The only reason GEDCOM remains the sole standard is that there isn’t enough collective pressure to demand better. When users advocate for modern Open Source and Open Data frameworks—specifically those that support true semantic interoperability—the response is predictably stagnant.
This resistance isn’t limited to commercial giants like Legacy or RootsMagic, who simply ignore the conversation. Even within the Gramps developer community, there is a frustrating reluctance to adopt truly interchangeable formats. While Gramps has an excellent native XML structure, it remains a functional silo. Instead of embracing recognized standards used by major global institutions, the typical response from developers is ‘fork it and do it yourself.’
To move genealogy into the modern era, we must demand support for established data exchange formats and ontologies, such as:
-
CIDOC CRM (ISO 21127): The backbone of OpenAtlas and the British Museum, providing a robust framework for historical events and complex prosopographical relationships.
-
Schema.org: Utilizing JSON-LD (Linked Data) and Microdata to make genealogical profiles machine-readable and discoverable.
-
IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework): Using JSON-based manifests to share high-resolution primary sources and archival documents seamlessly.
-
GraphML: An XML-based format designed specifically for complex graph structures, far superior to the flat-file limitations of GEDCOM.
-
CSL (Citation Style Language): The industry standard for managing sources and bibliographies in JSON or XML.
True data portability requires support for standard serialization and modeling types like OWL (Web Ontology Language) and RDF (Resource Description Framework) for deep semantic modeling, as well as JSON-ND (Newline Delimited JSON) and CSV for high-volume data processing and accessibility.
The result of ignoring these standards is a fragmented industry where data integrity is sacrificed for the status quo. I have advocated for these Open Data formats multiple times, but both commercial vendors and open-source maintainers seem unwilling to bridge the gap between niche genealogy tools and the professional world of digital humanities.
Note: This content has been translated from Norwegian and edited for improved flow, clarity, and technical accuracy to better reflect the specific standards and formats discussed by Google AI.
Side note: For those using Markdown tools like Obsidian, I highly recommend checking out this plugin: Genealogy research in Obsidian for those who want to try .