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GEDCOM introduction

Gedcom was developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to provide a flexible, standardized format for exchanging electronically recorded genealogical data. Gedcom is an acronym for Genealogical Data Communication .

A GEDCOM file contains hierarchically structured, interrelated data records (including individuals, families, sources, and documents). GEDCOM is a text format, with each record beginning with a number indicating its hierarchical level and a keyword (tag).

Example:

0 INDI
1 BIRT
2 DATE 12 MAY 1920
1 DEAT
2 DATE 1960

Omega writes and reads Gedcom files according to the Gedcom standard version 5.5.

The high flexibility of the GEDCOM standard creates an equally high level of complexity. This necessitates the implementation of very elaborate rule sets to process GEDCOM files. One problem arises from the fact that the GEDCOM writing program, the GEDCOM specification, and the GEDCOM reading program generally represent genealogical data very differently. Therefore, it is often impossible to even reversibly import GEDCOM files written by one program back into the same program. A further difficulty stems from the fact that many programs do not implement the GEDCOM standard correctly or extend it with their own additions, preventing correct import unless specific special handling is built into the reading system, depending on the source system.

The following facts can be considered shortcomings of the 5.5 standard that have significantly hampered the implementation of Gedcom processing in Omega:

GEDCOM allows for multiple alternative versions of a given fact. For example, it is possible to record several alternative birth dates or parents for a person without specifying a preference.
Gedcom uses cross-references. Due to the frequent occurrence of faulty Gedcom files, where forward and return references are incorrect or missing, efficient import, which requires a correct input file, is practically impossible.
Fundamentally important issues such as godparenthood and the distinction between civil and church marriage cannot be represented in Gedcom.

During export, certain additional information regarding the quality of kinship relationships and other Omega-specific data is not exported because it cannot be represented in GEDCOM. Import processes the standard tags. Exotic tags or multimedia objects are ignored.