A simple family tree visualizer

Demo

https://daveagp.github.io/family-tree/index.html

How to use

• Create family.txt for your family
• Put any photos into the photos directory
• Change the first few lines of family.js

Format of your family.txt file

This file will contain

• entries for couples, including their list of offspring
• optionally, entries for individuals, including their lifespan and photo

Entries for couples are formatted like this:

Name One + Name Two
c: Child A, Child B, Child C
n: Notes line(s), optional

If there are no children or no notes, leave those lines out.

Entries for individuals can contain a lifespan, photo, and notes.

Name Of Person
l: 1912-Dec 2100
p: photo_filename.jpg
n: Notes line(s), optional

All lines are optional, and if you have no lines, you need not fill out an entry for someone. Lifespans can be of the forms start-end, start- or -end.

Here's a simple example file with 2 entries (one couple, one person) and 5 people total:

Homer Simpson + Marge Bouvier
c: Lisa Simpson, Bart Simpson, Maggie Simpson
n: Married while pregnant with Lisa
Homer Simpson
l: 1951-
p: homer.jpg
n: Nuclear Safety Inspector in Sector 7G

UI

• The bar at top allows switching the level of detail shown
• Click on a person to make them the root of the tree
• Hover over a person to show all notes for them and their partners

Data Tricks

• You can leave someone's name as ? if you don't know it. (Should be a parent or child's name in a couple's entry.)
• Put comments in your family.txt by starting them with #
• Multiple people with the same name can be disambiguated by putting a # after their name, followed by a distinct identifier (which will not be rendered). Example:

King George#Older + Mary of Teck
c: King George#Younger

• http/s URLs in n: notes lines automatically are turned into links. They can't contain spaces.

Data Limitations

• This program can only handle topological trees, not marrying extended family or two marriages between families
• Names shouldn't contain commas
• If person X has two spouses, you need to list them as the first person in one couple and the second person in the other. E.g. Partner1 + X and X + Partner2. This is because the rendering engine uses the order in each couple as literal positional instructions
• This program can't handle someone who has had more than two spouses/partners

Disclaimer

Use your judgment when posting sensitive family information on the internet, e.g. you may consider using .htaccess or some other appropriate security.

Etc

• Thanks to The Simpsons Wiki for their rich dataset.
• See https://daveagp.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/family-tree-visualizer/ for an explanation of the general approach.