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Draw My Tree docs

Exporting and sharing

Sooner or later you'll want to get your tree out of Draw My Tree: to move it to another tool, keep a backup, or send it to relatives. The Export panel handles all of it. Open it from the Export button on the rail, pick a format, and click export. Files download to your computer; Draw My Tree doesn't keep a copy on its servers.

Printing is its own guide: Print your family tree as a PDF, SVG, or PNG covers the image formats, sizes, looks and watermarks. This page covers the data formats, sharing safely, and backups.

If you're building as a guest without an account, export is limited to a watermarked PNG. A free account adds full-fidelity JSON. GEDCOM, CSV, and the print formats come with the Family Plan, or with a one-time Keepsake Export bought for a single tree from its Export panel, which unlocks those formats for that tree for good.

Data formats

For other apps

  • GEDCOM: the standard family tree exchange format. Use this to import into Ancestry, MyHeritage, FamilySearch, RootsMagic, or any other genealogy app. It carries names, genders, birth/death/burial/baptism dates and places, religion, stories (as notes), tags, and marriage/divorce events. Multi-parent families export as a primary parent pair plus extra single-parent families when needed.
  • JSON: Draw My Tree's own full-fidelity format. Carries everything, including events, media, and stories, and can be re-imported into Draw My Tree without loss. The best choice for backups.

For spreadsheets

  • CSV: one row per person, with denormalized lists of parent, child, and spouse IDs. Useful if you want to crunch your tree in Excel, Google Sheets, or a scripting tool. Events and media don't come through.

For data formats the scope is always "everything in the tree"; the viewport scope only applies to images.

A few format-specific notes

  • GEDCOM is intentionally narrow; it's an interchange format for facts, not visuals. Don't expect colors, fonts, or layout choices to come through, and it doesn't carry Draw My Tree's privacy settings (living/deceased overrides and public-link visibility). Export JSON if you need those preserved.
  • CSV flattens relationships into ID lists. If you don't speak SQL or spreadsheets, you probably want JSON instead.

Sharing safely

Exports can contain sensitive information about living people: names, stories, photo links, tags. Before sending a file or posting it publicly:

  • Living people. Many genealogists redact birth dates and other identifiers for anyone still alive. Draw My Tree doesn't do this automatically in an export; review the file. A public share link is different: it hides people who appear to be living by default.
  • Private notes. If you've used stories to track "Aunt Mae thinks Grandpa cheated on his taxes", that text travels with most formats. Remove anything you wouldn't want shared.
  • Photo links. Exports include URLs to photos but not the photos themselves. If your photo URLs point to private Google Drive links, those links may not work for whoever you send the file to.

For public sharing (a website, a printed gift) consider exporting only what you need (use the viewport scope on an image) and adding a watermark.

Backups

The simplest backup strategy: every so often, export the JSON format with Full tree scope, and save the file somewhere you trust. It restores cleanly via Import → Replace entire tree.