Gramps (software)

Genealogy software

This article is about genealogy software. For the relative (grandfather), see Grandparent. For other uses, see Gramps (disambiguation).

Gramps

Screenshot of Gramps (v. 5.0.1) with its fan chart and the Given name cloud gramplet on the bottom.

Original author(s)| Don Allingham[1][2]
Developer(s)| The Gramps Team[3]
Initial release| April 21, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-04-21)[4]
Stable release|

6.0.1[5] / 18 April 2025

Repository|

* github.com/gramps-project/gramps

Written in| Python (GTK+ 3)
Operating system| Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, macOS[6]
Platform| GTK+ 3
Available in| Multilingual (40) [7]
Type| Genealogy software
License| GPL-2.0-or-later[8]
Website| gramps-project.org

Gramps, formerly GRAMPS (an acronym for Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System),[2] is a free and open-source genealogy software.[9] It is developed in Python using PyGObject and utilizes Graphviz to create relationship graphs.

Gramps represents a form of commons-based peer production,[10] created by genealogists for genealogists.[10][11] Beyond human family trees, the software has been used to create animal pedigree charts[12] and academic genealogies that map mentoring relationships among scientists, physicians, and scholars.[13]

## Features

[edit]

Gramps is a widely used offline genealogy software suite.[14] Its features include:

* Support for multiple languages and cultural contexts,[15] including patronymic, matronymic, and multiple surname systems.

* Full Unicode compatibility.

* Relationship calculators,[16] which accommodate language-specific relationship terminologies that lack direct translations in other languages.

* The ability to generate reports in various formats, such as .odt, LaTeX, .pdf, .rtf, .html, and .txt.

* Tools for creating a wide range of reports and charts, including relationship graphs of large, complex acyclic charts.[17]

* Extendability through more than 10 types of plugins. These plugins include Gramplets and Views; Gramplets provide dynamic or interactive views of data within the main Gramps interface.[18]

* An event-centric documentation approach, similar to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model used by many cultural heritage institutions.[19]

* A "sanity check" feature that flags improbable events, such as births involving individuals at unlikely ages.[2]

* Support for multiple calendar systems, including Gregorian, Julian, and Islamic calendars.[20]

* Comprehensive programmer's API documentation, with free and open-source code made publicly available[21]

## File format

[edit]

Gramps XML[22]Filename extension|

.gramps

|

Internet media type|

application/x-gramps-xml[23]

Developed by| Gramps
Initial release| 2004; 21 years ago (2004)
Latest release|

1.7.2
19 March 2025; 50 days ago (2025-03-19)

Type of format| Genealogy data exchange
Extended from| XML
Website| gramps-project.org/xml/

The core archival file format of Gramps is named Gramps XML and uses the file extension .gramps. It is extended from XML. Gramps XML is a free format, and its files are usually compressed using gzip.[24] The file format Portable Gramps XML Package uses the extension .gpkg and is currently a .tar.gz archive including Gramps XML together with all referenced media. Users may rename the file extension .gramps to .gz for editing the content of the genealogy document with a text editor. Internally, Gramps uses SQLite as the default database backend, with other databases available as plugins.[25]

Gramps can import from the following formats:[26] Gramps XML, Gramps Package (Portable Gramps XML), Gramps 2.x .grdb (older versions Gramps), GEDCOM, CSV.

Gramps supports exporting data in the following formats: Gramps XML, Gramps Package (Portable Gramps XML), GEDCOM, GeneWeb's GW format,[27] Web Family Tree (.WFT) format,[28] vCard, vCalendar, CSV.

### Programs that support Gramps XML

[edit]

* Gramps Web is a collaborative web app built on the core of Gramps itself and supports Gramps XML import and export[29]
* Betty by Bart Feenstra generates static websites from Gramps XML and Gramps XML Package files as alternatives to GEDCOM.[30]
* PhpGedView (version 4.1 and up) supports[31] output to Gramps XML.
* The Gramps PHP component JoomlaGen for Joomla uses an upload of the GRAMPS XML database export to show genealogical information and overviews. JoomlaGen is compatible with GRAMPS 3.3.0.[32]
* The script tmg2gramps by Anne Jessel converts The Master Genealogist v6 genealogy software datafile to a Gramps v2.2.6 XML.[33]

## Languages

[edit]

Gramps is available in 45 languages[7][34] (As of December 2014).

Gramps has two special-use sub-translation languages:

* Animal pedigree which allows to keep track of the pedigree and breed of animals[35]
* Same gender/sex which gives the option of removing gender-biased verbiage from reports.[36]

## Release history

[edit]

The project began as GRAMPS in 2001, and the first stable release was in 2004.[9]

The following table shows a selected history of new feature releases for project. (Patches and bug fixes are published on GitHub and periodically collated in minor "bug fix" releases.)[37][38][39]

Version  | Release date  | Name  | Comment

|
|
|

GRAMPS 1.0.0 | 2004-02-11 | "Stable as a Tombstone" | Used XML to store all information. (Don originally called the program Relativity before his father suggested the name GRAMPS (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System))
GRAMPS 2.0.0 | 2005-05-11 | "The Bright Side of Life" | Introduction of the Berkeley database backend.
GRAMPS 2.0.8 | 2005-09-05 | "Romani ite domum" | First port to Macintosh OSX posted to MacPorts.
GRAMPS 2.2.1 | 2006-10-30 | "One, two, five!" | Originally only available for Unix-like operating systems, with this release GRAMPS became available for Windows.
GRAMPS 3.0.0 | 2008-03-24 | "It was just getting interesting." | Introduced the new Family Tree database format .gpkg and deprecated the old .grdb database format. Plugin system called "Gramplets".
Gramps 3.2.0 | 2010-04-15 | "I am your father" | Name changed from GRAMPS. New management system for plugins, performance optimization, hierarchical place list, and map plotting view.
Gramps 3.4.0 | 2012-05-21 | "Always look on the bright side of life" | Replaced Source References with Citations that allow sharing and can have media objects and 'data' elements attached to them. The Gramps XML Specification was updated to make it idempotent.
Gramps 4.0.0 | 2013-05-21 | "The Miracle of Birth" | Conversion to GTK+ 3, add support for Python 3. Keeps the same data format as Gramps 3.4.
Gramps 4.1.0 | 2014-06-18 | "Name go in book" | Full Python 3 support. New place hierarchies model.[40] Different data format to the Gramps 3.4 series.
Gramps 4.2.0 | 2015-08-03 |  | Python 3 support only (Python 2 support dropped).[41] Different data format to the GRAMPS 3.4 series.
Gramps 5.0.0 | 2018-07-24  |  | Python 3.2+ only / GTK 3.10+ / BSDDB 3 (Default backend) / SQLite3 (Experimental backend)
Gramps 5.1.0 | 2019-08-21  |  | Python 3.3+ only / GTK 3.12+ / SQLite3 (Default backend) / BSDDB 3 (Legacy backend)
Gramps 5.2.0 | 2024-02-23  |  | Python 3.8+ only / GTK 3.24+ / SQLite3 / BSDDB 3 (Read-only for upgrades)
Gramps 6.0.0 | 2025-03-19  |  | Python 3.9+ only / GTK 3.24+ / SQLite3 / BSDDB 3 (Read-only for upgrades)

* Full history of previous releases.[37][38][42]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Allingham, Don (21 April 2006). "Looking Back Over 5 Years". Gramps blog.
2. ^ a b c Wayner, Peter (22 April 2004). "From Shared Resources, Your Personal History". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 11 May 2021. "More than a dozen different genealogical database programs are available from a variety of vendors. Hall uses the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System, or, GRAMPS. Like other such software, Gramps – which is free – enables people to enter data about their ancestors and produces charts, documents and Web pages from the information."
3. ^ "Contributors". Github.
4. ^ "History of Gramps". Gramps Wiki.
5. ^ "Release 6.0.1". 18 April 2025. Retrieved 24 April 2025.
6. ^ "Installation". Gramps wiki.
7. ^ a b "Gramps translations". Gramps Wiki.
8. ^ "Project License - Gramps". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
9. ^ a b Peric, Vladimir (16 July 2014). "Genealogy research with Gramps". Linux Weekly News.
10. ^ a b Leister, Wolfgang; Christophersen, Nils Damm; Tsiavos, Prodromos; Groven, Arne-Kristian; Heggestøyl, Simen; Rødskog, Daniel; Haaland, Kirsten; Glott, Rüdiger; Tannenberg, Anna; Darbousset-Chong, Xavier (2014). ""INF5780 Compendium Autumn 2014: Open Source, Open Collaboration and Innovation"" (PDF). Norsk Regnesentral. doi:10.13140/2.1.1322.6887. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2021.
11. ^ "Who Do They Think They Are?". The Checkout. 23 April 2015. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC TV. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021.
12. ^ "Les pedigrees des Dogo Canario" [The Pedigrees of the Canary Island Dog]. Les pedigrees des Dogo Canario. l'Association Francaise du Dogo Canario. 5 March 2010. Archived from the original on 21 October 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2021. "Généré par GRAMPS"
13. ^ Pecchioli, Yael; Jamieson, Mary Anne (2015). "The North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology Fellowship Family Tree". J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 28 (6): 427–432\. doi:10.1016/j.jpag.2014.12.006. PMID 26349446. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
14. ^ Maddra, C.A.; Hawick, K.A. (April 2016). "Domain Modelling and Language Issues for Family History and Near-Tree Graph Data Applications" (PDF). Int'l Conf. Software Eng. Research and Practice (SERP'16). ISBN 978-1-60132-446-7. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
15. ^ "Features". Gramps wiki.
16. ^ "Relationship Calculator". Gramps wiki.
17. ^ Marik, Radek (2006). On Large Genealogical Graph Layouts (PDF). ITAT 2016 Proceedings, CEUR Workshop Proceedings. Vol. 1649\. pp. 218–225. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
18. ^ "Gramplets". Gramps Wiki.
19. ^ Häyrinen, Ari (2008). A Template Based, Event-Centric Documentation Framework (PDF). 2008 Annual Conference of CIDOC. Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 May 2021.
20. ^ "Gramps". Gizmo's Freeware. Gizmo Richards. 24 January 2017. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
21. ^ "Gramps API documentation". Gramps-Project website.
22. ^ "Gramps XML". Gramps Wiki.
23. ^ "Generate XML". Gramps Wiki.
24. ^ "How to make a backup". Gramps wiki.
25. ^ "Database Formats". Gramps wiki. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
26. ^ "Import from another program". Gramps wiki.
27. ^ "The GW format". GeneWeb. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
28. ^ Web Family Tree Archived 29 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine \- simonward.com
29. ^ "Gramps Web". Retrieved 29 July 2023.
30. ^ Feenstra, Bart. "betty". betty. Python Package Index. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
31. ^ PhpGedView @ Neumont University \-
*Clippings Cart (v4.1)
** Add option to zip the GEDCOM/Gramps XML with the associated media files Gramps XML
*Gramps XML (v4.1)
** Add option to download entire GEDCOM in Gramps XML form
** Add option to retrieve raw data from the SOAP web service in Gramps XML format
** Gramps XML export support to include full source and media support

32. ^ "JoomlaGen". SourceForge. 22 June 2014.
33. ^ Jessel, Anne. "tmg2gramps". tmg2gramps. Coherent Software Australia Pty Ltd. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
34. ^ "Gramps".
35. ^ Animal pedigree, Gramps Wiki
36. ^ 0003346: Same gender relationship reports Gramps Bugtracker
37. ^ a b Releases · gramps-project/gramps, GitHub
38. ^ a b gramps-announce \- SourceForge.net
39. ^ Gramps (software) on SourceForge
40. ^ "Place hierarchies". Gramps 4.1 Wiki Manual - What's new?.
41. ^ "Enhanced Place Editor and new Place Name editor and added PlaceNames (with Date and Language) Place". Gramps 4.2 Wiki Manual - What's new?.
42. ^ "Previous releases of Gramps". Gramps Wiki.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gramps.

* Free and open-source software portal

* Official website
* Gramps wiki site
* Gramps database formats
* Gramps-project on GitHub \- Source code
* Gramps (software) on SourceForge \- Mailing List
* Reviews on Gramps
* Genealogy research with Gramps. LWN.net 2014.

This article contains text from the GNU GPL Gramps Manual V2.9.

* v
* t
* e

Genealogy software

Open source|

| Desktop|

* Family.Show
* GenealogyJ
* Gramps
* LifeLines

|

Web-based|

* GeneWeb
* Gramps Web
* PhpGedView
* webtrees

Freeware|

| Desktop|

* Ancestral Quest (Windows)
* Genealogica Grafica (Windows)
* Legacy Family Tree (Windows)
* Personal Ancestral File (discontinued)
* RootsMagic Essentials (Windows & Mac OS)

|

Retail software|

| Desktop|

* Ancestral Quest (Windows)
* Brother's Keeper (Windows)
* Family Historian (Windows)
* Family Tree Maker (Windows & Mac OS)
* Genbox Family History (Windows)
* GenoPro (Windows)
* Kith and Kin Pro (Windows)
* GEDitCOM (Mac OS)
* MacFamilyTree (Mac OS & iOS)
* Personal Ancestral File (Mac OS)
* Reunion (Mac OS & iOS)
* RootsMagic (Windows & Mac OS)
* The Master Genealogist (Windows)
* TreeDraw (Windows)

|

Web-based|

TNG

Software as a
service (SaaS)|

| Free/web-based|

* FamilySearch
* Rodovid
* WeRelate
* WikiTree

|

Retail/web-based|

* Ancestry.com
* Findmypast
* GenealogyBank
* Geneanet
* Genes Reunited
* Geni.com
* MyHeritage

DNA services|

* 23andMe
* AncestryDNA
* FamilyTreeDNA
* Living DNA
* MyHeritage DNA

General|

* Comparison of genealogy software
* Comparison of web-based genealogy software
* Family tree mapping
* GEDCOM
* Genealogy websites

* Category

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template