GeneHelp Gramplet: a new Gramps add-on for genealogy research help

Development
1

Hello everyone!

I would like to introduce a new Gramps Gramplet — GeneHelp .

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GeneHelp is a small Gramps add-on that helps you create genealogy requests on the GeneHelp platform directly from your family tree.

The idea is simple: sometimes family history research reaches a dead end because you need help from another person — a local helper in a specific place, or a genealogist who can give online guidance on where and how to continue your search.

For example, you may need someone to:

  • find a document in an archive;
  • check a place, address, or cemetery;
  • photograph a grave, house, or another object;
  • decipher an inscription, seal, or old document;
  • provide local insight from someone familiar with a specific region;
  • find a researcher or helper who can assist with a specific genealogy blocker.

One of the main ideas behind GeneHelp is automatic matching between requests and people who may be able to help. It is not just a notice board: the platform tries to find potentially relevant helpers based on location, capabilities, help conditions, and other signals. In spirit, it is somewhat similar to the idea of “matches” familiar to many genealogists from services such as MyHeritage, but applied not to tree matches, but to practical help with research tasks.

The Gramplet allows you to prepare a request based on the selected entity in Gramps — for example, a person, place, event, family, source, or another element of your tree — and open it in GeneHelp to continue editing it.

The project is open to the international genealogy community, researchers, and local helpers from different countries. GeneHelp also provides an open API so that it can be integrated with other genealogy tools and services in the future.

I would be very grateful for testing, feedback, ideas, and bug reports.

Links:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jurchello/genehelp-gramps/dist/gramps60
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jurchello/genehelp-gramps/dist/gramps52

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Thank you!

2

Hello everyone!

I would like to add some context about the GeneHelp gramplet and the situations where it may be useful.

In genealogy research, there are often places where the work gets stuck: the needed record may be in another region or country, local historical or archival knowledge may be needed, an old record may be difficult to understand, or some physical action may be required — for example, visiting an archive, cemetery, church, museum, or another local institution.

Such questions often remain just notes inside a family tree, or in a personal “come back to this later” list. The GeneHelp gramplet offers another scenario: select an item in Gramps — a person, place, event, family, source, or another element of the tree — and quickly turn the related unresolved question into a structured help request.

Then this request can be opened on GeneHelp, completed with more details, published, and potentially matched with someone who has relevant experience, knows the needed region, or can help locally.

For example, this may be useful when you need to:

  • find a document in an archive;
  • check an address, place, or cemetery;
  • photograph a grave, house, or another object;
  • decipher an inscription, seal, or old document;
  • get advice from someone familiar with a specific region;
  • find a researcher or helper for a specific genealogy blocker.

It can also work in both directions: a researcher can look for help with their own questions, offer help to others, or do both.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts about this workflow.

  • Do you have unresolved questions like this in your own Gramps databases, where you cannot move forward on your own?
  • Would it be useful to have a tool that helps quickly turn such questions into structured help requests?
  • What in this workflow should be made simpler or clearer?

I would be grateful for any thoughts, comments, or examples from your own experience.