GEDCOM tag reference: what Family Trees reads and writes

4 min readUpdated 19 October 2026

Short answerFamily Trees reads GEDCOM 5.5.1 and the common GEDCOM 7.0 structures, and writes GEDCOM 5.5.1 in UTF-8. On import it keeps names, sex, 23 individual event tags, 8 fact tags, 10 family event tags, notes, and birth, adoptive, step and foster links. Sources, repositories and media links are not imported. The tables below list every tag.

Individual events

Tag	Imported as	Exported as
`BIRT`	Birth	`BIRT`
`DEAT`	Death	`DEAT` (or `DEAT Y` for someone marked not living with no date)
`BAPM`, `CHR`, `CHRA`	Baptism	`BAPM`
`GRAD`	Graduation	`GRAD`
`IMMI`	Immigration	`IMMI`
`EMIG`	Immigration, titled Emigrated	`EMIG`
`NATU`	Immigration, titled Naturalized	`NATU`
`RESI`	Residence	`RESI`
`BURI`	Event titled Buried	`BURI`
`CREM`	Event titled Cremated	`CREM`
`ADOP`	Event titled Adopted	`ADOP`
`CENS`	Event titled Census	`CENS`
`PROB`	Event titled Probate	`PROB`
`WILL`	Event titled Will	`WILL`
`CONF`	Event titled Confirmation	`CONF`
`FCOM`	Event titled First communion	`FCOM`
`ORDN`	Event titled Ordination	`ORDN`
`RETI`	Event titled Retirement	`RETI`
`BARM`, `BASM`	Event titled Bar mitzvah, Bat mitzvah	`BARM`, `BASM`
`BLES`	Event titled Blessing	`BLES`
`EVEN` with `TYPE`	Event with that title (Event when untyped)	`EVEN` + `TYPE` for any other title

Each event keeps its DATE, PLAC and NOTE.

Facts

Facts whose value is the point become an event titled with the fact and its value, for example 1 OCCU Farmer becomes Occupation: Farmer, and export writes the original tag back.

Tag	Title
`OCCU`	Occupation
`EDUC`	Education
`RELI`	Religion
`NATI`	Nationality
`TITL`	Title
`PROP`	Property
`DSCR`	Description
`CAST`	Caste
`FACT` with `TYPE`	That type (Fact when untyped)

Family events

Tag	Imported as
`MARR`	Marriage (the couple is married)
`DIV`	Divorce (the couple is divorced)
`ENGA`	Engaged
`ANUL`	Annulled
`MARB`	Marriage banns
`MARC`	Marriage contract
`MARL`	Marriage license
`MARS`	Marriage settlement
`DIVF`	Divorce filed
`CENS`	Census
`EVEN` + `TYPE Separated`, or `_SEPR`	The couple is separated

GEDCOM has no standard separation tag. Family Trees writes a separated couple as 1 EVEN with 2 TYPE Separated, and reads that back.

Parents: birth, adoptive, step and foster

PEDI under FAMC: adopted, foster or step marks the child's link to both parents in that family.
_FREL and _MREL under CHIL (written by Ancestry, Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic): values starting Adopted, Step, Foster or Guardian, Natural, Birth or Biological set the link to the father and mother separately. Unknown, Private and similar values leave the link as it was.
ADOP with a FAMC pointer marks adoption into that family, for one parent only when its ADOP value is HUSB or WIFE.

On export, a child whose link to both parents is the same kind gets 2 PEDI adopted or 2 PEDI foster. Step links, and families where the two links differ, are written per parent as _FREL and _MREL (Natural, Adopted, Step, Foster).

Names and people

Tag	Read	Written
`NAME` /Surname/	Given and family name; the surname between slashes wins, keeping prefixes	`NAME` with `GIVN`, `SURN`
`NICK`	Nickname	`NICK`
Second `NAME`, `TYPE` maiden or birth	Birth surname	Second `NAME` with `TYPE maiden`
`SEX`	M male, F female, X or O other, else unknown	`M`, `F`, `X` or `U`
`NOTE`	Notes, including shared note records	`NOTE` on the person or event

Dates

In the file	Read as
`12 MAR 1931`, `MAR 1931`, `1931`	That date, as precise as written
`ABT`, `CA`, `EST`, `CAL`, `BEF`, `AFT`	Approximate
`BET … AND …`	The first date, approximate
`FROM … TO …`	The first date
`INT 1900 (phrase)`	1900
`@#DJULIAN@` or `JULIAN`	Kept as written
`@#DHEBREW@`, `@#DFRENCH R@`, `HEBREW`, `FRENCH_R`	Left empty

On export, approximate dates are written with ABT, so a BEF 1900 that went in comes back out as ABT 1900.

Character sets

Family Trees honors a byte-order mark, spots UTF-16 without one, then reads the 1 CHAR header: UTF-8, UNICODE, ANSEL, ANSI (Windows-1252), MACINTOSH and IBMPC. Files often declare ANSEL or ANSI while holding UTF-8; valid UTF-8 wins over the declaration. If a few bytes can't be read, they show as a placeholder and the preview says how many.

The file Family Trees writes

GEDCOM 5.5.1, FORM LINEAGE-LINKED, CHAR UTF-8.
People as @I…@ and families as @F…@; children in birth order.
Lines kept to 200 bytes; longer text continues on CONC lines and new lines in notes become CONT.
Partners as HUSB and WIFE by gender when it is known, otherwise by order.
Not exported: photos and recorded memories. Use Download everything (.zip) in Settings for a full backup with them.

Questions

Does Family Trees import GEDCOM 7 files?

Yes, the common structures: GEDCOM 7 calendar keywords and shared notes (SNOTE) are read, along with everything listed on this page. It writes GEDCOM 5.5.1, which more programs can open.

Are sources and citations imported?

No. Family Trees keeps people, names, events with dates, places and notes, couples and parent links. Source citations, repositories and media links in the file are not imported.

Will step and adopted children survive a round trip?

Yes. Family Trees reads PEDI, _FREL and _MREL, and writes adoptive and foster links as PEDI and step or mixed links as _FREL and _MREL, so other programs see the same families.

Sources

GEDCOM specifications, FamilySearch

Links go to other sites. Checked 19 October 2026.

Questions? Email support@familytreesapp.com and a person will reply.