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FAQ - XREFs

How can I show the GEDCOM IDs (XREFs) in webtrees?

A (very) few applications, such as PhpGedView, show the XREF in brackets after the name. webtrees does not do this. This is a deliberate design decision, and common to most family history software products.

  • XREFs are 20 character fields. We would need to design every page with enough space for (I1234567890123456789) after the name. This places unnecessary restrictions on the page layout.

  • XREFs are not unique. If you have 3 family trees on your site, you can have 3 I1 records.

  • XREFs are written in latin characters, and many languages do not use the latin alphabet. It also causes layout problems with right-to-left languages.

  • XREfs contain easily confused characters, S/5, O/0, I/1, etc.

  • XREFs change when records or trees are merged.

If you want to see XREFs, you can view them in the URL bar of your browser.

You can also use them when selecting records.

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