What is GEDCOM?
A GEDCOM file is plain text (usually either ANSEL or ASCII) containing genealogical information about individuals, and meta data linking these records together. Most genealogy software supports importing from and/or exporting to GEDCOM format. When you receive your GEDCOM File you may import your FAMILY tree directly into Family Tree Maker or most other Genealogical Software packages.
GEDCOM is an acronym that stands for “GEnealogy Data COMmunication” and is a standard for the exchange of genealogy data between programs. A GEDCOM file is a file that contains GEDCOM data. A GEDCOM file is usually created by exporting it from a common genealogy application. Almost all genealogy applications can import and export GEDCOM files. PhpGedView uses GEDCOM as its main data format and stores GEDCOM records in its databases and index files. This allows it to be the most compatible with other genealogy programs and allows it to be extensible. The GEDCOM format is a text based format (ie. you can open a Gedcom file in a text editor like Notepad). Each line in the gedcom starts with a number followed by a TAG indicating what kind of information is on that line. The number tells if the information on that line starts a new record or if it is a sub line of the previous line.
