what is a gedcom it is an important word you will come across a lot in online genealogy join me on
today's episode of the ancestral findings podcast now is the ideal time to learn when you begin your
genealogy research you will probably be using a family tree software program and using genealogy
websites before long you are bound to come across the term gedcom probably on a research site or a
genealogy message board people in the genealogy field refer to Jed coms a lot both in a hobbyist
and professional way you will likely wonder what this is and if it is something you should be using
here is everything you need to know about Jed coms gedcom is a genealogy software term that refers to
a type of file the letters are an acronym that stands for genealogical data communication the
GE in genealogy the D in data and the comm in communication make up the acronym the gedcom
file is a simple way to format your family tree data into a text file text files can be
read by virtually any family tree software and even without software devoted just to family
trees this makes gedcom files easy to transport between one family tree program and another one
by a different company gedcom files are also easy ways to share your family tree information with
other people the gedcom was actually invented in 1985 way back when everything was done in do
s Gus and Windows didn't exist it was invented by the Jesus Christ Church of Latter day Saints
also known as the Mormons in their family history department genealogy is a religious activity for
the Mormons and they have the largest genealogy library in the world in Salt Lake City Utah so
it only makes sense that they would be the first to invent a computer file just for recording and
sharing genealogy the Mormon Church still owns the Jed name and format and five and a
half updated versions of it have been released since its invention the most recent update was
released in November of 2000 current discussions are going on for an update to the current edition
of gedcom while you can open a gedcom file in a word processor it is not the best way to view
them it is a time consuming and complicated task to use a word processor to open a gedcom rather
than lose patience with the process it is much easier to use a family tree software program or
a program made especially for viewing jed comms you do need a program of some kind to view a jet
comm otherwise it will just look like a bunch of indecipherable code Jed comms essentially take the
information in your family tree and put it into an outline it uses tags to describe particular
genealogical terms such as Bert for birth Indy for individual date for date and fam for family
learning the tags Jed comms use makes reading them much easier the good news is that most
tags used on gedcom files are easy to figure out on their own without being tutored on them
each record in a gedcom file has a level number assigned to it records are also organized into
groups of information about one individual or one family each record in a group has its own line and
each line has its own record number this is the way Jed Kahn's keep information organized the
first number in a group is always zero and the numbers go up from there the tags that describe
the records are included after the level numbers when you use Jed comms to record your family tree
information you will be able to easily transport it to any family tree program you choose this is
a particularly useful thing now that ancestry.com is no longer supporting the popular Family Tree
Maker software if you want to move your family tree information from that program to another
you just need to convert it into a gedcom which you can do with the program and move it you can
also use G comms to share family tree information with distant genetic relatives you may meet online
nearly everyone has a computer with the ability to read a gedcom with this useful tool at your
disposal your genealogy research can be more portable and more accessible by anyone who
wants to see it if you haven't learned to use gedcom yet now is the perfect time to do it
have you ever played with Lincoln Logs did you ever wonder about their history it is a
long and fascinating one join me on the next episode of the ancestral findings podcast
and I'll share with you the story behind this popular toy thanks for joining me today I'll
see you next time on the ancestral findings podcast and for further info you can visit us
that ancestral findings dot-com copyright by ancestral highness all rights reserved