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Frequently asked questions

What is a GEDCOM?

GEDCOM is an acronym that stands for GEnealogical Data COMmunication. Technically, GEDCOM is a systematic format for transferring genealogical information between different computer programs. In other words, GEDCOM is intended to be a standard "language" that allows you to move your genealogical data from one computer program to another. Almost every genealogical software program allows you to import and export GEDCOM files, identifiable by the ".ged" file extension. Colloquially, we refer to a file containing genealogical information written in the GEDCOM format as a "GEDCOM". See Wikipedia:Gedcom.

Why use a GEDCOM?

A GEDCOM is the easiest way to transfer information for a large number of people from one genealogy program into another. At WeRelate, we can use your GEDCOM to turn your family tree information into wiki pages.

How do I get my data into a GEDCOM and into WeRelate?

It is not difficult, but it does require that you spend some time with your data. It is tempting to just quickly create a GEDCOM without reviewing the data first and to upload that GEDCOM into WeRelate and walk away. There are some other genealogy websites out there that will let you do that. However, WeRelate is not like other genealogy websites - it's better! We seek to build a unified tree where the data from multiple contributors is helpful to all contributors.

This means that your data must be formatted, so it will work well within our system and be searchable in our database. To ensure your success, we ask you to walk your data through a review process before we can accept it. The amount of formatting necessary is dependent upon the genealogy program you are using and how the data has been entered.

Here is a brief outline of the process with information about each step below:

  1. Prepare the data in your genealogy program
  2. Export the data into a GEDCOM file
  3. Upload the GEDCOM file into our review program
  4. Complete the steps in our review program
  5. Request final import of your reviewed file
  6. Receive notification of import status

Step 1: Prepare the data in your genealogy program

This is important and must be done first before you create a GEDCOM.

If you follow these simple steps, you will increase the likelihood that your file can be accepted quickly and with only one review cycle.

  1. Format your names
    1. Make sure all women are entered with their maiden surname as their primary name.
    2. Make sure all names are entered in mixed case (ex. John Smith, not JOHN SMITH).
    3. Run a duplicates report and merge all duplicate people and families.
  2. Format your dates
    1. Make sure you have entered at least one date or approximate date for each person (ex. abt 1850).
    2. Make sure all dates are entered in DD MMM YYYY format (ex. 1 Jan 1875).
    3. Check for common date errors and fix them (ex. children born on an impossible date in relation to their parents' or sibling's birth dates).
  3. Format your places
    1. Make sure you have entered at least one place or approximate place for each person (ex. Virginia, United States, probably England, etc.).
    2. WeRelate has an extensive database of Place pages already established. When you upload your file, our program will attempt to match your place names to ours and ask you to manually match those we cannot. To make matching easier, review Help:Place page titles and follow these quick tips:
      1. Make sure your place names are entered from smallest to largest jurisdiction, separated by commas, and with the country included (ex. Dublin, Wayne, Indiana, United States ; Winterswijk, Gelderland, Netherlands ; Berden, Essex, England ; Allinge, Bornholm, Denmark).
      2. Move all spurious information (ex. street address, church name, hospital name, occupation, etc.) from the place field to a description or note field. Cemetery names are exempted from this rule (ex. Riverside Cemetery, Cambridge City, Wayne, Indiana, United States).
      3. We recognize that place names change over time. For simplicity, our place pages represent a specific location on the map in the year 1900 (see 1900 rule). If you wish to show readers a more period-specific place name for that location, you have two choices - first, establish a link to the proper map location by entering the WeRelate place name in the place field, and then add your place name to either the Description field or after a pipe (i.e., "|") in the place field (ex. Prairie Grove, Washington, Arkansas, United States|Cherokee Homeland in the place field will render as Cherokee Homeland to the reader).
  4. Format your sources
    1. Make sure you have included sources to prove your dates and places. We will not accept files that do not include a reasonable amount of sources telling readers where you found the information you are posting.
    2. Rename or remove sources which only reference other people's trees (ex. SMITH.GED, JONES.FTM, Ancestry Member Trees, Dave's pedigree chart, etc.). This type of citation is not helpful or accepted as proof of fact by serious genealogists. Your genealogy program may have a master source editing capability to help you quickly remove these. If someone else's tree or website contains good sources and you wish to cite them, please verify the information and create individual citations to the actual sources. See more about sourcing.
    3. WeRelate has an extensive database of Source pages for common sources (ex. censuses, probate records, books, etc.) already established. When you upload your file, our review program will attempt to match your source names to ours and ask you to manually match those we cannot. To make your matching easier, review Help:Source_page_titles.
  5. Remove living persons and sensitive information
    1. Privatize your GEDCOM. WeRelate policy does not allow pages for non-notable living persons. Most genealogy programs allow you to privatize a GEDCOM by excluding information about living persons. Refer to your program for instructions. WeRelate will also run a check of your data to identify and exclude possible living persons.
    2. Remove any information you don't want published. Information posted on WeRelate is published openly for anyone to read. If you have anything in your tree that you don't want published (ex. family email addresses, social security numbers, telephone numbers, etc.), you must remove it before creating your GEDCOM.

Now that you have performed these steps in your genealogy program, you are ready to create your GEDCOM.

Step 2: Export the data into a GEDCOM

Every genealogy application has a way of creating a GEDCOM (.ged) file. Before you start please make sure you have prepared your data as outlined in Step 1.

From the File menu in your genealogy program, look for a menu item like Export or Export File. Save the file with a name of your choice in a directory that you will be able to find again later when you are ready to upload it.

Below are some links to instructions for creating GEDCOMs from several different genealogy programs:

Step 3: Upload the GEDCOM into our review program

Once you have logged into your WeRelate account, from the top menu, select Add > Import GEDCOM to be taken to the import page. Click Choose File to select the GEDCOM file you just created, and select a Default country and Import into tree name from the dropdowns. Click Import GEDCOM to upload the file into the review program.

Step 4: Complete the steps in the review program

Shortly after uploading your GEDCOM, you will receive a message on your Talk page with a link to our review program. Follow the link for instructions. Depending on the size of your file, it can take several days to complete the entire review, but you do not have to complete it all at once. Your file can remain in this review stage for 2 months.

Step 5: Request final import of reviewed file

Once you have completed all review steps, you can request import of your file from the last screen in the review program (see program for instructions). Requesting import notifies our volunteer administrators that you are ready for them to review your file. They will check for formatting, matching, and sources and either approve the request or send the file back to you for further review. Depending on the size of your file and the amount of matching you have completed yourself, it can take some time for an administrator to review your file. Please allow for some extra time around the holidays.

Step 6: Receive notification of import status

Shortly after requesting final import, you will receive a message on your Talk page telling you the status of your submission. If your file was approved, wiki pages will have been created from your data, and you will receive instructions for viewing and editing those pages. If it was not approved, you will receive instructions for fixing your file and resubmitting your data. Our volunteer administrators will try to respond to your submission as soon as they can. Feel free to ask for their help with resubmission.

How does the data in my GEDCOM appear as wiki pages?

The system creates a Person page for each person (unless they were marked excluded during the review), a Family page for each family (unless they were marked excluded during the review), and a MySource page for each source (unless it was marked excluded or matched with an existing Source page during review). If the GEDCOM has any repositories (generally rare), the repository name and address are added to the MySource pages that link to that repository.

Source citations in the GEDCOM become source citations on the Person and Family pages. Notes in the GEDCOM become notes on the Person and Family pages, if they are attached to a specific name, event, or source citation in the GEDCOM. Notes that are not attached to anything specific in the GEDCOM will appear in the main Personal History text box on the page. Images in the GEDCOM are ignored, because GEDCOM does not store images, only the filename of the image, which is just text and useless when you're on-line.

Events and facts in the GEDCOM become events and facts on the Person and Family pages. LDS events are ignored. WeRelate allows you to specify event type and has 50+ types from which to choose. If the event in the GEDCOM does not match one of those types, it is assigned the type Other.

Married names and religious names in the GEDCOM are added appropriately. AKA names become Alternate names. Some GEDCOMs store name parts (given, surname, prefix, suffix) all together in a single field. When this happens, the system looks for slashes (//) or ALL-CAPS to identify the surname. If that fails, a list of common name prefixes and suffixes is used to identify any that might be present, and then the last word in the name field is assumed to be the surname.

The rules above will handle everything in the official GEDCOM standard, but some genealogy programs store additional information that is not part of the standard. Anything in a GEDCOM that does not have a corresponding field in WeRelate is added to the main Personal History text box on the page.

What happens to information for living people in my GEDCOM?

It is against the law in many jurisdictions to publish data about living people without their consent. In order to preserve their privacy, it is also the policy at WeRelate that we do not create wiki pages for living individuals, unless the page is being used as a place marker to connect deceased children to deceased grandparents. Such pages will only include surname and gender and links to the connecting Family pages.

Your responsibility as a contributor is to make sure the living people in your tree are either excluded from your GEDCOM by privatizing your data in your genealogy program first (see How to prepare my data) or marked as "living" by you while you are in the review program. Persons marked as "living" will not have pages created for them.

Our responsibility is to check your file again before accepting it to gauge whether or not included persons might be living. To do this, our program uses the following algorithm:

  1. Any person born over 110 years ago, married over 90 years ago, or with death or burial information is marked "dead".
  2. Any person born less than 110 years ago or married less than 90 years ago, or whose birth or marriage or death date is the word "living" or "private", is marked "living".
  3. Any person with no birth, marriage, or death date entered or who is related to an immediate family member who was born or married recently is marked "living".
  4. Any person with no birth, marriage, or death date entered who is the child or spouse of a person marked "living" is also marked "living".
  5. Everyone else is marked dead.

What happens to the Images in my GEDCOM?

The GEDCOM standard does not allow for the transfer of Images at this time. Hopefully we will have that capability in the future. In the meantime, you can upload Images manually to any wiki page. Remember to obey all copyright laws and never post any copyrighted image on WeRelate. More copyright information.

Why is some of my GEDCOM information not in the fields I expect?

Most genealogy programs adhere to the GEDCOM standard for structured text, but occasionally they do not. In these cases, WeRelate will put the information into the description or note fields.

After a successful import, why does a distant relative appear in the Family Tree Explorer window? Where is the rest of my family tree?

Some genealogy programs (ex. PAF, Family Tree Maker, Legacy, etc.) do not designate a root person in the GEDCOM, so we have to assume that the first person in your GEDCOM is your root person. This assumption is correct most of the time, but sometimes it's not. If we made the wrong person the root, you can fix it from within Family Tree Explorer, by selecting the correct person from the Index menu (4th button with multiple parallel lines below the top pane). Once the correct person is selected, designate them as the root by clicking the Bullseye button (first button on top under the File menu with a green dot and circle). You can hover over any of these buttons to see what they do.

How can I export information from my WeRelate into a GEDCOM?

From the MyRelate menu, select Trees, then click export next to the file you wish to export. You can also download GEDCOMs that you uploaded earlier in case you need to restore them to your computer.

Can I update my tree on WeRelate by uploading an updated GEDCOM of that same tree?

No. Once your tree is imported, it's best to update pages on WeRelate by editing them manually at WeRelate.

Related pages

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