GEDCOM is a standard file format used to save, transfer, and transport genealogical information. Exporting a GEDCOM file will allow you to save your Geni family tree to your own computer. To download a GEDCOM file, make sure you are logged in to Geni and click the 'Family' tab, click the 'Share Your Tree' link and then click 'Export'. When you click the button to export your GEDCOM file, Geni will generate your GEDCOM file and send you a link to download it.
You can export a GEDCOM file for any profile that you added or anyone in your immediate family (as long as they or the manager are not blocking you). This is referred to below as the "focus person" of the export. Simply click 'Actions' on their profile and select 'Export GEDCOM.'
To open and read the GEDCOM file you exported from Geni, you will need an application that is able to read a GEDCOM file. We recommend Family Tree Builder or you may find other options by searching online.
Export Groups
The export page will ask you to choose which group of people you wish to export. Your choices are:
- Blood Relatives - people related by blood, and the people married to them (includes adopted relatives);
- DNA Relatives - people related by blood, and the people married to them (excludes adopted relatives);
- Ancestors - parents, their parents, etc.
- Descendants - your (or the focus person's) partners, and all resulting children, grandchildren, etc.
- Forest - blood relatives of you (or the focus person) and your/their current spouse, plus the blood relatives of anyone married to those blood relatives, plus anyone married to the latter set of blood relatives. Note: A Forest export may take several days to complete.
You also have the option to "Obscure private profiles." Checking this option will only output the information that non-family members can see.
Limits:
Basic users - GEDCOM exports are limited to 4x the number of profiles you've added and up to a maximum of 5,000 profiles
Pro users - GEDCOM exports are limited to 4x the number of profiles you've added and up to a maximum of 50,000 profiles
Note: The time to generate your GEDCOM file may vary depending on the size of your tree. If you do not receive an email, please check your spam folder or click here to download your GEDCOM.
Type:
The official GEDCOM standard is available as "GEDCOM 5.5.1" however if you are importing into Family Tree Builder or Personal Ancestral File, please choose the corresponding type.
Language:
If the profiles being exported have multilingual names, choose which language you prefer to have exported in the primary name fields.
Byte Order Mark:
The Byte Order Mark helps some programs identify the character encoding of the GEDCOM file as Unicode. It is preferred to leave this option on, however if the program you're using to read the resulting GEDCOM file complains about unexpected binary characters, you can try turning this option off.
Obscure Private Profiles:
By default the GEDCOM file will include personal data as you have permission to see it (for example, full names and dates on profiles within your Family Group). You may want to turn this option on if you are generating a GEDCOM to share with someone else and you prefer all private profiles to be obscured.
Updated: August 15, 2019
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