What Is a Family Echo (FamilyScript) File?

FamilyScript is the native file format of familyecho.com — and this is how to open your Family Echo download online for free, and keep editing your tree somewhere it belongs to you.

How to open a Family Echo file online (free)

Family Echo lets you download your tree, but the file it gives you is hard to read and no other genealogy program opens it. FamilyBushes.com imports it directly:

1. Open the family tree editor and sign in with your email.
2. Click Import and choose the file you downloaded from Family Echo.
3. Your relatives appear as an interactive family tree — switch between the graph, classic tree, map and timeline views, then keep editing or share the tree with a link.

The import runs in your browser and your tree is stored in your own account — nothing is published unless you choose to share it.

The FamilyScript format

Family Echo is a free browser-based family tree maker. Its native format is called FamilyScript, and unlike most in-house formats it is publicly documented — Family Echo invites other developers to read and write it. It is not, however, an interchange standard like GEDCOM: essentially no other genealogy program reads FamilyScript.

A FamilyScript file is a list of lines, each describing one person or one pair of people. Every fact on a line is preceded by a tab and a single-character tag — p for given names, l for surname now, b for date of birth, and so on. Lines that don't begin with i, p or f are comments.

What a FamilyScript file looks like

Two people and the marriage between them. Tabs separate the facts:

iR3QK8	pMary Alice	lSmith	qJones	gf	b19680714	sMU2MO	jDoctor
iMU2MO	pJohn	lSmith	gm	b19650327	sR3QK8
pR3QK8 MU2MO	e2	gm	m19940214	wLas Vegas

Lines beginning i are individuals, and lines beginning p describe a pair. Note that l is the surname now and q the surname at birth — Mary Alice Smith was born Mary Alice Jones. Each person points at their mother (m) and father (f) rather than listing children, so families are reconstructed from those pointers on import.

What a FamilyScript file stores

• People — given names, surname now and at birth, nickname, title, suffix, gender, and free-text bio notes
• Birth & death — dates and places, including partial dates where only the year is known, approximate dates, and date ranges
• Partnerships — the two partners, the type of partnership (married, engaged, divorced, separated, annulled and more), and the dates and places that go with them
• Parent links — each person's mother and father, plus up to two further parent sets for adoptive, step, foster or guardian parents
• Extra details — profession, company, address, email, interests, activities, cause of death, and burial date and place

Photos are referenced by an image id, not embedded — the image files live beside the script rather than inside it. As Family Echo's own FAQ puts it, "photos will not be copied across". You can add photos again after importing.

Importing Family Echo into FamilyBushes.com

• Open the FamilyBushes.com editor and sign in.
• Click Import and choose your downloaded Family Echo file.
• The editor reads every person, partnership and parent link, and renders them as an interactive visual tree.
• Birth, death, marriage and divorce become life events on the timeline and map. Profession, company, address, burial and other details are kept as attributes on each person.

Two things do not survive the trip, because a FamilyBushes tree models each person as the child of a single family: the second and third parent sets (adoptive or step parents) are dropped, and a date's "approximately" or "before/after" qualifier is not kept — the date itself is.

After importing you can save the tree as a .fbft file to keep a full backup that includes photos and life events — a real copy of your tree, on your own disk.

How to download your tree from Family Echo

• Open your tree on familyecho.com and click Download below the tree. Choosing FamilyScript format gives you the file FamilyBushes.com imports.
• The same Download menu offers GEDCOM. That works here too — FamilyBushes.com imports .ged files — and it is the better choice if you also want your tree in other genealogy programs.

FamilyScript vs. FBFT

FamilyScript is fine for reloading a tree into Family Echo, and it is honestly documented — but almost nothing else reads it, and it carries no photos. The .fbft format used by FamilyBushes.com bundles photos, life events with map coordinates, and full tree data into a single ZIP file you keep. If you are moving off Family Echo, import once and keep your backups as .fbft.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I open a Family Echo file without Family Echo?

Upload the file you downloaded from Family Echo to the FamilyBushes.com editor — it renders your data as an interactive family tree in the browser. Importing is free and works on desktop and mobile.

What format does Family Echo use?

FamilyScript, its own native format. It is a plain-text format where each line describes a person or a pair of people, and each fact is marked by a single-character tag. Family Echo can also export standard GEDCOM.

Can I import a Family Echo file into FamilyBushes.com?

Yes. Open the editor, go to Import, and upload the file. FamilyBushes.com reads the people, partnerships, parent links, dates and places, and renders them as an interactive family tree you can continue editing.

Will my photos come across from Family Echo?

No. FamilyScript references photos by id rather than embedding them, and Family Echo's own FAQ notes that photos will not be copied across. Your people, relationships, dates and places all come across, and you can add photos again after importing.

What happens to dates where I only know the year?

They are preserved. FamilyScript records partial dates such as "some time in 1953", and FamilyBushes.com keeps them as year-only dates rather than inventing a day and month. Date ranges keep their start date.

Should I download GEDCOM from Family Echo instead?

Either works — FamilyBushes.com imports both. GEDCOM is the better choice if you also want to move your tree into other genealogy programs, since almost all of them read it and almost none read FamilyScript.