Talk:GEDCOM

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Contents 1 Event GEDCOM 2 Broken Link[s] 3 GEDCOM XML 4 Errors section 5 LDS and the purpose of GEDCOM 6 NPOV 7 directory?

[edit] Event GEDCOM

Does anyway know enough about Event GEDCOM to add some text about it? Surely it should be mentioned at least.

Now that the above has been done (material has been added to the GEDCOM article), shouldn't this suggestion be archived? (no longer needed ["active"] in the discussion page). (right?) Mike Schwartz (talk) 00:56, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Broken Link[s]

Today I tried to click on the link labeled "Annotated sample GEDCOM file", with a URL of "http://web.ukonline.co.uk/nigel.battysmith/gedinfo.html". The link seems to be broken. I got an error message of "404 Not Found". Mike Schwartz (talk) 00:59, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] GEDCOM XML

I hear there's a GEDCOM XML in beta. Should I assume that all the software will stick with the GEDCOM 5.5 format for some time to come? Bovlb 23:17, 2004 Dec 3 (UTC)

Don't hold your breath. As Dick Eastman notes, 6.0 (XML) has been proposed for over three years and "nothing has happened in that time. Older versions of GEDCOM have been around for more than fifteen years, and only minor improvements have been made in that time. I expect that GEDCOM 6.0 will not appear in genealogy programs for several more years, if ever." -R. S. Shaw 20:35, 24 July 2005 (UTC)

Someone added a note about no software supporting it "despite the inherent advantages" of XML. The problem with 6.0 is that it is a straight text conversion from 5.5, and does not give you much that you can't do with 5.5. Changing the text format does not help because every program has to convert it to its own internal format. Adding support for 6.0 would be a waste of time. DKionka (talk) 17:05, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

could be very handy to also include download links....

OK, links to GEDCOM 5.5 Standard (Executable file in Envoy format) and Draft Specification for GEDCOM XML 6.0 (PDF) are now in the article. --Bob 02:12, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Errors section

The Errors section seems rather out of place - it makes no sense unless you’re familiar with the format and is ugrammatical to boot. -Ahruman 18:01, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] LDS and the purpose of GEDCOM

I have heard that the reason why the LDS are collecting genealogical data about people from all over the world and as far back as they can, is that they are using the information to "baptize" or initiate people into the LDS postmortem. Is this true? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.202.67.252 (talk • contribs)

The answer to your question is both Yes and No.

It is true that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches Baptism for the Dead (ie that all mankind must be baptized to be "saved". It teaches that the adherents should perform proxy baptisms their ancestors. (proxy like the scapegoat in the old testament sacrifices or the atonement of Jesus Christ for your sins or power of attorney or Proxy marriage or other "proxy" work).

That said, the church tries to limit these baptisms to proxy work for deceased relatives and ancestors of members, although it is not always the case in practice.

The church also teaches that gathering the records and genealogies of ancestors has other benefits to one's spiritual well-being, ranging from a better understanding of one's roots to being good hobby, and that it fulfills the prophecy of Malachi in the old testament who said, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." They interpret this to mean that children (descendants) will have an interest (turn their hearts) to their ancestors (fathers). You can read about many of these teachings at http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/default.asp.

In any case, just because a person has been baptized doesn't mean they have to be a disciple of Christ. They are free to accept or reject that work in accordance with the Law of agency.

See in your bible Malachi 4 [1]; Hebrews 11:35-40 [2] and in LDS Scripture Doctrine and Covenants section 128 [3]. Hope this helps.

Baptism for the dead is merely one reason for the LDS church's interest in genealogy. -Visorstuff 22:16, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV

Does the change to the "Limitations" section address POV? I've removed the tag, but if I'm missing something, feel free to correct me. Tlesher 00:35, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] directory?

I can see how it is useful to the user to have links to individual software packages, but, how does this square with Wikipedia is not a directory policy? Lifelinesszy 14:58, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

This policy isn't a blanket prohibition against lists. It states that articles should not be dominated by lists of non-encylopedic and trivial items like current street prices, schedules, phone listings, etc. If this section were (for example) a list of all known software that supports GEDCOM, with most current version number and contact information for the publisher, then it would be a problem, but that's not currently the case. Tlesher 14:04, 23 July 2007 (UTC)