Is your family tree not complete? Are there "holes" in it, in terms of that there are people you don't know when were born or when they died? Do you wish you had some estimate for those missing dates? If so, you should continue reading!

The GEDCOM Estimator is a program that estimates missing dates in a genealogical database (or family tree if you like). It is not a complete genealogy system and will not replace whichever program you are using to keep your genealogy databases today. However, you can use it as an extra tool to estimate missing dates.

What the GEDCOM Estimator actually does, is that it loops through the database you supply it with and intially says that all missing dates must have been sometime between year 0 and year 9999. Then, it repeatedly loops through the database using a number of constraints to give a closer estimate each time. When it has finished, it has hopefully produced a fairly good estimate for the missing dates, although the precision is dependent on the rest of data in the database.

The GEDCOM Estimator uses GEDCOM files as both input and output. If you currently are using a genealogical software package to hold your data, you will probably find that the program you are using is able to export and import GEDCOM files. If that's the case, you can contincue to use that program and still use the GEDCOM Estimator to estimate missing dates. See the help system for more details about how to use the program.

The GEDCOM Estimator is a Java program, which means it can run on any operating system provided Java 1.1 support is available on that system. See the download page for details.

The GEDCOM Estimator was developed by Vegard Brox as part of his 3rd year project for a Bachelor of Science in Computing Science at University of Newcastle upon Tyne during the academic year 1999-2000. Questions about the program may be sent to him at the e-mail address vegard@brox.as