# File Formats

Supported file formats include:

- GEDCOM 5.5.1 - loading and saving, full format support;
- GedML - import;
- Family.Show (*.familyx) - partial import;

Planned:

- GeniML

### GEDCOM

The Church of the Latter-day Saints' [1] GEDCOM 5.5 Standard provides a way to format, digitally store, and transfer genealogical data in a standardized, human readable text file. Over the years, new standards, using the [2] Extensible Markup Language (XML, GEDCOM 5.5 XML), have been proposed. The web page [3] here provides a list of these proposals.

None of these proposals have gained widespread acceptance, and GEDCOM 5.5 remains the format that nearly all genealogical programs export to and that users still exchange their genealogical data using.

### GEDCOM 5.5EL [4]

### GEDCOM 5.5 XML

XML proponents can console themselves with the fact that the GEDCOM 5.5 standard bares some resemblance to a XML markup language. It is human readable text. Instead of XML elements, it delimits genealogical data between a text tag and character return and line feed or both; the tag precedes the data. Finally, GEDCOM 5.5 tags can be nested under other tags, resembling the parent and child node trees of XML elements.

Given these similarities, it is easy to envision an one-to-one translation of GEDCOM 5.5 into a XML language. GEDCOM 5.5 tags could be XML elements; XML's greater than '>' and less than '<' characters could surround the tags, converting them into elements. Open and closed elements could delimit genealogical data. To differentiate it from other proposals, such a XML markup language could be called "GEDCOM 5.5 XML."

Two XML markup languages have come close to describing GEDCOM 5.5 XML: GedML and GeniML.

### GedML

In [5] 1998, Michael H. Kay proposed [6] GedML. A XML Schema, a DTD, for this proposal was [7] released. In GedML's DTD, most of the GEDCOM 5.5 tags have been translated into XML elements with the same name; e.g., INDI tags are simply <INDI> elements. Other tags, though, have been translated; e.g., SOUR tags are <Source> elements. GedML is also missing the <TRLR> element which replicates the GEDCOM 5.5 TRLR tag. This tag indicates the end of a GEDCOM 5.5 file. It is absent from GedML because the closed document root element, </GED>, performs the same function, rendering a <TRLR> element superfluous. Considering these differences, as far as the DTD is concerned, GedML is not an one-to-one translation of GEDCOM 5.5 into XML.

Kay, however, also released a Java language program that translates GEDCOM 5.5 files into XML documents. The markup language of these documents does not have a XML schema (DTD, W3C XML Schema). However, a review of the output of his program reveals that all GEDCOM 5.5 tags have been translated to XML elements with the same name, just like GEDCOM 5.5 XML. There is, though, one missing element: the one corresponding to the TRLR tag. Given this flaw, this version of GedML also fails to be an one-to-one translation of GEDCOM 5.5 into XML.

### GeniML

Jerry Fitzpatrick of Software Renovation Corporation developed GeniML. Like Kay, he released a Windows program to convert GEDCOM 5.5 to XML. No schema for this markup language has been released. However, sample output included with the converter shows that GeniML appears to be an one-to-one translation of GEDCOM 5.5 into XML. GeniML even includes the <TRLR> element. There are, however, some differences; for example, GeniML delimits surname data using a <SURNAME> element, when GEDCOM 5.5 uses a SURN tag for the same purpose. Considering this difference and many others, GeniML, like GedML, is not an one-to-one translation of GEDCOM 5.5 into XML markup.

### Family.Show

Family.Show [9] is a free and open-source genealogy program written in C# and running on the .NET Framework. Microsoft partnered with and commissioned Vertigo Software in 2006 to create it as a reference application for Microsoft's latest UI technology and software deployment mechanism at the time, WPF and ClickOnce. The source code has originally been published on Microsoft's CodePlex website. It has since been forked and development continues independent of Microsoft on GitHub.

Family.Show uses an Open Package Convention file format (*.familyx) to save family data, stories, and photos in one file.

### GEDCOM Alternatives