Gramps is a genealogy database for recording people and the evidence that connects them. It handles family relationships, life events, places, sources and scanned media without forcing every fact into one long person record. A researcher can use Gramps for a small family tree or a much larger archive in which several relatives share the same event, citation or location.
Records share objects
It treats a person, family, event and place as separate database objects. A marriage event can link to two people, a place and one or more citations. Editing the place once updates every reference that points to that place. This object model avoids copying the same location text into many profiles, but it also changes how data entry works compared with a simple family-tree form.
The person editor does not contain every detail directly. A birth date normally belongs to an event linked to the person, while the supporting document belongs to a citation linked to a source. A first-time user may need several editor windows to record one well-supported fact. The extra steps preserve the connection between the claim and its evidence.
Events need roles
Several people can share one event. Gramps gives each event reference its own role, notes and attributes, so one census event can identify a head of household and another resident without creating duplicate census records. Family events and individual events remain distinct even when they occur on the same date.
Imported records do not always arrive in a useful order. An event with no date, an approximate date or a sequence inherited from another program may appear away from the expected position. It lets the researcher reorder those references, but it cannot infer chronology that the imported data never contained.
Citations carry proof
A source describes a book, register, website or other body of material. A citation points to the specific page or item that supports a claim. Repositories record where a source resides. Gramps keeps these layers separate, which makes one source reusable across many citations and many people.
This separation also exposes weak research. Adding a source title alone does not identify the page that supports a birth or death. The citation still needs the relevant volume, page, confidence and note data. Media can attach to the citation when a scan belongs to that exact record.
Media stays linked
Gramps records a path to each photograph, certificate or other media file. Moving a media folder outside its records can break those paths even though the family tree still opens. The media manager can help locate and repair missing paths, but a database backup does not automatically contain every original file.
The Make Backup command can create a package archive that includes copies of associated media when the user enables the media option. Plain Gramps XML preserves genealogy data without bundling those files. Choosing the wrong backup form can therefore leave a complete family structure beside missing photographs.
GEDCOM drops detail
GEDCOM remains useful for moving common genealogy records between different products, but its data model does not match every database object and property. The export warning states that a GEDCOM file necessarily loses information that the format cannot express. A file can import successfully while still omitting product-specific detail.
Gramps XML keeps the full database model, and a package archive can carry that data with media. Those formats suit a lossless move between installations. GEDCOM suits exchange with another genealogy product, where the researcher should inspect the imported tree rather than assume an exact round trip.
Backups need distance
Archive snapshots help reverse recent edits, but they remain on the same storage as the working tree. A failed disk can remove both. A proper backup needs another drive or remote location. Backup on exit also acts only when a family tree remains open, so closing the tree before leaving the session skips that automatic copy.
Privacy filters do not belong in a full recovery backup because they intentionally remove selected information. A recovery copy should preserve the complete tree, while a filtered export can create a separate file for sharing with relatives or publishing elsewhere.
