GEDCOM Specification
GEnealogical Data COMmunication

GEDCOM, an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMmunication, is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software.

GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid to genealogical research.

Most genealogy software supports importing from and/or exporting to GEDCOM format. A GEDCOM file is plain text containing genealogical information about individuals, and meta data linking these records together. The files can be read in Notepad, Textpad or any other editor.

GEDCOM Version 5.5.1

GEDCOM XML Version 6.0