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Genealogy 101 - GEDCOM Overview

One of the biggest advantages of using the Internet for genealogy research is the ability to exchange information with other researchers or interested parties. To share genealogical information, genealogists often transfer electronic documents containing genealogical information. The most common way to do this is to send that information as a GEDCOM file.

What does GEDCOM stand for?
GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. When saved, transferred or shared, this data usually takes the form of a text file, commonly referred to as a "GEDCOM file" or "GEDCOM" for short.

What are GEDCOM files used for?
GEDCOM is a structured method of formatting genealogical or family tree data. Because its format and usage are described in a written, open specification, the majority of genealogy software applications have settled on the GEDCOM file as the standard for input and output. Many genealogists use GEDCOM files to save, transfer or share genealogical content or data.

One service Geni provides is an online representation of the information contained in a family's GEDCOM file or files. Users can simply invite their family   to join their family network and share their information with known family members. Sharing information with potential (or unconfirmed) relatives is another story. Since Geni shows living and deceased relatives, inviting an unconfirmed relative to your family tree is not recommended, as it may risk showing private family information to a person who may turn out to be unrelated. Instead, try determining relatedness before inviting. One way to do this is to mutually exchange GEDCOM files that are configured to show only deceased relatives. If you are indeed closely related and able to build a relationship path to one another, then it is probably safe to go ahead and invite that person to your Geni Tree.

It is recommend that Geni users use (and anyone using any genealogy program) back up their data as often as possible. You can do this through a process known as GEDCOM export, which is a common feature of many genealogy applications, and one that Geni offers online.

How does a GEDCOM file work?
A GEDCOM file is nothing more than a text file formatted along certain rules, as described in the GEDCOM specification. This specification calls for the use of tags (denoted by the TAG label in the file) to describe individuals and their familial relationships. Examples of tags include: INDI for individual, FAM for family, BIRT for birth and DATE. A GEDCOM file is basically a "flat file" database of records with pointers to track the relationships of all the people it contains.

How do I view a GEDCOM file?
It is possible to decipher a GEDCOM by viewing it with any text editor. However, it is usually much easier to read a GEDCOM file with a software application that specializes in viewing family trees or displaying GEDCOM files. The great majority of genealogy applications support GEDCOM. Geni also supports the GEDCOM format, through its Geni's Import feature.

How do I open and read a GEDCOM file?

Save the GEDCOM File to Your Computer:
Whether downloading the GEDCOM file from the Internet or receiving it as an email attachment, save the file to an easy-to-find location on your hard drive.

Determine whether it is really a GEDCOM:
Begin by ensuring that the file that you want to open is truly a GEDCOM file, and not a family tree file created in another custom or proprietary format by a genealogy software program. GEDCOM files end with the file extension .ged. Sometimes, a GEDCOM file may be compressed for faster transfers, and in this case the file is likely to end with the .zip extension. Compressed GEDCOM files must be decompressed before being imported.

Import your GEDCOM file to Geni:

1. Go to the GEDCOM Import page.
2. Fill out the form and upload your GEDCOM file. (There is currently a 5,000-person limit per import, but no overall limit to how many people you may import.)
3. Indicate who you are in your GEDCOM file.
4. View your updated family tree, containing information from the GEDCOM file you just uploaded.

For detailed information on the formats and fields Geni supports, visit the GEDCOM page on the Geni User Wiki.

Schools Embrace Geni as Fun and Interactive Learning Environment

As Geni continues to add additional features, teachers are discovering that Geni is a great tool for students to learn more about themselves and their family through a fun and interactive medium. Sally Goerner, a sixth grade language arts teacher in Longmont, Colorado, describes her experience and those of her students while using Geni.

Our sixth grade students are working on a memoir project called, “Writing Your Life.” There are many options available to students for what and how to write about the important events in their lives. One of the ways we want them to express their lives is by looking at where they came from. Geni.com seemed to be the ideal way for the students to build and examine their family tree.

We started them in the computer lab at school, just filling in the basics of themselves, brothers and sisters, moms and dads, and any other relatives they happened to know. We encouraged them to invite older relatives to their tree to help them fill in the gaps and to add additional family information that they didn’t know themselves.

My own sister got into Geni.com and added tons of our relatives, along with photos, birthdates, etc. I ended up with a whole lot more knowledge about my own family and I could then share this with my students who were especially intrigued by the birthday reminders and ability to share news across the country with relatives they previously didn’t have a lot of personal contact with.

We challenged the students to a little competition to see who could build the largest tree. I was also able to show them how Geni.com could allow for the many fractured and rebuilt families for those of us who have more than one set of parents and siblings who belong to some parents and not to others.

Finally, we partnered up with our fabulous tech lab teachers who agreed to print out the trees in color for students to include in their personal “scrapbook” of their life. This has been a great learning experience for us, the students and their families! We will definitely do this again next year and utilize more of the nuances of this great program.

If you would like to know more about how Geni can help facilitate a similar experience with your children or students feel free to contact us at a schools@geni.com

Scheduled Downtime

Update: And we are back.

Update (11:49PM Pacific): We expect the site to be back in about two more hours.

Update: We are now down for maintenance. We don't expect to be back for a few hours. I'll keep this thread updated.

Update: Looks like we are on for tonight. The site will be down for a few hours around 7PM PT tonight.

We plan on performing some maintenance next Tuesday, May 13th, around 7PM pst. The site will be completely unavailable for a few hours during the maintenance. We'll post a reminder again when the schedule is final.

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New Feature - GEDCOM Import!

We are excited to announce that you can build your Geni tree from your GEDCOM file! Geni is now the easiest and best way to share your research with your family.

Importing your GEDCOM is easy:

1. Go to the GEDCOM Import page.
2. Fill out the form and upload your GEDCOM file.
3. Indicate who you are in your file.
4. You're done!

Geni will import your GEDCOM file and build your tree for you. You can begin filling out your profile information right away. Once your GEDCOM has been processed and your Geni tree is built you will receive another email.

Please Note: Importing a GEDCOM will create a new Geni Tree. If you already have a Geni account you must use a different email address for this import. This will start a new Tree which will not be merged into your existing Tree. We plan to enable GEDCOM Import into existing Trees in the future.

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Send a Mother's Day Gift on Geni

This Sunday, May 11th, is Mother's Day in the United States. Just in time for the celebration we have added custom gifts to help our user's show their love for the mothers in their life. Visit the Mother's Day Gift page to send Mom a message and one of these special gifts:

This Sunday we will send the recipient a link to view your gift and message. We hope this helps make the day more special for your loved ones. Read more on Mother's Day around the world at wikipedia.

Send a Mother's Day Gift

Meet the Geni Team at NGS

National Genealogical Society Conference                                                                                                                
Kansas City, Missouri

May 14-17,  2008

Are you going to the NGS Conference this month?  Come visit the Geni Team at booth #225.  We'd love to meet you there and hear your Geni stories, suggestions for our site, show you our latest features or just chat with you.