Family sheets

As part of my quest to start saving my genealogical research on paper, I built a small system for generating family sheet PDFs. (Kind of like my family group record redesigns.)

It takes input like this:

SE-0007:
  father:
    name: José Antonio Fuentevilla Fuentevilla
    birth:
      date: 13 Apr 1809
      place: Polanco, Santander, Spain
    death:
      date: 23 Dec 1878
      place: Polanco, Santander, Spain
    parents:
      father: José Fuentevilla Piñera
      mother: Vicenta Manuela Fuentevilla Ruiz
      link: SE-0013

  mother:
    name: Manuela Gándara Cobo
    birth:
      date: about 1811
      place: Setién, Marina de Cudeyo, Santander, Spain
    death:
      date: 30 Nov 1879
      place: Polanco, Santander, Spain
    parents:
      father: José Gandara Valdecilla
      mother: Josefa Cobo Palacio

  marriage:
    date: 30 Dec 1829
    place: Polanco, Santander, Spain

  children:
    - name: "[unnamed infant]"
      birth:
        date: about 1830
        place: Polanco, Santander, Spain
      death:
        date: 14 Jan 1831
        place: Polanco, Santander, Spain

    - name: Josefa Fuentevilla Gandara
      birth:
        date: 31 Jul 1832
        place: Polanco, Santander, Spain
      death:
        date: 5 Aug 1834
        place: Polanco, Santander, Spain

...

And then generates an HTML page which I can then load in a browser and print to get this:

I’m using a page-naming scheme that helps me know which side of my family it’s on. The numbering is in order of creation. The family sparklines show an overview of the family. There’s a notes section (not shown) where I include notes on the family and what research we still need to do. The age calculations are primitive but get the idea across.

It takes a bit of time to copy things out of FamilySearch and keep it up to date, but I’m finding that these sheets help me see what work I still need to do. And it’s nice having something material and persistent so I’m not always on a screen.