( See our list.) Likewise, type the full address in the Place field. In the Date field, use the full date-including the official day and month the census was taken that year. Use the Census fact to indicate if your ancestor appeared in an enumeration. Click Other to search for another spelling of the place name. The tool provides a suggested standardized place name, and you can either accept the suggested alternative or ignore it altogether. Under Tools>Resolve All Place Names, you’ll see all locations that Family Tree Maker doesn’t recognize. Likewise, Family Tree Maker can help standardize your place names. You can change how your ancestors’ names are formatted in bulk under Tools>Convert Names, handy if they’ve been capitalized inconsistently. If your ancestor has multiple details associated with a fact (such as conflicting dates of birth), select which will be “preferred.” Preferred facts will generally be displayed in reports and other exported versions of your tree, but Family Tree Maker will still maintain this alternate information (useful if you’re still determining which data is correct). Then make sure Description is included under Fact Elements. If you don’t see the Description field, go to the Person view, then select a fact. Take advantage of descriptions.Įach fact has a description field where you can add more information, perfect for including details that don’t fit neatly elsewhere. From there, you can add individual facts (baptism, birth, burial, etc.) as well as shared facts (marriage license, divorce, etc.) You can also add a custom fact and specify what fields you want associated with its entry (such as date or place).ĪDVERTISEMENT 4. While in the Tree window, select a person and click Customize View. You can select preformatted key life events (“facts”) to add to a person in your family tree. (Mac users: Select Preferences, then Dates/Names/Places.) 3. From this window, select Names/Dates/Places and a format (such as “Day Month Year”) for both display and input formats. To change how dates are formatted, select Tools from the dropdown menu, then choose Options. Change your date preferences.įamily Tree Maker formats dates consistently across your tree, making it easier for you to review them at a glance. (Just make sure the data imports correctly!) Don’t worry if you’re new to family-tree-building or want to start fresh-you can also create a new tree manually, adding one person at a time. You can either upload a GEDCOM file (under Plan>New Tree, click Import an Existing Tree) or download a tree from or FamilySearch.
If you’ve already built a digital family tree, you can save valuable research time by importing it into Family Tree Maker.
The software program is created by a separate company. Note: Despite the somewhat similar names, Family Tree Magazine is not affiliated with Family Tree Maker. The tips and screenshots in this article reflect Family Tree Maker 2019 (the most recent version at time of writing), but much of the advice will also apply to earlier iterations of the software. To help you make the most of the program, we’ve put together these tips for using Family Tree Maker. And subsequent updates have incorporated even more functionality while maintaining the same features that attracted genealogists in the first place.
Family Tree Maker 2017 was the first to allow for syncing between it and a family tree on. Family Tree Templates and Relationship Chartsīut the program has experienced a renaissance since being bought by Software MacKiev.Best UK, Irish and Commonwealth Genealogy Websites.Best African American Genealogy Websites.
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