This section is designed to give you the basic knowledge necessary to start putting your genealogical information into GRAMPS. It will explain how to enter people into the database and how to specify their family relationships. (A more detailed explanation will follow in the section entitled the section called “Entering and Editing Data: Complete Description”.)
First, let's identify the types of information you can enter into your GRAMPS database. These include:
Personal information about an individual (names, addresses, birth and death dates, etc.)
Information about an individual's relationships (marriages, divorces, civil unions, etc.)
Information about an individual's parents and children
Sources that document your research
Keybindings | |
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In addition to interacting with GRAMPS through menu items and buttons, you can use its extensive set of "keybindings." For more information, see Appendix B, Keybindings reference. |
Now let's take a quick look at how you can enter and edit these various types of information.
There are multiple ways to add a person to the database. We will cover some of them as we proceed. The simplest way to enter a person to add them from the People View. While you are in the People View (Figure 2.2, “Sidebar Viewing Mode”), click the on the toolbar. Enter any data you know about this person into the Edit Person dialog (see Figure 3.8, “Edit Person dialog” for details).
To edit information about a person already present in the database, select the person from the People View and click the
button on the toolbar.People can also be added to the database in the Relationships View, Edit Family dialog, and other places where it makes sense.
There are two primary ways to specify relationships between people - using the Relationships View and using the Edit Family dialog from the Family List View. The Family List is usually used to build all the relationships within a single family at a time. The Relationships View is usually used to build multiple relationships to a single person.
To specify a new relationship to the Active Person, switch to the Relationships View (Figure 2.6, “Relationships View”) and you'll see this individual indicated as the "Active Person". Next to the Family label is a button (typically represented by a sign). Clicking the button will display the Edit Family dialog with the Active Person set as either the father or the mother.
Now a question: Does the person who will form the relationship with the Active Person already exist in the database? If yes, click the
button to the other person. You'll then be able to browse through the list of people in the database to select the one you want. If not, click the button. This will allow you to add a new person to the database and to specify the relationship this person has to the Active Person.To edit an existing relationship from the Relationships View, click on the
button next to corresponding Family entry. If there is more than one relationship in the list, you can select the spouse or partner you want by clicking the corresponding button next to the relationship.To specify a new relationship in the Family List View, click on the Edit Family dialog will open. At this point, you can add people to the family.
button on the toolbar, and an emptyYou can specify Active Person's parents in the Relationship View(Figure 2.6, “Relationships View”). A little care is required to prevent the creation of duplicate families. If you wish to add the Active Person to an already existing family, you should click the button. If the family including the parents does not already exist, you should click the button.
If you click on the Select Family dialog. This will allow you to select the existing family, and then the Active Person will be added as a child to the family.
button, you are presented with theIf you click on the Edit Family dialog is presented with the Active Person listed a child of the new family. You can add the parents to the family by either adding new people as the parents or selecting existing people as the parents.
button, a newWarning | |
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If you create a new family and select parents that are already in an existing family, GRAMPS will issue a warning message. If you proceed by saving the new family, you will have a duplicate family. |
You can also specify the parents of a person in the Family List View. If the family already exists, click on the Edit Family dialog is displayed. If the family does not already exist, click the button to create a new family, and add the appropriate parents and children.
button on the tool bar and add the person as a child when theAdding children to a relationship is done through a similar procedure. From the Relationships View or the Family List View, select the existing family or create a new family. Children can be added by selecting the Add button or Select button to the right of the child list.
Clicking the Edit Person dialog, allowing you to enter a new person. Clicking on the button, will allow you to select an existing person from a list. By default, the child is added with a the relationship type of birth to both parents.
button will display theIf you wish to change the parent/child relationship from the default setting of birth, select the child and click on the Edit button. This will display the Edit Child Reference dialog.
You can add photos and other media objects to individual people, events, sources, and places. You can also add images that might not be limited to a single person or event (for example, group family photos).
If you want to add an image to a single person, switch to the People View (Figure 2.2, “Sidebar Viewing Mode”), select a person, and then click the icon on the toolbar. This will bring up the Edit Person dialog (Figure 3.8, “Edit Person dialog”). Next, select the Gallery tab, and click the button to call up the Select a media object dialog. Type a filename or browse to find the image file you want and then provide a title for that image. Keep adding images until you are done.
To add images related to a relationship (for example, a marriage), switch to the Family View (Figure 2.6, “Relationships View”) and double-click on the Spouse box. This calls up the Marriage/Relationship editor dialog. Select the Gallery tab and click the button to add an image.
To add images related to a source or a place, first switch to the Source View (Figure 2.13, “Sources View”) or Place View (Figure 2.14, “Places View”). Select the source or place you want and then either double-click on it or click the icon on the toolbar. Select the Gallery tab and click the button to add an image.
Finally, to add images that you want to include in the database, but hare are not limited to any particular person, relationship, source or place, switch to the Media View (Figure 2.15, “Media View”). Then click the icon on the toolbar to add an image. If you have already added any images to any individual galleries, you will also find them listed in the Media View.
In any gallery, you can also use the
to edit image information and the button and to remove the image reference from that gallery.To add an event, a source, a place, or a repository to the database, switch to the appropriate Events View (Figure 2.12, “Events View”), Sources View (Figure 2.13, “Sources View”), Places View (Figure 2.14, “Places View”), or Repositories View (Figure 2.16, “Repositories View”). Then click the icon on the toolbar to add the corresponding object. Enter the information into the Event Editor (Source Editor, Place Editor, or Repository Editor) dialog.
To edit information about events, sources, places, and repositories already present in the database, switch to the appropriate view, select an entry you would like to view/modify, and then click the
icon on the toolbar. Alternatively, you may double-click on the entry to edit it.