Anyone Interested in Genealogy SW for the Mac? I wrote an app

[AHunter3]

I wrote a genealogy application that runs under MacOS (also runs under Windows or for that matter x-platform including as a multi-user environment). I did it for my own purposes but as it has fleshed out I've thought I should find out if there's a market for it. Folks are always complaining about the dearth of MacOS-compatible genealogy sw programs.

Anyone here do genealogy and would be interested in taking it for a test cruise?

[benwiggy]

There are in fact several genealogy programs: commercial, shareware, freeware and open source projects.

I've used Mac Family Tree, GEDItCOM, Generation X, Genealogy Pro, and a couple of others.

Although most of them can handle the database side reasonably well, with GEDCOM import/export, very few if any can draw a traditional Family Tree properly in a compact space.

If yours can do this, then I would be interested in it. However, from your first sentence: is this an actual Mac app, or some browser-based cloud thing?

[AHunter3]

It's a FileMaker runtime actually. Definitely NOT browser-based but it could be published to the web (using FileMaker itself of course).

The family tree is designed to print to PDF. It can run up to 13 pages; here's the "small end" (most recent ancestors):

At the moment it can go back 8 generations (*all* lines from father's father's father's father's father's father's father's father to mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother's mother).

I'm soliciting opinions which includes "gee any decent gen sw ought to be able to do XXX!"

[benwiggy]

What I'm looking for is an app that draws top down, not left to right, and that includes siblings.

It looks like some of the data is being clipped in the boxes? I'd want to display a range of info under each name, e.g.

Johnny Spink
b. Huddersfield 1854
d. France 1904
KIA. SP. *

I'd prefer the marriage info to be written above and below the line between the couple, not tagged onto the wife.

The vertical line from one generation to the next should be drawn half-way between the parents, not emanate from the mother.

I also really want one that will save a PDF of the whole tree on one sheet, rather than paginating it into tiles.

* (Killed in action. SP is Latin for without children.)

Does the program have the option to display photos?

[NovaScotian]

Quote: Originally Posted by AHunter3 I wrote a genealogy application that runs under MacOS (also runs under Windows or for that matter x-platform including as a multi-user environment). I did it for my own purposes but as it has fleshed out I've thought I should find out if there's a market for it. Folks are always complaining about the dearth of MacOS-compatible genealogy sw programs. Anyone here do genealogy and would be interested in taking it for a test cruise?

I'm interested (reluctantly, because my wife will have me do the work).

I assume it is mac based and can be printed easily

[AHunter3]

Quote: Originally Posted by benwiggy What I'm looking for is an app that draws top down, not left to right, and that includes siblings. It looks like some of the data is being clipped in the boxes? I'd want to display a range of info under each name, e.g. Johnny Spink b. Huddersfield 1854 d. France 1904 KIA. SP. * I'd prefer the marriage info to be written above and below the line between the couple, not tagged onto the wife. The vertical line from one generation to the next should be drawn half-way between the parents, not emanate from the mother. I also really want one that will save a PDF of the whole tree on one sheet, rather than paginating it into tiles. * (Killed in action. SP is Latin for without children.)

Just so I know, how much of this is considered "industry standard display" and how much of it is "what benwiggy wants"?

I could indeed have it print a phenomenal amount of info all on one PDF, but you'd have to zoom way way in to read anything if it is also to handle all your ancestors back to the late 1500s and that's without considering the request for siblings.

When you say "includes siblings" do you mean "for the primary person in the dead center of the graph I'd like to include the siblings" or do you mean "it should show that person's siblings and that person's spouse's siblings and the primary person's and spouses' parents' slblings, and the grandparents' siblings on both sides of the family, and their parents' slblings, and 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th etc wifes' or husbands' siblings for people with multiple marriages..." ??

[AHunter3]

Simple writeup here.

[benwiggy]

Quote: Originally Posted by AHunter3 Just so I know, how much of this is considered "industry standard display" and how much of it is "what benwiggy wants"?

Well, most of the hand-drawn pedigree charts I've seen have the lines coming from between the two parents. This allows you to show the situation of who is the father and mother when both parents may had married again. Placing the marriage info on this line also makes successive marriages less confusing.

The single page PDF is obviously a personal requirement.

I am at the moment researching my family's tree, which includes all the cousins and aunts. Back to 1600s with the paternal surname. But also got back to Charlemagne via various maternal lines!

[AHunter3]

Quote: Originally Posted by TruffleDon Does the program have the option to display photos?

I haven't done much aside from a multikey field for holding the IDs of between one and infinite number of photos for a given person-record; the photos themselves would be in a related Photos table, in a container field, or else at a specified URL. Got tied up with other things (I'm not using photos in my OWN family history data set) and never decided which would be the best approach.

Quote: Originally Posted by TruffleDon I assume it is mac based and can be printed easily

The big chart assumes printing to PDF which can then be printed to paper of any specified size. In FileMaker it does this automatically, as a runtime version I'll have to either include some freeware Print to PDF drivers or use a plug-in: the runtime doesn't include the native-FileMaker Save Records as PDF functionality, unfortunately.

List views and form views will of course print easily.

[fazstp]

If it had some sort of search facility where you can enter some names and have it trawl a number of resources to find any links and build the tree for me I'd probably be interested in that side of things. Also rather than trying to display everything I would probably find some sort of interactive format where you can select a node and follow it either direction more useful.

Genealogy does hold some interest for me but I don't have the time to do the searching, especially when you hit a dead end and the search sites start asking for money.

[AHunter3]

Quote: Originally Posted by fazstp If it had some sort of search facility where you can enter some names and have it trawl a number of resources to find any links and build the tree for me I'd probably be interested in that side of things.

Doesn't do that at all. It is totally an environment in which you do data entry of info you HAVE, and totally not a tool for finding the data in the first place.

Quote: Also rather than trying to display everything I would probably find some sort of interactive format where you can select a node and follow it either direction more useful.

It does do that:



Genealogy does hold some interest for me but I don't have the time to do the searching, especially when you hit a dead end and the search sites start asking for money.[/QUOTE]

You're supposed to go to graveyards and libraries and ask your 96 year old great-aunt if you can look in the front of her grampa's family Bible and stuff ilke that.

[tommaso]

Not intending to discourage AHunter3, but there is a decent program out there already, Reunion, which is capable of top-down charts and many other nice functions.
But, hey, they could use some good competition, so go for it!