How to Export a GEDCOM File From Any Genealogy App

A GEDCOM file is the passport of the genealogy world. It's a plain-text format — the extension is .ged — that nearly every family tree program can read and write, which means the tree you built in one place can travel to another without retyping a single name.

If you want to view your tree somewhere new — on a different program, a website, or the living-room TV — exporting a GEDCOM is usually step one. Here's how to do it in the tools people actually use.

What's in a GEDCOM (and what isn't)

A GEDCOM carries your tree's structure and facts: people, relationships, names, dates, places, and source citations. What it generally does not carry is media — photos and document images usually stay behind on the original platform, with the file keeping only references to them. Keep that in mind before assuming an export moved everything.

RootsMagic

Open your database, then File → Export → GEDCOM file. RootsMagic lets you choose everyone or a selected group; for a full transfer, export everyone. Save the .ged file somewhere you can find it.

Family Tree Maker

File → Export. In the export dialog, choose the individuals to include (typically the entire file) and set the output format to GEDCOM. Confirm and save.

MyHeritage

From the website: open your family site, go to your tree's management page, and look for Export to GEDCOM. MyHeritage emails you a download link when the file is ready. (If you work in the Family Tree Builder desktop app instead, use File → Export to GEDCOM there.)

Legacy Family Tree

File → Export To → GEDCOM File. Legacy offers detailed options about which facts to include; the defaults are fine for a full transfer. Click Select File Name and Start Export.

Gramps

Family Trees → Export, then step through the assistant and choose the GEDCOM format. Gramps will warn you about anything that doesn't translate cleanly — worth a skim, rarely a problem.

Ancestry

From your tree, open Tree Settings, and on the settings page find Export tree. Ancestry generates the file, then offers a download button. One important caveat: Ancestry's GEDCOM includes your tree data and citations, but not the attached photos and record images — those stay on Ancestry. If the media matters for what you're doing next, a guided transfer that brings photos and records along (like the Ancestry concierge import Bright Branches offers) preserves more than a raw GEDCOM can.

FamilySearch — the exception

FamilySearch's shared Family Tree doesn't offer a personal full-tree GEDCOM export the way desktop programs do — it's one collaborative tree rather than your file. The practical answer is usually to skip the file entirely: apps that connect to FamilySearch directly (Bright Branches signs you in with your FamilySearch account, free) read your branch live, no export needed.

After the export

Wherever the file goes next, sanity-check it: open the tree in the destination and confirm the person count looks right and a few key families came through intact. Then do something with it worth the years the tree took to build — our suggestion, naturally, is the biggest screen in the house.