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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Hi guys, I am searching for foss a self hosted solution for a family archive. The idea is to have some kind of wiki with articles for ancestors. Additionally there should be the possibility to store a lot of media (photos) with annotations (descriptions for parts of the image). Some kind of family tree would be cool as well but is not necessary. Offline acces would be cool as well but is also not necessary. In the end the software has to be able to handle a few hundred gigs of media.

I would love to get some recommendations.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

Have you heard of webtrees? Self hosted, similar enough to Ancestry and you can upload relevant media to their entry. Not sure if it can handle a few hundred gigs but you could probably host the media on a separate program to reduce the DB strain.

I've used it when my wife was getting into genealogy. Still running in the background for the last few years with little to no maintenance.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 22 hours ago

Yes, webtrees should fit that description.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)
[-] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

What you're looking for is genealogy software. You've got me curious about this as well now, hadn't thought about it before. I'm seeing some recommendations online for Gramps Web, don't know if it's a perfect fit but might be a good starting point.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 16 hours ago

2nd gramps. I spooled it up in about 2mins on an unraid server.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 20 hours ago

This is pretty much what I searched for. Thanks!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I use Gramps and it's good. Has a Linux client too. My Family Tree is also good but windows only.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago

Start with plain old Gramps. It can export to static sites with several different templates. Gramps Web is not easy to host or run. It was designed for some specialized things.

https://gramps-project.org/blog/

[-] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

Gramps is the way! Running the container self hosted is quick! And it’s very active, lots of UI upgrades. I’m working with my dad in it being in diff countries.👌

[-] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

It sounds like you want a combination of things, which is why you are getting such varied responses. Keep in mind, you probably aren’t going to find an all in one solution, but with some docker images you could run a couple different solutions, one for each task. Immich for photos, and maybe another for the family tree.

I was in a similar boat and stumbled across “digital gardens”. I made my own digital garden, and I think if it as a life wiki. It has tech notes, images, recipes, etc. Obviously it’s not a drop in replacement for good photo hosting software or ancestry software tho.

HTH!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 23 hours ago
[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Self host dokuwiki. Simple, easy, effective. I do.

[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

How does that help with lots of photos with annotations?

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 hours ago

Unless you want a photo organizer like Immich, you can upload or better maybe link photos in dokuwik.

And you can write entire pages with photos, something you cannot do in immich or similar tools.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Which ones have you looked at?

First hit on my search was https://www.bookstackapp.com/ which seems to be a nice FOSS wiki with MIT licensing.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I've worked with bookstack. Found it easy and intuitive. It's wiki software not specific to family history.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago
[-] [email protected] 0 points 1 day ago

Nextcloud offers practically everything you ask for besides the family tree and even that might be available as a plugin (or "App" as Nextcloud calls tem). Or if you're willing to split photos in a different app, Immich works great.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I'm a noob who just turned to Linux and is planning a similar selfhosting project like OP. What apps/plugins of Nextcloud would you recommend?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Depends heavily on what you need/want. My current installation doesn't have anything extra, mail and calendar with "standard" file storage (with sync agents on desktop/laptop) is well enough on what I use it for as my photos are in Immich instance.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

NC is kind of a pain to run and tries to do far to much. I'd pick different software to run than adding addons to nextcloud.

That being said, I add contacts and calendar and use it to sync to my PC/Phone

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2025
54 points (95.0% liked)

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