GEDCOM to HTML Converters

**Make a genealogy website** 

The History of GEDCOM to HTML converters

During the late 1990s, many genealogists flocked to the internet to create genealogy websites in order to share their research and to connect with fellow researchers. A new type of software - GEDCOM to HTML converters - emerged to enable these new webmasters to convert their GEDCOM into HTML pages that they could then upload to their websites.

Though many GEDCOM to HTML converters exist, the majority provide these basic functions:

*Privacy filter to remove living people from reports
*Basic family tree charts (pedigree / descendancy)
*Ahnentafel reports (text version of the genealogy)
*Indexes (names, sources, places, etc.)

Should I use a GEDCOM to HTML converter to create my genealogy website?

Though many people still use GEDCOM to HTML converters to generate their genealogy websites, it has become much less popular in the last couple of years.

Why? Once the HTML pages are created, they are very difficult to update. For example, if you generated your website in January and then added 100 people into your database in February, you would have to regenerate ALL of the pages for these new additions to be included on your website.

Why is this a problem? When you regenerate these pages with your GEDCOM to HTML converter, each new page will be different than the original and consequently will also have a different page name. As a result, you have to update all of your links to these pages, search engines cannot index your pages correctly and you will lose many visitors as a result.

If not a GEDCOM to HTML converter, then what?

Over the last couple of years, and particularly with the emergence of Web 2.0 applications, genealogists can now create dynamic genealogy websites. These dynamic websites pull information from a database that is created from your GEDCOM, rather than creating static HTML pages. As a result, these types of websites automatically update your website as you reupload your GEDCOM and webpages do not have to be recreated when new information is included.

As these new applications continue to develop, it will enable genealogists to worry less about being webmasters and focus more on what they do best: genealogy. One thing is for sure: GEDCOM to HTML converters are a relic of the past.