GEDCOM (an acronym standing for Genealogical Data Communication) is an open de facto specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogy software. GEDCOM was developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) as an aid to genealogical research.
A GEDCOM file consists of a header section, records, and a trailer section. Within these sections, records represent people (INDI record), families (FAM records), sources of information (SOUR records), and other miscellaneous records, including notes. Every line of a GEDCOM file begins with a level number where all top-level records (HEAD, TRLR, SUBN, and each INDI, FAM, OBJE, NOTE, REPO, SOUR, and SUBM) begin with a line with level 0, while other level numbers are positive integers.
The following is a sample GEDCOM file contains families of the Lincolns. The first column indicates an indentation level.
The header (HEAD) includes the source program and version (Ancestry.com, 2010.3), the GEDCOM version (5.5), and the character encoding (UTF-8), as according to the GEDCOM 5.5 specification; valid choices are ANSEL, UNICODE or ASCII.
The individual records (INDI) define Sarah (ID @I1@), Sarah Evans (ID @I2@), Rebecca Flowers (ID @I3@ etc, etc.).
The family record (FAM) links the husband (HUSB), wife (WIFE), and child (CHIL) by their ID numbers.
A simple GEDCOM parser that focuses on translating GEDCOM structure into a GedCom Library.
Tested with GEDCOM 5.5 exported from Ancestry.com.
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Load a GEDCOM file into GedCom Parser.
Get an Individual
Get a Family
Get relatives of an Individual