My idea for the project has evolved into two separate but related sub-projects.

My initial idea was to create a family tree with fun facts and juicy details about the lives of some royal family. It would include not only relationships but also highlight the more interesting parts of history including scandals, mental illness, and mysterious deaths.

Jumping off from suggestions in class that I look at families other than the royalty whose lineages have already been mapped out, I thought about comparing their family tree with that of some regular Joes. However, I don’t have easy access to my own family’s data (much less in a computer-readable form) and I would like to avoid using some random stranger’s family tree from the internet, so I’ve decided to construct a ‘typical family tree’ from US family statistics throughout the years. Specifically, I will be using data for life expectancy, household size, marriage trends, and most popular names. This could probably be enough of an information visualization on its own, so I might narrow down my scope to just this portion if I run short on time.

Questions to consider: How do I accurately convert statistics into one “average” family? Is there an easier way to get royal family relationships than going through Wikipedia’s articles? Will comparing the two trees actually lead to any insight, or should I just concentrate on constructing one or the other?