gedcom-3-structures-3-meaning.md

Structure Meaning

Events

As a general rule, events are things that happen on a specific date. Use the dateRange form to indicate that an event took place at some time between 2 dates. In most cases, a DatePeriod is inappropriate for an event; if the subject of your recording occurred over a period of time, then it is probably not an event, but rather an attribute.

Event structures can be used to record notes about an event without asserting the event actually occurred. An event structure asserts the event did occur if any of the following are true:

• There is a DATE substructure

  1 DEAT
  2 DATE 2 OCT 1937

  Version 5.4 (1995) introduced the "event did occur" meaning of event.DATE, so it is now well-established in applications and files. However, it is common for users to enter a date range with no end without intending to indicate that the event occurred. For example, pre 7.0 files sometimes used

  1 NATU
  2 DATE AFT 1800

  to mean what 7.0 encodes as

  1 NOT NATU
  2 DATE TO 1800

  without intending to imply that NATU ever did actually occur. Because this is a "sometimes used" rather than a "formally means" situation, it is likely that data using 5.x "after meaning not before" de facto pattern will be transferred as-is into 7.0 and persist in files for the foreseeable future.

• There is a PLAC substructure

  1 DEAT
  2 PLAC Cove, Cache, Utah

• The event has a payload. A special payload Y can be used with some event types to indicate that the event is known to have occurred without providing any additional information about it.

  1 DEAT Y

If none of the above are true, the structure should be seen as a place for inconclusive research notes about the possibility of the event. An assertion that an event did not occur should be encoded using the NO structure.

Individual Events

Tag	Name URI	Description
ADOP	adoption g7:ADOP	Creation of a legally approved child-parent relationship that does not exist biologically.
BAPM	baptism g7:BAPM	Baptism, performed in infancy or later. (See also BAPL and CHR.)
BARM	Bar Mitzvah g7:BARM	The ceremonial event held when a Jewish boy reaches age 13.
BASM	Bas Mitzvah g7:BASM	The ceremonial event held when a Jewish girl reaches age 13, also known as "Bat Mitzvah."
BIRT	birth g7:BIRT	Entering into life.
BLES	blessing g7:BLES	Bestowing divine care or intercession. Sometimes given in connection with a naming ceremony.
BURI	depositing remains g7:BURI	Depositing the mortal remains of a deceased person.
CENS	census g7:INDI-CENS	Periodic count of the population for a designated locality, such as a national or state census.
CHR	christening g7:CHR	Baptism or naming events for a child.
CHRA	adult christening g7:CHRA	Baptism or naming events for an adult person.
CONF	confirmation g7:CONF	Conferring full church membership.
CREM	cremation g7:CREM	The act of reducing a dead body to ashes by fire.
DEAT	death g7:DEAT	Mortal life terminates.
EMIG	emigration g7:EMIG	Leaving one's homeland with the intent of residing elsewhere.
FCOM	first communion g7:FCOM	The first act of sharing in the Lord's supper as part of church worship.
GRAD	graduation g7:GRAD	Awarding educational diplomas or degrees to individuals.
IMMI	immigration g7:IMMI	Entering into a new locality with the intent of residing there.
NATU	naturalization g7:NATU	Obtaining citizenship.
ORDN	ordination g7:ORDN	Receiving authority to act in religious matters.
PROB	probate g7:PROB	Judicial determination of the validity of a will. It may indicate several related court activities over several dates.
RETI	retirement g7:RETI	Exiting an occupational relationship with an employer after a qualifying time period.
WILL	will g7:WILL	A legal document treated as an event, by which a person disposes of his or her estate. It takes effect after death. The event date is the date the will was signed while the person was alive. (See also PROB)

In addition, INDI.EVEN is a structure for a generic individual event. It must have a TYPE substructure to define what kind of event is being provided.

Family Events

Tag	Name URI	Description
ANUL	annulment g7:ANUL	Declaring a marriage void from the beginning (never existed).
CENS	census g7:FAM-CENS	Periodic count of the population for a designated locality, such as a national or state census.
DIV	divorce g7:DIV	Dissolving a marriage through civil action.
DIVF	divorce filed g7:DIVF	Filing for a divorce by a spouse.
ENGA	engagement g7:ENGA	Recording or announcing an agreement between 2 people to become married.
MARB	marriage bann g7:MARB	Official public notice given that 2 people intend to marry.
MARC	marriage contract g7:MARC	Recording a formal agreement of marriage, including the prenuptial agreement in which marriage partners reach agreement about the property rights of 1 or both, securing property to their children.
MARL	marriage license g7:MARL	Obtaining a legal license to marry.
MARR	marriage g7:MARR	A legal, common-law, or customary event such as a wedding or marriage ceremony that joins 2 partners to create or extend a family unit.
MARS	marriage settlement g7:MARS	Creating an agreement between 2 people contemplating marriage, at which time they agree to release or modify property rights that would otherwise arise from the marriage.

In addition, FAM.EVEN is a structure for a generic family event. It must have a TYPE substructure to define what kind of event is being provided.

Attributes

Unlike events, the presence of an attribute is sufficient to assert the attribute applied to the individual, regardless of the attribute's substructures and payload.

Individual Attributes

Tag	Name URI	Description
CAST	caste g7:CAST	The name of an individual's rank or status in society which is sometimes based on racial or religious differences, or differences in wealth, inherited rank, profession, or occupation.
DSCR	physical description g7:DSCR	The physical characteristics of a person.
EDUC	education g7:EDUC	Indicator of a level of education attained.
IDNO	identifying number g7:IDNO	A number or other string assigned to identify a person within some significant external system. It must have a TYPE substructure to define what kind of identification number is being provided.
NATI	nationality g7:NATI	An individual's national heritage or origin, or other folk, house, kindred, lineage, or tribal interest.
NCHI	number of children g7:INDI-NCHI	The number of children that this person is known to be the parent of (all marriages).
NMR	number of marriages g7:NMR	The number of times this person has participated in a family as a spouse or parent.
OCCU	occupation g7:OCCU	The type of work or profession of an individual.
PROP	property g7:PROP	Pertaining to possessions such as real estate or other property of interest.
RELI	religion g7:INDI-RELI	A religious denomination to which a person is affiliated or for which a record applies.
RESI	residence g7:INDI-RESI	An address or place of residence where an individual resided.
SSN	social security number g7:SSN	A number assigned by the United States Social Security Administration, used for tax identification purposes. It is a type of IDNO.
TITL	title g7:INDI-TITL	A formal designation used by an individual in connection with positions of royalty or other social status, such as Grand Duke.

In addition, INDI.FACT is a structure for a generic individual attribute. It must have a TYPE substructure to define what kind of attribute is being provided.

Family Attributes

Tag	Name URI	Description
NCHI	number of children g7:FAM-NCHI	The number of children that belong to this family.
RESI	residence g7:FAM-RESI	An address or place of residence where a family resided.

In addition, FAM.FACT is a structure for a generic family attribute. It must have a TYPE substructure to define what kind of attribute is being provided.

Latter-day Saint Ordinances

The structures describing ordinances performed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are unlike regular events in that they might either be performed during life or by proxy on the behalf of a deceased individual.

Proxy ordinances on behalf of deceased persons were once requested and officially recorded using an earlier version of GEDCOM. This is no longer the case, but when it was the case the following principles held:

• PLAC was used only for ordinances that were performed by the recipient in life.
• TEMP was used with all ENDL, SLGC, and SLGS, but only with posthumous proxy BAPL and CONL.

Tag	Name URI	Description
BAPL	baptism g7:BAPL	The event of baptism performed at age 8 or later by priesthood authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (See also BAPM)
CONL	confirmation g7:CONL	The religious event by which a person receives membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (See also CONF)
INIL	initiatory g7:INIL	A religious event where an initiatory ordinance for an individual was performed by priesthood authority in a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
ENDL	endowment g7:ENDL	A religious event where an endowment ordinance for an individual was performed by priesthood authority in a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
SLGC	sealing child g7:SLGC	A religious event pertaining to the sealing of a child to his or her parents in a temple ceremony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
SLGS	sealing spouse g7:SLGS	A religious event pertaining to the sealing of a husband and wife in a temple ceremony of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (See also MARR)

Structure types

Structure types are listed in this section alphabetically by tag. When the same tag is used for different structure types in different contexts, they may be distinguished by their URI.

ABBR (Abbreviation) g7:ABBR

A short name of a title, description, or name used for sorting, filing, and retrieving records.

ADDR (Address) g7:ADDR

The location of, or most relevant to, the subject of the superstructure. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

ADOP (Adoption) g7:ADOP

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

ADOP (Adoption) g7:FAMC-ADOP

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-ADOP indicating which parent(s) in the family adopted this individual.

ADR1 (Address Line 1) g7:ADR1

The first line of the address, used for indexing. This structure's payload should be a single line of text equal to the first line of the corresponding ADDR. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

:::deprecation ADR1 should not be added to new files; see ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details. :::

ADR2 (Address Line 2) g7:ADR2

The second line of the address, used for indexing. This structure's payload should be a single line of text equal to the second line of the corresponding ADDR. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

:::deprecation ADR2 should not be added to new files; see ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details. :::

ADR3 (Address Line 3) g7:ADR3

The third line of the address, used for indexing. This structure's payload should be a single line of text equal to the third line of the corresponding ADDR. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

:::deprecation ADR3 should not be added to new files; see ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details. :::

AGE (Age at event) g7:AGE

The age of the individual at the time an event occurred, or the age listed in the document.

AGNC (Responsible agency) g7:AGNC

The organization, institution, corporation, person, or other entity that has responsibility for the associated context. Examples are an employer of a person of an associated occupation, or a church that administered rites or events, or an organization responsible for creating or archiving records.

ALIA (Alias) g7:ALIA

A single individual may have facts distributed across multiple individual records, connected by ALIA pointers (named after "alias" in the computing sense, not the pseudonym sense).

:::note This specification does not define how to connect INDI records with ALIA. Some systems organize ALIA pointers to create a tree structure, with the root INDI record containing the composite view of all facts in the leaf INDI records. Others distribute events and attributes between INDI records mutually linked by symmetric pairs of ALIA pointers. A future version of this specification may adjust the definition of ALIA. :::

ANCI (Ancestor interest) g7:ANCI

Indicates an interest in additional research for ancestors of this individual. (See also DESI).

ANUL (Annulment) g7:ANUL

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

ASSO (Associates) g7:ASSO

A pointer to an associated individual. See ASSOCIATION_STRUCTURE for more details.

AUTH (Author) g7:AUTH

The person, agency, or entity who created the record. For a published work, this could be the author, compiler, transcriber, abstractor, or editor. For an unpublished source, this may be an individual, a government agency, church organization, or private organization.

BAPL (Baptism, Latter-Day Saint) g7:BAPL

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_INDIVIDUAL_ORDINANCE.

BAPM (Baptism) g7:BAPM

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

BARM (Bar Mitzvah) g7:BARM

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

BASM (Bas Mitzvah) g7:BASM

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

BIRT (Birth) g7:BIRT

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

BLES (Blessing) g7:BLES

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

BURI (Depositing remains) g7:BURI

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

Although defined as any depositing of remains since it was introduced in the first version of GEDCOM, this tag is a shortened form of the English word "burial" and has been interpreted to mean "depositing of remains by burial" by some applications and users. In the absence of a clarifying TYPE substructure it is likely, but not guaranteed, that a BURI structure refers to a burial rather than another form of depositing remains.

CALN (Call number) g7:CALN

An identification or reference description used to file and retrieve items from the holdings of a repository. Despite the word "number" in the name, may contain any character, not just digits.

CAST (Caste) g7:CAST

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

CAUS (Cause) g7:CAUS

The reasons which precipitated an event. It is often used subordinate to a death event to show cause of death, such as might be listed on a death certificate.

CENS (Census) g7:FAM-CENS

An Family Event.

CENS (Census) g7:INDI-CENS

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

CHAN (Change) g7:CHAN

The most recent change to the superstructure. This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject. See CHANGE_DATE for more details.

CHIL (Child) g7:CHIL

The child in a family, whether biological, adopted, foster, sealed, or other relationship.

CHRA (Christening, adult) g7:CHRA

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

CHR (Christening) g7:CHR

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

CITY (City) g7:CITY

The name of the city used in the address. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

CONF (Confirmation) g7:CONF

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

CONL (Confirmation, Latter-Day Saint) g7:CONL

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_INDIVIDUAL_ORDINANCE.

CONT (Continued) g7:CONT

A pseudo-structure to indicate a line break. The CONT tag is generated during serialization and is never present in parsed datasets. See Lines for more details.

COPR (Copyright) g7:COPR

A copyright statement, as appropriate for the copyright laws applicable to this data.

CORP (Corporate name) g7:CORP

The name of the business, corporation, or person that produced or commissioned the product.

CREA (Creation) g7:CREA

The initial creation of the superstructure. This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject. See CREATION_DATE for more details.

CREM (Cremation) g7:CREM

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

CROP (Crop) g7:CROP

A subregion of an image to display. It is only valid when the superstructure links to a MULTIMEDIA_RECORD with at least 1 FILE substructure that refers to an external file with a defined pixel unit.

LEFT and TOP indicate the top-left corner of the region to display. WIDTH and HEIGHT indicate how many pixels wide and tall the region to display is. If omitted, LEFT and TOP each default to 0; WIDTH defaults to the image width minus LEFT; and HEIGHT defaults to the image height minus TOP.

If the superstructure links to a MULTIMEDIA_RECORD that includes multiple FILE substructures, the CROP applies to the first FILE to which it can apply, namely the first external file with a defined pixel unit.

It is recommended that CROP be used only with a single-FILE MULTIMEDIA_RECORD.

The following are errors:

• LEFT or LEFT + WIDTH exceed the image width.
• TOP or TOP + HEIGHT exceed the image height.
• CROP applied to a non-image or image without a defined pixel unit.

CTRY (Country) g7:CTRY

The name of the country that pertains to the associated address. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

DATA (Data) g7:DATA

A structure with no payload used to distinguish a description of something from metadata about it. For example, SOUR and its other substructures describe a source itself, while SOUR.DATA describes the content of the source.

DATA (Data) g7:SOUR-DATA

See g7:DATA.

DATA (Data) g7:HEAD-SOUR-DATA

The database, electronic data source, or digital repository from which this dataset was exported. The payload is the name of the database, electronic data source, or digital repository, with substructures providing additional details about it (not about the export).

DATE (Date) g7:DATE

The principal date of the subject of the superstructure. The payload is a DateValue.

When the superstructure is an event, the principal date indicates when the event took place.

When the superstructure is an attribute, the principal date indicates when the attribute was observed, asserted, or applied. A date period might put bounds on the attributes applicability, but other date forms assume that the attribute may have also applied on other dates too.

When the superstructure is a g7:SOUR-DATA, the principal date indicates when the data was entered into the source; or, for a source like a website that changes over time, a date on which the source contained the data.

See DATE_VALUE for more details.

DATE (Date) g7:DATE-exact

The principal date of the subject of the superstructure. The payload is a DateExact.

DATE (Date) g7:HEAD-DATE

The DateExact that this document was created.

DATE (Date) g7:NO-DATE

The DatePeriod during which the event did not occur or the attribute did not apply.

DATE (Date) g7:DATA-EVEN-DATE

The DatePeriod covered by the entire source; the period during which this source recorded events.

DEAT (Death) g7:DEAT

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

DESI (Descendant Interest) g7:DESI

Indicates an interest in research to identify additional descendants of this individual. See also ANCI.

DEST (Destination) g7:DEST

An identifier for the system expected to receive this document. See HEAD.SOUR for guidance on choosing identifiers.

DIVF (Divorce filing) g7:DIVF

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

DIV (Divorce) g7:DIV

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

DSCR (Description) g7:DSCR

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

EDUC (Education) g7:EDUC

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

EMAIL (Email) g7:EMAIL

An electronic mail address, as defined by any relevant standard such as RFC 3696, RFC 5321, or RFC 5322.

If an invalid email address is present upon import, it should be preserved as-is on export.

:::note The version 5.5.1 specification contained a typo where this tag was sometimes written EMAI and sometimes written EMAIL. EMAIL should be used in version 7.0 and later. :::

EMIG (Emigration) g7:EMIG

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

ENDL (Endowment, Latter-Day Saint) g7:ENDL

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_INDIVIDUAL_ORDINANCE.

ENGA (Engagement) g7:ENGA

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

EVEN (Event) g7:FAM-EVEN

See g7:INDI-EVEN.

EVEN (Event) g7:INDI-EVEN

An event: a noteworthy happening related to an individual or family. If a specific event type exists, it should be used instead of a generic EVEN structure. Each EVEN must be classified by a subordinate use of the TYPE tag and may be further described in the structure's payload.

:::example A person that signed a lease for land dated October 2, 1837 and a lease for mining equipment dated November 4, 1837 would be written as:

0 @I1@ INDI
1 EVEN
2 TYPE Land Lease
2 DATE 2 OCT 1837
1 EVEN Mining equipment
2 TYPE Equipment Lease
2 DATE 4 NOV 1837

:::

EVEN (Event) g7:DATA-EVEN

A list of enumerated values from set g7:enumset-EVENATTR indicating the types of events that were recorded in a particular source. Each event type is separated by a comma and space. For example, a parish register of births, deaths, and marriages would be BIRT, DEAT, MARR.

EVEN (Event) g7:SOUR-EVEN

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-EVENATTR indicating the type of event or attribute which was responsible for the source entry being recorded. For example, if the entry was created to record a birth of a child, then the type would be BIRT regardless of the assertions made from that record, such as the mother's name or mother's birth date.

EXID (External Identifier) g7:EXID

An identifier for the subject of the superstructure. The identifier is maintained by some external authority; the authority owning the identifier is provided in the TYPE substructure; see EXID.TYPE for more details.

Depending on the maintaining authority, an EXID may be a unique identifier for the subject, an identifier for 1 of several views of the subject, or an identifier for the externally-maintained copy of the same information as is contained in this structure. However, unlike UID and REFN, EXID does not identify a structure; structures with the same EXID may have originated independently rather than by edits from the same starting point.

EXID identifiers are expected to be unique. Once assigned, an EXID identifier should never be re-used for any other purpose.

FAM (Family record) g7:record-FAM

See FAMILY_RECORD

:::note The common case is that each couple has one FAM record, but that is not always the case.

A couple that separates and then gets together again can be represented either as a single FAM with multiple events (MARR, DIV, etc.) or as a separate FAM for each time together. Some user interfaces may display these two in different ways and the two admit different semantics in sourcing. A single FAM with two MARR with distinct dates might also represent uncertainty about dates and a pair of FAM with same spouses might also be the result of merging multiple files.

Implementers should support both representations, and should choose between them based on user input or other context beyond that provided in the datasets themselves. :::

FACT (Fact) g7:FAM-FACT

See g7:INDI-FACT.

FACT (Fact) g7:INDI-FACT

A noteworthy attribute or fact concerning an individual or family. If a specific attribute type exists, it should be used instead of a generic FACT structure. Each FACT must be classified by a subordinate use of the TYPE tag and may be further described in the structure's payload.

:::example If the attribute being defined was 1 of the person's skills, such as woodworking, the FACT tag would have the value of "Woodworking", followed by a subordinate TYPE tag with the value "Skills".

0 @I1@ INDI
1 FACT Woodworking
2 TYPE Skills

:::

FAMC (Family child) g7:INDI-FAMC

The family in which an individual appears as a child. It is also used with a g7:FAMC-STAT substructure to show individuals who are not children of the family. See FAMILY_RECORD for more details.

FAMC (Family child) g7:FAMC

The family with which this individual event is associated.

FAMC (Family child) g7:ADOP-FAMC

The individual or couple that adopted this individual.

Adoption by an individual, rather than a couple, may be represented either by pointing to a FAM where that individual is a HUSB or WIFE and using a g7:FAMC-ADOP substructure to indicate which 1 performed the adoption; or by using a FAM where the adopting individual is the only HUSB/WIFE.

FAMS (Family spouse) g7:FAMS

The family in which an individual appears as a partner. See FAMILY_RECORD for more details.

FAX (Facsimile) g7:FAX

A fax telephone number appropriate for sending data facsimiles. See PHON for additional comments on telephone numbers.

FCOM (First communion) g7:FCOM

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

FILE (File reference) g7:FILE

A reference to an external file. See the File Path datatype for more details.

FORM (Format) g7:FORM

The media type of the file referenced by the superstructure.

FORM (Format) g7:PLAC-FORM

A comma-separated list of jurisdictional titles, which has the same number of elements and in the same order as the PLAC structure. As with PLAC, this shall be ordered from lowest to highest jurisdiction.

:::example The following represents Baltimore, a city that is not within a county.

2 PLAC Baltimore, , Maryland, USA
3 FORM City, County, State, Country

:::

FORM (Format) g7:HEAD-PLAC-FORM

Any PLAC with no FORM shall be treated as if it has this FORM.

GEDC (GEDCOM) g7:GEDC

A container for information about the entire document.

It is recommended that applications write GEDC with its required substructure g7:GEDC-VERS as the first substructure of HEAD.

GIVN (Given name) g7:GIVN

A given or earned name used for official identification of a person.

GRAD (Graduation) g7:GRAD

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

HEAD (Header) g7:HEAD

A pseudo-structure for storing metadata about the document. See The Header and Trailer for more details.

HEIGHT (Height in pixels) g7:HEIGHT

How many pixels to display vertically for the image. See CROP for more details.

:::note HEIGHT is a number of pixels. The correct tag for the height of an individual is the DSCR attribute.

:::example

0 @I45@ INDI
1 DSCR brown eyes, 5ft 10in, 198 pounds

::: :::

HUSB (Husband) g7:HUSB

A container for information relevant to the subject of the superstructure specific to the individual described by the associated FAM's HUSB substructure.

HUSB (Husband) g7:FAM-HUSB

This is a partner in a FAM record. See FAMILY_RECORD for more details.

IDNO (Identification number) g7:IDNO

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

IMMI (Immigration) g7:IMMI

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

INDI (Individual) g7:record-INDI

See INDIVIDUAL_RECORD.

INIL (Initiatory, Latter-Day Saint) g7:INIL

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_INDIVIDUAL_ORDINANCE. Previously, GEDCOM versions 3.0 through 5.3 called this WAC; it was not part of 5.4 through 5.5.1. FamilySearch GEDCOM 7.0 reintroduced it with the name INIL for consistency with BAPL, CONL, and ENDL.

LANG (Language) g7:LANG

The primary human language of the superstructure. The primary language in which the Text-typed payloads of the superstructure and its substructures appear.

The payload of the LANG structure is a language tag, as defined by BCP 47. A registry of component subtags is maintained publicly by the IANA.

In the absence of a LANG structure, the language is assumed to be unspecified; that may also be recorded explicitly with language tag und (meaning "undetermined"). See g7:HEAD-LANG for information about applying language-specific algorithms to text in an unspecified language.

If the text is primarily in one language with a few parts in a different language, it is recommended that a language tag identifying the primary language be used. If no one language is primary, the language tag mul (meaning "multiple") may be used, but most language-specific algorithms will treat mul the same way they do und.

:::note Conversations are ongoing about adding part-of-payload language tagging in a future version of the specification to provide more fidelity for multilingual text. :::

If the text is not in any human language and should not be treated as lingual content, the language tag zxx (meaning "no linguistic content" or "not applicable") may be used. An example of zxx text might be a diagram approximated using characters for their shape, not their meaning.

:::note This specification does not permit LANG in every place where human language text might appear. Conversations are ongoing about adding it in more places in a future version of the specification. Using the current specification, additional language tagging can be accomplished using a documented extension tag by including the following in the header:

1 SCHEMA
2 TAG _LANG https://gedcom.io/terms/v7/LANG

and using the extension tag like so:

2 DATE 31 AUG 2018
3 PHRASE 2018年8月31日
4 _LANG cmn

:::

LANG (Language) g7:HEAD-LANG

A default language which may be used to interpret any Text-typed payloads that lack a specific language tag from a g7:LANG structure. An application may choose to use a different default based on its knowledge of the language preferences of the user.

The payload of the LANG structure is a language tag, as defined by BCP 47.

:::note Some algorithms on text are language-specific. Examples include sorting sequences, name comparison and phonetic name matching algorithms, spell-checking, computer-synthesized speech, Braille transcription, and language translation. When the language of the text is given through a g7:LANG, that should be used. When g7:LANG is not available, g7:HEAD-LANG provides the file creator's suggested default language. For some language-specific algorithms, the user's preferred language may be a more appropriate default than the file's default language. User language preferences can be found in a variety of platform-specific places, such as the default language from operating system settings, user locales, Input Method Editors (IMEs), etc. :::

LANG (Language) g7:SUBM-LANG

A language the subject of that record understands.

The payload of the LANG structure is a language tag, as defined by BCP 47.

LATI (Latitude) g7:LATI

A latitudinal coordinate. The payload is either N (for a coordinate north of the equator) or S (for a coordinate south of the equator) followed by a decimal number of degrees. Minutes and seconds are not used and should be converted to fractional degrees prior to encoding.

:::example 18 degrees, 9 minutes, and 3.4 seconds North would be formatted as N18.150944. :::

LEFT (Left crop width) g7:LEFT

Left is a number of pixels to not display from the left side of the image. See CROP for more details.

LONG (Longitude) g7:LONG

A longitudinal coordinate. The payload is either E (for a coordinate east of the prime meridian) or W (for a coordinate west of the prime meridian) followed by a decimal number of degrees. Minutes and seconds are not used and should be converted to fractional degrees prior to encoding.

:::example 168 degrees, 9 minutes, and 3.4 seconds East would be formatted as E168.150944. :::

MAP (Map) g7:MAP

A representative point for a location, as defined by LATI and LONG substructures.

Note that MAP provides neither a notion of accuracy (for example, the MAP for a birth event may be some distance from the point where the birth occurred) nor a notion of region size (for example, the MAP for a place "Belarus" may be anywhere within that nation's 200,000 square kilometer area).

MARB (Marriage banns) g7:MARB

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

MARC (Marriage contract) g7:MARC

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

MARL (Marriage license) g7:MARL

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

MARR (Marriage) g7:MARR

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

MARS (Marriage settlement) g7:MARS

A Family Event. See also FAMILY_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

MEDI (Medium) g7:MEDI

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-MEDI providing information about the media or the medium in which information is stored.

When MEDI is a substructure of a g7:CALN, it is recommended that its payload describes the medium directly found at that call number rather than a medium from which it was derived.

:::example Consider an asset in a repository that is a digital scan of a book of compiled newspapers; for this asset, the CALN.MEDI is recommended to be ELECTRONIC rather than BOOK or NEWSPAPER. :::

When MEDI is a substructure of a g7:FORM, it is recommended that its payload describes the medium from which it was derived.

:::example Consider a digital photo in a multimedia record; for this asset, the FORM.MEDI is recommended to be PHOTO rather than ELECTRONIC. :::

MIME (Media type) g7:MIME

Indicates the media type of the payload of the superstructure.

As of version 7.0, only 2 media types are supported by this structure:

• text/plain shall be presented to the user as-is, preserving all spacing, line breaks, and so forth.

• text/html uses HTML tags to provide presentation information. Applications should support at least the following:

  • p and br elements for paragraphing and line breaks.
  • b, i, u, and s elements for bold, italic, underlined, and strike-through text (or corresponding display in other locales; see HTML §4.5 for more).
  • sup and sub elements for super- and sub-script.
  • The 3 XML entities that appear in text: &, < >. Note that &quote; and ' are only needed in attributes. Other entities should be represented as their respective Unicode characters instead.

  Supporting more of HTML is encouraged. Unsupported elements should be ignored during display.

:::note Applications are welcome to support more XML entities or HTML character references in their user interface. However, exporting must only use the core XML entities, translating any other entities into their corresponding Unicode characters. :::

:::note Applications are welcome to support additional HTML elements, but they should ensure that content is meaningful if those extra elements are ignored and only their content text is displayed. :::

:::note Media types are also used by external files, as described under FORM. External file media types are not limited to text/plain and text/html. :::

If needed, text/html can be converted to text/plain using the following steps:

1. Replace any sequence of 1 or more spaces, tabs, and line breaks with a single space
2. Case-insensitively replace each <p...>, </p...>, and <br...> with a line break
3. Remove all other <...> tags
4. Replace each < with < and > with >
5. Replace each & with &

NAME (Name) g7:NAME

The name of the superstructure's subject, represented as a simple string.

NAME (Name) g7:INDI-NAME

A PERSONAL_NAME_STRUCTURE with parts, translations, sources, and so forth.

NATI (Nationality) g7:NATI

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

NATU (Naturalization) g7:NATU

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

NCHI (Number of children) g7:FAM-NCHI

A Family Attribute. See also FAMILY_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

NCHI (Number of children) g7:INDI-NCHI

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

NICK (Nickname) g7:NICK

A descriptive or familiar name that is used instead of, or in addition to, one’s official or legal name.

:::note The label "nickname" and description text of this structure were introduced with version 5.5 in 1996, but are understood differently by different users. Some use NICK only for names that would be inappropriate in formal settings. Some use it for pseudonyms regardless of where they are used. Some use it for any variant of a name that is not the one used on legal documents. Because all of these uses, and likely others as well, are common in existing data, no further clarification of the meaning of the NICK structure is possible without contradicting some existing data. :::

NMR (Number of marriages) g7:NMR

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

NO (Did not happen) g7:NO

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-EVEN identifying an event type which did not occur to the superstructure's subject. A specific payload NO XYZ should only appear where XYZ would be legal.

See NON_EVENT_STRUCTURE for more details.

NOTE (Note) g7:NOTE

A NOTE_STRUCTURE, containing additional information provided by the submitter for understanding the enclosing data.

When a substructure of HEAD, it should describe the contents of the document in terms of "ancestors or descendants of" so that the person receiving the data knows what genealogical information the document contains.

NPFX (Name prefix) g7:NPFX

Text that appears on a name line before the given and surname parts of a name.

NSFX (Name suffix) g7:NSFX

Text which appears on a name line after or behind the given and surname parts of a name.

OBJE (Object) g7:OBJE

See MULTIMEDIA_LINK.

OBJE (Object) g7:record-OBJE

See MULTIMEDIA_RECORD.

OCCU (Occupation) g7:OCCU

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

ORDN (Ordination) g7:ORDN

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

PAGE (Page) g7:PAGE

A specific location within the information referenced. For a published work, this could include the volume of a multi-volume work and the page number or numbers. For a periodical, it could include volume, issue, and page numbers. For a newspaper, it could include a date, page number, and column number. For an unpublished source or microfilmed works, this could be a film or sheet number, page number, or frame number. A census record might have an enumerating district, page number, line number, dwelling number, and family number.

It is recommended that the data in this field be formatted comma-separated with label: value pairs

:::example

2 SOUR @S1@
3 PAGE Film: 1234567, Frame: 344, Line: 28

:::

If the superstructure's pointer is @VOID@ then there is no information referenced and the PAGE may describe the entire source.

:::example

1 DSCR Tall enough his head touched the ceiling
2 SOUR @VOID@
3 PAGE His grand-daughter Lydia told me this in 1980

:::

PEDI (Pedigree) g7:PEDI

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-PEDI indicating the type of child-to-family relationship represented by the superstructure.

PHON (Phone) g7:PHON

A telephone number. Telephone numbers have many regional variations and can contain non-digit characters. Users should be encouraged to use internationalized telephone numbers rather than local versions. As a starting point for this recommendation, there are international standards that use a "'+'" shorthand for the international prefix (for example, in place of "011" in the US or "00" in the UK). Examples are +1 (555) 555-1234 (US) or +44 20 1234 1234 (UK).

See ITU standards E.123 and E.164 for more information.

PHRASE (Phrase) g7:PHRASE

Textual information that cannot be expressed in the superstructure due to the limitations of its data type. A PHRASE may restate information contained in the superstructure, but doing so is not recommended unless it is needed for clarity.

:::example A date interpreted from the phrase "The Feast of St John" might be

2 DATE 24 JUN 1852
3 PHRASE During the feast of St John

:::

:::example A record using 1648/9 to indicate a change in new year might become

2 DATE 30 JAN 1649
3 PHRASE 30th of January, 1648/9

:::

:::example A record using 1648/9 to indicate uncertainty in the year might become

2 DATE BET 1648 AND 1649
3 PHRASE 1648/9

:::

:::example A record using Q1 1867 to indicate an event occurred sometime within the first quarter of 1867 might become

2 DATE BET 1 JAN 1867 AND 31 MAR 1867
3 PHRASE Q1 1867

:::

:::example A record defining the Maid of Honor in a marriage might become

1 MARR
2 ASSO @I2@
3 ROLE OTHER
4 PHRASE Maid of Honor

:::

:::example A name given to a foundling orphan might be

1 NAME Mary //
2 GIVN Mary
2 TYPE OTHER
3 PHRASE given by orphanage

:::

PLAC (Place) g7:PLAC

The principal place in which the superstructure's subject occurred, represented as a [List] of jurisdictional entities in a sequence from the lowest to the highest jurisdiction, where "jurisdiction" includes units in a political, ecclesiastical, and geographical hierarchies and may include units of any size, such as a continent, "at sea", or a specific building, farm, or cemetery. As with other lists, the jurisdictions are separated by commas. Any jurisdiction's name that is missing is still accounted for by an empty string in the list.

The type of each jurisdiction is given in the PLAC.FORM substructure, if present, or in the HEAD.PLAC.FORM structure. If neither is present, the jurisdictional types are unspecified beyond the lowest-to-highest order noted above.

PLAC (Place) g7:HEAD-PLAC

This is a placeholder for providing a default PLAC.FORM, and must not have a payload.

POST (Postal code) g7:POST

A code used by a postal service to identify an area to facilitate mail handling. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

PROB (Probate) g7:PROB

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

PROP (Property) g7:PROP

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

PUBL (Publication) g7:PUBL

When and where the record was created. For published works, this includes information such as the city of publication, name of the publisher, and year of publication.

For an unpublished work, it includes the date the record was created and the place where it was created, such as the county and state of residence of a person making a declaration for a pension or the city and state of residence of the writer of a letter.

QUAY (Quality of data) g7:QUAY

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-QUAY indicating the credibility of a piece of information, based on its supporting evidence. Some systems use this feature to rank multiple conflicting opinions for display of most likely information first. It is not intended to eliminate the receivers' need to evaluate the evidence for themselves.

REFN (Reference) g7:REFN

A user-defined number or text that the submitter uses to identify the superstructure. For instance, it may be a record number within the submitter's automated or manual system, or it may be a page and position number on a pedigree chart.

This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject. Multiple structures describing different aspects of the same subject must not have the same REFN value.

RELI (Religion) g7:RELI

A religious denomination associated with the event or attribute described by the superstructure.

RELI (Religion) g7:INDI-RELI

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

RESN (Restriction) g7:RESN

A [List] of enumerated values from set g7:enumset-RESN signifying access to information may be denied or otherwise restricted.

The RESN structure is provided to assist software in filtering data that should not be exported or otherwise used in a particular context. It is recommended that tools provide an interface to allow users to filter data on export such that certain RESN structure payload entries result in the RESN structure and its superstructure being removed from the export. Such removal must abide by some constraints: see Removing data for more details.

This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject.

REPO (Repository) g7:REPO

See SOURCE_REPOSITORY_CITATION.

REPO (Repository) g7:record-REPO

See REPOSITORY_RECORD.

RESI (Residence) g7:FAM-RESI

A Family Attribute. See also FAMILY_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

See g7:INDI-RESI for comments on the use of payload strings in RESI structures.

RESI (Residence) g7:INDI-RESI

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

Where possible, the residence should be identified in PLAC and/or ADDR substructures of the RESI structure. The payload text should not duplicate PLAC or ADDR information, but may be used for residence information that cannot be expressed by those structures.

:::example The following two examples show situations where a RESI payload may be appropriate:

1 RESI living with an aunt
2 DATE ABT MAR 1894

1 RESI in a mobile caravan
2 PLAC , , Austro-Hungarian Empire
3 FORM City, County, Country

:::

RETI (Retirement) g7:RETI

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

ROLE (Role) g7:ROLE

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-ROLE indicating what role this person played in an event or person's life.

:::example The following indicates a child's birth record as the source of the mother's name:

0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME Mary //
2 SOUR @S1@
3 EVEN BIRT
4 ROLE MOTH

:::

:::example The following indicates that a person's best friend was a witness at their baptism:

0 @I2@ INDI
1 ASSO @I3@
2 ROLE FRIEND
3 PHRASE best friend
1 BAPM
2 ASSO @I3@
3 ROLE WITN

:::

SCHMA (Extension schema) g7:SCHMA

A container for storing meta-information about the extension tags used in this document. See Extensions for more details.

SDATE (Sort date) g7:SDATE

A date to be used as a sorting hint. It is intended for use when the actual date is unknown, but the display order may be dependent on date.

If both a DATE and SDATE are present in the same structure, the SDATE should be used for sorting and positioning while the DATE should be displayed as the date of the structure.

SDATE and its substructures (including PHRASE, TIME, and any extension structures) should be used only as sorting hints, not to convey historical meaning.

It is recommended to use a payload that matches [[day D] month D] year [D epoch]. Other DateValue forms may have unreliable effects on sorting. Including a month and day is encouraged to help different applications sort dates the same way, as the relative ordering of dates with different levels of precision is not well defined.

SEX (Sex) g7:SEX

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-SEX that indicates the sex of the individual at birth.

SLGC (Sealing, child) g7:SLGC

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_INDIVIDUAL_ORDINANCE.

SLGS (Sealing, spouse) g7:SLGS

A Latter-Day Saint Ordinance. See also LDS_SPOUSE_SEALING.

SNOTE (Shared note) g7:SNOTE

A pointer to a note that is shared by multiple structures. See NOTE_STRUCTURE for more details.

SNOTE (Shared note) g7:record-SNOTE

A note that is shared by multiple structures. See SHARED_NOTE_RECORD for more details.

SOUR (Source) g7:SOUR

A description of the relevant part of a source to support the superstructure's data. See SOURCE_CITATION for more details.

SOUR (Source) g7:record-SOUR

A description of an entire source. See SOURCE_RECORD for more details.

SOUR (Source) g7:HEAD-SOUR

An identifier for the product producing this dataset. A registration process for these identifiers existed for a time, but no longer does. If an existing identifier is known, it should be used. Otherwise, a URI owned by the product should be used instead.

SPFX (Surname prefix) g7:SPFX

A name piece used as a non-indexing pre-part of a surname.

SSN (Social security number) g7:SSN

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

STAE (State) g7:STAE

A geographical division of a larger jurisdictional area, such as a state within the United States of America. See ADDRESS_STRUCTURE for more details.

STAT (Status) g7:ord-STAT

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-ord-STAT assessing of the state or condition of an ordinance.

STAT (Status) g7:FAMC-STAT

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-FAMC-STAT assessing of the state or condition of a researcher's belief in a family connection.

SUBM (Submitter) g7:SUBM

A contributor of information in the substructure. This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject.

SUBM (Submitter) g7:record-SUBM

A description of a contributor of information to the document. See SUBMITTER_RECORD for more details.

SURN (Surname) g7:SURN

A family name passed on or used by members of a family.

TAG (Extension tag) g7:TAG

Information relating to a single extension tag as used in this document. See Extensions for more details.

TEMP (Temple) g7:TEMP

The name of a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Previous versions recommended using a set of abbreviations for temple names, but the list of abbreviations is no longer published by the Church and using abbreviations is no longer recommended.

TEXT (Text from Source) g7:TEXT

A verbatim copy of any description contained within the source. This indicates notes or text that are actually contained in the source document, not the submitter's opinion about the source. This should be, from the evidence point of view, "what the original record keeper said" as opposed to the researcher's interpretation.

TIME (Time) g7:TIME

A Time value in a 24-hour clock format.

TITL (Title) g7:TITL

The title, formal or informal, of the superstructure.

A published work, such as a book, might have a title plus the title of the series of which the book is a part. A magazine article would have a title plus the title of the magazine that published the article.

For an unpublished work, including most digital files, titles should be descriptive and appropriate to the work.

:::example

• The TITL of a letter might include the date, the sender, and the receiver.
• The TITL of a transaction between a buyer and seller might have their names and the transaction date.
• The TITL of a family Bible containing genealogical information might have past and present owners and a physical description of the book.
• The TITL of a personal interview would cite the informant and interviewer.

:::

Some sources may have a citation text that cannot readily be represented using the SOURCE_RECORD substructures AUTH, PUBL, REPO, and so on. In such cases, the entire citation text may be presented as the payload of the SOUR.TITL.

TITL (Title) g7:INDI-TITL

An Individual Attribute. See also INDIVIDUAL_ATTRIBUTE_STRUCTURE.

TOP (Top crop width) g7:TOP

A number of pixels to not display from the top side of the image. See CROP for more details.

TRAN (Translation)

A representation of the superstructure's data in a different format.

In some situations it is desirable to provide the same semantic content in multiple formats. Where this is desirable, a TRAN substructure is used, where the specific format is given in its language tag substructure, media type substructure, or both.

Different TRAN structures are used in different contexts to fully capture the structure of the information being presented in multiple formats. In all cases, a TRAN structure's payload and substructures should provide only information also contained in the TRAN structures' superstructure, but provide it in a new language, script, or media type.

Each TRAN substructure must have either a language tag or a media type or both. Each TRAN structure must differ from its superstructure and from every other TRAN substructure of its superstructure in either its language tag or its media type or both.

TRAN (Translation) g7:NAME-TRAN

A type of TRAN substructure specific to Personal Names. Each NAME.TRAN must have a LANG substructure. See also INDI.NAME.

:::example The following presents a name in Mandarin, transliterated using Pinyin

1 NAME /孔/德庸
2 GIVN 德庸
2 SURN 孔
2 TRAN /Kǒng/ Déyōng
3 GIVN Déyōng
3 SURN Kǒng
3 LANG zh-pinyin

:::

TRAN (Translation) g7:PLAC-TRAN

A type of TRAN substructure specific to places. Each PLAC.TRAN must have a LANG substructure. See also PLAC.

:::example The following presents a place in Japanese with a romaji transliteration and English translation

2 PLAC 千代田, 東京, 日本
3 FORM 区, 都, 国
3 LANG ja
3 TRAN Chiyoda, Tokyo, Nihon
4 LANG ja-Latn
3 TRAN Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan
4 LANG en

:::

TRAN (Translation) g7:NOTE-TRAN

A type of TRAN for unstructured human-readable text, such as is found in NOTE and SNOTE payloads. Each g7:NOTE-TRAN must have either a LANG substructure or a MIME substructure or both. If either is missing, it is assumed to have the same value as the superstructure. See also NOTE and SNOTE.

:::example The following presents the same note in HTML-format English; in plain-text with the same language as the superstructure (English); and in Spanish with the same media type as the superstructure (HTML).

1 NAME Arete /Hernandez/
2 NOTE Named after Arete from <i>The Odyssey</i>
3 LANG en
3 MIME text/html
3 TRAN Named after Arete from "The Odyssey"
4 MIME text/plain
3 TRAN Nombrada en honor a Arete de <i>La Odisea</i>
4 LANG es

:::

It is recommended that text given in text/html should only be translated into text/plain if the resulting text is different from the text created by the HTML-to-text conversion process defined in g7:MIME.

TRAN (Translation) g7:FILE-TRAN

A type of TRAN for external media files. Each g7:NOTE-TRAN must have a FORM substructure. See also FILE and the File Path datatype.

:::example If an mp3 audio file has been transcoded as an ogg file and a timestamped transcript has been extracted as a WebVTT file, the resulting set of files might be presented as follows:

0 @EX@ OBJE
1 FILE media/original.mp3
2 FORM audio/mp3
2 TRAN media/derived.oga
3 FORM audio/ogg
2 TRAN media/transcript.vtt
3 FORM text/vtt

:::

Note that FILE.TRAN refers to translation to a different digital format, not to translation to a different human language. Files that differ in the human language of their content should each be given their own FILE structure.

TRLR (Trailer) g7:TRLR

A pseudo-structure marking the end of a dataset. See The Header and Trailer for more details.

TYPE (Type) g7:TYPE

A descriptive word or phrase used to further classify the superstructure.

When both a NOTE and free-text TYPE are permitted as substructures of the same structure, the displaying systems should always display the TYPE value when they display the data from the associated structure; NOTE will typically be visible only in a detailed view.

TYPE must be used whenever the generic EVEN, FACT and IDNO tags are used. It may also be used for any other event or attribute.

Using the subordinate TYPE classification method provides a further classification of the superstructure but does not change its basic meaning.

:::example A ORDN with a TYPE could clarify what kind of ordination was performed:

0 @I1@ INDI
1 ORDN
2 TYPE Bishop

This classifies the entry as an ordination as a bishop, which is still a ordination event. The event could be further clarified with RELI, DATE, and other substructures.

Other descriptor values might include, for example,

• "Stillborn" as a qualifier to BIRT (birth)
• "Civil" as a qualifier to MARR (marriage)
• "College" as a qualifier to GRAD (graduation)
• "Oral" as a qualifier to WILL

See also FACT and EVEN for additional examples. :::

TYPE (Type) g7:NAME-TYPE

An enumerated value from set g7:enumset-NAME-TYPE indicating the type of the name.

TYPE (Type) g7:EXID-TYPE

The authority issuing the EXID, represented as a URI. It is recommended that this be a URL.

If the authority maintains stable URLs for each identifier it issues, it is recommended that the TYPE payload be selected such that appending the EXID payload to it yields that URL. However, this is not required and a different URI for the set of issued identifiers may be used instead.

Registered URIs are listed in the exid-types registry, where fields are defined using the YAML file format.

Additional type URIs can be registered by filing a GitHub pull request.

UID (Unique Identifier) g7:UID

A globally-unique identifier of the superstructure, to be preserved across edits. If a globally-unique identifier for the record already exists, it should be used without modification, not even whitespace or letter case normalization. New globally unique identifiers should be created and formatted as described in RFC 4122.

This is metadata about the structure itself, not data about its subject. Multiple structures describing different aspects of the same subject would have different UID values.

Because the UID identifies a structure, it can facilitate inter-tool collaboration by distinguishing between a structure being edited and a new structure being created. If an application allows structures to be edited in a way that completely changes their meaning (e.g., changing all the contents of an INDI record to have it describe a completely different person) then any UIDs should also be changed.

:::note Some systems used a 16-byte UUID with a custom 2-byte checksum for a total of 18 bytes:

• checksum byte 1 = (sum of (byte~i~) for i 1 through 16) mod 256
• checksum byte 2 = (sum of ((16 − i) × (byte~i~)) for i 1 through 16) mod 256

Use of checksums for UIDs is discouraged except in cases where error-prone input is expected and an appropriate action to take in case of an error is known. :::

VERS (Version) g7:VERS

An identifier that represents the version level assigned to the associated product. It is defined and changed by the creators of the product.

VERS (Version) g7:GEDC-VERS

The version number of the official specification that this document's data conforms to. This must include the major and minor version (for example, "7.0"); it may include the patch as well (for example, "7.0.1"), but doing so is not required. See [A Guide to Version Numbers] for more details about version numbers.

WIDTH (Width in pixels) g7:WIDTH

How many pixels to display horizontally for the image. See CROP for more details.

WIFE (Wife) g7:WIFE

A container for information relevant to the subject of the superstructure specific to the individual described by the associated FAM's WIFE substructure.

WIFE (Wife) g7:FAM-WIFE

A partner in a FAM record. See FAMILY_RECORD for more details.

WILL (Will) g7:WILL

An Individual Event. See also INDIVIDUAL_EVENT_STRUCTURE.

WWW (Web address) g7:WWW

A URL or other locator for a World Wide Web page of the subject of the superstructure, as defined by any relevant standard such as whatwg/url, RFC 3986, RFC 3987, and so forth.

Like other substructures, the WWW structure provides details about the subject of its superstructure. For example, a MARR.WWW is a world wide web page of the marriage event, not the personal website of the couple or an entry in an online database serving as a source documenting the marriage. However, the meaning of WWW was only implicit when it was introduced in version 5.5.1 and many files were created that use WWW to store a more tangentially-related web address, so applications are recommended to interpret the WWW structure's meaning cautiously.

If an invalid or no longer existing web address is present upon import, it should be preserved as-is on export.