How to manage a Circle

1. Starting screen

When you enter this page with no file open, you’ll see these options:

• Create file → generates a new, empty file, ready for adding Circles and people.
• View Circles → opens a .fam file (or a .json/.txt file received from someone else, see the Sharing section) that you already have saved on your computer.
• Import GEDCOM → creates a new file from a tree exported by another program (see section 18).
• ☁ Open from Drive → only shown if the site has Google Drive enabled; opens a file you have saved in your Drive (see Saving to Google Drive).
• View demo → opens a sample Circle with fictional data.

2. The main interface

Once you’ve opened or created a file, the screen is organised like this:

• Top bar: the name of the current file and the buttons, grouped by function: Save, Save as, Open file and Close file; if the site has Google Drive enabled, ☁ Open from Drive and ☁ Save to Drive (which disappears once the file is already in Drive, because then ☁ Save does its job); Undo and Redo; and, on their own, Import tree and Share Circle.
• Left panel: the list of Circles (with the ☰ icon to configure the selected Circle and the “+” to create a new one), the current Circle’s steward/successor, and the list of people with a search box and an order selector (alphabetical, by birth date or by death date); deceased people have their icon surrounded by a golden halo, as in the tree.
• Central area: the family tree (in any of its views) or the sorted list, together with the Circle’s toolbar (Export to PDF, Export data, Succession, the three zoom buttons, and the view selector).

Clicking (or tapping) a person —in the tree, in the panel list, in the timeline, on the map or in the list of stewards— opens a window with their record: their general details. See section 5.

3. Collapsing the side panel

On a computer, if you need more screen space for the tree, you can collapse the left panel using the small arrow tab fixed to the left edge of the screen, vertically centred. When collapsed, the tree takes up the full available width; the arrow flips direction to show you can expand it again. Since it’s fixed to the screen (not to the content), it always stays in view even if you scroll down a very tall tree, and it never covers any text. The app remembers whether you left it collapsed the next time you open it.

4. Managing several Circles

A single .fam file can contain several Circles (for example, different branches or families). In the left panel:

• Press the + button next to “Circles” to create a new one.
• Click any Circle in the list to select it and work with it — the tree, the list of people, and the steward/successor shown always correspond to the selected Circle.
• The ☰ icon, next to the “+”, opens the settings for the selected Circle (name and description).

To change the order of the Circles list, drag each line with the mouse. On touch screens (or if you prefer) use Move up and Move down under ☰ (configure). The order is saved in the file.

5. Adding, editing and deleting people

Press the + button next to “People” (or the ⬇+ / ⬆+ icon on a box, to add a child or an ancestor) to open the form for a new person. To change an existing one, open it with a click or tap on their box and press Edit in their record. The fields are organised in this order, designed to be filled in naturally:

Both the birth and death locations include a GPS map picker, country, region, town or village, street, number, floor and further details. The 📍 GPS position button looks up the place typed in those fields and sets the map and the marker (which you can then drag to adjust); country, region or town is enough, and the more complete the fields, the more precise the position. When you press it, the place you typed is sent to the OpenStreetMap map service to locate it (unless the site administrator has installed the Occasio Lugares plugin: then countries, regions and towns, including very small hamlets, are looked up with the site’s own data and nothing is sent out, and only streets and numbers are looked up in OpenStreetMap; if you type only the country or region, the map is centred but no marker is placed, and if a hamlet is not recognised by name, move the map and click on its position); if you do not want it to leave the browser, do not press the button and choose the point by hand on the map. To protect the map service, each browser can make up to 30 external lookups per day and the site limits simultaneous lookups with an anonymous counter (no IP or personal data is stored); if exceeded, you are told and the point is placed by hand. To avoid cluttering the form, each one appears collapsed by default, showing only a summary (city and street, or “Not specified” if empty) next to an arrow — tap that summary to expand all the fields.

Burial, occupations and residences

After the death details, the form has three optional blocks. The burial takes a date (which can be uncertain, like the others) and a place with its map. Occupations and residences are lists: press Add an occupation or Add a residence to open a new row and Remove to delete one. Each occupation has a title and an optional date; each residence, an optional date and a place. Rows left empty are discarded when you save. All of this also travels in the GEDCOM export.

Notes and attachments

At the end of the form there are two optional blocks, meant for whatever does not fit in the other fields.

• Notes — free text: a physical description, a memory, an anecdote, where a document is kept… Leave a blank line to separate one note from another. If you have photographs or videos of the person, you may not need to describe them in writing.
• Attachments — videos, audio and documents (PDF, text, Word, spreadsheets…). You can add up to 10 per person, 20 MB at most each. Only known types of video, audio and document are accepted; files such as web pages or programs are rejected, and the type is always decided by the file extension, not by what the file claims to be.

On the person’s record, videos and audio can be played right there and every attachment has a Download button. Documents are never opened inside the page. Attachments travel inside the .fam file, like photographs, and survive a page reload.

Form helpers

• Searching when choosing relatives. In Father and mother, Spouse / partner and children, just start typing: the list of matching names opens automatically (ignoring capitals and accents). Choose with the mouse, your finger or the keyboard (↑ ↓ and Enter; Esc closes it). At the end of the list there is a “None” option to remove the relationship.
• “Saving…” indicator. When you save a person with photographs, which on some phones takes a few seconds, a spinning wheel shows that the app is working.

A person’s record

Clicking (or tapping) a person’s box opens their record: a window with their photograph and details (gender, birth, death and locations, relationships, burial, occupations, residences, attachments and notes). It is the only record: there is no longer a details panel under the tree, and it opens the same way from the tree, the list, the timeline, the map or the list of stewards. The Edit button opens the form; Close (or the ✕) returns to the tree. If the person is alive, the record does not show “Death” or its location: those fields only appear when editing.

On a phone, where you cannot hover the mouse over a box, the option icons (⬆+ add an ancestor, ⬇+ add a child, ☐ isolate the branch and ✕ delete) appear at the top of the record itself.

Box icons and deleting a person

On a computer, when you hover over a box four icons appear on its bottom edge (green, and red for delete): ☐ isolate that person’s branch (if they have a partner or descendants; see section 12), ⬆+ add an ancestor, ⬇+ add a child and ✕ delete. When you add an ancestor, if the person already has a father and a mother the app tells you (to change them, edit the person), and it suggests the opposite sex to that of the other parent.

There are two ways to delete a person: from the edit form itself, or more quickly with the ✕ icon. In both cases you’re asked to confirm before deleting, and their family relationships and associated responsibility/succession are removed too.

When you add a child with ⬇+, the form suggests that person and their current partner (if they have one) as the parents; if they have no partner, the child is created with only them as the parent (single mother or father) and the partner can be added later. You can change the parents in the form, for example for a child with a different partner. The surname is suggested too: the father’s first and then the mother’s (for example, «Rivas Molina»); until you type it yourself, it updates if you change the father or the mother.

When you add a partner to a person, if either of them already had children recorded with only one parent, the application asks which of them are also children of the new partner: all come ticked, and you can untick those from a previous relationship. Children who already have two parents are left alone.

If the person has children or descendants, deleting them makes the application ask what to do: delete only that person (their children and other relatives stay in the Circle, without that link) or delete the person and all their descendants. The second option also includes partners who have no other relatives in the Circle, and shows the list of who will be removed before you confirm. You can revert it with Undo.

Adding a spouse or partner

People without a partner show the 💍+ icon (on the tree box and on their record). Pressing it lets you create a new person, choose a person from this Circle or copy someone who already exists in another Circle. In the last case you choose the source Circle and the person, tick the children to copy as well (all by default) and whether those children’s descendants are included. The person and the ticked children are copied to the current Circle, and the children become children of both people. Their parents and siblings are not copied. The copies are independent: changing a detail in one Circle does not change it in the other. On the record, Also appears in shows which other Circles the person is in. When you edit a person who is in several Circles, a box at the end of the form (ticked by default) lets you apply the changes in the other Circles too: their personal details are updated (name, sex, dates, photos, occupations, residences, notes and attachments), but not their family relationships or roles. If the copies were already different, the box says which details. Undo reverts the change in all Circles at once.

Moving a branch to another Circle

If the file has at least two Circles, each person’s record includes a Move to another Circle… button. Choose whether to move only that person or them and all their descendants (with the list of the people affected) and the destination Circle. They move to the other Circle with their relationships, photos and attachments, and are removed from the current one. So that each Circle shows its complete branch, the Also keep in this Circle those who are linked to the people who stay box (ticked by default) makes anyone with relatives who stay —for example, you and your siblings when you split the paternal family from the maternal one— remain here too, and copies those direct relatives who stay (your mother, in that case) to the destination. The window lists both groups before you confirm. If the destination already had any of them, they are not duplicated: they are recognised and linked. You can revert it with Undo.

6. Each person’s three photos

Each person can have up to three photographs, one for each stage of their life: childhood, adulthood and most recent. All three are optional and independent of each other.

In “Tree with photos” view, hovering over a person’s box changes the photo shown depending on which horizontal third the cursor points to: the left shows the childhood photo, the centre the adulthood one, and the right the most recent. If a stage is missing a photo, the nearest available stage is shown automatically. When you move the mouse away, the most recent available photo is shown again — which is also the only one that appears in the PDF export and in person cards, since there’s no interaction possible there.

On a phone or tablet, next to each file selector there is a 📷 Take photo button: it opens the camera directly so you can photograph the person right then. If you prefer a photo you already have saved, use “Choose file”.

Right after taking the photo the crop editor opens: drag the frame or its corners to choose exactly which part stays (for example, when photographing a paper photo), rotate it 90° if needed, fix an aspect ratio (1:1, 3:4, 4:3) or press “Use whole photo”. In the tree the photo appears in a box wider than it is tall, centred towards the top; in the record and the form it is shown whole. You can also open it whenever you like with the ✂ Crop button, both for a freshly chosen photo and for the one the person already had. If the photo is a passport-style one and the face fills the whole picture, turn on ⬚ Frame outside photo: the frame can be larger than the photo and anything outside is filled with the colour of its edges.

7. Marriages and partners

Besides father and mother, you can register a person’s spouse or partner, whether or not they have children together. In the tree, partners are always shown side by side, joined by two rings (visible in the screenshots from previous sections).

If you know the date of the wedding or union, choosing a partner in the form reveals the Date of the union (optional) field, which also accepts uncertain dates (section 17). That date is drawn as a diamond on the timeline (section 19). If a person has several partners, the form only changes the partner you are viewing; the other unions are left untouched.

8. Steward and Successor

Each Circle can have a person designated as the current Steward and, optionally, a designated Successor. These are assigned with the + button next to «Steward» or «Successor» in the side panel —which lets you choose someone who is already in the Circle (alive and without another role) or create a new person— or from the person’s own form, and are shown in the side panel and in the tree with a distinctive green border on their box.

If you have several Circles in the same file, the succession view (section 21) shows the steward and successor of all of them at a glance and warns about anything missing.

9. The tree’s five views

The toolbar selector lets you switch between:

• Tree with photos — boxes with each person’s photograph (see the photos section).
• Tree with names — more compact boxes, with just the name and basic details.
• Sorted list — see the corresponding section.
• Timeline — everyone’s lifespans on a year axis; see section 19.
• Map — birth and death places on a map; see section 19.

In both tree modes, each box shows the birth date (if recorded) and, if the person has passed away, the date of death. Deceased people are automatically highlighted with a golden glow, to tell them apart at a glance from those still living:

Example of a deceased person’s box

The group of three buttons next to the view selector lets you control the zoom — see the next section.

Independent branches

When the first generation of the tree contains two or more independent families (for example, the paternal and the maternal grandparents, or two branches that are not related to each other), the tree leaves a little more space between them and draws a vertical dashed line that separates them. It does not appear if there is only one family in the first generation, nor does it separate loose people who have no family. It is visible in the “Tree with photos” and “Tree with names” views.

10. Zooming the tree

Next to “Export to PDF” there’s a group of three buttons to control the tree’s zoom:

• − zooms out, to see more people at once (smaller).
• ▭ centres the tree and, at the same time, restores the original zoom (100%).
• + zooms in, to see more detail.

On mobile, you can also pinch with two fingers on the tree itself to zoom in or out — the gesture only affects the tree, not the rest of the page.

11. Marking someone as recovered

This fits with the very spirit of Iniciativa Occasio: when a deceased person has been “recovered”, you can mark it from the sorted list, using the checkbox that appears to the left of their name (only available for deceased people). When you mark it:

• The date of that moment is recorded automatically — there’s nothing to type in by hand, and that data doesn’t appear on the person’s form.
• Their whole row in the list switches to the same gold colour the tree uses for deceased people.
• Their box in the family tree stops showing that gold colour, and instead shows the note “✨ recovered” (adjusted for gender in other languages) together with the date.

It can be unmarked at any time, restoring the gold colour to its original place in the tree.

12. Isolating a branch

In large trees, it can be useful to focus on a single family branch. People who have a partner or descendants have a checkbox (☐) to isolate their branch: on a computer it is among the icons on the bottom edge of the box; on a phone, among the icons in their record. Checking it filters the tree to show only that person’s direct ancestry, their partner, and their shared descendants, temporarily hiding the rest. A notice appears with a button to return to the full tree whenever you need it. On touch screens you can also press and hold the box for a little under a second: it switches the filter on or off (with a short vibration), while a quick tap still opens the record.

While in this mode, if someone in the visible branch has a spouse whose own ancestry isn’t shown, a small “peek” box appears (semi-transparent, compact, and showing their photo if they have one) indicating that relationship, without covering the box of the sibling next to them; hovering over it brings it to the front progressively, over a couple of seconds.

13. The sorted list view

Shows all the people in the Circle in a table, with these controls:

• Sort by date of death, ascending or descending.
• A three-button filter: All, Alive and Deceased.
• Rows are coloured automatically (green for living people, purple for deceased, and gold for those marked as recovered), even without applying the filter.
• A “Recovery” column with the corresponding date, for anyone marked — see the previous section.

14. Saving, opening, closing and exporting to PDF

Saving and opening

• Save — downloads the current file under the same name (or, if the file is in your Drive, updates it there; see below).
• Save as — lets you choose a new name for the .fam file.
• Open file — opens an existing .fam (or .json/.txt) file, replacing whatever you have open.
• Close file — removes the Circle from the screen and also deletes the copy the browser keeps on its own (see below). If there are unsaved changes, it asks first what to do with them.

Saving to Google Drive (optional)

If the site has it enabled, the top bar includes the ☁ Open from Drive and ☁ Save to Drive buttons. They let you keep the .fam file in your own Google Drive and work on the same file from different computers or devices (phone, tablet, PC) without copying it by hand.

• Save to Drive creates the file in your Drive (in “My Drive”) the first time. From then on Save updates it there, and the file name shows the ☁ symbol. While the file is in Drive, the «Save to Drive» button is hidden because it is no longer needed: ☁ Save saves there.
• Open from Drive lists the .fam files created with this app; pick one and it opens. On another device, it is how you carry on where you left off.
• The first time, Google asks your permission for the app to use your Drive. The permission is the minimum possible: it only sees and changes the files this app creates, never the rest of your Drive. No password is stored, and from time to time Google may ask you to confirm again. You can withdraw the permission whenever you like at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
• The data goes straight from your browser to your Drive: this website does not receive or store the file.

If you work from several devices. Each time you save, the app checks whether the file has changed in Drive from another device. If it has, it does not replace it silently: it offers Save as new copy (to merge the data afterwards with “Import tree”) or Replace the Drive version.

If you close the browser without saving and come back later, the app restores its local copy and remembers that the file is in Drive. Since that copy may be out of date, it shows a notice with a Check Drive button: if there is a newer version, you can open it or keep yours.

Saving over the same file

In Chrome and Edge (on a computer), the first time you press Save or Save as the browser lets you choose where to keep the file and asks permission to write to it. From then on, Save writes straight over that same file, without producing copies such as «MyTree (1).fam». A notice confirms the name it was saved under. If for any reason the file cannot be written to, a copy is downloaded as usual.

In Firefox and Safari the browser does not allow this: Save keeps downloading the file under the same name.

Reopening the last file

The browser automatically saves a copy of the open file, which is recovered when you open the page again.

• File on disk: the page opens directly with the browser copy, which is on the same computer as the file. If the copy has changes that are not yet in the file, a notice reminds you: press Save to update it (Chrome and Edge may ask again for permission to write to the file). To work with the version on disk, use Open file.
• File in Drive: since it may have been changed from another device, a window asks you to choose between Open the file (from Drive, after signing in to Google) and Use the browser copy. If you close it without choosing, the Last file bar stays at the top. If the copy has unsaved changes, the window warns about it in red with the date of those changes and the main button becomes Use the browser copy; the other is called Discard my changes and open Drive. Before discarding you can download your copy as a .fam file (box ticked by default), and what is discarded is also kept for 14 days in the browser: the ↩ Recover discarded changes button appears to reopen it. With a Drive file that has changes not yet uploaded, the browser also asks before the tab is closed. If the file can no longer be found, the copy is opened with a notice.

Close file deletes the browser copy and the reference to the last file.

In Firefox and Safari, a short tip appears the first time the page is visited: with Chrome or Edge Save updates the same file; in Firefox and Safari every Save downloads a new copy, and Safari may delete the site’s data after a few days without a visit.

Undo and redo

The Undo and Redo buttons in the toolbar (or Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, which on a Mac are ⌘+Z and ⌘+Y) go back or repeat changes: editing or deleting a person, changing a union, importing a tree… Changes made within a few moments of each other count as one. Up to 100 changes are remembered, as long as they do not take too much memory.

• The history starts from zero when you open, create or close a file: you cannot undo anything from before you opened it.
• With a window open, or while typing in a field, Ctrl+Z undoes the typed text, not the change in the tree.
• If you undo back to the point where you saved, the file is shown as saved again.

Backup reminder

If more than 20 minutes pass with unsaved changes, a discreet notice reminds you to press Save. It repeats every 20 minutes while the changes remain unsaved. It is only a reminder: it does not save anything by itself.

Exporting to PDF

The Export to PDF button opens a dialog with these options:

• What to export: the tree’s graphic diagram (with or without photos), or the full list of people with all their details.
• Include photos — only applies to the graphic diagram.
• Print Circle cover pages — adds two pages at the start of the document with Iniciativa Occasio’s cover page and manifesto, automatically filling in the Circle’s steward and successor’s names. The manifesto is fetched from Iniciativa Occasio’s own website at the time of exporting; if for some reason it can’t be downloaded (for example, with no internet connection), you’re notified and the rest of the document is still exported, just with the cover page.

The browser’s print window opens; choose “Save as PDF” as the destination. If the tree is very large, the graphic diagram is automatically split across several pages by family branch.

15. Sharing a Circle

The Share Circle button shares only the Circle you currently have selected (not the whole file), and lets you choose which people to include and what you are sharing it for.

What you are sharing it for

• For them to view — generates a special (.html) file that, when tapped, opens automatically with the Circle loaded, without having to select any file by hand. You can send it however you prefer: WhatsApp, email, a USB drive… You can include the photos (always as thumbnails, so the file stays light) or leave them out.
• For them to add to their tree — generates a .fam file with only the selected people and their photos in original quality. The recipient opens it with “Import tree” (section 16) from their own Circle. It does not change the file you have open.

Choosing the people

The Circle is shown as an indented list with branch lines, like a file explorer, with a checkbox for each person. When the dialog opens everyone is selected; untick anyone you do not want to include. Each couple is on the same line and their children hang below. The triangles fold and unfold each branch, the “Branch” button ticks or unticks a person and all their descendants at once, and there is a search box and buttons to select all, select none, expand all and collapse all.

• If unticking someone loses relationships with people who are shared, a notice says so: anyone left without their father, mother or partner in the file will appear without that relationship.
• When sharing “for them to add to their tree”, if someone would arrive with an incomplete family (for example, with the father selected but not the mother), a notice lists who they are, and an “Also select their parents” button fixes it.
• If the .html file does not open on an iPhone (the preview in some apps does not follow the link), the page that appears has a Copiar dirección (copy address) button: copy the address, open Safari and paste it in the address bar. If it still does not open, the Circle may be too large for a link: share fewer people or without photos.
• The approximate size of the file is shown below. If an .html link goes over 1.5 MB you are warned, because Chrome and Edge do not open links larger than about 2 MB: select fewer people, leave out the photos, or share the .fam file.

Notes and attachments when sharing

Sharing means giving someone else the data of some people, not of the whole tree. That is why the most personal material travels only if you choose it:

• People’s notes — not included by default, because they are usually the most intimate part of a record. You can choose to include them, both in the .html link and in the .fam file.
• People’s attachments — this selector appears only when sharing a .fam file «for them to add to their tree», and only if some of the people you ticked have attachments. They are not included by default, and the option to include them shows how much they take up, so you can decide with that figure. The approximate size and the large-file warning take them into account. The .html link never carries attachments.

16. Importing someone else’s tree

Designed for when someone else is also contributing to the genealogical research — for example, a relative who completes their own branch and sends the file back to you. The Import tree button, next to “Open file”, opens a different .fam file and lets you choose which people to bring into your current Circle, without replacing or modifying your own file.

How it works

1. The app automatically compares that file with yours. If it finds people in common, it goes straight to the selection step.
2. If it can’t find anyone in common (completely independent files), it asks you to manually point out one person who is the same in both, so the rest can be connected.
3. Visual selection: the imported file’s tree is shown. People you already have appear dimmed and marked with a ✓; for the new ones, check the box of whichever interest you — or use the “+ branch” button to bring in all of their descendants at once too.
4. Final review: if any selected person is left “dangling” (their father, mother or connecting partner hasn’t been included), you’re offered to bring in that chain automatically. If any person you already have shows different data in the imported file, a field-by-field comparison is shown so you can choose which to keep — by default, your own data is always kept.

If the file comes from “Share for them to add to their tree”

This is the most convenient case: the file contains only the people the sender wanted to share, with their photos in original quality. You open it with “Import tree” and the rest of the process is the one above.

Reconciling two copies of the same Circle

If you and someone else each work on your own copy of the same Circle (for instance, you shared it with a cousin and you have both been correcting data), Import tree lets you bring the copies up to date without duplicating anyone. People in common are recognized automatically, because they share an identifier.

• You can continue without checking anyone. If the file brings no new people, only the people you already have are compared and you choose which data to update.
• For each person with differences, the wizard tells you where the most recent change is: in the imported file, in your copy, or in both since the last reconciliation. That last case is a conflict: it is never checked automatically and deserves a careful look.
• Two buttons help you decide: «Check the imported file’s value where it is more recent» and «Keep mine everywhere». You can then adjust box by box.
• What is compared: name, sex, birth and death (date, time and place), photographs and, for unions, the wedding date and separation.
• Nothing changes unless you check it and confirm. When finished, a notice tells you how many people were compared and how many values were updated.

Possible duplicates

If the file you are importing comes from another source (for instance, a GEDCOM from another program) and contains people who are already in your Circle but with no identifier in common, the wizard detects them by name and birth year and shows them as possible duplicates. For each pair of people you choose:

• Same person — they are not added again, and in the next step you can compare their data and decide which to update. It also serves as a connection point to place the people around them.
• Different people — they are added as a new person, and the wizard does not ask about that pair again.

The clearest matches (same full name and same birth year) are flagged first. Two people whose known sex differs are never proposed as the same person. If nobody in common is recognized but there are possible duplicates, the Choose the connection point by hand button lets you carry on by choosing the joining point yourself.

17. Uncertain dates

With ancestors, not knowing the exact day is the norm. So every birth or death date (and a union’s date) has a date type selector:

A person with any date of death, even an approximate one, is considered deceased (golden aura, and cannot be Steward or Successor). The time can only be given with an exact date. The sorted list and the timeline use the year for ordering; uncertain dates are marked differently (an empty circle on the timeline).

18. Importing a GEDCOM file

GEDCOM (.ged) is the format almost every genealogy program (Gramps, MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch, Legacy…) can export. It lets you reuse data you already have elsewhere.

How to do it

• To create a new file: on the start screen press Import GEDCOM and choose the .ged.
• To add it to a Circle you already have: with the Circle open, use Import tree and choose the .ged.

A summary opens with the people and families read. If the file contains groups of people with no connection to each other, you choose which to import. Then you decide the destination:

• A new Circle, which you name.
• The current Circle: you point out which GEDCOM person is the same as one in your Circle and review what is brought in, just as in section 16.

What is imported and what is not

People, names, sex, birth, death, partners (with wedding and separation), children and places with coordinates are imported. Approximate, «before», «after» and range dates are converted to the types in section 17. Notes, occupations, residences and burial are imported, shown on the record and can be edited from the person’s form (section 5).

Photographs, document sources and other data are not imported. Nothing is lost silently: the «Good to know» box lists everything that could not be translated (unreadable dates, people with several partners, adoption links, etc.).

19. Timeline and map of places

Timeline

Shows one row per person, with a bar from birth to death, a dot at each end and a diamond for each dated union. An empty circle means an uncertain date, and a dotted line means the person has no date of death (it runs to «today»).

• The Show selector switches between the whole Circle and the branch of the selected person.
• Press a person to open their record.
• The + and − buttons change the scale. Below, you are told how many people are missing because they have no date at all.

Map of places

Draws birth and death places on a map. Only places with coordinates appear: in the person’s form, mark the point on the location’s map picker. A place written only as text is not located (the plugin does not query outside services to guess it); the map tells you how many people are left out.

• Filters: All, Births and Deaths.
• The Movements switch draws lines between the birth place and the death place.
• Pressing a marker shows who was born and who died there.

20. Exporting data and checking the file’s integrity

The Export data button (next to «Export to PDF») produces, for the selected Circle only, a copy designed for long-term preservation. Everything is created in your browser and downloaded; nothing is uploaded to any server.

• GEDCOM (.ged) — to use your data in other genealogy programs. It includes people, names, dates (uncertain ones too), places with coordinates, partners, children, occupations, residences, notes and who is Steward or Successor. Photographs do not travel in GEDCOM; you are told how many are left out, and they stay in the .fam file.
• Readable report (.txt) — a plain text in the language you are using, which can be read without any program many years from now. It contains the Circle, its Steward and Successor (with a warning if either is missing) and every person with their dates, places and relationships. It ends with a SHA-256 fingerprint of the data: two copies with the same fingerprint contain exactly the same thing. It has no photographs.

Integrity fingerprint of the .fam file

When saved, the .fam file includes a fingerprint (SHA-256) of its data. When it is opened the fingerprint is recalculated; if it does not match, a warning appears: the file may have been modified or damaged since it was saved, so check its data or recover an earlier copy. Files saved with earlier versions have no fingerprint and open without a warning; they get one the next time you save them.

21. Succession view

A single file can hold several Circles, and each one needs a steward and someone to succeed them. The «Steward and Successor» panel on the left only shows the Circle you have open; the Succession button in the toolbar gathers every Circle in the file in one table.

• For each Circle you see its steward and successor. Press a Circle or a person to go straight to them.
• The warnings point out what does not add up: a Circle with no steward, no successor, a steward or successor with a date of death, or the same person with a role in more than one Circle (recognized by identifier, or by name and date of birth).
• Download report (.txt) saves that summary as plain text, handy to keep or to hand to the successor.

This view only displays data: it changes nothing. To change who is steward or successor, use the left panel or the person’s form (section 8).

22. Practical tips

• Even though changes are already remembered on their own in this browser (see section 14), it’s still worth saving your .fam file from time to time to have your own copy outside the browser.
• You can have several Circles inside the same .fam file.
• All the work is done locally: once the page has loaded, you can carry on without an internet connection (except for the PDF’s manifesto, which is fetched from the website at that moment if “Print Circle cover pages” is checked).
• If you’re using a shared computer, press Close file when you’re done — see section 14.
• Make regular backups of your .fam files. Since they’re local files, keeping them safe is your own responsibility.
• If you use Google Drive, your file lives in your Google account: save before switching devices and, if you like, keep a copy on your computer too.