AncestryDesk migration guide
How to protect living people in a GEDCOM export
A family-tree export can contain more than names and dates. Addresses, residence events, email, phone and web fields may expose living relatives when the file is shared.
Identify likely living records
Treat a person with no death event as potentially living, especially when the birth is within a conservative age window or no birth year is present.
Inventory sensitive tags
Review ADDR, RESI, EMAIL, PHON and WWW fields along with notes or media that may contain contact details.
Choose redaction over guessing
Replace the sensitive value in a sharing copy or remove the field. Do not add a death event simply to change privacy behavior.
Keep a private master
Preserve the original export in a protected location and document every redaction made to the copy used for migration or family handoff.