I
Classic Tree
A traditional descendant chart, root above.
Family Roots Center
Every family
is a constellation.
The archive
A family archive,
through every branch.
Family Roots Center is a quiet place to keep the people you came from — names, dates, faces, stories, recipes, journeys — set down with the care of a leather-bound ledger and the precision of an archivist.
IThe Visualizations
Ten ways of looking at a family
Each chart reveals something different. A pedigree shows where you come from. A migration map shows what your people survived. Choose the view that answers the question you happen to be asking today.
II
Pedigree
Ancestors fanning back through generations.
III
Fan Chart
Generations as concentric arcs of memory.
IV
Radial Tree
Family radiating from a single beating heart.
V
Timeline
Births, marriages, and partings along a line.
VI
Migration Map
The journeys that brought you to this room.
VII
Sunburst
Whole branches read in a single glance.
VIII
Sankey Flow
Lineage as the river it has always been.
IX
Family
You at the center, kin radiating outward.
X
Hourglass
Ancestors above, descendants below, you between.
IIThe Moment This Was Built For
You find a great-great aunt no one in your family has spoken of in seventy years. You show your grandmother the chart. She sits down at the table and cries.
IIIA Working Catalogue
Everything inside the archive
Family Roots Center is more than a chart. It is a place for what gets lost — the stories that fade, the recipes only Grandmother knew, the cousins you only see at funerals. Here is what fits inside.
The Living Archive
- Family Stories
- recollections, eulogies, fragments
- Recipes & Traditions
- kitchen wisdom, holiday rites
- Photo Albums
- tagged, dated, attached to the living
- Document Vault
- wills, deeds, letters, certificates
- Audio Memories
- voice, in the speaker’s own words
- Heirloom Tracker
- who has Grandmother’s ring
Questions Worth Asking
- Relationship Calculator
- how is she related to me, exactly
- Surname Tracker
- every branch a name has touched
- Name Origins
- who you were named after, and why
- Migration Paths
- the routes your blood has walked
- Generational Statistics
- patterns across the generations
The Living Family
- Shared Calendar
- birthdays, anniversaries, reunions
- News Feed
- the family’s daily life, gently held
- Contact Directory
- cousins kept close, even when far
- Reunion Planner
- where, when, and with whose pie
Working with What You Have
- GEDCOM Import
- every major genealogy program
- CSV & JSON
- spreadsheet to family, in minutes
- Print at 17 × 11
- a wall chart, properly composed
- PDF Export
- a book, ready for the printer
- Photo Albums
- organized, dated, attached to the living
Colophon
Every family has a story worth setting down.
Begin with a single name. Family Roots Center will hold the rest — quietly, carefully, and with the dignity an archive deserves.