AncestralFire · Get your file out
Can you download your tree from FamilySearch?
Not directly. FamilySearch's own help says you cannot download GEDCOM files from Family Tree, and points to the apps in its Solutions Gallery, many of which can export what they read from it. If you also keep your tree in another program, that program can make a GEDCOM file.
What FamilySearch's help says
- “You cannot download GEDCOM files from Family Tree.” FamilySearch gives the reason that the most widely used version of GEDCOM has no place for the reason statements and other information that is unique to Family Tree.
- “Many FamilySearch third-party subscriptions have products that create GEDCOM files. Some of them also allow you to download information from Family Tree, make changes to that information, and then post the updates back to Family Tree.” FamilySearch's Solutions Gallery lists these products.
- “If you already have one of these programs, see the help content or the vendor's website for instructions on how to create a GEDCOM file.”
Good to know.
- If you keep a copy of your tree in Ancestry, MyHeritage, RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker or Gramps, the page for that program has its steps.
- FamilySearch also lets you upload a GEDCOM file you already have to its Pedigree Resource File. That is a way to put a file on FamilySearch, not to get one off it.
If you have a file from somewhere else.
The free GEDCOM page opens it in your browser, and you can bring it into AncestralFire from there.
Connect your tree
AncestralFire currently doesn't support sign-up from the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. We'll open there once our EU representative is in place.
Another program?
Sources
- How do I create a GEDCOM file?, FamilySearch help (article 1600, June 06, 2025; read 14 Oct 2026)
- How do I download information from the shared Family Tree?, FamilySearch help (article 1559, June 06, 2025; read 14 Oct 2026)
- Family Tree Export, FamilySearch (read 14 Oct 2026; it says GEDCOM export is no longer supported there)