The GEDCOM data format
GEDCOM stands for “GEnealogy Data COMmunciation”. It is a file-format used to transfer genealogy data from one application to another. It was created by “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” and has since become a standard format used by almost all genealogy applications.
Version 5.5.1 was draft for over 20 years before being finally issued.
webtrees aims to follow the 5.5.1 standard, while also supporting some of the more common extensions that were created by other applications.
Official versions
- GEDCOM 7.0.14 - 2024-02-08
- GEDCOM 7.0.13 - 2023-07-13
- GEDCOM 7.0.12 - 2023-02-23
- GEDCOM 7.0.11 - 2022-11-01
- GEDCOM 7.0.10 - 2022-08-30
- GEDCOM 7.0.9 - 2022-06-07
- GEDCOM 7.0.8 - 2022-06-01
- GEDCOM 7.0.7 - 2022-02-08
- GEDCOM 7.0.6 - 2021-12-14
- GEDCOM 7.0.5 - 2021-09-29
- GEDCOM 7.0.4 - 2021-07-30
- GEDCOM 7.0.3 - 2021-07-13
- GEDCOM 7.0.2 - 2021-06-16
- GEDCOM 7.0.1 - 2021-06-07
- GEDCOM 7.0.0 - 2021-05-21
- GEDCOM 5.5.1 - 2019-11-15
- GedXML 6.0 (draft) - 2001-12-28
- GedXML 5.6 (private draft) - 2000-12-18
- GEDCOM 5.5.1 (draft) - 1999-10-02
- GEDCOM 5.5 (errata) - 1996-02-10
- GEDCOM 5.5 - 1995-12-11
- GEDCOM 5.4 (draft) - 1995-08-21
- GEDCOM 5.3 (draft) - 1993-11-04
- GEDCOM 5.2 (draft) - 1993-01-22(?)
- GEDCOM 5.1 (draft) - 1992-09-18
- GEDCOM 5.0 (draft) - 1991-09-25
- GEDCOM 4.2 Draft - 1990-01-25
- GEDCOM 4.0 (draft) - 1989-08-04
- GEDCOM 3.0 (draft) - 1987-10-09
- GEDCOM 2.4 Draft - 1985-12-13 (this release was mentioned in 3.0)
- GEDCOM 2.3 Draft - 1985-08-07
- GEDCOM 2.1 - 1987-02
- GEDCOM 2.0 - 1985-12
- GEDCOM 1.0 - 1984
The GEDCOM specification is Copyright 1987, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1999, 2019 by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This document may be copied for purposes of review or programming of genealogical software, provided this notice is included. All other rights reserved.
Unofficial versions and extensions
- Event GEDCOM 1.0 - Created by Commsoft, based on GEDCOM 5.3.
- GEDCOM-L Release 1 - 2020-01-01 Created by Computer Genealogy Society of Germany, based on GEDCOM 5.5.1.
- GEDCOM-L Release 2 - 2020-12-01 Created by Computer Genealogy Society of Germany, based on GEDCOM 5.5.1.
- GEDCOM 5.5EL (available in English and German) - An extension which includes locations as first-class entities.
- GEDCOM 5.5.1 Annotated Edition. At the request of Tamura Jones, the Annotated Edition has been removed from this site and is available here.
- GEDCOM 5.5.5 - 2019-10-02 (based on the 5.5.1 annotated edition by Tamura Jones)
- GEDCOM-X