Apps · One family’s history, in two scripts
Five generations of one family in English and Chinese, where anyone can find a relative, see how they’re related, and add what they know.
Private build
My husband’s family kept its history in a spreadsheet: a sheet for each branch, names in English and Chinese, and years of letters between the branch representatives tucked into cell comments. It was thorough, and almost nobody could find their way around it.
Before a family meeting, I turned it into a wiki the whole family could use, from the cousins on their phones to the elders who read Chinese first. Every value still points back to the cell it came from.
The problem
A sheet for every branch, merged cells and a lineage code on every row. It made sense to whoever kept it.
The same person has a dialect romanisation, a Western name and a Chinese name, and search has to find all three.
The right term depends on which side, which branch and who is older. The younger cousins had stopped trying.
Changes arrived by message, at funerals and over Chinese New Year dinner, and none of them had a history.
Who it’s for
Every name in both scripts, text that scales up, and buttons big enough to tap.
Search by nickname or pinyin, and see how you’re related to anyone.
Each branch has an editor who can add children, photos and corrections, and every change is kept.
One file that opens offline on any laptop, so everyone can go through the tree together.
What it does
An English name, Chinese in either script, a Western name, pinyin or a lineage code all find the same person.
Every generation laid out as a wall chart. Drag to move, scroll to zoom, or fit the whole family on screen.
Pick any two people and it works out how they’re related, and what each should call the other, in Chinese with pinyin.
Where everyone lives today, where the ancestors rest, and the line back to the ancestral village.
Every birthday and wedding anniversary in the family, nearest first.
The ancestral line from the clan book, which can be extended when relatives in China find more.
How it was made
The family tree is built with agentic assistance. The agents read the spreadsheet and wrote the code. What the family needed, and what should never be possible, I decided.
Where it’s heading
Next is getting every branch signed in, so corrections come straight from each representative rather than through one person.
Private for now
The family tree was built for one family and stays private to them. If your family keeps its history in a spreadsheet, I’d like to hear about it.
Tell me how your family keeps its records now. If enough families ask, it’s the kind of thing I’d open up.
I build private tools like this for a family, a team or a single project. Yours would be made around how you work.
About an app, copy, training or a talk. I'd love to hear what you're working on.
Get in touchor email hi@ambidextrouslabs.com
