If you happen to need a collection of GEDCOM files – maybe you are trying out some new genealogy software, or you are trying to debug a problem with importing/exporting GEDCOM files from your existing software or app, FindMyPast.co.uk has put together a public collection of GEDCOM files, some they’ve generated, others that have been generated and placed online for the public to use.
Some of the GEDCOM files seemed to have been generated/created by Tamura Jones (https://www.tamurajones.net), who has written a lot on GEDCOM files, and others were created by John Nair (of GEDitCOM fame – https://geditcom.com) whose genealogy program is GEDCOM-centric.
The Torture Test GEDCOM files – you need to download the various media/PDF/etc. files as well, as they help test out GEDCOM files maintaining links to the media. The torture test icons test out name structures, genealogy programs handling single carriage returns versus carriage return and a line feed when ending lines, etc. The Permutation GEDCOM files are meant to test out various combinations, to see what can break genealogy software, or how genealogy software handles situations that the contemporary software was not meant to handle.
There are some amusing and interesting ones, including Microsoft and IBM and their DOS and OS/2
“offspring” as well as the normal (Hapsburgs, Kennedy family, etc.), but some fictional ones (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones). You can download the files here:
https://github.com/findmypast/gedcom-samples/tree/main
Just click on the files that interest you, and then look for the download icon on the right hand side (it looks like this 
).
If you’d like to try out GEDCOM 7.0 files, FamilySearch has several examples at their GEDCOM.io website:
https://gedcom.io/tools/#example-familysearch-gedcom-70-files
Some of the genealogy programs that were used to create or at least export the GEDCOM files in the FindMyPast collection include:
- Family Tree Maker 16 16.0.350
- Family Tree Maker 2008 17.0.0.965
- Findmypast Family Tree 2.0 (had to be generated by the site)
- GEDitCOM 2.9.4 / 2.9.42
- Gramps 2.2.6-1
- MyFamilyTree 10.1.2.0 (Chronoplex)
- MyHeritage Family Tree Builder 7.0.0.7107
- Personal Ancestral File (claims 1.0, but that makes no sense as 1.0 didn’t have GEDCOM support at all, and the GEDCOM version shows 5.5.x which was a much later version of PAF).
- Personal Ancestral File 5 5.2.18.0
I’ll check them out. I’ve been using TJs Gedfan and 1200 siblings files for years and of course Geditcom.
I also have some sample GEDCOMs your visitors might find useful. My GEDCOM validator (https://gigatrees.com/vgedx) comes packaged with 55r1.ged, 55r2.ged, 551.ged and 5.6.ged that include every valid tag for those specs. There is also a test_grammar.ged that tests some boundary conditions.
Also my website generator (https://gigatrees.com) comes with a sample.ged file to which I add new third-party tags to it occasionally.
Both these apps are free to download and use.
Cheers, Tim
My favorite file was one designed and made available in 2020 by John Cardinal on his Gedcom Assessment site. John was a big TMG (The Master Genealogist) user and developed several programs himself that work with TMG.
I wrote an article about his GEDCOM Assessment site: https://www.beholdgenealogy.com/blog/?p=3232
Sadly, his site no longer exists, but it is available on Archive.org and his assess.ged file has been saved here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210723150526/https://www.gedcomassessment.com/en/assess.ged