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Kindred Britain is an interactive visualization of a network of 30,000 individuals throughout history. While not a strictly genealogical endeavor, the project represents Britain as a large, extended family, in which any individual can be connected to any other through relationships.
How is Jane Austen related to Charles Darwin? How far apart are Isaac Newton and Gwyneth Paltrow? Kindred Britain is not just about historically significant people or celebrities; it also lets us explore and name the many unknown people, without whom those famous names could not be connected in history.
The project is the result of years of painstaking historical research by Nicholas Jenkins of Stanford University. Elijah Meeks, also at Stanford, led the development and back-end database work. I led the visual design process. Such a large project could not have been completed without the many others who also contributed.
Read more about the design in my essay, Designing Kindred Britain.
Thanks to our pre-release reviewers, who provided valuable feedback on the design: Alberto Cairo, Andy Kirk, Anita Lillie, Enrico Bertini, Giorgia Lupi, Jan Willem Tulp, Robert Kosara, and Sophie Engle.