Hi: I think what is wrong with GEDCOM as a standard is not the GEDCOM itself. Its structure is quite easy to understand and it is easy to write a software that will both understand it and generate it. I would say the problem, as Bob said, is when the standard is applied. Any software maker has his/her opinion about that, but also, and this is more important, very few softwares can indeed support all the features in GEDCOM and many may have more features. If my software can support only one marriage record per couple, or two (with the marriage contract), then it will never import a GEDCOM file where a couple was married many times (as a protestant, then as a catholic, then revalidation of the catholic wedding, then a civil ceremony, then a Jew ceremony because they changed their religion, then then then, your imagination knows what). We don't need a new standard, per se, but to define what softwares should do when they ignore any feature because of internal structure limitation. Denis -- 0 Denis Beauregard - /\/ Les Français d'Amérique du Nord - www.francogene.com/genealogie--quebec/ |\ French in North America before 1722 - www.francogene.com/quebec--genealogy/ / | Maintenant sur cédérom, début à 1770 (Version 2008) oo oo Now on CD-ROM, beginnings to 1770 (2008 Release)