Genealogy Chat

Hi All, I am using 'Who do you think you are' (FTM 2005) to put my family tree together. When I look at it in the 'normal' family tree view for one side of the family, it lists all the generations in order (i.e. every person from the same generation are parallel on the screen/page). However, when I try to show the entire tree, i.e. combine my fathers side and mothers side, it moves generations around to try and 'fit' everything together. This results in different generations appearing parallel on the screen, which I don't like, it also has to list some people twice (as there is some cross over between the two sides of the family further back in the tree). If I am making sense, does anyone have any tips on how to sort this? Thanks, Matt

You cannot sort it using Family Tree Maker. Most programs will show different generations at different levels on an All In One Tree. Think about it, say you have 3 siblings and they are shown in birth order from left to right. The one in the middle marries and their partners ancestors are also on the tree, if the ancestors are to go above the partner then the lines would cross. The married sibling has to be droppped down on an extended line so that their partners ancestors can be added above them to avoid crossing lines. The only time everybody born during the same generation will appear on the same horizontal level is on an Ancestor, Descendant or Hourglass Tree. Some programs are better at sorting it out than others, Family Tree Maker is not very good at making all in one trees and we use Genbox or Family Historian for creating these trees for our customers, they will make a better layout and you can adjust the tree to improve the layout which you cannot do in FTM. Having said that some lines will always be dropped down to get ancestors in the right place. Ron www*genealogyprinters*com

Thanks for the advice, Ron. I understand that you can't have a perfect layout for all-in-one-trees, especially with the two sides of the family 'crossing over', but just wondered if FTM could do it in a better way than I am currently using. I have seen other people's trees (using different software) with a much better layout, but this resulted in a hugely wide tree. I was hoping to get a happy medium between the two. If FTM can't provide this then I will just have to settle for what I have got, or keep the two sides of the family seperate when viewing the tree. Cheers, Matt

When FTM makes an all in one tree it always puts at the top left corner the oldest ancestor of the person who is showing on the family page when the tree is made. By changing that person and forming the tree from someone else it will alter the layout of the tree sometimes quite dramaticly. When you have the all in one tree showing on screen, press F2 on your keyboard, this will bring up a list of all individuals on the tree, double click on different names and the tree will be remade using that person as the source and the shape of the tree will alter and it will be different almost every time. If you don't like that layout double click on a different name and keep trying, you might get something to your liking. Ron www*genealogyprinters*com

Thanks, Ron. Will give it a try. Matt