The oldest complaint about GEDCOM is that photos do not travel with the file. GEDCOM 7 answered it with GEDZIP: a zip archive containing the .ged and the media it references, so both arrive together.

What is inside

A .gdz file is an ordinary zip. Rename it to .zip and any archive tool opens it. Inside:

  • A file called gedcom.ged at the top level. That is the tree.
  • The photos and documents, in whatever folder structure the .ged's file references use. If the GEDCOM says the photo is at media/smith.jpg, then media/smith.jpg is in the zip.

That is near enough the whole specification.

Who supports it

At the time of writing, adoption is partial. Some desktop programs export it; a few viewers open it; the big websites do not produce it yet. There is a separate guide with a table.

GED-VIEW reads GEDZIP directly: open the .gdz (or a plain .zip holding a .ged and its media) exactly like a .ged file. The family file inside is saved in your browser like any other import, and the pictures in the archive show up immediately without connecting a folder. The archive's media is kept for the current session only; opening the archive again brings it back. A media folder still works too, because GED-VIEW matches media by file name either way.

Making one in GED-VIEW

Connect the media folder (or open the archive the file came in), then open Tools > Convert, choose GEDZIP as the format and tick Include media. The page says how many of the file's media files are at hand and how many are web links that cannot be packed. The result is a .gdz with gedcom.ged in GEDCOM 7 and the media under media/, with every file reference rewritten to point inside the archive; the missing ones are listed in the report. For programs that do not read .gdz, the same page offers a zip with a 5.5.1 file and a media folder instead. The file types guide compares every type Convert writes.

Making one by hand

If you would rather build it yourself:

  1. Export a GEDCOM. Make sure it is UTF-8 (GEDCOM 7 if the program offers it, but 5.5.1 in UTF-8 works too for this purpose).
  2. Rename the export to gedcom.ged.
  3. Look at the FILE paths inside it. Copy the referenced images into a folder that matches those paths as closely as possible. If the paths are absolute (C:\Users\...), edit them in the .ged to be relative (media\smith.jpg) so they work on the recipient's machine.
  4. Put gedcom.ged and the media folder into a zip archive.
  5. Rename the .zip to .gdz.

The recipient unzips it, opens gedcom.ged in their viewer, and points at the media folder if their viewer needs that step.

Why not just send a zip?

You can. A GEDZIP is a zip with a naming convention. The convention exists so programs that support it can open the whole thing in one step. A plain zip with the .ged and a media folder achieves the same result for a person, just not for software.

Next

With a media folder connected in GED-VIEW and a relative who wants everything, Convert to GEDZIP with the media included and send the one file.