A user-friendly, inclusive, LGBTQAI+-friendly and non-spying family tree manager.
The name Jenealogio is a build from the Esperanto word for genealogy, “genealogio”, with the G replaced by a J for Java, the language the app is written in.
The first version of this software was developed quite a while back but I was not satisfied with the direction it took. So in 2023 I archived its repository and started again from scratch with this new version.
They are two main reasons: privacy and inclusivity.
Firstly, regarding privacy, I generally don’t trust online genealogical apps with ensuring the privacy and security of the information I give them, and that they will not sell it to third-parties. Plus, there is the risk data leaks due to hacks.
Secondly, being queer myself, while researching the genealogy of my own family, I grew tired of the lack of LGBTQAI+ inclusivity in most genealogical softwares. As such, I decided to build my own that would fill this need. I was also inspired by blog posts on sixgen.org that talked about this issue. After reading their posts on LGBTQ Genealogy & Software, I was further motivated to pursue this endeavor.
This application is currently under active developpement. As such, tree files’ structure may change drastically during this time and until the first release, with no guarantee of backward compatibility.
You can follow planned features and developpement progress over on the project’s Trello board.
In LGBTQ Genealogy & Software – Part 6 at sixgen.org, they list the following points they wish to see in genealogical softwares:
- Ability to Enter Spouses with Accurately Defined Relationships: Provide options for accurately defining relationships such as marriage, domestic partnership, civil unions, partners, co-parents, unmarried unions, or however people commit to each other.
- Link Any Person in a Family Unit and Define Relationships Independently: Allow the flexibility to link any individual in a family unit and define their relationships independent of hetero-normative models.
- Allow for More Than Two Parents: Acknowledge the reality of families with more than two parents, accommodating diverse family structures.
- Evolve Standard Genealogy Documents to Report on Family History: Move beyond DNA lines and evolve standard genealogy documents to comprehensively report on Family History.
- Gender-Neutral Parent and Spouse Labels with Gender-Neutral Iconography: Implement gender-neutral labels for parents and spouses accompanied by inclusive iconography.
- Allow for Birth Sex, Trans Sex, and Gender Identification: Incorporate options for recording birth sex, trans sex, and gender identification to reflect the diverse spectrum of gender identities.
- Adopt the Latest GEDCOM 5.5.5 Standard to Remove Religious Control of Genealogical Data: Embrace the GEDCOM 5.5.5 standard to ensure genealogical data is free from religious control, fostering inclusivity and diversity.
I tried to follow these suggestions in Jenealogio 2. Here’s how those points have been addressed:
-
The app offers various builtin relationship types such as marriage, non-married partners, and civil solidarity pact. This list may be expanded in the future. The app also offers the ability to create custom types if none of the builtin ones fit a situation.
-
The only explicit family links currently supported are parent-child relations and relations between partners/spouses. Siblings are deduced from the parents they have in common.
-
This point is not yet fully supported. As I made the decision to show parent-child relations as a binary tree to simplify its rendering, a person can have at most 2 direct parents. However, adoptive, foster and godparents can be specified without any upper cap on the number but they do not appear in the graphical tree view. All of this may change in the future but I won’t guarantee anything.
-
The software makes no assumptions regarding DNA relations between the members of a tree. It is left to the interpretation of the users.
-
The app uses neutral terminology such as Parent 1 and Parent 2 for parents, and Partner instead of Husband or Wife. A single non-representative placeholder icon is used for all people, regardless of their gender. I tried to steer away from the stereotypical colors for men and women. Men are represented in turquoise and women in orange by default instead of the classical blue and pink. Other genders’ colors have been picked from their respective pride flags when available. These default colors can be changed at will.
-
I chose to only feature the gender of people, completely getting rid of any sex information for three reasons:
- I consider this information not that relevant and I think we should stop with trying to classify people using that criterion.
- Sex is not that simple to define, there are at least three ways to do so in humans (chromosomes, genitalia, secondary characteristics) that do not always align.
- As a trans person myself, I wouldn’t want my birth sex to be featured in this context (or anywhere else for that matter) as it is a very sensitive information that could trigger my gender dysphoria if brought up. I’m sure I’m not the only one in that situation.
There are several builtin gender identities (agender, female, gender fluid, male, non-binary) and users can define the ones they want if these are not sufficient. More builtin genders may be added in the future if needs be.
-
I’m trying to add the ability to import/export GEDCOM 5.5.5 files but I cannot guarantee that it will be supported one day. The specification is quite long (166 pages) and complex, and the format may not support every type of information that this app handles.
The app offers six different calendar systems for event dates:
- Gregorian
- Julian
- French Republican with decimal time (10h in a day, 100 minutes in 1h, etc.)
- French Republican with classical time (24h in a day, 60 minutes in 1h, etc.)
- Ethiopian
- Coptic
Hebrew and Arabic calendar systems are not supported as they are very complex and I don’t understand them enough to confidently integrate them in the app.
You can choose how dates and times are displayed in the app among several formats: D M Y, M D Y, 12h clock, 24h clock, and many more.
The app is available in three languages:
- English
- Esperanto
- French
This app does not and will never send your data and files anywhere or to anyone. You keep full control of your data and files.
The app is written in Java. It works on Linux and should also work without any issues on Windows (untested) and MacOS (untested). It requires at least Java 17 and should also work with newer versions (untested).
This software is available under the GPL-3.0 license. Please refer to the LICENSE file for the full license text.