Re: [Gramps-users] Two kids, only one shows at a time

[Alex R. <sh...@al...>]

Frederick,

On 09/29/2004 02:40:03 PM, Frederick Noronha(FN) wrote:
>=20
>  	In Pedigree view: what I get is just my grandparents (4 persons),
>  	parents (2) and myself (1). If I click on the arrow to the
>  	left of my name, it shows both my children in grey. I cannot
>  	open both at the same time, but only one.

I see.

>  	What I don't get to see is: my grandparents siblings,
>  	my parents siblings, my brother, all my children.
>=20
>  	Am I expecting the wrong thing from the Pedigree view?
>  	Should I be looking somewhere else?

Yes, in a way. Pedigree view only shows one's ancestors. It is much
easier than showing descendants in the main window, simply because
there's only two immediate ancestors for each person (although only
one or not at all may be known), while the number of one's children
can be any. This presents practical problems with drawing things,
connecting everything to everything and getting a sane view.

Having said that, we have somewhat of a consolation. There's an
interactive descendant browser tool (Tools->Analysis and=20
exploration->Interactive descendant browser) which will show
the tree of all descendants of an active (i.e. currently selected)
person.

> Why I ask this is probably because I'm used to GnoPRO, an interesting=20
> program, except that it kept crashing after my family size crossed a=20
> certain level. That would show all the relatives in one tree, including=20
> grand-uncles, grand-aunts, etc.

Uh-huh.

> Isn't that what one would like to see from a genealogy software -- where=20
> exactly one fits into a wider network?

You're right. The problem is that when one says "tree", it could mean a
lot of different things. Some think of an ancestor tree (which the Pedigree
View provides). Others want descendant tree, which is in the Interactive
Descendant browser. Yet others want a bow-tie or a butterfly tree,
which is a combination of two: up from you to your ancestors,
and down from you to your descendants. The endless variations include
adding siblings and spouses, as well as siblings' spouses, spouses' sibling=
s,
and on to "spouses' siblings' spouses" and "siblings' spouses' siblings",
at which point I'll stop to cath some breath :-)))

I doubt that we will be able to place a view similar to Pedigree for the
Descendants. As I said, it may get too complex to be useful, and also
to draw for us.

There's also an improvement in the development version which adds
person's spouses, siblings, and parents (could be more than one set
of parents, actually, e.g. foster, adoptive, or step-parents) to
the items of the context menu (available on the right-click).
Take a look at screenshots here:
   http://ebner.neuroscience.umn.edu/~shura/gramps/new-pedigree/

> Maybe my question is off-target, since I'm fairly new and not so=20
> experienced in the world of genealogy.

It is actually a very common question, from the genealogy experts
in the first place :-)

Alex

--=20
Alexander Roitman   http://ebner.neuroscience.umn.edu/people/alex.html
Dept. of Neuroscience, Lions Research Building
2001 6th Street SE, Minneapolis, MN  55455
Tel (612) 625-7566   FAX (612) 626-9201