Genealogy Tree Control

Question

I've been tasked (by my wife) with creating a program to allow her to track the family trees on both sides of our family.

Does anyone know of a cost effective (free) control to represent this type of information.

What I'm looking for is a modified org-chart type chart/tree. The modification is that any node should have 2 parent nodes (E.G. a child should have a Mother/Father).

The solution I've came up with so far is to have 2 trees, an ancestor tree and a descendants tree, with the individual being inspected as the root node for each tree. It works, but is sort of clunky.

I'm working primarily in c# WinForms, so .Net type controls or source code is preferrable.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I haven't thought too hard about this, but I reckon you could get a Custom Treeview in WPF to do what you want. I was reading an article on code project a while back that implemented an org chart this way...

Answer 2

I'm all for writing your own software when something doesn't suit your needs and a frequent re-inventer of the wheel. But this honestly seems like one of those things were the solution is readily available, in this case in the form of Family Tree Maker And at a mere $40 I would venture to guess that you'd come out ahead compared to the hours you would spend trying to get your own program doing exactly what you need.

I currently use the software and it works great.

Now, if your interest in writing it partly for the purpose of just doing it because you can and to learn something...then by all means I salute your will to learn and hope you find the control you are looking for.

Answer 3

Geni is probably what your looking for.

Answer 4

I use Geni as well. Its fairly good.

Answer 5

If you're really looking for an application that you can modify try out Family.Show on CodePlex.

Answer 6

Thanks... good stuff

Answer 7

I have been using Geni for a month or two now and it is excellent.

Answer 8

Try GeneTree. You can open a free account and build a family tree interactively. You can also find others whose DNA matches yours, who may be family members you did not know about before.

If the functionality is already there, and free, why write a program?

Answer 9

I actually spotted GRAMPS just the other day.

Answer 10

There have been lots of suggestions of software to use, but I'd like to add a recommendation for The Master Genealogist. I find it fits my engineering mindset more than most.

There is little online to match the flexibility of standalone genealogy tools, but TNG (The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding) is quite good.