For the technically minded — a look under the bonnet at how Pedigree Forge is built, the file formats it uses, and what it can handle.
Pedigree Forge is a native desktop application written in modern C++ (the C++23 standard). It is built directly against the Win32 API, with no heavyweight runtime or framework dependency — it has no external dependencies beyond the operating system itself and can be run simply by launching the program.
The application was written with portability in mind. The same codebase also compiles under macOS (AppleClang) and Linux (GCC); these ports are experimental and not currently offered for download. It has additionally been compiled to WebAssembly, which is what powers the in-browser demo.
Pedigree Forge requires a 64-bit PC running Windows 11 or Windows 10 (updated to at least version 1903). It will not run on macOS, iOS, Android or other systems.
The program can be used just by running the executable. However, an installer is also available that sets it up properly in the system — adding shortcuts to the desktop and start menu, and registering the .ped and .pedb file types to open with Pedigree Forge. The default installer uses Microsoft’s MSIX package format, which supports automatic updates; a more traditional executable installer is available on request.
Pedigree Forge can use two different data models: flat files or a database.
Pedigree Forge uses files with the extension .ped (for “pedigree”). Internally a .ped file has the same structure as a modern GEDCOM file, but makes use of many extensions. Because the crucial information conforms to version 5.5.1 of the GEDCOM standard, there is a good chance that — even many years from now — a .ped file could still be opened by another product with its key data intact.
Safeguards are in place to prevent corruption when saving: the file is first written to a temporary path, then atomically renamed over the original. Regular backups are still recommended, and can be made from within the program.
Pedigree Forge can also work in database mode, connected to an SQLite database. In this mode, changes are written back to the database as soon as they are made, so there is no need to save.
The program has been used routinely with files containing a few thousand people and several hundred sources, with no slowdown in performance.
It has been stress-tested with files containing tens and hundreds of thousands of individuals, and some containing over a million. It does start to feel a little laggy handling files with more than a couple of hundred thousand people that carry realistic data such as source citations and facts. As a rough guide, loading a file of two hundred thousand people takes a couple of seconds.
Pedigree Forge supports user-written scripts in the Lua programming language, for automation, custom reports and bespoke data queries. Three kinds of script are supported: tool scripts (in the Tools menu), report scripts (which produce typeset narrative content through the same engine as the built-in reports), and query scripts (which produce tabular results). Scripts can even build their own interactive dialog windows, with fields bound directly to genealogy records.
A SQL-like query language lets you search, filter and explore your data without writing scripts — across people, families, facts, sources, archives and places. Results can be shown as a read-only table, an editable grid, or a detail view, and exported to PDF, CSV, TSV or HTML.
Dates are handled with genealogical rigour. As well as the Gregorian calendar, Pedigree Forge understands the Julian, French Republican and Hebrew calendars, and a wide range of date forms — single dates, periods, ranges, GRO registration quarters, terms, decades, regnal years and free-form phrases.
Dual dates (where the historical year began on a date other than 1 January) are recognised and validated with awareness of local practice — for example, the change of style happened at different times in Scotland and in England.
GEDCOM files can be imported and exported, making it straightforward to move data to and from other genealogy software. Pedigree Forge can theoretically open a relatively modern GEDCOM file directly, though some data may be lost depending on the extensions used — importing is recommended instead.
Charts can be exported as PDF, SVG, PNG, JPG and BMP, and there is also an option to produce an HTML chart. PDF is the most reliable export and the recommended choice. Reports can be exported as PDF or HTML.