Research and Organize Your Family Tree With Gramps

by Lisa Hoover - Mar. 29, 2010Comments (1)

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Trace Your Roots With GRAMPS

Thanks to web sites like Facebook and Classmates, getting in touch with your past is all the rage right now. If you want to go way back, though, and research your genealogy, you'll need a way to keep everything organized. Gramps is a free, open open source application that's easy enough for hobbyists to use, yet full-featured enough for professional genealogists.

Gramps has a mile-long feature list of ways to help you organize and analyze the data you gather on your family history. Use it to record the details of individual people in your family, and also manage the intricate relationships found in your family tree.

Filters let you display the individuals in your database in a variety of preset or customized ways. Choose birthdate, name, date of death, event, or create your own.

In a diverse family history, just keeping up with the geographical locations of your ancestors can be a challenge. Gramps lets you view all the places listed in your database and sort them according to city, state, county, and more.

Gramps can handle just about any kind of media you throw at it, including images, videos, documents, and sound clips. When you're ready to access it, the app lets you filter it several different ways so you can easily find what you need.

One of the reasons genealogy software is so important is because it helps you track and make sense of all the raw data you accumulate during research. The app's Notes feature helps you manage stray bits of information like transcripts or reminders, and puts it in a searchable formats for easy retrieval.

Gramps has a lot more features that make a solid option for genealogy researchers or people who are just curious about their ancestors. It's licensed under the General Public License (GPL), and runs on Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.