The family as a double helix — animated, filterable, and unlike anything else in the catalogue.
The double helix is the shape of inheritance. Every person in your family is a segment on that strand — connected to what came before them and to what comes after. The DNA Helix visualization renders your network as an animated helix: generations on the outer tracks, relationships as the rungs between them, the whole structure rotating slowly in the browser.
It is not an analytical tool. It does not tell you who is missing or which relationships need documenting. It is a way of seeing the family as a biological fact — the continuous chain of transmission that made the people in this network possible.
For communities where ancestry is cultural identity — Indigenous nations, diaspora families, heritage organizations — the helix is a visual statement: this is what we are, structurally, across time. The data is the same as the rest of ECO; the rendering is something none of the other visualizations produce.
Not a chart. The biological metaphor made visible.
Two outer strands carry the generations — one for each line of descent. The rungs between them are the relationships: marriages, parent-child bonds, the connections that hold the structure together. The whole thing rotates slowly, the way the original molecule was first seen: turning, continuous, alive.
Use the filter panel to focus the helix — show only a specific generation, highlight a particular family line, centre the view on one person. The helix re-renders around the filter: the parts you're looking at come forward, the rest recede.
The DNA Helix includes a print toolbar — export the current view as a high-resolution image suitable for framing, for inclusion in a family history document, or for display at a reunion. The print output carries the network name, the date, and the ECO watermark.
A family of twelve renders as a clean, readable helix. A family of two hundred renders as a denser, more intricate strand — the complexity is the truth of the family. The visualization scales without truncating members.
The helix renders in all four ECO themes — Void, Deep Sea, Grove, and Parchment. Each theme produces a visually distinct result: the dark themes give the helix the look of a scientific rendering; the light themes produce something closer to an archival illustration.
Every other ECO visualization shows the family as a social structure — who knows whom, who is connected to whom, how stories flow between people. The DNA Helix shows the family as what it also is: a biological chain, unbroken across generations, the material fact underneath the stories and the connections.