Lars Eighner wrote: > Here is the problem: GEDCOM has become the de facto standard for family > history and geneology data. And the problem with that is that the Mormons > own GEDCOM and thus it is rife with built-in religious limitations. > > As you might expect, GEDCOM does not allow you to enter a family created by > same-sex marriage or civil unions even where they are lawful. But there are > other limitations. For example, in GEDCOM 5.xx, an adopted child does not > belong to his family. When he looks up his family in a GEDCOM-compliant > file, he is not there. How needlessly hurtful is that? > > If a guy marries his 14-year-old cousin as his fifth wife, GEDCOM has no > problem dealing with that kind of family. But it cannot handle the Brady > Bunch. > > Now I suppose you could defend GEDCOM by saying it is supposed to record > only genetic --- that is, biological --- relationships. And of course, > there are important scientific and especially medical uses for that kind of > information. But it is not really true that GEDCOM records biological > relationships. It presumes that the husband of a woman who bears a child is > the father of the child, and we know since there is now DNA testing that > assumption is untrue in a significant portion of cases. > > Which brings me to my point. I'd like to develop a family history system > that is as compatible with GEDCOM as possible (since it is, as I have said, > the de facto standard with tons of software applications), but with > extensions to handle many diverse kinds of families that exist both in > modern America and in many traditional cultures. > > So, I would be grateful for any pointers to existing software that handles > all families or suggestions for extensions. FTM 16 does all of the above but if exported as a gedcom same sex relationships / life long friendships becoame "marriages" Hugh W -- a wonderful artist in Denmark http://www.ingerlisekristoffersen.dk/ Beta blogger http://snaps4.blogspot.com/ photographs and walks old blogger GENEALOGE http://hughw36.blogspot.com/ MAIN BLOG