Every genealogy program and website trades trees as GEDCOM, but not the same GEDCOM. Ancestry, MyHeritage and Family Tree Maker write GEDCOM 5.5.1 with their own extra tags; FamilySearch, Family Historian and Reunion speak GEDCOM 7; Gramps has its own XML; FamilySearch's API and a few developer tools use GEDCOM X. A file made for one often loses something in the next. GED-VIEW's Convert tool rewrites a file from any of these to any other, in the browser, and tells you exactly what could not be carried over.

What Convert does

Open the file you want to convert (it becomes the open file, like any other), then open Tools > Convert. The page reads the file and says what it is: the GEDCOM version, the program that wrote it, how many records it holds, and how its media are referenced (local paths, web addresses, or files packed in an archive).

Choose the target:

  • Format. A GEDCOM file, a GEDZIP archive with the media packed in, a zip with the file and a media folder, GEDCOM X (JSON or XML), Gramps XML, or Gramps CSV. The file types guide compares them.
  • Version. GEDCOM 5.5.1 or 7. GEDZIP is always 7.
  • Program. Plain GEDCOM with no program-specific tags (the default, and the safest file to send anyone), or the tags a particular program expects: Ancestry, MyHeritage, Family Tree Maker, FamilySearch, Reunion, Gramps, RootsMagic, Legacy, Geni, The Master Genealogist, PAF. The program list only offers the versions that program can read. What each program gets is listed program by program.
  • Include media. For formats that carry media, with a count of how many of the file's media are at hand in the connected folder or archive, and how many are web links that cannot be packed.

A preset dropdown fills the others for the common jobs: plain GEDCOM 5.5.1, GEDCOM 7, GEDCOM 7 with media, one each for Family Tree Maker, MyHeritage, Ancestry and FamilySearch, Gramps XML, Gramps CSV, and GEDCOM X as JSON or XML.

What cannot be carried over

Before anything runs, the page lists what the chosen target has no place for. GEDCOM 5.5.1 has no creation dates, no shared notes and no sex "X"; GEDCOM 7 has no room for a program's private extension tags unless they are declared; GEDCOM X and Gramps have their own models and drop what they cannot express. Anything the target cannot say is written into a note on the same record and listed, so nothing disappears silently.

The report

Convert runs into memory and shows a report: what the file contains before and after (people, families, sources, media, notes, repositories, submitters), counted by reading the produced file back the way any program would; and every rule that changed something, with a count, where it applied, and examples naming the person or family. The report can be saved as text or PDF, and it stays with the converted file on the Exports page.

Nothing is created until you click Accept and convert. Then the file is listed on the Exports page, and the Result step offers Download (to your computer) and Open in app (it becomes the open file, saved next to your other files). The original file is never modified.

Common jobs

  • A MyHeritage or Ancestry export for Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic or Gramps. Choose the target program. Tags the target does not understand are rewritten to standard ones where a mapping exists (a preferred-photo marker, a married name, a military service event) and kept with a note where it does not.
  • Upgrading to GEDCOM 7. Choose version 7. Old identifiers become external IDs, phonetic and romanized names become translations, dual years get a phrase, and the file is UTF-8, which ends most garbled-character trouble for good.
  • Sending a tree with its photos. Connect the media folder first, then choose GEDZIP with media included. The GEDZIP guide explains what is inside.
  • Moving to Gramps. Choose Gramps XML; Gramps opens the .gramps file directly. Gramps CSV is a lossy alternative that Gramps can merge into an existing tree.

Next

Open the file, open Convert, and read the "What cannot be carried over" list for the target you have in mind. That list is the honest answer to "will anything be lost?"