Your aunt has kept the family tree on a website for fifteen years. Now the subscription is running out, or she wants to give the work to you, or you simply want a copy that does not depend on one company. What you need is a GEDCOM file: one .ged file with every person, family, date and place in it, which any genealogy program can read.
The short answer
Every large genealogy website can export a GEDCOM file, but the button is in a different place on each one. Below you will find where. After the export, check that the file is complete, and download the photos separately, because they are never inside a GEDCOM file.
Where the export button is
Ancestry
Open the tree you want to export. Open Tree settings (in the tree menu), and in the section for managing your tree choose Export tree. Ancestry builds the file, which can take a few minutes for a large tree. Then click to download the GEDCOM file.
MyHeritage
In the Family tree menu choose Manage trees. Next to each tree there is an option Export to GEDCOM. For a small tree the download starts straight away; for a larger one MyHeritage sends a download link by email.
Geneanet
Open the menu and under tree management choose Save / export. You can download the file you once imported, or make a new one from the online tree with your latest changes. Choose GEDCOM in UTF-8, so names with accents come through correctly.
FamilySearch
FamilySearch works differently. Its Family Tree is one shared tree that everyone works on together, so there is no personal tree with an export button. Certified programs such as RootsMagic and Ancestral Quest can copy people from FamilySearch into your own file on your computer. From that program you export GEDCOM.
A program on your computer
In desktop programs such as Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Legacy, Gramps or Aldfaer, the export is almost always under File, then Export, then GEDCOM.
What comes along, and what stays behind
| In the GEDCOM file | Not in the GEDCOM file |
|---|---|
| People, with names, dates and places | Photos and scans of certificates |
| Families: who married whom, whose child is whose | Recordings and videos |
| Notes and sources, if the site exports them | DNA matches and hints from the website |
So download the photos too. On most sites you can save them one by one from the media section. Keep them in the same folder as the .ged file, with a file name that says who is in them.
Check the export before you delete anything
Before you close an account or stop a subscription, look inside the file. How many people are in it? Is that the same number the website showed? Did the oldest ancestor come along?
You can do that in your browser, without installing a program: drag the file into thememorypalace.ai/gedcom. You see the number of people and families, the generations, the longest line back and where the gaps are. It is free, you do not need an account, and the file is read in your own browser. It is not sent anywhere.
Keep the exported file in two places, for example on your computer and on a USB stick with another family member. If you want to know more about the format itself, read how to open a GEDCOM file without genealogy software.
A file is not yet a family
A .ged file keeps who descends from whom. It does not keep the photo of your great-grandmother at the market, or the story of why the family moved. If you want the names and the faces together, The Memory Palace reads the GEDCOM file and gives each person a place next to their photos and stories. And the tree goes back out as GEDCOM whenever you want.