Record your family history in Linux

Family history is one of the most rewarding pastimes: not only do you get to learn about your ancestors, but something about the world around you too. You may even reconnect with distant branches of the family tree, uncovering photos, documents and other insights you never knew existed. The internet has simplified the task of genealogy by saving you trips to dusty churches and archives to track down information.

But you still need somewhere to store all that information, and if you don’t trust online services, you’ll want to use your trusty PC for the task. When it comes to choosing a family history program, Linux users have one practical choice that doesn’t involve Wine: Gramps. This is the finest example of open-source genealogy software there is. It has gained a reputation for being powerful but not that user-friendly, though recent releases have made it much more accessible – and armed with this tutorial, you’re going to get a good grounding in using the program.

Set up your gramps

Gramps is provided in most Linux repositories, but despite what the Gramps wiki claims, installing it from the Ubuntu repos leads to version 4.2.8 being installed, which is now three years old.

Download the latest version (5.0.1 at time of writing) from . Save the DEB