The files are yours
No hidden database. Your whole family history is plain text files and your own photos, all in one folder. If you can copy a folder, you can back up your genealogy.
Your family tree, as plain files you own.
StemmaFiles is a fast desktop app for tracing your family. Everyone you add is saved as a plain, readable file on your own computer β yours to open in any text editor, today or in thirty years. No account, nothing trapped in the cloud.
Alpha β Windows first; Linux and macOS are on the way.
Bring your tree with you
Already have a tree in Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic, Gramps, Ancestry or MyHeritage? It imports in seconds, sources, dates and places included. A plain spreadsheet of people works too. And GEDCOM export is always right there β in the free version as well.
Five ways to see one family
A tree with portraits, a living graph of connections, a map that traces each life, a timeline of generations β and a snapshot of any year: who was alive in, say, 1880, and in which household. All offline, and it doesn't slow down even with tens of thousands of people.
Maps that know their history
Your villages are found without internet. Install the historical border packs and the map changes with the time slider β events from 1790 sit inside the borders of 1790. Mark the old church, mill or manor yourself, and export any view as a crisp SVG.
Old records' dates, understood
Church books rarely say β21 April 1782β. More often it's βDominica III post Paschaβ. StemmaFiles reads feast-day dates in Latin and Polish, understands double years like β1 Mar 1740/41β, and keeps what the scribe wrote β yet still sorts it and puts it on the map.
Proof, not guesswork
Every fact can carry its source and a confidence level, and the citation comes ready to paste, in Evidence Explained or Chicago style. The app points out contradictions, finds likely duplicates and helps merge them cleanly. And the research log remembers where you've already looked β so next year you don't dig through the same books twice.
The Registry β your archive as a table
The whole archive in one searchable table: people, places, sources, research questions. Ready-made queries like βpeople with no birth dateβ, your own conditions joined with AND and OR, pick-your-own columns, CSV export. For finding the gaps before a trip to the archives, there's no better view.
Godparents, witnesses, guardians
The most interesting names in old records are often not family at all. Record who held the child at the font and who witnessed the wedding β they show up on the tree and the graph as real connections, and they survive GEDCOM round-trips.
Photos, scans and faces
Attach portraits and document scans to people and sources. Tag the faces in a group photo and each person gets their own portrait crop from it β it follows them into the tree, their card and the family website.
Print-ready reports
Seven kinds of PDF: a family sheet, ancestor and descendant lists, pedigree and fan charts, a full person profile. Plus a complete family book with its own name index β just the thing for the table at a reunion.
Your tree as a website
One click and your tree becomes a small private website: a clickable chart, a page for every person, your photos, living relatives kept anonymous. Send the family a ZIP β no app or account needed to look.
Feels like an heirloom
Warm parchment and ink, a quiet serif for the names that matter, light and dark themes. More family chronicle than spreadsheet. The interface speaks English, Polish, German, French and Spanish.
Private, offline, versioned
No telemetry, no account, nothing leaves your computer. Every save quietly takes a snapshot β you can look at exactly what changed, and compare any old state with today.
A look inside
No database. Just a folder.
Every person is one easy-to-read note β the key facts up top, your own story below, family ties as simple links. It all stays yours: open a note in any text editor, today and in thirty years.
MyFamily/ βββ Persons/ Jan Kowalski (1888β1942).md β one note per person βββ Places/ Warszawa.md β places with their coordinates βββ Sources/ 1900 Census.md β the records your facts come from βββ Research/ Who was Anna's father.md β open questions & what you've tried βββ Media/ jan-portrait.jpg β photos and document scans βββ .git/ β automatic snapshot history
Pricing
The core app is free forever β no person limits, nothing expires. The researcher's workbench (PRO) unlocks with one payment, once, for good: no subscription, no account. And your files are plain text either way β everything you've written stays readable, whichever you choose.
Free
0 zΕ forever
An unlimited tree and editing, the living graph, the world map with life journeys and a time slider, the timeline, any-year snapshots, GEDCOM import and export. Never expires, never takes anything away.
Early access β 199.99 zΕ later
PRO
99.99 zΕ one-time
The researcher's workbench: sources and ready-to-paste citations, the research log, the query workbench, PDF reports and the family book, the family-website export, historical maps and former place names, calendars. A perpetual license for the whole 1.x line, on up to 3 computers β and you can try PRO free for 30 days in the app first.
Online checkout opens together with the first public build. Purchases are handled by Paddle, our merchant of record; prices include VAT and appear in your local currency at checkout. The early-access price runs for a launch window β afterwards PRO costs 199.99 zΕ.
Download
StemmaFiles is in alpha. The first public Windows build is on its way β the download will appear right here.
Windows installer β coming soon
Until then: write to contact@stemmafiles.com to join the early testers.
Questions
Is my data locked in?
No β that's the whole point. Your family history lives as plain, readable files, with a standard GEDCOM export on top. If StemmaFiles vanished tomorrow, you'd still have everything.
Can I use it with Obsidian, or on my phone?
You don't have to β StemmaFiles works perfectly on its own. But the files follow the same simple conventions as note apps like Obsidian and Logseq, so if you already use one (even on your phone) your family notes open right up, linked and browsable.
Does it work offline? Is there any tracking?
Fully offline β the world map and place index are built in. Looking places up online is strictly opt-in. The app sends no telemetry, and this website sets no cookies.
How big a tree can it handle?
Comfortably into the tens of thousands. The import pipeline and the map are exercised on generated 30,000-person trees in the test suite, and the views stay responsive β the map simply clusters pins until you zoom in.
What does it cost?
The core app is free forever β no person limits, no trial clock, nothing expires: the tree, editing, the graph, the map with life journeys, the timeline, and GEDCOM both ways. The researcher's workbench (sources and citations, the research log, the query workbench, PDF reports, the family website, historical maps) is the PRO pack: a single 99.99 zΕ purchase at the early-access price (199.99 zΕ later) β no subscription of any kind. The license is perpetual for the whole 1.x line, covers up to 3 of your computers, and you can try PRO free for 30 days inside the app first. A future 2.0 β years away β will be a separate, optional upgrade with a discount for 1.x owners; your 1.x keeps working indefinitely.
Windows says it protected my PC β why?
Early builds aren't code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen shows a warning. Click βMore infoβ β βRun anywayβ. Signing is on the list before the public release.
Which platforms are supported?
Windows first. The app is built cross-platform, so Linux (.deb/AppImage) and macOS (.dmg) installers are on the roadmap.