What is the GED file format?
.ged is a plain-text file used for storing genealogical data generated by software compatible with the GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communications) standard. The .ged format is commonly used by family history software tools across all major platforms. The standard was developed by FamilySearch - the genealogy division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - chiefly due to religious motivations involving extensive genealogical research.
Every .ged file uses hierarchical, level-numbered lines following the pattern level tag value - for example 0 @I1@ INDI or 1 NAME John /Doe/. Each file opens with 0 HEAD and closes with 0 TRLR. The widely used GEDCOM 5.5.1 (1999) long served as the de facto interchange version; GEDCOM 7.0, released in 2021, is the current revision and mandates UTF-8 encoding. A companion format, GEDZIP (.gdz), lets applications bundle a .ged file together with its linked media.
.ged files store information regarding relationships between families and family members, covering events such as births, marriages and deaths along with sources and notes. They can serve as the basis for recreating a family tree or full family history. Because virtually every genealogy application - including Gramps, RootsMagic and Ancestry - supports GEDCOM import and export, .ged is the universal interchange format for moving family trees between programs.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWA .ged is plain text and cannot execute code, so the file itself is safe to open and inspect in any editor. The real concern is privacy, not malware: GEDCOM files routinely contain personal data about living relatives - full names, birth dates, places - so be careful before uploading a tree to a public website or sharing it, and use a program's "privatize living people" option when exporting. Watch encoding (ANSEL vs UTF-8) so non-English names don't get mangled.
Format details
in a nutshellPrograms that open GED files
Windows4 apps
RootsMagic
Freemium Use File > Import (or the free RootsMagic Essentials) to open the .ged as a tree. 
Gramps
Open-source Create a new family tree, then File > Import and select the .ged to view and edit it. 
Family Historian
Paid File > Open / Import the .ged to view and edit the tree (free trial available). 
Notepad
Open-source Open the .ged as text to read the raw level/tag records; save as UTF-8 to fix encoding. 
macOS3 apps
Linux2 apps
GeneWeb
Open-source Import the .ged into GeneWeb's web-server interface to browse the tree in a browser.
FamilySearch
Free Free LDS genealogy site (the GEDCOM authors) - import the .ged into your online tree.
MyHeritage
Freemium Upload the .ged to create/merge an online family tree; offers GEDCOM upload free. Technical details
deep spec| File type | Plain text, line-based hierarchical records |
| MIME type | application/x-gedcom; also text/vnd.familysearch.gedcom (GEDCOM 7) |
| Character encoding | ANSEL (legacy GEDCOM 5.5/5.5.1), UTF-8 (mandatory in GEDCOM 7), UTF-16 and ASCII also supported |
| File header / signature | No binary magic bytes; every valid file opens with the line 0 HEAD and closes with 0 TRLR |
| Line format | level tag [value] - e.g. 0 @I1@ INDI, 1 NAME John /Doe/, 1 BIRT |
| Core record types | INDI (individual), FAM (family), SOUR (source), NOTE, OBJE (media object) |
| Cross-reference system | @xref@ pointers link records; FAM records reference members via HUSB, WIFE and CHIL tags |
| Version declaration | Embedded in the header via 1 GEDC / 2 VERS tags (e.g. 5.5.1 or 7.0) |
| Compression | None; GEDCOM 7 introduced GEDZIP (.gdz) as a separate format for bundling a .ged with its media |
| Typical file size | 10 KB - 50 MB, scaling with number of individuals, events, sources and notes |
| Encoding declaration | Stated inside the file via the 1 CHAR tag in the HEAD record (e.g. ANSEL, UTF-8, UNICODE) |
| Developer / maintainer | FamilySearch (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) |
| Platform support | Cross-platform - Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android and web-based applications |
| Backwards compatibility | GEDCOM 7.0 files are not fully backward-compatible with 5.5.1 parsers; 5.5.1 remains the widest-supported interchange version |
| Released | 1984 (GEDCOM 1.0); widely adopted GEDCOM 5.5 (1996) / 5.5.1 (1999) |
| Latest version | GEDCOM 7.0 (released 2021 by FamilySearch); 5.5.1 remains the de facto interchange version |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | gedcom.io |
GED conversions
Community Q&A
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