![]() ![]() There are also ‘loops’ in some family trees. “In family trees there are two parents, multiple siblings and potentially several marriages that complicate the structure.” “The tree of life shows individual species splitting into several new species, whereas genealogies are more complex” he said. But while the foundation was there, this new project had its own challenges. ZoomPast is built on the framework of Dr Rosindell’s previous project OneZoom, an interactive map of the evolutionary tree of life. From the starting point of one individual, the relationship to another can be visualised by ‘flying through’ to their place on the tree, passing through all the connected branches on the way.ĭr Rosindell hopes ZoomPast will be used not only to help people connect with their own past, but as a tool for outreach and teaching through the wealth of information attached to any individual and the intuitive way it can be explored. Bush are related as ninth cousins twice removed. The trees of some historical figures are pre-loaded onto the site, so users can discover, for example, how Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Queen Elizabeth II's family tree, demonstrating the zooming principle. ZoomPast then creates a digital ‘painting’ that can be explored, including each person’s location and date of birth and death, details of their marriages, photo, jobs and more. Those with only a few records or memories can watch simple tutorial videos on the website to help them start to build their tree, or more experienced genealogists can upload files they already have from other genealogy software. Trees can be built by experienced genealogists or budding family historians. A user can then scroll and zoom into any branch of the family tree to reveal further details in the same way as they might explore Google Earth. Close relatives are shown as large features easy to see whilst more distant relatives are tiny points. ZoomPast places a chosen individual in the centre of the visualisation with all their relatives placed around them. This is something that truly moves beyond the old paper-based way of thinking”. ZoomPast solves this by automatically generating a huge digital view of your family tree that you can then explore just by zooming, as you would a digital map. Dr Rosindell, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: “Family trees easily grow too large for printing at least you would need a lot of sticky tape to join the pages. ZoomPast was created by Imperial College London researcher Dr James Rosindell and his former student Kai Zhong, who is now a software developer. Genealogies can be viewed from the perspective of any person in a given tree, and a built-in social and sharing platform allows trees to be shared and grown collaboratively or kept completely private. The family trees of famous and fictional people can also be explored on the site, from Queen Elizabeth II and George Washington to Harry Potter. ZoomPast solves this by automatically generating a huge digital view of your family tree. Family trees easily grow too large for printing at least you would need a lot of sticky tape to join the pages. ![]()
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