HOW TO MAKE A FAMILY TREE CHART VIA FAMILY TREE MAKER
Family Tree Maker is a software deal with a line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor. It helps the researchers to organize their collected data and produce necessary charts and reports, sometimes even books, based on this information. Let’s see how to make a family tree chart with Tree Maker.
1. Import your ancestor tree.
You have three options to start with your ancestor tree. If you are brand new to this, you can manually add information and create a new family tree. It might be a little time-consuming as you have to add one person at a time, but trust me, it is going to worth it. The next two methods are: upload an existing tree file or download one from Ancestry.com/ Family search.
2. Changing your date priority.
FTM consistently formats dates as it makes easy to review.
3. Add up life events.
You are able to add special life events for a person. In order to do this, select the person and click on customize view. There, you will add personal key events for a selected person.
4. Take the advantage by descriptions.
Every fact has a description area where you are able to add more information.
5. Sort via conflicting the data.
You can always select ‘preferred’ to highlight the fact from multiple details.
6. Clean up the name and places.
7. Document census.
Via Census, you can indicate that your ancestor appeared in an enumeration or not.
8. Copy facts from person to person.
Sometimes more than one person may have similar information like residence address or educational institution. Save the time by copy such facts to others profiles.
9. Record the addresses.
FTM has three kinds of addresses-Address, Property, Residence. Select the most appropriate to a person.
10. Don’t confuse with will and probate.
“Wills” are the handwritten documents prepared before an owner’s death, whereas “probate” is legal proceedings after a person’s death.
11. Report creation.
Reports can be created to share. Under ‘PUBLISH’ window, you can access to reports.
12. Keep your data safe by back up.
Always store family tree data on an external hard drive or in cloud-based storage. You never know when your hard drive could crash, wiping away years of hard work.
13. Steps to be followed to extract your tree from Tree Maker.
- On maintenance of a Member Tree on Ancestry.com, first you have to synchronize it with your Family Tree Maker software.
- Choose the format of your output file-
Choose the GED COM 5.5 file, a compatible format with various genealogy software and websites, such as GED match. Roots Magic can import various versions of Family Tree Maker for Windows and Mac, and it performs a great job in importing a Family Tree Maker file in comparison to a Family Tree Maker-generated GED COM file.
- Specify the data to be included in the file.
- Select the location on your computer where you wish to save the file.
Provide a name to the folder and click OK. When the export is over, go with OK again.