GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogy Data COMmunication. It is the name used for a special text file format developed by the projects and planning division of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This format was developed so that a common standard of communication could exist between the Church and submitters of genealogical data. This has now evolved into the defacto standard for data exchange between most genealogy software programs and systems.
It's probable that the current version of GEDCOM will be replaced quite soon by a new standard based on the XML software, - see Dick Eastman's article at http://www.ancestry.com/learn/library/a ... ticle=3396
While creating this post I came across the set of utilities at http://www.rootsweb.com/~gumby/ged.html which allow the more technically orientated to manipulate GEDCOM files. I've never used these, but would hope that the fact that they are to be found on a RootsWeb site means that they are reasonable. But if you ever decided to do that then please, please backup the original GEDCOM file first.
In fact always, but always backup your data files first before you produce a GEDCOM file, and never ever, import a GEDCOM file into your main data files. Always first create a new set of data files.
A bit more info about the background and a more detailed explanation of GEDCOM files can be found at many places on the www by a quick Google, including http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/FAQ/faq_gedcom.asp and
http://www.tedpack.org/gedwhat.html Note that I'm not suggesting that these are the best sites out there, just a couple of reasonable looking ones that were on the first page of my Google
The following site goes into great technical detail http://www.genserv.com/gs/genged1.htm
As many of you will only be interested in the simple practicalities of creating and importing GEDCOM files AnnetteR very kindly contributed the following:
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When wanting to transfer a GED.COM file from one software package to another this is how I do it. Go into to the software package where the file you want to transfer lives. Open the file and click on file on top left hand corner and the drop down menu should give an option saying Import/Export. From that option select export gedcom file. You should be given a choice of where to save the gedcom file on your C drive e.g., my documents etc or to floppy disc on the A drive. Depending on what package is being used it might be better to save to floppy but it is really down to choice.
To transfer this file to the new software package you should open a new family file and name it appropriately. Repeat the above in the new software package with the new file open but this time choose the Import option. Some software packages (like Legacy) have an Import wizard which makes it easy peezy and finds all the gedcom files on your C drive and it is just a case of clicking on the file you want and following the instructions. If there is no wizard just find the gedcom file you want to import from wherever you saved it on your C drive, or if saved to a floppy then insert the floppy into the A drive, and import it from there again following the instructions on screen.
If I can do it, it must be simple.
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Finally just a reminder about always creating backups of your data files before you do anything like this
Davie
PS Added later. I meant to add that while there's not often a problem when importing a GEDCOM file in terms of the main info, there can be glitches casued by date format, honorifics e.g. "Dr", terms such as Jnr, and the ability of the particular GEDCOM version to handle comments, and of the programme that you are using to handle comments in a GEDCOM.
