GEDCOM
GEDCOM is a specification for exchanging genealogical data between different genealogical systems. GEDCOM is an acronym for GEnealogical Data COMunication. A GEDCOM file is plain text, usually in ASCII, containing records for each individual in the family tree, and data linking these records together.
GEDCOM was developed by the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an aid in their extensive genealogical research.
Most (if not all) genealogy software supports importing from and/or exporting to GEDCOM format. Additionally, many tools exist to convert GEDCOM files to HTML pages.
Although it is theoretically possible to write a GEDCOM file by hand, the format was designed for export and import by software, and is not especially human-friendly.
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