How to export your family tree as a GEDCOM file
GEDCOM is the format almost every genealogy program understands. With it, your tree goes wherever you want.
What is a GEDCOM?
GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) is a text format for exchanging family trees, created by FamilySearch in the 1980s. A .ged file holds the people (names, dates, places) and the families linking them. The most widespread version is 5.5.1; version 7.0 came out in 2021.
It doesn’t hold everything: photos, hints, DNA matches and comments usually stay on the website. But the tree itself, who is whose child, travels whole.
From Ancestry
Open your tree, go to Tree Settings and click Export tree. When it’s ready, download the file. Sometimes it comes inside a .zip: A Thousand Surnames opens it as it is.
From MyHeritage
Under Family tree, open Manage trees and choose Export to GEDCOM. MyHeritage prepares the file and sends you a link to download it.
From FamilySearch
FamilySearch’s Family Tree is one tree shared by all its users and has no button to export it as GEDCOM. To take your branch out, use a partner program that syncs with FamilySearch, such as RootsMagic or Ancestral Quest, and export to GEDCOM from there.
From a desktop program
Gramps, RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker and almost every genealogy program export GEDCOM, usually from File → Export. If asked, choose to include everyone.
Your GEDCOM holds personal data
A GEDCOM usually includes living people, with birth dates and places. Before uploading one to a website, check what it does with it. A Thousand Surnames reads it on your own device: the file isn’t uploaded to any server, and the tree is stored encrypted in your browser or on your phone.