Genealogy Chat

I am exposed as a dabbler! I confess I was put off by the thickness of the instruction booklet when I got FTM earlier this year. Armed with your advice, I shall try to do it the justice it obviously deserves!

Thank you both for your interest and help.

The beauty of FTM's fact feature is that you can create and customize your own, it the standard default ones don't quite suite. It then means that you can use the same fact heading over and over again, several times for the same person, if you want, as in the example I gave. You can also include them in your reports and charts.

FTM will also allow you to crater as many trees as you wish, however when you open it it defaults to the last one you opened so really need to give some thought as to how you store your files so as not to get lost. Once you have done that it is easy to switch between trees. Also give your tree files a name that tells you something about its content or source.

I find it best to keep my tree data separate to the program itself, and to this end have created a folder in my Documents called Family Tree Maker 2010 (I also have another called Family Tree Maker v16 for all my old tree files)

Within that I have folders called FTM 2010 Data

All my tree files are kept in the data folder. These are the files with the extension .ftm I also have extra folders where I save backup files and any gedcoms I receive or create.

Having some sort of system like this means that you can easily find things when you need to.

When importing a gedcom from another source, it is best to create a new tree, rather than merge it with your existing one, in case things go wrong. If you do merge, then make sure you have a backup in case. You can always merge later. Merging trees does require some experience as it is all to easy to end up with duplicate names and these can be very time consuming to sort out, especially the relationships.

You could merge it rather than overwrite it which will keep your photos.

I can see I shall have to study this further! I have never really understood how the "facts" thing worked - I didn't realise you could make your own? Have I got that right?

I did start the FTM off with the gedcom from GR, and it seemed OK as far as I can tell. What I wasn't sure about was, if I was to do it again, would I lose things like photos that have been added to FTM in the meantime?

Each to his own I suppose, but I always work the other way, FTM is my 'Master' GR a throw away and cut down copy.

In FTM Family view, the individuals key information is shown in the right hand pane so it isn't that different to GR. Better still you can customize what you see in this pane by clicking on the "Customize View" button so you can have the info that you are most interested in in full view without having to go to the Person Page

What happens when you want to start recording multiple sets of information? for example on FTM I have a 'Fact' which I call Census Address and another one called Census Occupation. Each fact will have a date associated with it, so I can have as many as I want for an individual.

So I have

Census Address 1881 22 Broad Street
Census Occupation 1881 Fireman

Census Address 1891 44 Liverpool Street
Occupation Engine Driver

Other facts, usually the standard ones, are used extensively too, Christening, Cause of Death, Cremation, Burial,

Notes are used primarily for adding ad-hoc information or BMD references

As you get more sophisticated and want to keep more information you will find that GR just isn't up to it. fine for keeping a basic tree, but not for recording more than the basic information.

As I mentioned, if you do gedcom back to FTM, check the results carefully as you may find some of the info doesn't travel that well.

Hello IGP

I like the "tree" layout to add information to - when I have gathered info - including that of siblings - I find it very easy to "add mother", "add sibling" and all the supporting data, and they appear on the tree above as I insert all the data on the one page. I can then see the relationships between people very clearly. Perhaps it's just the way my brain works!

I realise the GR tree has its limitations however, and that is why I have the FTM 2010 as well. I generally add everything to that one afterwards. However, I have recently made so much progress and had so much info to add, I was trying to find a shortcut!

I do find it annoying though, that on the FTM tree, much of the info has to be put on Notes pages which remain "behind" the basic info and have to be deliberately brought up. If I want to remind myself about something, it's quicker to look up the GR one where it's all there on one page.
Maybe I am missing something about FTM and am not doing it right?

I find it surprising that you prefer the GR tree to FTM.

FTM has many more facilities and supports additional data tags not held on GR. I would also add that some GR trees do not transfer well to other programs, especially if you have used non standard date formats. Alternatively transferring from FTM to GR is often more successful and less problematic.

Thank you!

You can choose. I have 4 trees. 1 master with both side of the family, mine and hubby's, 1 just mine, 1 just him & 1 for a friend.

Hi Tooty

Will it open a second tree, or overwrite the first one?

You can download a gedcom which will be sent to you by email and open it as a new tree in FTM 2010.

I have just proudly updated my GR tree with several new generations I recently found. I find I prefer to do the GR one first, as I can see all the siblings and the layout is clear to me.

My question is, if I down load the Gedcom from GR, can I use it to overwrite my FTM 2010 tree? I find it fiddly to update that one, as much of the information has to be put on the underlying notes. If I can do so, will I lose anything that is already there?