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I got an idea of how I wanted to represent my family tree. A regular tree has the disadvantage that time is not taken into account. Generations are shown at the same line, while in fact most of the time there is an overlap between generations. Sometimes an aunt or uncle can be younger than it nephew or niece!

So I searched the internet if it already exists. I found an image of a chart what I had in mind. The diagram is described in this article. And also here. It is called a 'TimeNet'. But I haven't found anywhere that this kind of diagram is already implemented in some software program.

An important advantage of this kind of chart over a normal timeline is that it can show relationships very well. Individuals are represented using timelines that converge and diverge to indicate marriage and divorce as shown in this picture.

Royal family shown on a timeline

Does someone know if there is a genealogy program that can create this kind of diagram?

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4 Answers 4

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Check out Timeline Charts from progenygenealogy.com. It reads GEDCOM files and also reads data directly from some software packages.

Pedigree Chart:

enter image description here

Full Descendant Chart:

enter image description here

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    Thanks for your answer. I will check it out, when I'm not so busy as now. ;-)
    – ffonz
    Commented Feb 18, 2022 at 14:21
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Check out Timeline Software. I've developed this program to display history timelines, including family charts. There are many options to display relationships.

See for instance this Obama History Timeline, including his family members. enter image description here

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While not an exact match familysearch has a new discovery page where it displays a family timeline (example):

enter image description here

You can also add the ancestor's FamilySearch ID number at the end of the URL "ancestors.familysearch.org/" to navigate to your ancestor's discovery page. For example, if I knew that my ancestor's person ID was "LBT7-PXC" then I would type the URL "ancestors.familysearch.org/LBT7-PXC" into my browser.

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  • Thanks for your answer. It definitely comes close. I will check it out, when I'm not so busy as now. ;-)
    – ffonz
    Commented Feb 18, 2022 at 14:20
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Seeing that you are a programmer, you might be interested in knowing that Gramps, the decades old, maintained open-source genealogy program has a wide support for plugins to support various use cases. TimeNet is listed on their page as something that has been talked about, but it seems no one has implemented. If you are interested enough, maybe you want to enjoy a deep-dive into graphviz programming to generate this kind of visualization. Definitively see this is as interesting myself!

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  • You are keen on my profile! :-) I have thought about it. I already have 5 or 6 hobby projects, and working hard on no. 7. So I will think about putting it on my bucket list but with a lower priority.
    – ffonz
    Commented Apr 10, 2022 at 18:17
  • No point in suggesting an implementation for non-programmers 😎
    – oligofren
    Commented Apr 11, 2022 at 13:00

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