GRAMPS (an abbreviation for “Genealogy Research and Analysis Management Programming System”) was originally developed as a Linux genealogy program and later was ported to Macintosh, Windows, BSD UNIX and Solaris. (You can find my previous articles about GRAMPS by starting at https://goo.gl/gVUE9d.)

GRAMPS is now available as a cloud-based program. In theory, you should be able to use the cloud-based version of GRAMPS with any Android, Apple iOS (specifically iPad), Chromebook, Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer. Since it runs from the cloud, no software installation is required. Best of all, GRAMPS is available FREE of charge.

I find GRAMPS to be a very powerful genealogy program. Perhaps the most attractive feature is its price tag: FREE.

GRAMPS is a community project, created, developed and governed by genealogists. Dozens of programmers have contributed to its success. Now the folks at rollApp have ported GRAMPS to an online version, accessible to everyone in the cloud. One unique feature is that the online version of GRAMPS will save your data files in your choice of Dropbox, Google Drive, Box.com, OneDrive, or Yandex.Disk.

I have only used GRAMPS Online for a few minutes so far, using a Chromebook for a while and then switching to a Macintosh. In my limited testing, it has worked well with two exceptions:

Not all the screens display properly. It tends to display in a small window in the web browser and the right side of the display is cut off at times. I haven’t yet figured out how to make the cloud-based version of GRAMPS print to my local printer. I was able to “print” to a PDF file, save the file, then transfer the PDF file to my own computer and print it. However, that is a bit of a kludge work-around.

The fact that GRAMPS is available as a cloud-based app is interesting but I would consider it to be a work-in-progress and is not yet fully debugged. It isn’t ready for prime time yet. Then again, if I was already using GRAMPS as my genealogy program on a Windows, Macintosh, or Linux computer, I might be very interested in being able to use the cloud-based version of an Android tablet, an iPad, or a Chromebook.

If you would like to experiment with the cloud-based version of GRAMPS, go to https://www.rollapp.com/app/gramps.

I think I will stick with my present genealogy programs, however.