[Solved] Would like to make a family tree

[hellraiser69]

i would like to see a template for family trees. as i am trying to make my family tree offline

[RoryOF]

It might be simpler to look for a (free?) Family Tree application. A quick search found this

https://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder

[hellraiser69]

i was trying to use this program

[RoryOF]

A ready made application is ready to go; using OpenOffice you may need to have in-depth knowledge of its working, and even then not succeed.

There are some templates at

https://templates.openoffice.org/en/sea ... amily+tree

I haven't tried these.

[Hagar Delest]

https://gramps-project.org/blog/

[hellraiser69]

thank you very much

[PurplePix]

The discussion started with “I would like to make a Family Tree”, with the desire to keep it off line.

I 2016 I was in the same position, and pretty much got all the same responses that have been given to 'hellraiser69'. Now I am not a programmer and have taught myself how to use spreadsheets. Being told to build a database or use a commercial Family tree does not come without issues. The problem with building one, I couldn't find enough good instructions to learn how to build a data base. The commercial ones even when free, there is always their desire to get access to your data. A Family tree has much private information, that many of us would like to limit who gets access to that information

I looked at a few commercial ones and even Gramps, the main issue for me was the interface and user experience. My brother had started a small Family Tree years ago on paper, and it was easy to see and look at the data for two generations.

A Family Tree is a collection of data, the real advantage is being able to build on that data and output reports that clearly show that data in a logical and readable form.

A simple Family Tree that only tracks the Fathers line, even through multi generations doesn't amount to a large amount of data. Expanding your Family Tree through siblings and cousins can soon turn it into a Family Forest. Open Office has Templates, but they are in fact simple sheets with data laid out in readable form.

Having time and access to family information that went back multiple generations, I decided to push forward with my spreadsheet to see what was possible. Approaching 100 people it made sense to make a People and Family sheet for data entry. The data in the sheets although valuable there was a need to auto extract that data to a report with the least effort possible. To make that happen I went cell by cell creating a formula to extract the required data for a whole sheet, with the entry of a family or person number. This would be similar to generating a report in a database, except again not enough good information or examples, unlike Calc that has some help in building formulas.

I have been back to the forum a number of times, when I was stuck or needed a creative solution to a problem I was facing. Some of the solutions I didn't understand or didn't quite get the result I was looking for, and might be days or weeks to understand how they work or how to make them work.

Like any project as it advances, you see opportunities to make it better. One of these was to add images of the people on some of the reports. Yes I was told that was impossible and outside the intent of Calc. This did require that I have a small database, that meant learning SQL and other things to finally make it happen.

Initially I set up for 999 people and 750 Families, a few years ago it required and upgrade to 1500 people. I currently have just over 1100 people and just over 450 families. The Display sheet is a family with all available data for Father, Mother, up to 20 Siblings with up to four relationships each, Grandparent Family Number. People and Family numbers are displayed that helps navigating through Families . Your tree is a graphical tree showing a family, their children and five generations on both sides where information exists. Who is Sheet is for each person, so for non married/partnered people it is a place to retrieve information on any one recorded. Expanded tree 2 is a sheet to look at one or two families at the same time. Lineage sheet shows Family and children plus four generations of parents on each side. Photos are possible on Display, Who is and Lineage_2.

Chris who helped me has a Family Tree on Family Tree with Images t=105062 and I am currently exploring his Database, which is very different than my approach. He has encountered the same issue as I have in Base when entering data or scrolling through records, the work around it to go to the last record (mine is 1500) then you are free to scroll through the records.

My brother an I live in different cities and use the same family tree, I just requested his latest copy and I have a spreadsheet that compares our data so we can correct any mistakes or add missed information. Before increasing from 999 to 1500 people he was using an Excel version while I used an Open Office version (I only had access to an old version of Excel and increasing the size became impossible for me).

I know there is a need out there for a simple solution for private use, I did reach out to 'hellraiser69' but didn't get a reply.

I have documentation and there is a few new things added as I get fresh ideas.

PurplePix (I drive a purple 69 Cougar and photograph as a life long hobby)

[keme]

Perhaps a bit late for the OP, but anyway, here goes ... I was into genealogy some years ago. At the time I used two different offline tools.

For data collection
Brother's keeper (BK) is software to manage your data. It stores everything locally on your computer, Licensed copy costs a little, but that comes with lifetime license/updates. Data can be exported to/from various formats, for wordprocessing and also GEDCOM for data interchange with other systems, off- and online.

BK is for Windows only, but the version I tried (v4 I think) ran without any problem on WINE, in Linux and FreeBSD. Never tried it on MacOS.

For tree display
The graphic reports from BK were fine but a bit limited, but OpenOffice Draw was sufficient for my needs. I would enter content manually, fetched from BK. The use of text boxes, grouping, text and object styles and connector lines helped to make the task manageable.

[PurplePix]

One of the challenges is like you say, how to manage the data collection. The other challenge is most information from today back 100 years is protected by privacy laws and difficult to research on the internet. Any one looking to do a Family tree should take the time to speak with older living parents and relatives, before they take all their information to the grave.

A Family tree what ever you use should fit your needs and be flexible. There should always be a paper trail of documents and other important facts. A Family Tree is like that Family photo album that shows the history of growing up.

[Hagar Delest]

I agree with keme that there are 2 aspects.
For the data collection, why reinvent the wheel? You can't avoid using a database, else, you'll face issues with the growth of the volume.
For the tree display, the best I found was Genopro. When standard application with a great interface for data collection are limited in the viewing possibilities, Genopro gives the whole thing. The only trouble is that when your database is huge, rearranging the branches can take a long time. Thus, I merely export the database in GEDCOM and then import it in Genopro. Printing it is another matter!

[PurplePix]

I do admit that my Calc system has a limit, but for the average person going back more than four or five generations would seem pointless unless you were trying to make a connection to someone important generations ago.

I did take a quick look at GenoPro, and first impression it wouldn't be my first choice, here is a brief description of my initial experience entering one family.
GenoPro enter test family, return takes you out of the wizard, fortunately there is an undo.

Father & Mother accepted YYYY-MM-DD but adding first child needed DD-MM-YYYY. Drop down list for family name, required selection from list before DOB could be entered. Entry form allows for twins but no other multiple births.

Into help file and it says GenoPro is intuitively easy to learn , it also says if this is the first time Click here to start, it would have been nice to know that first. With one family I saved the file, when I closed the program it wanted my to save it again.

You talk about why reinvent the wheel, if that hadn't been done by someone the wheel may not be round or even invented.

Moderators and contributors make this forum a valuable resource, for those people who like me become stuck trying to find a different or better way of doing a simple task – kind of like reinventing the wheel. Part of the reason we get stuck is the absence of or the inability to find good understandable documentation. I said earlier a solution for my questions have been provided, sometimes it takes time to use the solution because I/we just don't understand what appears to be simple to the solution giver.

When we stop reinventing the wheel, that will be the end of progress, had that happened years ago we might still all be walking from place to place.

[PurplePix]

Today I went searching the internet for Family Trees, there are the commercial big guys, and what I found is many people (I suspect at a beginning point) looking for something smaller.

There is a lot of copy and paste or enter into flat templates with no real automation or self generation. There are a lot of people looking to put something together in a spread sheet, that is where I was in 2018 when I started my project. Here we are in 2024 and I have a working spreadsheet that will meet the needs of many people. Because it is in Open Office, I believe it would boost the profile of Open Office that many have said has lost it's luster.

Now I know, a spreadsheet may not be considered the best solution but, if I was able to load it to the Forum I would, except I understand there are upload limits which I believe prevent uploading.

I am looking for a way I can share my work so others can benefit from the time I have put in.

The Family Tree Spreadsheet – A stand alone with more capabilities when added to the Database 1.82MB
Database that adds pictures to the spreadsheet when activated 11.1MB
Instructions that need revisions 225KB

The Family Tree has two data collection sheets, 'People' where Birth and Death dates, Surname and other names, Childof, Mother or Father of Family, Birth & Death Place, Data source, individual personal notes, Step Child of Family# plus six document references are all entered when information is available. The other sheet is 'Families' where Father & Mothers ID, Date of Marriage, Place and Data source are entered.

The extraction spreadsheets, Display (Family), Your tree, Who is, Extended Tree 2 Lineage & Lineage_2 do full extraction from People & Families filling all cells where information is available with ether a single Family or Person number – no macros are used. Extraction is done with complex formulas.

If there is no place on the Forum for this, please direct me to a place where I can share it.

[robleyd]

Perhaps https://templates.openoffice.org/ might be a suitable place.

[PurplePix]

I did look there, I believe *.ods & *.odb are not acceptable file types (*.odt , *.ods or *.odp)

[MrProgrammer]

Spreadsheet: 1.82MB
Database: 11.1MB
Instructions: 225KB
If there is no place on the Forum for this, please direct me to a place where I can share it.

File-hosting service
Pick a service, put your files there, and provide a link to them. You could pick a new service, or use an existing service but a new account for this project. Almost any file hosting service will provide 20 MB in the free tier. It is your responsibiilty to:
• set the access to your files on the service as Public so that no account and no password is needed to download them
• review their documentation which says how long files can remain on the service without being accessed
• ensure that you have backups of your files; don't depend on others to backup important files for free
• access your account occasionally to verify that the service is still active and your files are accessible.

If this solved your problem please go to your first post use the Edit ☐ button and add [Solved] to the start of the Subject field. Select the green checkmark icon at the same time.

[PurplePix]

Thank you I took your suggestion, all the necessary files including instructions can be downloaded from this link https://www.mediafire.com/folder/j5n5wl ... amily_Tree

Family Tree in Open Office Calc.