Gramps (software)

This article is about genealogy software. For the relative (grandfather), see Grandparent. For other uses, see Gramps (disambiguation).

Gramps, formerly GRAMPS (an acronym for Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System),^[2] is a free and open-source genealogy software.^[9] It is developed in Python using PyGObject and utilizes Graphviz to create relationship graphs.

Gramps

Screenshot of Gramps (v. 5.0.1) with its fan chart and the Given name cloud gramplet on the bottom.
Original author(s)	Don Allingham[1][2]
Developer(s)	The Gramps Team[3]
Initial release	April 21, 2001; 24 years ago (2001-04-21)[4]
Stable release	6.0.1[5]  / 18 April 2025
Repository	github.com/gramps-project/gramps
Written in	Python (GTK+ 3)
Operating system	Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows, macOS[6]
Platform	GTK+ 3
Available in	Multilingual (40) [7]
Type	Genealogy software
License	GPL-2.0-or-later[8]
Website	gramps-project.org

Gramps represents a form of commons-based peer production,^[10] created by genealogists for genealogists.^[10][11] Beyond human family trees, the software has been used to create animal pedigree charts^[12] and academic genealogies that map mentoring relationships among scientists, physicians, and scholars.^[13]

Features

Gramps is a widely used offline genealogy software suite.^[14] Its features include:

• Support for multiple languages and cultural contexts,^[15] including patronymic, matronymic, and multiple surname systems.

• Full Unicode compatibility.

• Relationship calculators,^[16] which accommodate language-specific relationship terminologies that lack direct translations in other languages.

• The ability to generate reports in various formats, such as .odt, LaTeX, .pdf, .rtf, .html, and .txt.

• Tools for creating a wide range of reports and charts, including relationship graphs of large, complex acyclic charts.^[17]

• Extendability through more than 10 types of plugins. These plugins include Gramplets and Views; Gramplets provide dynamic or interactive views of data within the main Gramps interface.^[18]

• An event-centric documentation approach, similar to the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model used by many cultural heritage institutions.^[19]

• A "sanity check" feature that flags improbable events, such as births involving individuals at unlikely ages.^[2]

• Support for multiple calendar systems, including Gregorian, Julian, and Islamic calendars.^[20]

• Comprehensive programmer's API documentation, with free and open-source code made publicly available^[21]

File format

Gramps XML^[22]

Filename extension	.gramps
Internet media type	application/x-gramps-xml[23]
Developed by	Gramps
Initial release	2004; 21 years ago (2004)
Latest release	1.7.2 19 March 2025; 2 months ago (2025-03-19)
Type of format	Genealogy data exchange
Extended from	XML
Website	gramps-project.org/xml/

The core archival file format of Gramps is named Gramps XML and uses the file extension .gramps. It is extended from XML. Gramps XML is a free format, and its files are usually compressed using gzip.^[24] The file format Portable Gramps XML Package uses the extension .gpkg and is currently a .tar.gz archive including Gramps XML together with all referenced media. Users may rename the file extension .gramps to .gz for editing the content of the genealogy document with a text editor. Internally, Gramps uses SQLite as the default database backend, with other databases available as plugins.^[25]

Gramps can import from the following formats:^[26] Gramps XML, Gramps Package (Portable Gramps XML), Gramps 2.x .grdb (older versions Gramps), GEDCOM, CSV.

Gramps supports exporting data in the following formats: Gramps XML, Gramps Package (Portable Gramps XML), GEDCOM, GeneWeb's GW format,^[27] Web Family Tree (.WFT) format,^[28] vCard, vCalendar, CSV.

Programs that support Gramps XML

• Gramps Web is a collaborative web app built on the core of Gramps itself and supports Gramps XML import and export^[29]
• Betty by Bart Feenstra generates static websites from Gramps XML and Gramps XML Package files as alternatives to GEDCOM.^[30]
• PhpGedView (version 4.1 and up) supports^[31] output to Gramps XML.
• The Gramps PHP component JoomlaGen for Joomla uses an upload of the GRAMPS XML database export to show genealogical information and overviews. JoomlaGen is compatible with GRAMPS 3.3.0.^[32]
• The script tmg2gramps by Anne Jessel converts The Master Genealogist v6 genealogy software datafile to a Gramps v2.2.6 XML.^[33]

Languages

Gramps is available in 45 languages^[7][34] (As of December 2014).

Gramps has two special-use sub-translation languages:

• Animal pedigree which allows to keep track of the pedigree and breed of animals^[35]
• Same gender/sex which gives the option of removing gender-biased verbiage from reports.^[36]

Release history