Definitions for "GEDCOM"
was developed by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to provide a flexible, uniform format for exchanging computerized genealogical data. GEDCOM is an acronym for GE nealogical D ata Com munication. Its purpose is to foster the sharing of genealogical information and the development of a wide range of inter-operable software products to assist genealogists, historians, and other researchers. Most family tree software will export and import a gedcom file, although some do it better than others. Generally the more modern a program is the more accurately it will handle the gedcom process. It is worth considering if you are thinking of using more than one type of software or if you share information with others. You may also want to send a file away to a company for printing onto a large sheet of paper and again this may require you to supply the data in a gedcom file.
GEDCOM is an abbreviation for GEneological Data COMmunications, and is a standard format for transmitting or transferring genealogical from one computer system or program to another. A GEDCOM file is an Ascii text file, usually (in MS-DOS) with the extension .GED, which preserves the relationships in a genealogy data file. Most genealogy programs have the ability to import and export data as GEDCOM files. If a lineage-linked genealogy program cannot do that, it is probably not worth using. The GEDCOM standard is being developed and refined. Some older programs will not be able to transfer all their data to or from GEDCOM files, and will not be able to import all the data from newer GEDCOM files, especially those that contain information about pictures etc.
a standard by which family history data can be interchanged between computers. Unfortunately, not every family history program implements the standard correctly
a very easy way to exchange information, but also one that should be used with caution