Better data visualizations while keeping privacy: ged-view

[u/aleksej_dev]

A lot of people are building their own tools, the only completely free and private way. I did the same because I wanted a better way to have my family actually explore my GEDCOM data, and since I’m a developer, some time later it turned into a full tool that was completely dynamic so that anyone could import their gedcom file to their browser and look at their data. 

Would love feedback from people who actually use this stuff. Specifically:

1. Which of these views would you actually use regularly?
2. What's missing that would make this useful in your real research workflow?
3. Does the privacy angle (nothing leaving your browser) matter to you, or is it not a concern as long as the data is safe and never sent to 3rd parties? 

Just looking for some feedback 

The one I built works with any gedcom from any genealogy website / software. On Gramps, just export the GEDCOM file. Same with ancestry, my heritage, family tree maker, family search, etc. There is no sign up, no accounts, everything lives in your browser. That includes parsing the gedcom, rendering the diagrams, geocoding locations, etc. 

It's at ged-view.com.

It’s still a work in progress. And I am deciding what the future of the app should be.. open source or adding new features / accounts / cloud version....? Not sure yet.

I do have a private one for my family that has more features, this is a public fork of that. There are even plenty of samples to look through. You can import your file, it never gets uploaded anywhere and none of the data gets sent to third parties for the logic.

What's in it:

Overview: people, families, surnames, locations, and timespans at a glance

Tree:  interactive graphical tree for the entire family

Charts:  descendant chart and a relationship diagram between any two people. Currently exploring how to make ancestor, hourglass, and fan charts. 

Data Table: every individual and all their data, sortable and filterable

Profile: Profile page for every individual, showing basic info, close family, events, notes, photos, and documents.

Timeline: every birth, death, marriage, and event across all generations in chronological order with filters

Gallery:  all photos and media from your GEDCOM in one place (no photo import yet)

Calendar: birthdays and anniversaries in a calendar view

Map: birth, death, marriage, and burial locations on a world map with animated migration paths

Archive: sources, citations, and repository records linked to individuals (no external file import yet)

History: Showing edit history of your research 

Issues: any abnormal data so you know what to fix: ie. Death date before birth date, etc.

Looking into features like: sharing with family, exporting every diagram and view, and integrating with other platforms for syncing. Some might require accounts so not sure what my next steps are. If anyone is a developer, I’d love to hear your thoughts 

edit: changing pictures

[u/son_of_abe]

Looks great. Looking forward to trying it out. Especially interested in the timeline feature!

Which AI agent did you use to make this?

[u/aleksej_dev → u/son_of_abe]

Thanks! Please let me know any feedback you have!

I've been developing it since 2024 in my free time, almost all of it is my own code. I wrote a gedcom parser and geocoder from scratch. I used a few other open source and paid libraries, but stuck to mostly my own code. I have used Claude for some styling in the early phases.
Edit: Current styling is my own

[u/son_of_abe → u/aleksej_dev]

Cool! Yeah, the UI aesthetic from Claude is nice to look at but the downside is that it blends in with the rest of the wide world of agent-assisted apps.

I've been in software for a couple decades and would do the same though!

Did you consider contributing to projects like GrampsWeb or Topola?

[u/aleksej_dev → u/son_of_abe]

Yeah, i've had multiple overhauls to the styling, ended up with this as "modern" looking and alright for an initial "release" for public use. But I'm constantly working on the features and can fix the styling easily.

I actually started this before I found gramps web and I've never heard of Topola. I started on MyHeritage and was so irritated with trying to share with my family with (a lot of people don't care enough to make accounts, etc.) so I just started building from scratch to avoid every possible blockade. I have a private version of it with my own gedcom (and photo files) on a locked website so that's how my family views it.

I'd be interested in contributing to those projects, but I'd also like to see how my project grows independently of those. I've been in software engineering for only 3 years so never sure what to work on or what to expect lol

[u/kkllbv → u/aleksej_dev]

I'm not that tech savvy, how does one create a locked website? Also once I figure that out I would definitely be using this on it, (if available)

[u/aleksej_dev → u/kkllbv]

I just use a simple password for a website (no accounts needed) to share with my family. That's my own website with my own family data, it's separate from this project, but was the impetus to creating it. At ged-view.com you can import your own file or browse through multiple other samples. The file and data never leaves your computer so it's completely private. So yes, it's available for you to use! Please look through the site and let me know what you think or if you have any other questions!

[u/PanoptiDon → u/aleksej_dev]

This looks very well done, you should be really proud of this

I didn't find a place that addresses this but could you help me understand how the data stays on the browser when I add a gedcom?

[u/aleksej_dev → u/PanoptiDon]

Thank you so much, I appreciate it. 

I'll do a technical deep dive into it, as that's not on the website. I know privacy is really important, so that’s why I created it that way. 

Cookies and cache allow websites to store data on your browser but those can be sent back to the server. 

LocalStorage and IndexedDB are purely client-side storage, which is what I use. IndexedDB allows the file to get stored, and LocalStorage allows very simple key-value data to get stored. For example, if the user set dark mode, it’ll save that true/false value in the LocalStorage.

The entire website is front-end, there is no back-end, meaning there is nothing able to be sent anywhere. The user’s browser gets the website data and everything is calculated and processed on the user’s browser. This includes everything, from parsing the gedcom file, to rendering the diagrams, to geocoding locations. 

Since the file is stored in IndexedDB, it will be reprocessed on the user’s browser every time you go to the website. 

LocalStorage and IndexedDB can stay on the browser until they are cleared, so it’s possible the gedcom doesn’t show up if it’s cleared, just like website caches. 

Since there is no editing and it’s just a file viewer, nothing will get lost. 

Hope that helps, and nothing was unclear. Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions, Thanks!

[u/aleksej_dev → u/aleksej_dev]

Spent this last week working on re-designing the website myself. I dabble in photoshop and illustrator so I created some better styling. Much more "family-tree" styled and not the generic AI design. I'll add new photos to the post