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[4] |
Stable release | 5.1.5[5] ![]() |
Repository | |
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 |
Gramps (formerly GRAMPS, an acronym for Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System)[2] is a free and open source genealogy software.[9] Gramps is programmed in Python using PyGObject. It uses Graphviz to create relationship graphs.
Gramps is a rare example of commons-based peer production[10] as free and open-source software created by genealogists, for genealogists.[10][11] It has been described as intuitive[11] and easy-to-use[12] for hobbyists and "feature-complete for professional genealogists".[11] The program is acknowledged as the "most popular FOSS program for genealogy" by Eastman[11] and others.[12] The Australian consumer advocacy group, CHOICE, has recommended Gramps.[13][14]
The program is extensible such that, in addition to human family trees, it has been used to create animal pedigree charts[15] as well as academic genealogy showing mentoring relationships between scientists, physicians, and scholars.[16]
Gramps is one of the biggest offline genealogy suites available.[17] Features include:
Filename extension |
.gramps |
---|---|
Internet media type |
application/x-gramps-xml[26] |
Developed by | Gramps |
Initial release | 2004 |
Latest release | 1.7.1 18 August 2015 |
Type of format | Genealogy data exchange |
Extended from | XML |
Website | gramps-project |
Filename extension |
.gpkg |
---|---|
Type code | .tar.gz archive |
Developed by | Gramps |
Type of format | Genealogy data exchange |
Container for | Gramps XML and referenced media |
The core export 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. Gramps usually compresses Gramps XML files with gzip.[27] 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. The user 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.[28]
Gramps can import from the following formats:[29] 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,[30] Web Family Tree (.WFT) format,[31] vCard, vCalendar, CSV.
Gramps is available in 45 languages[7][36] (December 2014).
Gramps also has two special use sub-translation languages:
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.)[39][40][41]
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 2.2.1 | 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, 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.[42] Different data format to the Gramps 3.4 series. |
Gramps 4.2.0 | 2015-08-03 | Python 3 support only (Python 2 support dropped).[43] 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) |