GEDCOM to HTML

2 September 2008 by Libbi.

Phyllis from Ohio asked in a comment to one of my Genealogy For Beginners Kindo blog entries:  “How do I put a GEDCOM on the Web?”

First, you must decide if by that you mean, display it for others to read in a page any browser can show, share it for others to search, or both.

For display, the answer can be very simple: for example on many commercial genealogy  sites, such as OneFamilyTree,  Ancestry.com, and others, you  simply find the upload page, and click away. The server’s program converts your GEDCOM to HTML and displays it.  Kindo does not yet have that technology, but I understand from the discussion boards that they are working on it.

Another simple answer: Check the help files on your genealogy program. I’ll bet there’s an HTML output option under the File>Save As or Reports> menus. Once that HTML is output, you would upload it as you normally do to your ISP’s web pages: Often that is FTP, sometimes there’s an upload page just like the ones above.

Still another simple answer: Below this are some links from Cyndi’s  List to some  programs to run with your GEDCOM as input to create  different styles of HTML pages as output, which, again, you then  upload to your personal Web space.

Links to GEDCOM>HTML programs from Cyndi’s List

Cyndi has many more links on her site than this sample  list; click the subhead above to see them all:

• GED2WWW   Free software to convert GEDCOM files to HTML  web pages. Emphasis on producing a minimal amount of HTML.  (That means smaller files, less space to store it.)
• GedHTree    A program for Windows 95/98 that processes  GEDCOM files to generate ancestor tree pages, family group  pages, index pages, note pages, source pages and photo links in  HTML format.
•   GedReporter: A Free Genealogy Report and Website Generator 
•   Indexed GEDCOM Method of GenWeb Authoring    By Tim Doyle.
•   Oxy-Gen    Free GEDCOM conversion software to HTML, PHP,  XLS, Access, Oracle.
•   Sparrowhawk    A GEDCOM-to-HTML conversion program for the  Macintosh.
•   Transforming Your GEDCOM Files Into Web Pages  By Mark Howells.

Searchable GEDCOMS

Okay, we’ve looked at lots of ways to display the  data in your GEDCOM. But there’s another way to share your  GEDCOM, and that’s by uploading it to a database of GEDCOMs, to  be searched by other genealogists looking for the same names in the same places at the same times as you. In this case, you must  be certain that some form of contact information for you is included in  your GEDCOM output, so that if your fourth cousins find a match,  they can also find you.

One example is the Rootsweb Database called  WorldConnect.    The process takes five steps:

1:  Create the GEDCOM file of your  family tree. (YourFilename.ged).

2:  Create a user code and password for  your family tree using the form in the side panel the   WorldConnect Input Page, or follow the links on the main  page for RootsWeb or the  WorldConnect Project.  This code must be unique; it must have from 3 to 16 characters (NO  SPACES!) and it becomes the database’s “name”. If  someone else is using the code you choose, you get a message  that says, “Password is incorrect for this user code.” If  this happens,  enter a new user code.

3:   Choose standard or advanced  setup. If this is the first family tree you have submitted to  the WorldConnect Project, be sure to use the standard option!

4:  The next screen (see below) will have your user code at the top. Add your full name and your  e-mail address. Then, clicking on the “Setup” button will take you to the setup form.

The Web has many such searchable GEDCOM databases; simply put GEDCOM SEARCH in any search engine such as Yahoo!, Google, or Excite and you’ll come up with lots of them!

So, think about how you want to put your GEDCOM on the web, and then either create the HTML or upload it to a database, or both!

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