So what's the most comprehensive genealogy file today?

[Shimmy Weitzhandler]

What's the most efficient genealogy data structure as of today? Is it GEDCOM? If yes what version (that's RTM).

[Dallan Quass]

I don't know if GEDCOM is the most _efficient_, but it's certainly the most _widespread_.  The current version is 5.5.1.  (You might see references to 5.6 or 6.0, but they were never adopted.)

FamilySearch is currently working on GEDCOM X, but this is more of a data interchange format than a file format, and hasn't seen much adoption outside of FamilySearch.org.  So if you want to interact with FamilySearch, use GEDCOM X. Otherwise use GEDCOM 5.5.1.

On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 9:22 AM, Shimmy Weitzhandler <weitzh...@gmail.com> wrote:

What's the most efficient genealogy data structure as of today? Is it GEDCOM? If yes what version (that's RTM).

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[Shimmy Weitzhandler]

Hi and thank you do much for the info.
Can you point out some key features missing in GEDCOM or GEDCOM X?

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[Dallan Quass]

That's probably not the right question to ask. Better questions are 1. "How has GEDCOM been extended by the various vendors over the years", and 2. "How has GEDCOM X extended GEDCOM?"

For 1, I'll refer you to https://github.com/DallanQ/Gedcom/wiki/Specification-differences which lists my observations for how several thousand gedcom's submitted to WeRelate.org over the past several years have differed from the official GEDCOM 5.5.1 standard. These differences can provide clues into what features are missing from GEDCOM 5.5.1.

For 2, I'm not qualified to answer that. GEDCOM X is quite different from GEDCOM. FamilySearch is the author and primary user of GEDCOM X, and they have extended GEDCOM X in several ways: adding discussions and child-and-parents relationships for example. If you go to https://familysearch.org/developers/docs/api/resources and review the REST endpoints listed there, any REST endpoint that doesn't include "application/x-gedcomx-v1+xml" as a valid header, but lists application/x-fs-v1+xml instead, is I believe an extension to GEDCOM X. Those extensions will tell you what the product managers at FamilySearch have believed are features missing from GEDCOM X.

Lots of smart people have tried to extend GEDCOM over the years. A current effort is underway at http://bettergedcom.blogspot.com/

[Shimmy Weitzhandler]

Thanks a lot for redefining my question and explaining it nice and clear.

I think I'll adopt GX for my project.

I'm not looking for a widespread standard, instead I'm looking for a standard that's more comprehensive, along being extensively documented and consistent.

Thanks again for your input, Dallan!

[Magnus Sälgö]

I would recommend looking into RDF and SPARQL and the Wikidata platform. Its a way to define relations that looks excellent for genealogy and much more...

I have written a little bit about Wikidata at WikiTree see wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Wikidata  

Other links:

• video SPARQL and RDF
  
• TED Tim Berner Lee about the next version of the WEB
• Linked open data what is it

Regards
Magnus Sälgö
Stockholm, Sweden