GED-GEN

Mike Voisin

By way of background, I have over thirty years experience as a software engineer. I enjoy genealogy as a hobby, which I started in earnest in 1994. By 2000 I published my family tree on the Internet. Unfortunately there were no software tools then that did precisely what I wanted. So I created GED-GEN, a Windows program to automatically generate a genealogy website. It converts a GEDCOM data file to a series of web pages in family group sheet format. Since 2002, people from all over the world have used GED-GEN for their websites.

Sep 012012
 

BranchesA few people have asked how many families GED-GEN can process.  Please see my previous post FAQ: Maximum Families.

Here’s a link to someone who uses GED-GEN to publish web pages for over 23,000 families and over 80,000 individuals. You can browse other family trees on the Internet created by GED-GEN with this Google Search.

In GED-GEN version 1.8 and 1.8.1 there is a small problem that results in incomplete index pages, but only when you have more than 30,000 individuals. Until the next version of GED-GEN is available, registered users should contact me to obtain a replacement program file to correct this condition.

Jan 282012
 

January 2012 marks the tenth anniversary of the first release of GED-GEN.  I am glad that so many people from all over the world continue to use the program.  Thank you to everyone who has tried it, and a special thank you to those who have registered their copy.

I plan to add more features.  But perhaps I should also remove some options left over from the early days of the Internet.  For one thing, I want to rely more on Cascading Style Sheets than explicit style attributes.

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Oct 122011
 
Signature

Hubert Yuncker 1828

It’s fun to use GED-GEN to add an individual’s portrait to their family group sheet. That’s fine if you have a photograph. How about adding images for ancestors who lived before photography even existed? For those folks, I like to add an image of their signature or their “mark.” Their signature is usually the only shred of personality they’ve left for us to see.  For example, see my family group sheet for Hubert and Barbe Yuncker.

Here are the steps to add an image of an ancestor’s signature in place of a portrait.  If your ancestor could not sign his or her name, they may have used a mark or symbol instead.

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Oct 022011
 

Most genealogy software programs do not adhere to all aspects of the GEDCOM standard.  One subtlety in the standard is the interpretation of “primary” genealogical facts.

When you export a GEDCOM file from your genealogy program, it may not specify primary facts properly.  If it doesn’t, your GED-GEN web pages may display secondary facts instead.

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Jun 122011
 

Please be aware of the following condition when you export a GEDCOM file using Family Historian version 4.1.3. An individual’s complete name is included in a NAME record as expected. However Family Historian apparently does not process certain optional parts of a name, like a separate given name and surname.

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