This answer contains a bit more than what you originally asked for, but I thought it might be useful to share a few additional ideas while I was already writing. Please see this as suggestions from someone who actively uses Obsidian and Foam for VS Code for both genealogy and historical research, in combination with Gramps and tools like Zotero, Aeon Timeline, Cytoscape/Gephi/Tulip, etc. — and who constantly pulls his hair out because he still hasn’t managed to build a proper Markdown‑based “hub” solution for everything.**
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Notes in Gramps are their own entities, so they should be treated as such when synchronizing with Obsidian.** This means each note should remain an independent object, not just embedded text inside another record.
1. Notes should carry all available metadata
All metadata that exists in Gramps should be preserved in Obsidian as YAML frontmatter keys — including note types and any other attributes Gramps exposes. This keeps the notes future‑proof and makes round‑tripping back to Gramps reliable.
2. Suggested folder structure
I recommend creating a dedicated “Notes” subfolder under each primary object. Every Gramps object (Person, Family, Event, Place, Citation, Source, Repository, etc.) should have:
• its own folder
• its own primary Markdown file
• a subfolder for its notes (if any)
This keeps the vault clean and makes it easy to locate and manage notes belonging to a specific object.
3. Family notes
Many users attach notes to families, so these should also be represented. A family’s Markdown file could include sections such as “Parents”, “Children”, and “Notes”, and link to the corresponding note files. This mirrors how users think about family‑level information in Gramps.
4. Internal and external links
Gramps notes can contain external links (URLs) and internal links to other Gramps objects. If possible, these should be captured and converted into Obsidian‑style links so that navigation inside the vault remains consistent.
5. Syncing notes back to Gramps
If notes are placed in a dedicated folder hierarchy, it becomes much easier to detect new or modified notes that should be synchronized back into Gramps. To support this, it may be useful to add a YAML frontmatter key such as “sync-status: draft | synced | ignore”. This would let users control whether a note should be pushed back into Gramps or kept only in Obsidian.
6. Optional templates
It might also be helpful to support templates for each object type (Person, Family, Event, etc.). Users could customize the layout as long as they keep the same variables/placeholders. This is optional, but it would give users more flexibility without breaking the sync logic.
7. Handling the “private” flag
The private flag should also be preserved on notes, just like for other Gramps objects. Private notes should not appear in public‑facing exports or reports unless explicitly enabled. The private flag should especially be respected when syncing outside the user’s local environment — for example when using Obsidian Sync or third‑party sync plugins. This is important for anyone who publishes or syncs their vault to an online location accessible by others.
8. Linking Obsidian note files back into Gramps as media objects It would also be beneficial if the primary object note files created in Obsidian could be linked back into Gramps as media objects attached to the corresponding Gramps records. This would allow users to read their Obsidian notes directly inside Gramps. These linked note files could optionally be tagged with something like “Research Note” or a similar label to distinguish them from other media types.
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Note: This text was originally written in Norwegian and translated into English with the assistance of Copilot. Some sentences were lightly adjusted for clarity and readability in English, but the meaning and intent remain faithful to the author’s original Norwegian version.