A revised Welcome Gramplet was recently merged to the master
Intro
Gramps is a software package designed for genealogical research. Although similar to other genealogical programs, Gramps offers some unique and powerful features.
Who makes Gramps?
Gramps is created by genealogists for genealogists, organized in the Gramps Project.
Gramps is an Open Source Software package, which means you are free to make copies and distribute it to anyone you like. It is developed and maintained by a worldwide team of volunteers whose goal is to make Gramps powerful, yet easy to use.
There is an active community of users available on the mailing lists and Discourse forum to share ideas and techniques.
Navigation Views
There are several Views in Gramps that display lists of the database components. “People”, “Families”, “Events”, “Places”, “Media”, “Notes”, “Citations”, “Sources” and “Repositories”.
There are views that display People and Families together. “Relationships” and Charts’ views like “Pedigree” and “Fan Chart”.
Getting Started
All Views are blank when Gramps is first started. Begin by creating a Family Tree.
To create a new Family Tree (sometimes called ‘database’) select “Family Trees” from the menu, pick “Manage Family Trees”, click “New” and name your Family Tree. “Load Family Tree” to make the tree active and ready to accept data. You can enter your first family or import an existing family tree.
• Start with Genealogy and Gramps
Enter your first Family
You can now enter your first Family by starting with the first Person.
Switch to the “People” view and from the menu click “Add” and then click “Person”, or use the [+] icon. Enter the basic information and save the record. Select this Person’s record and switch to the “Relationships” view.
With this first person all of the menu options and icon functions have become available. Spend some time moving your mouse over the icons. As your cursor passes over an icon a message will appear telling you the icon’s function. The same is true for any of the edit windows.
You can now create families by adding parents, a spouse and children. You can add Events to People and Families. Sources and Citations can provide documentation for your entries.
As you start using Gramps you will find that information can be entered from various Views. There are multiple ways of doing most activities in Gramps. The flexibility allows you to choose which fits your work style.
• Entering and editing data (brief)
Import a Family Tree
To import a Family Tree from another program first create a GEDCOM, or other data file, from the previous program.
Once you have created a new Gramps database file use the “Import” option under the “Family Trees” menu to import the GEDCOM file.
• Import from another genealogy program
Addons and "Gramplets"
There many Addons or “Gramplets” that are available to assist you in data entry and visualizing your family tree. Many of these tools are already available to you. Many more are available to download and install.
You are currently reading from the “Dashboard” view where you can add Gramplets. You can also add Gramplets to any view’s sidebar or bottombar.
Example Database
An example database is available for you to explore. It will show how the various components of Gramps come together to create a Family Tree.
Create a new Family Tree as described above and import the Gramps file ‘example.gramps’.
Follow the instructions for the location of the file stored with the Gramps program.