GEDCOM. The acronym reminds me of the ones used by the U. S. military, something reminiscent of the DEFCON system. A friend of mine said it sounded like some new, fancy business. When I first heard the term though, I thought, “Great. Is this one more expensive addition to my hobby that I’ll have to know and use?”

I had already jumped in the deep end of genealogy and was barely afloat. Frankly, one more thing to buy or subscribe to sounded silly, even if the word itself felt mysterious and difficult and slightly militaristic.

Lucky for me, GEDCOM isn’t all that difficult to understand. It’s a file format. That’s all. Like jpeg or pdf or docx, it’s a format for electronic files that allows for the transfer of genealogical information. In fact, the word GEDCOM stands for Genealogical Data Communication.

People save pictures to jpegs, documents to pdf or docx, and audio files to mp3s. Genealogists save their family tree information to GEDCOM files. That’s it. Easy enough to understand, right?

But why am I telling you all of this? Well, my mom called me the other day. I was coming home from Disneyland (California, not Florida) and she had some genealogical questions for a friend.

Can I export my family tree from Ancestry and upload it to FamilySearch? That was the question.

Why, yes you can. All you have to do is export your family tree as a GEDCOM file and upload it to FamilySearch. You see, GEDCOM files work within the proprietary systems of various websites and software. Roots Magic, Family Tree Maker, My Heritage and more all support GEDCOM files. Now, the extent to what information will transfer from one site to another varies. This is because GEDCOM has been released as an open source system and various entities can tailor it for their own purposes.

Whoa. How does that impact me? It means that Ancestry might allow you to save pictures (or some other form of data) in their GEDCOM files but FamilySearch won’t (I say might because I don’t know all the minutiae about what a GEDCOM file will save on Ancestry vs FamilySearch and I’m not about to learn). It also means that not every bit of information will transfer. However, the important part is that the basic file will store the most important information and allow you to import it elsewhere. (A note. If you do happen to download a GEDCOM from Ancestry or elsewhere and upload it full sale to FamilySearch, it will create a number of duplicate ancestors in the family tree for users everywhere. This is because Family Tree is one shared tree for everyone. Therefore, it’s best to use your GEDCOM file to import only the information into FamilySearch Family Tree that is missing or new. If you do happen to upload your entire tree, please help merge the duplicate files or otherwise keep the tree as clean as possible.)

As you might expect, the nerdier, techier fans of genealogy sometimes argue over the capabilities, capacities, and features of what GEDCOM files can do, but my purpose here today isn’t to weigh in on the pros and cons of the latest file type. Nope. My purpose here is to say this—don’t be afraid of the term GEDCOM. And don’t be afraid to download a GEDCOM file from Ancestry, My Heritage, FamilySearch, Roots Magic, Family Tree Maker, or wherever you store your tree. Back up your work every now and again. Feel safe knowing you’ve backed up your work and that if you decide to change platforms, you should still be able to recover most of your information. Or if you need to, export and import your work to a new site, like my mother’s friend, who by now has downloaded her Ancestry tree as a GEDCOM file and imported it to FamilySearch.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks. GEDCOM is still a thing, it’s not all that mysterious, except for those who go DEFCON 2 just thinking about using a computer. If you need to learn how to download a GEDCOM file from your favorite site, there are plenty of tutorials online. In the meantime, I hope you have a nice day and good luck on your hunt.