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GEDCOM 5.5 to GEDCOM X Converter

This utility converts a GEDCOM 5.5 file to a GEDCOM X file. The utility leverages the GEDCOM 5.5 parsing library contributed by Dallan Quass and the GEDCOM X file format writer contributed by FamilySearch. This converter follows the Legacy GEDCOM Migration Path as detailed by the GEDCOM X project.

Usage

Someday, we may get a GUI for this utility. But for now, you're going to have to run it from the command line:

  1. Install the Java Runtime Environment.
  2. Download the latest version of the utility (e.g. gedcom5-conversion-1.13.0-full.jar) and save it on your filesystem (e.g. /tmp/gedcom-converter.jar). (Be sure to download the "full" jar, otherwise you'll get a "no main manifest attribute" error message.)
  3. Go find a GEDCOM file and put it on your filesystem (e.g. /tmp/my.ged).
  4. Run the command:
$ java -jar /tmp/gedcom-converter.jar -i /tmp/my.ged -o /tmp/my.gedx

Assuming the above command is successful, the GEDCOM X file will be written to /tmp/my.gedx. Since the file is based on the ZIP file format, you can open it up with your favorite unzip program to see the contents.

Developers

This library is a Maven-based project. Here are the maven coordinates:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.gedcomx</groupId>
  <artifactId>gedcom5-conversion</artifactId>
  <version>${gedcom5-conversion.version}</version>
</dependency>

Building From Source

  1. Clone the repo.
  2. mvn clean install

Status

There are still some things to be done. Here are some high-level notes on the status of this conversion tool.

All Records

The following are not currently converted on all types of records:

Individual

The following are not currently converted on an individual records:

Family

Families are converted into binary relationships (couple and parent-child). All tags are supported except the tags not supported on all records.

Contributor

All tags are supported except the tags not supported on all records.

Source

The following are not currently converted on an individual records:

Repository

All tags are supported except the tags not supported on all records.