New App: Super Big Family Tree

Question

Introducing a new addition to the Tree Apps family, the Super Big Family Tree app, now available in beta version on the apps test server.
(Choose SUPER BIG FAMILY TREE from the Tree App drop down list, if it's not already chosen, enter a WikiTree ID, then click GO)

After months of planning, programming and testing, the Super Big Family Tree (or SBFT for short), is now ready for a larger audience to test it and kick its tires.

What does this app do?  In a nutshell, it allows you to create a Family Tree chart as large, wide or narrow as you wish. 

Once you pick the primary person to build the family tree upon, you can go as far back as 7 generations of ancestors, or forward as far as 7 generations of descendants.  

You can also branch out and go wide - and display up to "3rd cousins" of depth of all the direct ancestors, that is, for each direct ancestor, you can display their siblings, and those siblings' children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  

At every level, there is also the option to show the "in-laws"  - i.e. - the parents of each spouse married into the family.

Thanks to the dedication and persistence of Murray Maloney, there is also an excellent Free Space page dedicated to documenting all the features of the Super Big Family Tree app.  Murray's collaboration also helped me many times in testing and adding new features and functionality I hadn't even considered, but have made the app much better than I'd originally conceived.  Thanks Murray!

There are still some bugs - a few are known - but I'm sure there are many special cases I have not been able to test.  If you find something, please reply to this post, or send me a message on Discord.  I'd like to iron out as many bugs as possible before the app moves permanently to the Tree Apps area on the main server.   

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Super Tree returned to Tree Apps, 16 Feb 2024

Comments

See Greg demo his new Super Big Family Chart during the Saturday Roundup on Saturday 2 Dec 2023 — starting at the 29 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNpC5jGp0CE&list=PLEqK4ICkQWXQjQv8KdgZx94hFl0eWN9l3&index=31

Answer 1

This is fantastic!   And, now I know what I will be doing all day tomorrow. 

Answer 2

Thanks for developing another great app. This sounds like just what I need since my tree looks more like a bush covered in ivy.

Answer 3

Wow!  Thanks for this.

Answer 4

This is pretty neat.   Already telling my family about it!

Thank you Cousin Greag! 23rd cousin once removed

Answer 5

It always amazes me what a handful of volunteers can offer on this free site that the big pay sites can, despite all their high-paid employees. Thanks so much Greg and Murray. You guys are amazing!

Answer 6

Tried it with myself as the base person, impressive.

 I've always missed a MyHeritage type tree display here on WT. First appearance this display appears a step (or several) ahead of MyHeritage.
 Now to read the instructions.

Answer 7

Great job, would it be possible to click on a link line to highlight it.

Comments

Sounds like a new feature request - hadn't thought of this one before.  (There are several features I plan to add in the future, including colouring duplicates in the tree, similar to what happens in the Fan Chart, as well as adding toggles that will hide/show branches so you could be super selective in your Super Big Family Tree ... but THIS request is a new one.)

How would you envision it working - clicking on an ancestor would then highlight the route down from that ancestor to the primary person ?  Similarly, clicking on a descendant would highlight the route up to the primary?   If that's the path you want to see, I have a plan to add those paths as a visual inside the Person Popup at some point in the future.

If, however, you're thinking something else - please - elaborate!

---

The lines become cluttered. It becomes difficult to follow the connection.

---

Yes. That is something I am hoping to improve upon as well as cases where lines intersect and appear to connect to the wrong family. I have used done colors to help distinguish them where possible

Answer 8

Very nice. Would it be possible to add the DNA Confirmed icon where appropriate?

Comments

Hi there Bennet, good question.  I've added that option to the Fan Chart, but it's an easier application there because the DNA confirmed denotes the connection between a single person and their parents (one DNA confirmed radio button for Mom, and one for Dad).  In a larger, broader tree, you'd basically need to add a DNA confirmed sticker to each line connecting a person to their parents.  One could assume that if A had confirmed by DNA their connection to A's mother and father, that all of A's siblings would also be confirmed .. but .. we know that sometimes sibling B's DNA might yield a surprise ... so we can't make those assumptions.

I like the idea - but - I'm not sure of the best / most efficient / visually clear way to do this.  I'm very open to suggestions or mock-ups though if you or other WikiTreers have ideas how this could look.

Answer 9

Thanks Greg and Murray for all you do for WikiTree!!!

Answer 10

I'm so excited about this app, Greg.  Thanks for all your work and dedication in making it a reality.

Answer 11

I really like this app and can see using it a lot for researching cousins.  

I've seen other trees (FTDNA's for example) which give the ability to drill down on a specific branch of cousins or ancestors by clicking a little icon.  When I thought about it a bit I realized that your app can do the same thing by just changing the focus person, and that's probably a better way anyway.  

I think some of the clutter that was mentioned earlier could be alleviated by allowing more vertical space between the higher generations and/or aligning lower generations beneath their parents (spacing them farther apart).  Both of those should help minimize the lines crossing over each other.  Both happen naturally when cousins are added, and indeed the lines do become less cluttered, with less crossing.  Theoretically, lines should not need to cross except for cases of cousins marrying, but implementing that is probably easier said than done.  
I think there are some cases with half siblings where it's impossible to avoid crossed lines too.  

Comments

Hi there Ben,

Yes - I agree that especially in the upper echelons, the connecting lines do turn into a bit of a rat's nest.  I do intend to add some logic to give extra height, so the next level of name boxes don't appear over top of / under the connecting lines from the previous level.  

AND ... I was also considering adding an option to either keep the spacing tight to the core (as it is currently by default) - or - to be spaced out under the top level ancestors.  I haven't fully fleshed out that spacing algorithm yet .. but it's on my to-do list.

Thanks for your patience as things develop.  An ocean liner like this app turns very slowly!

Answer 12

This is great, Greg and Murray.  I could have used this while working on a family this weekend so I could see the relationships more clearly instead of going back and forth.  That family was particularly complicated with husbands and wives with the same LNAB.  Very confusing.  Does it update in real time when refreshed?

Comments

Cindy, it is currently running on a test server, not on the WikiTree server. So, I don't know how far out of sync they are. I'm gonna guess that if you make a change to your tree, it will not be immediately reflected when you refresh SBFT. But I am not 100% confident in that prediction.

Answer 13

It's a great app. However, when I've tried it for a few of my mother's ancestors, it incorrectly shows my mother as being the daughter of my grandfather's first wife who died before my mother was born. On WikiTree my mother is correctly showing as the daughter of my grandfather's second wife.

Comments

I will check that out!  Thanks for letting me know. I’ve found a few other bugs too.

---

Thanks Greg. I have sent you a screenshot.

Answer 14

Thanks Greg and Murray and all involved for adding this great app! If I have a bigger screen, I will give it a go!

Answer 15

This will be very very useful!

And a suggestion, instead of calling it the difficult to pronounce SBFT, call it SuBiFaT. 

(I'm not sure if I'm serious or not. )

Comments

Without predicting the outcome, I can tell you a name change is coming down the pike.

---

Great!

Answer 16

Great idea Greg and everyone else! 

I work on the iPad which always seems to cause a problem. 

When I drag the SBFT to see a different part of the tree, the bottom generation of boxes become very jagged and unreadable. I only had 3 generations total. Same problem on a different profile.

Sue