Sync Smarter: Keeping Your Family Tree Maker Data Up-to-Date

When we are tracing our roots, Family Tree Maker has become a go to tool for many genealogy enthusiasts. If you are new to family tree research or have worked on it for years, always make sure your information is current. It allows you to keep your findings true to fact and also share, but it also makes it easier to share, sync, and protect your work.

In this guide, we will walk you through how to update your family tree, handle your data, sync with online platforms like family tree maker ancestry, and ensure your valuable information is backed up and safe.

Why It is Important to Keep Your Family Tree Up-to-Date

It’s true that families expand, and new ideas often emerge each day. Discovering each record, picture, or fact helps broaden your Research into your family history. If you don’t regularly update your Family Tree Maker, you could miss important data and actually introduce mistakes.

By keeping your tree current, you can:

1. Accuracy and Reliability – Incorrect or aged information makes the records less accurate and may lead those in the future astray.
2. Enhances Research – current data links different members of your family and helps you build a more detailed story of your ancestors.
3. Collaboration – Sharing your work with family or online communities – Updated records result in benefits for all.
4. Avoiding Data Loss – Family tree maker helps you update and back up your data, preventing you from losing your information when there are issues with the software or if you delete it by accident.

Best Practices to Keep Your Family Tree Maker Data Up-to-Date

1. Set a Regular Update Routine

A simple way to organize your family tree data is to create a routine. Balancing your checkbook and tidying your home are easier and so is the maintenance of your family tree, if you do it from time to time.

Here are a few tips:

• Weekly or monthly check-ins: Try meeting every week or month for around 30 minutes to look over anything you have learned.
• Update as you go: Whenever you learn something new, such as a record or family history, add it to your files right away.
• Use task reminders: Enter them in your calendar or use the To-Do tool in Family Tree Maker.

2. Use Family Tree Maker’s Tools for Easy Editing

You can quickly edit and add information to your family tree because Family Tree Maker is simple to use. To make the best use of rural tourism, follow these tips.

• Person tabs: Select a profile from the people tab to edit the birth and death dates, relations, pictures or citations.
• Media tab: The Media tab gives you a place to upload information like your proofs, certificates and family pictures.
• Sources and citations: Always list where you found your information. The information needs to be accurate so future needs can be met.
• Bonus Tip: Use different color marks on your entries to tell which are verified and which are not!

3. Sync Your Tree with Ancestry

If you are working with Ancestry and family tree maker sync, making sure your tree is synced is very important. Link the Ancestry family tree to the family tree maker so adjustments in either system can be seen in the other.

Here’s how syncing benefits you:

• Immediate connections between what is used on your computer and what is used on the web
• Viewing your family tree from anywhere with your mobile device
• It helps you easily share your family tree with your loved ones using Ancestry.

Pressing the “Sync Now” button on the Family Tree Maker screen is all you need to synchronize your trees. Remember, you must log into Ancestry and connect your tree when submitting information.

4. Use Web Hints and Smart Matches

Genealogy programs now often offer people the chance to easily discover important details by themselves. Online resources are tied in with Family Tree Maker, so you may be informed about hints that help you connect with your family history.

These hints can lead to:

• Census records
• Birth/marriage/death certificates
• Immigration data
• Military Records
• Newspaper clippings

Always verify hints before adding them to avoid introducing errors into your tree.

5. Back Up Family Tree Maker Data Regularly

Suppose all your years of work to build your family tree are wiped out due to a computer crash. No one hopes to run into this problem. Therefore, you should regularly make copies of your Family Tree Maker files.

Here are the best backup practices:

• Take advantage of the backup option in Family Tree Maker
• You should store your data on an external hard drive or a USB stick.
• Keep your data in cloud storage.
• Put a date next to your backups so you understand which is the current one.

Try to keep at least two backup copies in different locations.

6. Stay Organized with Notes and Tasks

Keeping your family tree records in order is almost as important as the actual work. Family Tree Maker provides functions to note your findings and to keep track of what you plan to do next.

• Research Notes: You can add notes in the Research section for individuals, sources, or media.
• Task Lists: Task lists are “Getting a birth certificate” and “Checking the match in the census.”
• Folders and labels: You can organize your media with folders and labels by listing names, event places, or event purposes.

Keeping things organized ensures you won’t have to look for things and will be happy later.

7. Collaborate with Family Members

Plenty of other people are also on a family history journey. Handing your artifacts to relatives may result in receiving additional facts, fixes, and accounts of which you weren’t aware.

Here’s how to collaborate effectively:

• Make a copy of your tree and send it via email or through a cloud drive.
• You can invite your family to look at or work on your tree if it is linked with Ancestry.
• Have a video chat with your extended family to share news and findings on your family story.

Getting others involved also makes the process more fun and meaningful.

8. Keep an Eye on Software Updates

Genealogy software is always being updated. Check that you are running the most current version of Family Tree Maker to enjoy its new features and stronger security.

• You can find updates by going to Help and clicking on Check for Update
• To learn about updates and helpful tips, subscribe to the Family Tree Maker newsletter.
• You can find help in the support forums or Facebook user groups.

New updates often improve syncing, performance, and usability so don’t ignore them!

Final Thoughts

Keeping your Family Tree Maker data up-to-date is a continuous journey of discovery, organization, and preservation. As you keep your Family Tree Maker data current, you constantly learn, organize, and help preserve your family’s memories. When you apply these practices, your family history will continue to be accurate, reachable, and meaningful for those that follow. Regardless of your knowledge of genealogy, your legacy will be better preserved if you remember to update your genealogy software.

Have you discovered any interesting challenges with a Family Tree Maker Transfer? Please comment and explore the family tree maker that what you have learned or what advice you can give!