GedViz (named from Gedcom Visualization) is a freeware programm for graphical display and clarification of kinsmanlike relationships via so called Gedcom files. Different to most well know genealogy programs the main focus is on the kinsmanlike relationship between godfather/godmother as well as witnesses of a marriage and the child (and the family of that child) to be baptized.
Godparents help in many cases, especially on the first born kids over dead ends. Why's that? In many regions catholic choose their godparents based on rules, like to take for the first male child the paternal grandfather and the maternal grandmother (if they're still alive to that moment). As parents aren't named at marriages in most church books, this helps you to identify the next generation or find more proof for an already guessed relationship. For the first female child the rule is exactly opposite, the maternal grandfather and the paternal grandmother is being taken for godparents. After that (and in case those persons are already dead) more close family members are being taken, like recent married sibblings or for later born children also the spouse of a sibbling.
To visualize those kinsmanlike relationships in an as possible breakdown form (even though that definition is based on matter of taste) I wrote the program GedViz. Basis of it is the well-known Graph theory.
It's not about a new way of picturing your ancestors, that can be done much better by Brother's Keeper and FTM (eg ancestor chart). The purpose of the program is only twofold:
- selecting in a most comfortable way the "right" and "important" family trees in a reasonable depth (number of generations) from your gedcom files
- secondly to built a script which is showing the relations between all those selected persons and is used in a second freeware program called Graphviz (see examples on my website)
That means that an exclusive usage of GedViz to show parent-child relationships without godparents or witnesses has no additional value to most (probably all) other genealogy programs! That can be done much better by programs like Brother's Keeper
Therefore I did write a small "Howto" on the following pages which explains how to use GedViz and the freeware graphic tool Graphviz (which is eventually building the graphics)
Secondly to the above example of a final graphic I do have more explizit examples of the final output which is going to help you understand what the program is doing exactly (and what the final output is)
For all those still interested in the program itself and those who want to test it with their own data, you can find a page with the program history (errors and functions) and the actual link to download it
If you have suggestions or comments about GedViz please send them directly to my email address below, it's mostly appreciated:
Andreas (WEST)
Lanaken, Belgien, 11.4.2009