family, DATE for date and BIRT for birth etc.

3. Value - the actual date, i.e. birth date.

For specific instructions on how to create and export a GEDCOM file using your genealogy software use the following online instructions:

Genserv - how to make a good GEDCOM file

Converting files to GEDCOM, by Ancestry.com

You can share your GEDCOM file with the worldwide genealogical community by uploading it to websites such as Ancestry.com, FamilyTreeMaker.com and World Connect . Vice-Versely you can also download the GEDCOM files of other's from these same sites.

Key Points to Remember

When sending a file, ask the intended recipient what kind of computer they have, what genealogy program they use and what version of the software they currently run.
If they are using the same or a later version of the same software, then send it in exactly the same format as you have saved it on your computer.
If the intended recipient is using an earlier version, check your manual as you may be able to send your file in an earlier format.
Remember that newer versions may have extra information fields which are not present in earlier versions, thus saving in an older format may mean losing some information.
If the recipient is using a completely different brand of software it is best to create a GEDCOM file and send that.
Not all genealogy software uses the very latest GEDCOM specifications, meaning data can sometimes be lost or mixed up.
Information received through GEDCOM should be treated as unvalidated until it can be proved.
It can be a good idea to keep at least two databases - one for "unproven" information and another for information which has been verified.

For further information and resources see the following sites: