Downloading A GEDCOM File From An Ancestry Member Tree

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The previous article in this series is Introduction To Genome Mate.

Some of the most useful features of Genome Mate require a GEDCOM file of the ancestors of the person who took the DNA test. In preparation for learning to use these features, we need to get a GEDCOM file of the test taker’s ancestors imported into Genome Mate. In this post, I will show how to generate a GEDCOM file from an Ancestry.com Member Tree, since I’ve found many people don’t seem to be aware this feature exists.

Almost every genealogy program has the capability to generate a GEDCOM file. While I will not be showing the specific steps for each and every genealogy program available, the principals of what I will be showing are very similar between the different programs. Besides this guide to downloading a GEDCOM file from an Ancestry Member Tree, I also have posts showing how to generate a GEDCOM file from Family Tree Maker, and how to generate a GEDCOM file from the Family Search Family Tree. For a nice guide showing how to generate a GEDCOM file from several of the other major genealogy programs, please see the GEDCOM – Export from other programs to Legacy help file at the Legacy Family Tree website.

Click here if you’d like to open the Ancestry.com website in a new window/tab to make it easier to follow along with these steps.

1) To download a GEDCOM file from an Ancestry.com Member Tree, select the family tree with the DNA test taker’s ancestral information from the Family Trees drop-down menu at the Ancestry.com website.

Create GEDCOM file step 1

2) From the Tree pages drop-down menu, immediately next to or below your tree name (the position varies depending on the length of your tree name), select Tree Settings.

Create GEDCOM file step 2

3) At the lower right, click the Export tree button.

Create GEDCOM file step 3

4) Upon clicking the Export tree button, you will see a message saying Generating a GEDCOM file… along with a counter showing the percentage completed.

Create GEDCOM file step 4

5) After the counter reaches 100%, click the Download your GEDCOM file button that appears.

Create GEDCOM file step 5

6) Clicking the Download your GEDCOM file button will begin downloading the file to your computer, saving it in your Downloads folder (or the folder you’ve designated for downloads in your Internet browser).

Congratulations, you have successfully downloaded your GEDCOM file! If you experience any problems while following these steps, or notice that a screen has changed from what I’ve shown in the screenshots, please let me know by commenting on this thread or sending me an email.

The next post in this series is Adding A GEDCOM File To Genome Mate.

This article last updated 11 Oct 2014

2 thoughts on “Downloading A GEDCOM File From An Ancestry Member Tree”

  1. I just downloaded my ancestry tree as the steps you describe. When I import the file into Family Tree Maker, it seems to have lost the link to all the media – pictures, etc. The placeholders for my media are in FTM, but it says file not found by the link back to the ancestry location. Do you have any suggestions?

    Reply

    • Hi Terry,

      I think you may be confusing two entirely different things. The blog post you commented on is showing how to download a GEDCOM file from an Ancestry Member Tree in preparation for import into the Genome Mate software. The instructions I’ve listed are not intended for the GEDCOM to be reimported back into Family Tree Maker. If you are indeed trying to transfer information from one person’s copy of Family Tree Maker to another person’s copy of Family Tree Maker, please let me know your email address and I can email some alternate instructions for how to go about this directly to you, so as not to confuse others reading my blog post instructions who are intending to import the downloaded GEDCOM into Genome Mate.

      Thanks,

      Dan

      Reply

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