What is GEDCOM?
Dec 26, 2008 21:59:00 GMT -5
Post by Doug 周 on Dec 26, 2008 21:59:00 GMT -5
GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEDCOM and is a method used to back up data from one program and hopefully transfer the same genealogical data to another computer software program. It is a VERY loose standard and will not back up any media (photos, videos, or audio files. I recommend a ‘work-around’ for backing up media. More on a later post)
The only data GEDCOM will consistently and accurately store and transfer are your surname, given name, birth-date, gender, and the connection to parents, offspring, and siblings. Everything else depends on the whims of the programmer who generated the GEDCOM and the programmer who transfers the GEDCOM data INTO their software. Locations, telephone numbers, web sites, biographical notes, occupations, etc all have variable quality in both storage and recovery. The quality of the handling of the GEDCOM data is one important factor in my choice of software program.
You can read a GEDCOM file using any word processing program or spreadsheet program since it is a text-based (remember my Unicode discussion on a previous postsiyigenealogy.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=software&action=display&thread=849). I read my text-based GEDCOM files to confirm the data accuracy of the software programs (I don’t do this often since it is not leisure reading!).
The reason GEDCOM is important is for backing up your information and being independent of whatever software program you use. Hopefully you will pass on your family tree Zupu 族谱 to another generation. Whether the software program or computer operating system will even exist at the time you bequeath your family tree Zupu 族谱 is unknown. I assume that the simple text-based GEDCOM file will be future proof. Paper Zupu’s 族谱 have been known to be abandoned deep in desk drawer corners and lost forever as forgetful people move or pass. Of course, you can print your family tree from the software program for back up redundancy.
Doug
The only data GEDCOM will consistently and accurately store and transfer are your surname, given name, birth-date, gender, and the connection to parents, offspring, and siblings. Everything else depends on the whims of the programmer who generated the GEDCOM and the programmer who transfers the GEDCOM data INTO their software. Locations, telephone numbers, web sites, biographical notes, occupations, etc all have variable quality in both storage and recovery. The quality of the handling of the GEDCOM data is one important factor in my choice of software program.
You can read a GEDCOM file using any word processing program or spreadsheet program since it is a text-based (remember my Unicode discussion on a previous postsiyigenealogy.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=software&action=display&thread=849). I read my text-based GEDCOM files to confirm the data accuracy of the software programs (I don’t do this often since it is not leisure reading!).
The reason GEDCOM is important is for backing up your information and being independent of whatever software program you use. Hopefully you will pass on your family tree Zupu 族谱 to another generation. Whether the software program or computer operating system will even exist at the time you bequeath your family tree Zupu 族谱 is unknown. I assume that the simple text-based GEDCOM file will be future proof. Paper Zupu’s 族谱 have been known to be abandoned deep in desk drawer corners and lost forever as forgetful people move or pass. Of course, you can print your family tree from the software program for back up redundancy.
Doug
