How Do You Relate?

Whether you downloaded a gedcom from us or received one by email, opening a gedcom can be confusing for the first-time user. Don't be embarrassed to ask any of your cousins for help, because we're all family here.

The first thing is you have to have genealogy software. There are great free applications out there on sites such as download.com. If you want to just check out this crazy hobby called genealogy and not make any investments, go download one of the free software programs but just make sure it has the ability to open gedcoms. Once you get hooked on genealogy,

which won't take you look, you'll want to purchase genealogy software such as Family Tree Maker for the Windows or Reunion for Mac users. 

 

 

The best advice to give you is to go to your genealogy software manual for exact instructions on opening a GEDCOM from your specific software. If for some reason you cannot do this or if you are using a shareware product that had no manual, here is a generic instruction:

A note of caution: Importing someone else's GEDCOM into your existing genealogy file is not recommended. Take it from someone who learned the hard way. You may end up will a lot of duplicates or a lot of unwanted information in your file. It is best to import the GEDCOM into a new, empty file. If you do want to import a GEDCOM into your existing file, I recommend that you make a copy of your file first, and work with the copy. That way, you can always, revert to the original file if anything goes wrong.

1. Open your software. Do not open your Ancestral (Surname) file. If it opens automatically, close it.

2. Create a new file. To do this, you go to File to New. Click OK in the

dialog box that appears.

3. Import the GEDCOM file. To do this, you go to File to Import.

4. In the open file dialog box that appears, select the name of the

files to be imported.

They should look like this:

Buchanans.ged

Sullivans.ged

Tidwell.ged

Lampley.ged

or maybe even this:

STKJWC~1.ged

5. Once you select the name of the file you want to open. Click twice on

the name.

6. Depending on your software. A box will probably open and ask

questions. You can just click OK. (There are a few options here but you

can play with that later if you get bored. Options let you change the

source, order, etc.)

7. Observe that your file is opening or says "importing." Go have a cup

of coffee, it may take some time depending on the size of the gedcom.

That's it.

NOTE: You have to create a new file and repeat the import steps for each file you want to open. I will also repeat myself here and urge you not to import files into your existing or main database. Because if you do you'll get lots of duplicates which will take you forever to clean out. (I did it, I know). Also before working with your own files, always make a duplicate and work from the copy.