Can you export a GEDCOM from FamilySearch Family Tree?
Partly, and this is the most misreported export of the three big platforms. FamilySearch now offers a Family Tree Export page that downloads up to eight generations of your line as a GEDCOM 7 file. What it does not offer is an export of your whole contribution to the shared tree.
The tool lives at familysearch.org/innovate/export, headed Download your family tree, with a Download GEDCOM File button. The page describes the export as up to eight generations for use on other genealogy websites and apps.
The page does not say whether the file downloads immediately or is prepared first, and publishes no expected wait, so we are not going to describe a flow we cannot verify. Expect one click and a file, and give it a moment if nothing appears.
Why does FamilySearch's help centre say you cannot export a GEDCOM?
Because two parts of FamilySearch disagree in public. Its help centre article on creating a GEDCOM states flatly that you cannot download GEDCOM files from Family Tree, and points you to third-party products instead. Meanwhile the export page quietly works. Both pages are live today.
The help centre's stated reason is that standard GEDCOM cannot hold reason statements and other information unique to Family Tree, which is a fair point about a full export and not an argument against a partial one. Our reading, offered as interpretation rather than fact: both statements are true at different scopes. There is no export of everything you have contributed to the shared tree, and there is now an eight-generation slice of your own line.
The practical consequence is a search problem. FamilySearch's articles saying export is impossible outrank the page that performs it, so most people researching this leave believing it cannot be done. If you were told that, you were reading a real FamilySearch page. It is just not the current one.
What does the eight-generation limit actually mean?
It is a pedigree slice, not your tree. You are generation one, and the export walks up your ancestral lines for up to eight generations. It is not a descendancy export, so cousins, nieces and nephews are outside it, and it is not everything you have added to the shared tree.
One more detail worth knowing before you blame the tool: the export follows whichever spouse is marked as preferred in Family Tree. That is the usual explanation for someone getting a file with the wrong spouse in it. If a line looks wrong in the export, check the preferred spouse setting on that person in Family Tree, then export again.
Will the FamilySearch GEDCOM 7 file import everywhere?
Not reliably, and FamilySearch says so itself: its own guidance warns that an import error may mean the receiving site does not support the GEDCOM 7 standard. GEDCOM 7 is the modern revision of the format and support for it is still patchy, particularly on the larger commercial platforms.
So check the file before you conclude the export failed. Drop it into the free GEDCOM viewer, which reads 5.5, 5.5.1, 5.5.5 and 7.0: if your family draws correctly there, the file is sound and the problem is at the receiving end. The GEDCOM validator will confirm which version the file declares.
That distinction saves a lot of wasted effort. A file that a big site rejects is not a broken file, and re-exporting it will not help. What helps is knowing whether the fault is in the data or in the version support, which takes about ten seconds to establish.
What does the FamilySearch export leave out?
Photos, for certain: FamilySearch says the export focuses on essential names, dates and events, and sends anyone wanting images to third-party products in its Solutions Gallery. Sources, notes, Memories and reason statements are not listed as included either, so plan on their absence.
We are describing what the page documents, not what we have measured. Since essential names, dates and events is the whole of the stated scope, treat anything else as not travelling until your own file proves otherwise. Checking is quick: the GEDCOM converter gives you a spreadsheet with a source-citation count per person, which answers the sources question in one column.
The loss of reason statements is the one seasoned FamilySearch users feel most. They are often the most valuable thing on a person, because they record why a conclusion was reached rather than what it was, and the format has nowhere to put them.
Do I need a paid account to export from FamilySearch?
FamilySearch accounts are free, so there is no paid tier to reach. The export is personal to you, since you are generation one, which means signing in. The page itself states no account requirement or pricing, so we are describing how the tool has to work rather than a documented rule.
That is a genuine difference from the commercial platforms, where the anxiety is usually whether your data is hostage to a subscription. On FamilySearch the constraint is not price, it is scope: eight generations of your direct line, and no more.
What if I need more than eight generations?
FamilySearch routes that need to third-party products through its Solutions Gallery, a directory of tools built against its API. We are not going to name specific products as endorsed, because the recommendations circulating in forums are not the same as a FamilySearch listing. Check the gallery itself.
Do read the terms of anything you connect to a shared tree containing other people's relatives. And be realistic about the shared-tree model: because everyone edits the same records, a file you export is a snapshot of a tree other people are still changing. That is an argument for exporting more often, not for exporting more deeply.
What do I do with the .ged file once I have it?
Confirm it opens, see what it holds, then decide where it goes. Because the FamilySearch file is GEDCOM 7 and support is uneven, checking it in a viewer that reads every version first will tell you whether an import failure elsewhere is your file's fault or the other program's.
- Open it in the GEDCOM viewer to confirm the eight generations came through and the right spouses are in place.
- Run the GEDCOM validator for the declared version, encoding and any broken references.
- Convert it with the GEDCOM converter for a spreadsheet or a single branch, and see GEDCOM to Excel for what to do with it.
Importing it into AncestorIQ suits the eight-generation shape well, because the interesting work starts where the slice stops: Deep Research searches archives for the generation your export could not reach. New to the format? Read how to open a GEDCOM file. Exporting from elsewhere too? See the Ancestry export guide and the MyHeritage export guide.
