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Import a GEDCOM from Ancestry, MyHeritage or FamilySearch

Most family tree apps export to GEDCOM, a decades-old standard that's the closest thing genealogy has to a common file format. Draw My Tree can import GEDCOM directly, plus its own JSON format for round-trips.

What is a GEDCOM file?

GEDCOM stands for Genealogical Data Communication: a plain-text format from the early 1980s that nearly every genealogy program can write and read. A .ged file lists individuals and families as numbered records, each carrying tagged lines: a name, a sex, a birth with a date and place, a death, a note, and pointers to the families the person belongs to. It carries facts, not appearance: no layout, no colours, no fonts, and usually no photographs, which stay in the app that had them. That is why a GEDCOM file on its own reads as a wall of text, and why importing it here draws the tree for you.

What happens to your file

Import sends the file to our servers, reads it, and stores the tree it describes: the people, relationships, dates, places and notes. The file itself is not kept. Your tree data lives in a database in the United States, described in the privacy policy, and it belongs to your account; nobody else can see it unless you share it, and a public link hides people who appear to be living unless you say otherwise. Every account can download the whole tree as JSON, free, and deleting a tree or an account removes the data from active systems within 30 days.

Export a GEDCOM from Ancestry

Trees → Tree settings → Manage your tree → Export tree. You'll get a .ged file.

Export a GEDCOM from MyHeritage

Family tree → Settings → Export to GEDCOM. Choose what to include and click export.

Export a GEDCOM from FamilySearch

FamilySearch's own data lives in their shared tree, so direct GEDCOM export isn't straightforward. Tools like RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker can pull from FamilySearch and export a GEDCOM for you.

Export from any other app

Look for "export" or "backup" in its menus and pick the GEDCOM option.

Importing the file

Open a tree, then click the Import button on the rail. (Import only appears on trees you own.)

  1. Pick a merge strategy (see below).
  2. Drag your file into the drop zone, or click to browse. JSON (.json) and GEDCOM (.ged, .gedcom) are both accepted. Files up to 25 MB work.
  3. Click Preview. Draw My Tree parses your file and shows you what it found: how many people, relationships, events, and media; plus any warnings.
  4. If the preview looks right, click Apply import.

Imports are atomic; they either succeed completely or leave your tree untouched.

The four merge strategies

The merge strategy decides what happens when something in your import file already exists in your tree. Most people use Skip conflicts or Replace entire tree.

Skip conflicts

Anything already in your tree stays as-is. New people, relationships, and events from the import are added. This is the safest choice when you're bringing in additional records, like a second branch, without disturbing what you've already cleaned up.

Overwrite conflicts

When a conflict happens, the imported version wins. Existing fields are replaced. Use this when your import file is more authoritative than what's in your tree.

Merge fields

A middle ground. Existing values stay; missing fields get filled in from the import. Tags from both sides are combined. Use this when both files have partial information and you want the union.

Replace entire tree

Wipes the tree and replaces it with the import. Destructive. Use this when you're moving a tree wholesale from another app and your current Draw My Tree tree is a placeholder. Draw My Tree shows a warning before you can apply this strategy.

What carries over from GEDCOM

Draw My Tree reads most of the standard GEDCOM tags:

  • People: names (including prefix and suffix), alternate and maiden names (extra NAME structures become "also known as" entries), gender, birth and death dates and places, baptism and burial dates and places, religion, free-text notes (which become the person's story).
  • Life events: census, immigration, probate, occupation, and residence import as events on the person. (Baptism and burial come through as dates and places on the person rather than as separate events.)
  • Relationships: parent–child links (with link type: biological, adoptive, foster, step, or guardian), partner links, marriages, and divorces (these last two come through as events on the couple).

What might not carry over

GEDCOM is a loose standard and different apps use it differently. Things to expect:

  • Uncommon or app-specific events that don't map to a known type show up as warnings in the preview and are skipped. The mapped events (census, immigration, probate, occupation, residence, marriage, divorce) do come through; marriages and divorces import as events on the couple.
  • Photos and other media in your old app are usually stored separately from the GEDCOM file. They won't come through. You can re-link them by URL after import.
  • Sources and citations in their full structured form don't have a clean home in Draw My Tree yet; they often end up in the person's notes.
  • Custom tags that one app invented and another doesn't understand show up as warnings during preview and are dropped.
  • Multi-parent families are encoded a few different ways across apps. Draw My Tree handles the common forms but check the preview if you have complex blended families.

The preview step exists for exactly these moments. Look at the warnings before you apply.

Importing the Draw My Tree JSON format

The JSON format is full-fidelity; it round-trips everything, including events, media, and stories. It's mostly useful if you exported from Draw My Tree and want to import back, or if you're scripting against the data. See the Custom JSON format reference for the schema.