GEDCOM File Finder

Louis Kessler's Behold Blog has announced the availability of a freeware program called GEDCOM File Finder. Anyone who has worked with patrons at a Family History Center realizes that one of the major challenges of helping to restore old genealogy files, such as those from Personal Ancestral File, is finding those files in the first place. Louis describes the program as follows:

It’s a nice little program that does just one thing: It finds and classifies all the GEDCOM files (or GEDCOM variants) on your computer. It is simple and only has one screen, allowing you to set the starting directory, filter the filename and include files that contain some desired text. Then it displays important information about the files it finds, and allows you to load any file with your default program that opens .ged files (usually your genealogy software), or let you use your default text editor to view the GEDCOM file directly. 

You’ll find it useful if you have more than a few GEDCOMs on your computer.
… or if you forgot where on your computer you put some of them.

He summarizes the issues involved in locating these files with a discussion of the different types of GEDCOM files that can be created. He says, "You might be surprised and find a few files you didn’t even know you had."

The program can be found at www.beholdgenealogy.com/gedcomfilefinder.