Interactive Genealogy Explorer: Visualization of Migration of Ancestors and Relatives

An interactive, three-dimensional graphic interface was conceived and developed, to illustrate and enable exploration of events recorded in a genealogy. The resulting visualization provides a colorful and intuitive view of migrations, as well as plotting the biographical data for individuals in the genealogy. Users can quickly highlight the connections between people, get a perspective on which persons lived in similar eras, or trace the life events of any person in the genealogy. The events of individuals’ lives are plotted as colored lines above the backdrop of a globe (Google Earth), tracking the life and travels of the person. The date of each event determines the altitude of the line at the event location, and the lines are colored corresponding to the date of birth of each individual. The user can manipulate the view manually, or cycle through the events in the individual's life. One lifeline or up to hundreds can be shown (for example, chosen by date, name, ancestors, descendants, connection between two individuals, etc.), to give a sense of the connections between people, and provide a visual overview of migrations and movements.