Ancestry GEDCOM Download -- Upload to GEDmatch

Ancestry GEDCOM Download -- Upload to GEDmatch

Background

Ancestry has a facility to create and edit GEDCOMs (family trees).  Most GEDCOM systems have a facility to export family trees to a GEDCOM file.   This file is a plain text file with a ".ged" extension.   In the past when you exported your GEDCOM from Ancstry it too produced a plain text file with the extension of ".ged".

Recently Ancestry has changed things so that exports a compressed zipped file which takes less space than the unzipped plain text file.

The current GEDmatch upload facility only accepts plain text GEDCOM files with ".ged" extension.

This change in how Ancestry exports a family tree results in extra steps to obtain the GEDCOM file with the .ged extension.

The article provides information on how to accomplish this.

Mac users

There is a video on how to do this at: MacOs Ancestry Download GEDCOM file
Here are the steps:
  1. Login to Ancestry
  2. Click the Trees dropdown on the menu bar
  3. Near the bottom click the link for "Create and Manage trees"
  4. On the next page under tools for the GEDCOM you want to select click the "Tree Settings" link
  5. On the right side under "Manage Your Tree" click the "Export tree" link
  6. On the popup confirm by clicking the "Export" button
  7. After Ancestry has prepared your GEDCOM for export a "Download your GEDCOM file" button appears - click that
  8. At this point the ziped file will be downloaded (normally to your Download folder) - Open up a finder window and browse to that area.
  9. Double click the downloaded file with the .zip extension - it will create an unzipped version of the GEDCOM file with the name of the GEDCOM with a .ged extension.
  10. (optional) Use the finder to rename the file to make it different (for example add the date) so if in the future when unzipping the file you don't end up with an extension of ".ged 2" which will not work for uploads.
  11. Login to GEDmatch
  12. On the "Family Trees" menu select "Upload GEDCOM"
  13. Put in a name for the GEDCOM (letters and spaces only)
  14. You may have to choose YES related to living people (Living people are only not HIDDEN to the owner of the GEDCOM)
  15. Click the "Choose File" button to browse to the place where your GEDCOM file with the .ged extension is located
  16. Click the "UPLOAD" button.

Windows users

Here are the steps:

  1. Login to Ancestry
  2. Click the Trees dropdown on the menu bar
  3. Near the bottom click the link for "Create and Manage trees"
  4. On the next page, under tools for the GEDCOM you want, click the "Tree Settings" link
  5. On the right side under "Manage Your Tree" click the "Export tree" link
  6. On the popup, confirm by clicking the "Export" button
  7. After Ancestry has prepared your GEDCOM for export, a "Download your GEDCOM file" button appears — click that
  8. At this point the zipped file will be downloaded (normally to your Downloads folder) — open File Explorer (Windows key + E) and browse to that location
  9. Right-click the downloaded file with the .zip extension and select "Extract All…" from the menu
  10. In the dialog that appears, confirm or change the destination folder, then click "Extract" — this creates an unzipped version of the GEDCOM file with a .ged extension
  11. (optional) Right-click the extracted .ged file and select "Rename" to give it a unique name (for example, add the date), so that re-extracting in the future doesn't produce a duplicate like "filename (1).ged" which will not work for uploads
  12. Login to GEDmatch
  13. On the "Family Trees" menu select "Upload GEDCOM"
  14. Put in a name for the GEDCOM (letters and spaces only)
  15. You may have to choose YES related to living people (living people are only not HIDDEN to the owner of the GEDCOM)
  16. Click the "Choose File" button to browse to the place where your GEDCOM file with the .ged extension is located
  17. Click the "UPLOAD" button