A GEDCOM is a plain text file that holds your whole tree: the people, their dates and places, the notes, the source citations, and how everyone is related. Nearly every genealogy program can read one. Ancestry can write one, and you keep the file.
You need to be the tree's owner. People you have invited as guests, contributors, or editors do not get the export option. You do not need a paid membership.
On the website
The export lives in the tree's settings, not in the app.
- Sign in at ancestry.com on a computer.
- Open Trees in the top menu and pick the tree you want.
- Open the tree's menu (the tree name at the top left, or the More menu) and choose Tree Settings.
- On the settings page, find the Manage your tree box and click Export tree.
- Ancestry builds the file on its servers. A big tree can take a few minutes. You can leave the page and come back.
- When it is ready, click Download your GEDCOM file. The file lands in your downloads folder as
Your Tree Name.ged.
Ancestry has also put a Download button under Your trees in your account settings at various times. If you land there instead, it does the same job.
One thing to know: the download link Ancestry makes for you expires once you next edit the tree. That is fine. Just export again whenever you want a fresh copy.
In the app
The Ancestry app does not export trees. Use a computer and the website.
What the file holds, and what it leaves out
The GEDCOM has every person, every relationship, every event with its date and place, your notes, and your source citations. That is the part Viewfore reads.
It does not hold photos, scanned documents, DNA matches, or hints. GEDCOM is text. If you want your images too, save them from your media gallery separately, or use a desktop program such as Family Tree Maker or RootsMagic, which sync with Ancestry and keep the media with the tree.
Living people are in the file. Ancestry hides them from other people on its site, but your own export has them, dates and all. Keep the file private, the way you would keep any family record.
What to do with the file
Drop the .ged file onto Viewfore. Every birthplace in the tree goes onto a map, and the same people show as pedigree, fan, and lifespan charts. Your file is read once to draw the views and then discarded. Nothing is stored unless you sign in and choose to save or share a tree.
If you do share a tree, living people are hidden by default, so a public link never shows a birth date for anyone who might still be alive.
The upload limit is 20 MB, which holds a tree of tens of thousands of people. If your export is larger, it is usually long notes or media references. Ancestry cannot leave those out, so trim the tree or ask us.
If something looks wrong on the map
A place that did not resolve shows up in the no location count rather than at the wrong spot. The usual cause is a place written a way the gazetteer cannot read, such as a county with no country, or a modern name for a historical parish. Fix it in Ancestry, export again, and upload again. It takes a minute.
The steps above were last checked on September 20, 2026. Ancestry moves this button now and then. If it has moved again, tell us and we will update the guide.