Family trees

I’ve avoided trying to present family trees here until now because I didn’t have a clue how to go about it in a way that would be easily viewed on a normal-sized computer screen. In fact, I don’t think there is a satisfactory way. However, I’ve decided to take the plunge anyway. I’ve started uploading the data I have on my relatives, ancestors and connections into a Webtrees server.

Webtrees is a sophisticated piece of software that uses PHP (whatever that is) to display genealogical data in a variety of ways.  Family tree data is stored in a database, so you can track down the details of a specific individual in a database browser. You can also view a tree-type diagram showing the ancestors and descendants of any individual in the database. And Webtrees will also do useful things like working out the relationship between two different people in the database. It can produce reports of various kinds and display things such as fan charts that I don’t understand at all but which might be useful to someone I suppose.

It’s also possible to export data to a GEDCOM file (a widely compatible format for transferring genealogical data – but if you need to be told that you probably don’t care what it is). This is done by collecting individuals and groups of people as “clippings” in your “clippings cart”. Unfortunately this procedure won’t export any media files that may be associated with the individuals selected, only the data I’ve entered, which is (I hope) usually correct. But help yourself if you want to do this. Disseminating information more widely is what this site is for.

Living family members are not identified to casual visitors. Anyone wanting to gain access to the full available data will have to sign up for an account (click the login link at the top right of the page) and if I know who they are I may be persuaded to allow it. If anyone would care to be given a login that will allow them to edit and add to the existing data here, they need only ask. If I know and trust them I’ll allow it. But I won’t be expecting a stampede.

Finally, an apology. As it stands, the Webtrees pages are plug ugly. I can’t be bothered to fiddle around with them at this stage though. Maybe one day I’ll make them look pretty …

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