This article is about genealogy software. For the relative, see Grandparent. For other uses, see Gramps (disambiguation).
Gramps
ScreenshotFan-chart-example-gramps5.0.1win10.png
AuthorDon Allingham[1][2]
DeveloperThe Gramps Team[3]
Released21 April 2001 (age 25)[4]
Latest release version6.0.8
Latest release date9 April 2026[5]
Latest preview version6.1.0-beta1
Latest preview date21 April 2026[6]
Programming languagePython
Operating systemLinux, BSD, Solaris, Microsoft Windows, macOS[7]
PlatformGTK
LanguageMultilingual[8]
GenreGenealogy software
LicenseGPL-2.0-or-later[9]
Websitegramps-project.org
Repogithub.com/gramps-project/gramps

Gramps, formerly GRAMPS (Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System), is free and open-source genealogy software. It is written in Python, uses PyGObject and GTK, and is developed by the Gramps project.

Gramps is designed for offline family-history research, including entry of people, families, events, sources, citations, places, media, and notes. It can generate reports and relationship graphs, supports plugins called Gramplets, and stores its archival exchange format as Gramps XML. It also includes special-use translation sets for contexts such as animal pedigrees and same-gender relationship reporting.

History

Gramps was created by Don Allingham and began as a Linux genealogy program named GRAMPS.[1][2] The project began in 2001, and the first stable 1.0 release was published in 2004.[4][12] The name was later changed from the all-capitals acronym GRAMPS to Gramps.[13]

The project has been developed by a volunteer contributor community.[3] LWN.net described Gramps in 2014 as a mature free software genealogy application with a plugin system, report generation, and support for multiple genealogy data formats.[12] The software has also been discussed as an example of commons-based peer production by genealogists and for genealogists.[14]

Features

Gramps provides tools for recording people, families, events, places, sources, citations, repositories, media, and notes. It supports multiple naming conventions and cultural contexts, including patronymic, matronymic, and multiple-surname systems.[15] The program also includes relationship calculators and consistency checks for improbable events.[16][2]

Reports can be generated in formats including OpenDocument Text, PDF, RTF, HTML, LaTeX, and plain text. Gramps can also create charts and relationship graphs for large family trees.[17] Its plugin system supports additional views, tools, reports, importers, exporters, and Gramplets, which are dynamic widgets shown inside the main interface.[18]

The software uses an event-centric documentation model similar to approaches used in cultural heritage documentation.[19] It is multilingual and includes special-use translations for animal pedigrees and same-gender relationship reporting.[8][20][21]

File format

Gramps XML[11]
Extension.gramps
Mimeapplication/x-gramps-xml[10]
OwnerGramps
Released2004 (age 22)
Latest release version1.7.2
Latest release date19 March 2025
GenreGenealogy data exchange
Extended fromXML

The core archival file format of Gramps is named Gramps XML and uses the file extension .gramps. It is based on XML, and its files are usually compressed with gzip.[22] The Portable Gramps XML Package format uses the extension .gpkg and stores Gramps XML together with referenced media. Internally, Gramps uses SQLite as the default database backend, with other database backends available as plugins.[23]

Gramps can import Gramps XML, Portable Gramps XML Package files, older Gramps database files, GEDCOM, and CSV.[24] It can export Gramps XML, Portable Gramps XML Package files, GEDCOM, GeneWeb's GW format, Web Family Tree format, vCard, vCalendar, and CSV.[25][26]

Programs that support Gramps XML

Several genealogy tools and converters support Gramps XML or related Gramps export formats, including:

  • Gramps Web, a collaborative web application built on the core of Gramps itself, which supports Gramps XML import and export.[27]
  • Betty, a static-site generator that can use Gramps XML and Gramps XML Package files as alternatives to GEDCOM.[28]
  • PhpGedView, which added support for Gramps XML output in version 4.1.[29]
  • JoomlaGen, a Joomla component that used Gramps XML exports to display genealogical information.[30]
  • tmg2gramps, a converter for data from The Master Genealogist.[31]

Languages

Gramps is translated by volunteers and tracks its translations through Weblate.[8][32] In addition to ordinary interface translations, the project has supported special-use translation sets for animal pedigrees and same-gender relationship reports.[20][21]

Release history

The following table shows selected major feature releases. Patch and bug-fix releases are published through the project's release channels.[33][13]

VersionRelease dateNotes
GRAMPS 1.0.011 February 2004First stable release; used XML to store data.[13]
GRAMPS 2.0.011 May 2005Introduced Berkeley DB as a database backend.[13]
GRAMPS 2.2.130 October 2006Made the application available for Windows as well as Unix-like systems.[13]
GRAMPS 3.0.024 March 2008Introduced the Gramps Package format and the Gramplets plugin system.[13]
Gramps 3.2.015 April 2010Changed the project name from GRAMPS to Gramps and added a new plugin management system.[13]
Gramps 4.0.021 May 2013Converted the interface to GTK 3 and added support for Python 3.[13]
Gramps 4.2.03 August 2015Dropped Python 2 support.[34]
Gramps 5.1.021 August 2019Made SQLite the default database backend.[13]
Gramps 5.2.023 February 2024Required Python 3.8 or later and GTK 3.24 or later.[13]
Gramps 6.0.019 March 2025Began the 6.0 series; required Python 3.9 or later and continued the SQLite-based database line.[13]
Gramps 6.0.89 April 2026Latest stable maintenance release in the 6.0 series, with translation, schema, Windows build, and bug fixes.[5]
Gramps 6.1.0-beta121 April 2026Experimental preview release for the 6.1 series, including FamilySearch integration work, calendar enhancements, favorites/sidebar changes, and build-system changes.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Allingham, Don (21 April 2006). "Looking Back Over 5 Years". Gramps blog. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  2. ^ Wayner, Peter (22 April 2004). "From Shared Resources, Your Personal History". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  3. ^ "Contributors". GitHub. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  4. ^ "History of Gramps". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  5. ^ "Release v6.0.8". GitHub. 9 April 2026. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  6. ^ "Release v6.1.0-beta1". GitHub. 21 April 2026. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  7. ^ "Installation". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  8. ^ "Gramps translations". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  9. ^ "Project License - Gramps". Gramps Wiki. Archived 20 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  10. ^ "Generate XML". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  11. ^ "Gramps XML". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  12. ^ Peric, Vladimir (16 July 2014). "Genealogy research with Gramps". LWN.net. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  13. ^ "Previous releases of Gramps". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  14. ^ 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". Norsk Regnesentral. doi:10.13140/2.1.1322.6887. Archived 11 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  15. ^ "Features". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  16. ^ "Relationship Calculator". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  17. ^ Marik, Radek (2016). On Large Genealogical Graph Layouts. ITAT 2016. Vol. 1649. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. pp. 218–225. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  18. ^ "Gramplets". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  19. ^ Häyrinen, Ari (2008). A Template Based, Event-Centric Documentation Framework. 2008 Annual Conference of CIDOC. Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  20. ^ "Animal pedigree". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  21. ^ "0003346: Same gender relationship reports". Gramps Bugtracker. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  22. ^ "How to make a backup". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  23. ^ "Database Formats". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  24. ^ "Import from another program". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  25. ^ "The GW format". GeneWeb. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
  26. ^ "Web Family Tree". Archived 29 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  27. ^ "Gramps Web". Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  28. ^ Feenstra, Bart. "betty". Python Package Index. Archived 27 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  29. ^ "PhpGedView @ Neumont University". Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  30. ^ "JoomlaGen". SourceForge. 22 June 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  31. ^ Jessel, Anne. "tmg2gramps". Coherent Software Australia Pty Ltd. Archived 1 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  32. ^ "Gramps". Weblate. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  33. ^ "Releases · gramps-project/gramps". GitHub. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
  34. ^ "Gramps 4.2 Wiki Manual - What's new?". Gramps Wiki. Retrieved 27 May 2026.