User Guide

Read license and user rights Ancestris is free software, licensed under the  GNU GENERAL PUBLIC ...

There are several situations where you may need to reinstall Ancestris, but they all end up follo...

The Ancestris team constantly works on improving the Ancestris software. All updates we make to ...

This page documents a detailed step-by-step installation of Ancestris on a macOS system. We will...

This page shows step-by-step how to install Ancestris version 12 on a Windows system. If you hav...

This page shows step-by-step how to install Ancestris on a Windows system. The sections below ar...

You can install Ancestris via the Ubuntu repository or from the Ancestris.org site as seen on the...

Ancestris needs Java and is compatible with Java versions 8 to 21. If Ancestris does not start, ...

It is possible to personalise the launch settings of Ancestris. In general, you should not need ...

There are two groups of files for running Ancestris. The software files run the application, ...

The following describes the Privacy Policy of the Ancestris software. License The Ancestris s...

Version 12 - June 08, 2024 We are pleased to announce the release of Ancestris version 12. Th...

Welcome to Ancestris ! Ancestris offers a guided tour, allowing you to discover this softwar...

Create your genealogy If you feel like starting your own genealogy, or convert your paper genea...

You will see how simple it is to create a genealogy from scratch with Ancestris. You will create ...

Migrating to Ancestris simply consists in opening a Gedcom file created by another software. The...

Ancestris's Main Window is the one you see when the software opens. In case no genealogy is open...

Ancestris workspace is organised in tab groups. Tab groups In the example below, we have four t...

Current entity, current genealogy At any point in time within Ancestris, if one or more genealog...

The Menu Bar of Ancestris gives you access to all available actions via 7 menus. Logic of the ...

This menu regroups all the actions to handle genealogy files, to change file properties and to ex...

This menu regroups all the actions to make global changes to your genealogical data: undo, redo, ...

This menu regroups all the actions to access the genealogical views and editors for the selected ...

This menu regroups all the tools to explore, manipulate and analyse genealogical data. Each of...

This menu regroups all the actions to handle Ancestris windows. Each of these actions is descr...

This menu regroups the main actions to customize Ancestris. Each of these actions is described...

This menu regroups all the actions to get help and to help Ancestris. It also provides informatio...

The Context menu provides actions that depend on an object and that will apply to it. Most of th...

The Drag-and-Drop menu can be used to copy entities across genealogies, or to merge entities with...

The Ancestris Main Window Toolbar is a horizontal bar displaying a number of tools in the form of...

The navigation bar allows you to navigate forward and backward in the navigation history, i.e. th...

The general search bar lets you to find any type of information anywhere in open genealogy files ...

This action helps you create a new genealogy. Below is the image of the first page of the wizard...

This action opens a genealogy. In Ancestris, a genealogy is stored in a file in the Gedcom forma...

This action imports a Gedcom file. Only Gedcom format files can be imported in Ancestris. Upon ...

This action combines two genealogies into one. Please note it does not analyse nor merge dupli...

This window allows you to modify the description, the main language and the author of any genealo...

This windows lets you modify the standard place jurisdictions format of any Gedcom file and also ...

The Media manager lets you ensure that all media files used in your genealogy exist, either on yo...

The Media viewer displays all the media files of the genealogy in one single window. You can vis...

This window lets you modify the Gedcom norm or the character formatting of any Gedcom file. Thes...

The Save as action either makes an identical copy of your genealogy under another Gedcom file nam...

This function exports all or part of a genealogy to other software or genealogy sites. This soft...

The Geneanet export creates a file totally compatible with the expectations of the Geneanet site ...

This tool can find or replace any text of the genealogy content. Description In the first two...

This function deletes data elements from a genealogy. Description Your genealogy information ...

This function generates or erases genealogical numberings of individuals in a genealogy. The p...

This function renumbers the entities of your genealogy by redefining their identification number....

This feature marks or displays certain special individuals in your genealogy such as implex famil...

This function calculates ages of all the individuals at their respective life events. Descript...

This function gives the history of modifications made to a genealogy within Ancestris. Descrip...

The Entity card gives an overview of the current entity. The content of the card shows the key...

The Entities table lists all the entities of the genealogy and provides detailed information for ...

The Dynamic tree shows a genealogy in the form of a tree. You can quickly select any individual ...

The Timeline shows all the individual of the genealogy along a timeline of events that occurred i...

The Geographic map displays all the genealogy events at their location on a map. You can visua...

The Graph shows a view of your genealogy in the form of a graph, where all individuals are displa...

The Cygnus editor is one of the three main editors of Ancestris. The philosophy of the Cygnus ...

The Gedcom editor is one of the three main editors of Ancestris. The philosophy of the Gedcom ...

The Aries editor is one of the three main editors of Ancestris. The philosophy of the Aries ed...

The List of Places is a list of all places and corresponding events of the genealogy. All pla...

The Table of Places is a global place editor used as a spreadsheet, to help you edit and clean al...

The Places editor is an editor dedicated to adding or modifying places, by standardizing their na...

The Simple navigator allows you to navigate efficiently through the family nucleus of the selecte...

The Extended navigator allows you to navigate in the genealogical from the family nucleus, and to...

The Advanced search is a powerful tool to search for entities that match multiple criteria, throu...

The Genealogy compare tool compares genealogies to find common individuals using geographical are...

The Registers records tool is designed to develop your genealogy from genealogy records entered b...

Mapping between register and Gedcom data Case of a birth Birth certificate Individual ...

The Datulator is a tool to calculate or convert dates. This tool will make your life easier in...

The Calculator is a simple pocket calculator. This saves you the trouble of having to find whe...

This tool checks your genealogy data for anomalies, in terms of incompatibility with the Gedcom s...

This tool detects duplicate entities and analyse them, merge them automatically or manually if th...

This tool identifies the common ancestors of two individuals in the genealogy and displays the co...

This function launches the Ancestris reports. Some reports can be run directly from the Ancest...

This report produces summary sheets of individuals or families, trees, narrative sheets, in a tot...

The WebBook makes it possible to generate Web pages, from a genealogy file to be placed locally, ...

The Website generates a mini web site allowing you to browse your genealogy locally...

This function prints the current view. At this stage, only the Dynamic Tree view can be printe...

The Welcome page helps you get started with Ancestris as well as in its daily use. Description ...

The GEDCOM Explorer is a special Ancestris window dedicated to the exploration of each open genea...

The Preferences is where you customize a lot of elements of Ancestris. This is what one of the m...

This action checks if the version of Ancestris that is already installed on your computer is up t...

This menu allows you to check or force an Ancestris updates, and to customize Ancestris by instal...

This feature helps you contact the Ancestris support team by email, describing your problem and a...

Ancestris does not have any specific funding since we are all volunteers and your donations pay f...

This is where you set most of your usage personalization. As soon as Ancestris is installed, y...

Ancestris lets you save windows positions and sizes for each genealogy or for all. This panel ...

A blueprint is description used to customize the display of an entity in certain views of Ancestr...

Ancestris is a modular software where every major functionality resides in a module, also called ...

The word Gedcom designates a genealogical data exchange format. It was originally developed by t...

An entity in the Gedcom standard is a main genealogical component such as an individual, a family...

A property if a piece of information describing a characteristic of an entity. A property consis...

A tag is a property type identifyer. The Gedcom standard defines a number of tags on three or fo...

An event is a notable fact in the life of an individual or a family, usually dated and localized....

The date makes it possible to locate in time any genealogical event: birth, death, marriage, dipl...

A place is a property indicating a physical location associated with an event, and generally prov...

Some pieces of information collated in a genealogy can either be specific to an individual, or sh...

In order to be able to navigate your genealogy or in order to transmit this lifelong effort amoun...

You will soon realize that the genealogist's work is exponential and can go in all directions. S...

You will need to measure the progress of your research. What gets measured gets done! You c...

You will then have to prepare your genealogical research and build some sort of action plan. Anc...

The organization of your media on your PC - folders and file names - is decided as early as possi...

You will collect many official documents (acts, deeds) that you will need to enter in Ancestris...

To enter a birth, marriage, death or other certificate, several solutions are offered to you to e...

Entering a register is possible with Ancestris using the Registers records module. This module i...

As an Ancestris user, you often give us special cases of events to capture. One of the questions...