Confronting the Changes on the FamilySearch Family Tree from GEDCOM files: Part One

Weekly notification of changes made to the people I am following on the FamilySearch Family Tree.

I was looking at the Community section on the FamilySearch.org website and saw a trending discussion about GEDCOM files being uploaded to the FamilySearch Family Tree. The gist of the discussion was gloom and doom about adding GEDCOM files to the Family Tree. Before I comment about the subject of changes to the Family Tree, I think that most of the comments showed a lack of understanding about GEDCOM. 

GEDCOM is not a program; it is a standard format for exchanging information between different genealogy websites and programs. When you download a GEDCOM file of your file, the GEDCOM Standard specifies that the information will be compatible with another website or program's file format assuming both of the websites or programs support and adhere to the GEDCOM Standard.  

Here is a more extensive explanation about GEDCOM from Wikipedia:

GEDCOM (/ˈdʒɛdkɒm/ JED-kom) (an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication) is an open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as an aid to genealogical research.

A GEDCOM file is plain text (usually either UTF-8 or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and metadata linking these records together. Most genealogy software supports importing from and exporting to GEDCOM format. However, some genealogy software programs incorporate the use of proprietary extensions to the format, which are not always recognized by other genealogy programs, such as the GEDCOM 5.5 EL (Extended Locations) specification.

While GEDCOM X and several other specifications have been suggested as replacements, the current 2019 version, based on the draft from 1999, remains the industry standard 20 years on.

It is possible to indirectly upload a GEDCOM file to the FamilySearch Family Tree. I say indirectly because one of the steps before adding your file to the Family Tree is to compare the potential new information with the information already in the Family Tree. Let's say that the person uploading a GEDCOM file was the first person in his/her line to enter information into the Family Tree. The GEDCOM standard provides a path so that the information in the GEDCOM file is not lost. FamilySearch then takes you through a process where you identify any duplicates. Old GEDCOM files will very likely contain a lot of duplicate entries to those in the Family Tree. 

The process for uploading a file is quite involved and somewhat complicated. Here is a link to the instructions. "How do I copy information from my GEDCOM file into Family Tree?" In almost all cases, uploading your file into the Family Tree is a really bad idea, especially if you upload more than a few dozen names. The reason for this opinion is that it is very likely that a larger number of people will already be duplicated in the Family Tree and cause a great deal more work on the part of the people who are following and maintaining the Family Tree. Additionally, here is a quote about the effects of uploading a GEDCOM file from the article linked in this paragraph. 

If you choose to proceed, keep in mind that notes, sources, multimedia links, and information about living people do not automatically copy to Family Tree.

 Without sources, your uploaded entries may be removed by someone who is watching the Family Tree regularly (like I do).  I suggest starting to work directly on the Family Tree and use your GEDCOM information to enter the information person-by-person. You might be surprised that much of your research has already been done. If you are one of the few people who will be adding original research, I suggest that entering the individuals one-by-one with the source citations will ultimately save you time. 

More about this later.