YOU’LL NEED THIS

GRAMPS A free open-source tool ( https://gramps-project.org ), plus access to your family tree, photos, and any research notes (including documentary evidence).

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW your family history? What interesting stories are hidden away? There’s never a bad time to start digging, and once you’ve mined family members for their own tales and memories about your forebears, you can embark on a more rigorous search for information using the rich online resources at your disposal from the likes of Ancestry and MyHeritage.

The question remains, however, as to how you bring all this research together in a single place for easy recording, retrieval, and sharing with others. You’ll find plenty of paid-for options, such as Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic, but why spend money when Gramps is free, opensource, and contains all the tools you need to not just record the dry facts, but also inject some color into your ancestors with the help of space for stories, your family photos collection, and the ability to pinpoint key locations from your family’s past on a map?

Gramps can be a little overwhelming when you first launch it, but this tutorial will help you navigate the program to bring all the salient facts, stories, and photos that make up your family’s history under one roof.

–NICK PEERS

1GET STARTED

Head over to https://gramps-project.org/blog/download/ and click the ‘Download Gramps’ link to access links for all supported platforms, including both installer and portable versions for Windows. In most cases you’ll be installing the 64-bit version, so download that and double-click it to launch the installer.

» During setup, click Run anyway if the Smartscreen filter pops up, and when prompted to select components during the setup process, expand Dictionaries to ensure en-US is checked before clicking Next. Once installation completes, click Finish and wait for Gramps to launch.

» Three windows will open (one of which should quickly close). Make sure the Family Trees—Gramps window is in the foreground, and click New to create your tree. Rename it as required, and double-click it to open it in the Dashboard window, which you’ll likely need to resize before continuing.

2INSERT FIRST PERSON

You’ll find yourself at the main Gramps dashboard, which is basically a multi-paned window that can be customized (see the annotation for details). Let’s start by building your tree. Gramps showcases the basic structure employed by most family history programs: you create individuals (People), then link them (Relationships) to their immediate relatives as part of parent/ children groups (Families).