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GEDCOM is a data structure created by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for storing and exchanging genealogical information so that many different computer programs can use it. It is identified by the file type ".ged".GEDCOM files are text files that contain the information and linkages necessary to exchange genealogical data between two entities. The entities may use the same or different software application. Examples of these exchanges would include:
- Between two users of the same application - One family member sending new information from Legacy to another family member using Legacy.
- Between users of differing applications - A RootsMagic genealogist receiving information from someone using Family Tree Maker.
- From an Internet site to a local application - Downloading information from an internet site to your genealogical program which supports GEDCOM formatted files.
- Downloading information from FamilySearch to a genealogical program via third-party software certified by FamilySearch can be found in the FamilySearch Solutions Gallery.
- Uploading information from a genealogical program to FamilySearch Genealogies by using Upload Your Tree.
As a text-based file, it is easily transmitted as an attachment to e-mails or downloaded from web sites. The recipient then uses the "Import" function of their application to include the GEDCOM file contents in their genealogy. Also, applications may be found on the web to print or manipulate individual GEDCOM files without importing them into applications.
The program was first released as Version 1.0 in 1984. It was subsequently adopted as the standard file transfer program based partly on the success of the Personal Ancestral File program also released in 1984. Because of its almost universal use as a backup program, there are still old GEDCOM file backups floating around in the greater genealogical community. However, the last full revision of the program took place with Version 5.5 in 1996. Subsequently, in 2019, the program was upgraded to Version 5.5.1. See Wikipedia: GEDCOM.
A few years ago, a committee was formed by FamilySearch.org to upgrade the program and take advantage of the new technology. In July, 2021, Version 7.0 was released. There was no official Version 6.0. See gedcom.io.
So what do you do if you find an old copy of GEDCOM? First of all, a GEDCOM file can be read by any word processing program or any program that can read a text file. The real challenge is if the GEDCOM file is on an old floppy disk or other abandoned media. If you can find a way to capture the GEDCOM file to a more supported media, then, in the worst case, you could go through the text or even print it out and have all the information that was stored. Finding a way to transfer old format floppy disks is getting harder and harder. I used to be involved in transferring and saving the files but I no longer have that capability.
There are fairly inexpensive USB floppy disk drives available online from Amazon.com. However, if the GEDCOM file was formatted by an abandoned program, extracting the GEDCOM data my require a program. In addition, there are a few that claim to be Apple compatible.
But what about the data? It is my experience over the past few years that old GEDCOM files are nearly always a duplicate of what is already available on the FamilySearch.org Family Tree. Uploading a GEDCOM file to the Family Tree almost uniformly results in a massive duplication. Before I even thought about uploading a file, I would spend a considerable amount of time checking to see if the information in the GEDCOM file was not already in the Family Tree website. For example, all the work I did copying thousands of old paper Family Group Records is already on the Family Tree and has been added upon and corrected for years.
There are still a few of us that look at a GEDCOM file and evaluate the data, but you may find us very hard to locate.
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