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"Along Those Lines"
1/11/2002 - Archive
A GEDCOM Primer
It's the beginning of a new year and people who got computers and
software over the holidays are lined up to pursue their genealogical research
with a vengeance. If you're just beginning to work with your genealogy software,
or if you're spreading your wings from the basics, it's important to learn about
how data from your genealogy database software is shared. In "Along Those Lines
…" this week, let's have a little GEDCOM 101 discussion.
Just What Is a GEDCOM?
The term GEDCOM is an acronym, standing for Genealogy Electronic Data COMmunications.
It is a data format standard that allows data from one genealogy computer program
to be shared with and read by another genealogy computer program. Juliana Smith,
the editor of the "Ancestry Daily News," and I were talking by phone today and
she mentioned an analogy she once read on this. Let me try to present a scenario
to you. Let's pretend that three people meet on a busy street corner in the
city and each is lost. However, each knows something about the city but, because
one speaks French, one speaks Swahili, and the third speaks Chinese, no one
can understand the other. They are each speaking in their own language. Finally,
one speaks a phrase in English, and the other two realize that they, too, can
speak English. A common ground has now been defined for the exchange of information.
They exchange information and directions, and they all can now better find their
way to their destinations in the city.
The GEDCOM standard acts as the 'English' on the analogy above. Genealogy database
programs typically save information in their own, proprietary format (or language,
as it were). However, they also provide the ability to save the same information
in another format -- the GEDCOM standard, and that format is used to export
the data to other computers. The format of the GEDCOM can be used by any other
genealogy computer to import and read the same data. The way it does so is simple.
In a GEDCOM file, each record type has an identifier attached to it so that
a name, for instance, always has the same identifier code, the date of birth
has another identifier, the birth location has another identifier, and so on.
The receiving program knows that one individual's information has a starting
code and an ending code, like an envelope. Inside, the record identifier codes
tell the receiving computer where to put the data attached to it in its own
program. That means that it know what field in its own program to place the
name, the date of birth, the birth location, etc., and how to attach which spouse
and children, and so on. It sounds complicated, but it really is relatively
simple for a programmer to set up. For us, the users of the software programs,
it is a "no-brainer."
Now, there are different handlings of the GEDCOM files by some programs. For
example, a life event defined in your Family Tree Maker database, which will
be coded with an identifier code, may be treated as a separate event in one
program or the data may be dropped into the notes area of the receiving program.
The most important thing, of course, is that the data is moved intact and placed
somewhere.
Note also that some software programs allow you to specify how much information
you want to export in your outgoing GEDCOM file. You could specify everything,
which means text, events, notes, source citations -- the works. Or you might
opt to include only a finite amount of information in the GEDCOM you create
and export. It is important for you to read your program's HELP file and learn
about the following topics:
1) File formats in which your data may be saved
2) GEDCOM files that can be produced from your program
3) How to create a GEDCOM file
4) How to export a GEDCOM file
5) How to import someone else's GEDCOM file into your program
6) Whether or how you merge another imported GEDCOM file into your exisiting
database (if you even want to!)
7) Privatizing your information on living individuals
Privatizing Information of Living Individuals
It is always important to privatize your GEDCOM data. Privatizing is the process
of excluding some or all information about living individuals. That means either
suppressing their names, their vital dates, or other information so as to keep
their information private. I believe that most genealogy database software programs
include opting to use this built-in capability before you create your GEDCOM
file. If your program does not have this function, there are utility programs
available at various places on the Web. Gedliving is one of these, available
from the RootsWeb site at www.rootsweb.com/~gumby/ged.html.
There are, however, others.
When you submit a GEDCOM to a responsible Web-based database entity such as
Ancestry.com or RootsWeb.com, you can be assured that information about living
people will be privatized and not shown. Neither will the data be sold, leased,
or published for sale on CD- ROM. In other words, the privacy of living individuals
is respected and will not be compromised.
And What About My Graphics?
Graphics in your database are not part of the data included in the creation
and export of a GEDCOM file. I often hear people complaining that they had created
a vast database and had embedded photographs of people, places, tombstones,
and other subjects. They were distressed and disappointed that the pictures
weren't in the GEDCOM. Well, the GEDCOM standard wasn't originally conceived
to deal with these graphics, only with text. Perhaps a future version of the
standard can and will incorporate that. However, until ultrahigh-speed communications
is available universally, the addition of graphics into a GEDCOM file transfer
would be pretty unwieldy for most people.
And Educated Consumer
Before you spend a great deal of time creating, uploading, downloading, exporting,
importing, and merging all these GEDCOM files, please invest a little time reading
the HELP text of your genealogy program and learn more about its capabilities
and/or limitations. You will then be able to make more informed decisions about
your own use of the facilities.
Happy Hunting!
George
George G. Morgan is a proud member of the International Society of Family History
Writers and Editors, Inc. (ISFHWE) at: www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/cgc2.htm.
He would like to hear from you at atl@ahaseminars.com
but, due to the volume of e-mail, he is unable to answer every E-mail message
received. Please note that he cannot assist you with your individual research.
Visit George's Web site at ahaseminars.com/atl
for information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2001, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
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