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Import from Ancestry.com

Do you have genealogy research on Ancestry.com? You can export it to a GEDCOM file and import it into PastPaths.

Export from Ancestry

  1. Log in to ancestry.com

  2. Go to account settings

  3. Click Trees

  4. Choose a tree if you have several, or select the one you have

  5. Choose Manage your tree → Export tree

  6. Wait until Ancestry has generated the file — this can take a few minutes for large trees

  7. Download the .ged file

Images don't come along automatically

Ancestry doesn't include the image files in the GEDCOM export. If you want your photos included, you'll need to download them separately and put them in the same folder as the GEDCOM file before importing.

Import into PastPaths

PastPaths automatically detects that the file comes from Ancestry by reading the file's header — it handles _APID and other Ancestry-specific markers correctly.

→ General GEDCOM import guide

What's preserved from Ancestry?

Beyond the regular GEDCOM data, PastPaths keeps:

  • Ancestry Person ID (_APID) — saved in the person's notes, so you can look up the person on Ancestry later if you want
  • FamilySearch ID (_FSFTID) — if you've linked your trees together
  • Ancestry hints (_HINT) — saved as notes

This means that if you later go back to Ancestry, you can find the same people there, even though PastPaths doesn't actively sync with the service.

Auto-tag

All persons, places, events, and media that are imported are automatically tagged with -ancestry-import-YYYY-MM-DD (e.g. -ancestry-import-2026-05-09). This makes it easy to later filter for everything that came from Ancestry.

Records that got a warning during the import, for example persons whose image wasn't found, are also tagged with the red tag -ancestry-warning-YYYY-MM-DD. → More about the warning tag

Couples whose family has no marriage and no divorce become partner, since the form is unknown, and get the tag -ancestry-partner-YYYY-MM-DD on both persons. → Relationships and the couple's events

Couples whose form came from a relationship status instead of a marriage, for example a marriage with the type Unmarried, get the tag -ancestry-relationsstatus-YYYY-MM-DD.

Things to keep in mind

Sources. Ancestry's source management is detailed and takes up space in the GEDCOM export. PastPaths imports sources and citations as far as possible, but the exact display may differ from what you're used to seeing on Ancestry.

Hints. "Hint" data — Ancestry's algorithmic suggestions — is imported as notes. These are suggestions, not verified data, so treat them accordingly.

Linked trees. If your Ancestry tree is linked to other users' trees, only your information comes along in the export. PastPaths can't access other people's data.

After the import

It's worth going through:

  1. Persons without sources — what's the information based on? Add sources.
  2. Duplicates — if you import the same people from several Ancestry trees, duplicates can occur. Use PastPaths' duplicate search.
  3. Date precision — Ancestry sometimes writes exact dates when there's really only an approximate figure. Adjust to "around" where it's uncertain.

Undo an import

The Ancestry import shows up in the same import history as regular GEDCOM imports and can be undone from there.

→ More about import history and undoing