GRanDMA-OnLine Occasional Newsletter.
Ken Ratzlaff, Summer, 2026
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What's inside
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New Database Manager Software is Coming Soon
For many years, the volunteers who maintain the GRanDMA database have worked around the limitations of our
current database management software. It simply was not designed for the needs of a collaborative genealogy project,
and no suitable replacement existed. One of its greatest limitations is that only a single editor can work in the database
at any given time.
By 2017, it had become clear that the only long-term solution was to build new software from the ground up.
Eventually, Tony Isaac volunteered to undertake this very ambitious project.
The GRanDMA Database Manager (GDM) will soon be online, both bringing major improvements for our volunteer editors
and benefitting GMOL users.
What does this mean for the database editors:
- Editors will be able to log in any time they choose.
- Database merges will become both easier and more accurate.
- The gmPlaces database, containing geographic coordinates and contemporary names, will be fully integrated into GRanDMA.
- Internal audit records will provide much more detailed tracking of changes.
- Numerous workflow improvements will make editing faster, easier, and more reliable.
What does this mean for GMOL users?
- We expect the GRanDMA database to grow at a faster pace.
- The "Changes" records will cover more data. Currently, GMOL can report the last time when there were changes
to the birth or death data but about few other data fields. In future, it will report when other data are added or change,
such as marriage dates and places.
- The look and feel of GRanDMA OnLine will remain familiar.
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MGI Grants awarded
During the Spring, 2026, Mennonite Genealogy, Inc. (MGI), awarded three grants
to support important genealogy projects. These are funded from subscription fees paid by users after web expenditures are paid.
Show the list of new grants
- Mennonite Heritage Archives – Conrad Stoesz
The proposal is to digitize two groups of materials.
* The first is a selection of 28 books (7,000 pages) published by the Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.
Many of these are transcriptions of church registers.
* The second is a selection of periodicals that contain genealogical information.
The project includes digitization (including OCR to make the content word searchable) and posting on the MHA website.
Budget: $7,357.00 CDN
- Fürstenland: A Mennonite History – Arnold Neufeldt-Fast
The proposal revolves around a book project that demonstrates how GRanDMA can be used for historical reconstruction.
Approximately 800 individuals have been identified with GRanDMA numbers in the book.
The book will be produced as an ebook with integrated GRanDMA data.
Budget: $6,000.00 CDN.
- Fernheim Kolonie Register – Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society
The project includes the transcription of the first three volumes of the Fernheim Colony register and entry into GRanDMA.
Budget: $4,500.00 CDN
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Grant Funding Available.
MGI welcomes proposals for projects that support its mission.
Topics have included the acquisition and translation of primary documents, and digitization of historic documents and periodicals.
The next deadline is August 1.
Consult mgi.mennoniteGenealogy.com/grants for details.
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GRanDMA Continues to Grow
GRanDMA is growing steadily. Over the last 4-1/2 years, she's been increasing by an average of over
47,000 individuals per year!
How is that possible when our current data entry system only allows one person to enter data at a time?
Dedicated,
trained volunteers, led by Richard Thiessen, work nearly 'round the clock and across the globe entering data.
We project that, at the current growth rate, GRanDMA will surpass 2 million individuals in 2033. With the new GDM software,
it promises to be sooner.
(A chart going back to 1996 can be seen here.)
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GMOL Updates This Year
There are a lot of moving parts in GMOL. So, there is a constant process of updates, fixes, and changes. Here are a few.
- The ability to index through long lists was added to search results. Look at the first 100; then go to the next 100. And on through the entire list.
- We upgraded the database server. More space is available, and GMOL is largely free from the slow-downs of a shared server.
- Long searches like Descendants lists or Relationship Searches were failing because Cloudflare, the service that protects us from various attacks, was interfering.
A method for working around the problem was developed.
- Find A Grave also began using Cloudflare, and unfortunately that defeated our link directly to gravesites.
- More collections of archival material were added to the citations. For these, a single click can take you to an image of the historic document.
- Over 110 more changes and fixes were made this year
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