City Name Not Recognized in Family Tree Maker

Family unit Tree Maker has long been the standard-bearer for desktop genealogy software programs. Indeed, our very commencement upshot—January 2000—included an commodity on using Family Tree Maker six.0. Only when Ancestry.com announced it was discontinuing the software in 2015, some genealogists left it for dead.

But the program has experienced a renaissance since being bought by Software MacKiev. Family Tree Maker 2017 was the showtime to allow for syncing between it and a family tree on Ancestry.com. And subsequent updates have incorporated even more functionality while maintaining the same features that attracted genealogists in the offset place.

To help you make the most of the plan, we've put together these tips for using Family Tree Maker.

The tips and screenshots in this article reflect Family Tree Maker 2019 (the most contempo version at time of writing), but much of the advice volition also apply to earlier iterations of the software.

Annotation: Despite the somewhat similar names, Family Tree Magazine is not affiliated with Family unit Tree Maker. The software program is created past a divide company.

1. Import your family tree.

If you've already built a digital family tree, yous can save valuable research time past importing it into Family unit Tree Maker. You can either upload a GEDCOM file (under Plan>New Tree, click Import an Existing Tree) or download a tree from Beginnings.com or FamilySearch. (Simply brand sure the data imports correctly!) Don't worry if you're new to family-tree-building or want to first fresh—you can likewise create a new tree manually, adding one person at a time.

two. Change your date preferences.

Family Tree Maker formats dates consistently across your tree, making it easier for you to review them at a glance. To change how dates are formatted, select Tools from the dropdown menu, then choose Options. From this window, select Names/Dates/Places and a format (such every bit "Day Month Yr") for both display and input formats. (Mac users: Select Preferences, then Dates/Names/Places.)

3. Add together life events.

Yous tin select preformatted key life events ("facts") to add to a person in your family tree. While in the Tree window, select a person and click Customize View. From there, you tin can add together individual facts (baptism, nascence, burial, etc.) every bit well as shared facts (union license, divorce, etc.) You can also add a custom fact and specify what fields y'all want associated with its entry (such as date or place).

4. Take advantage of descriptions.

Each fact has a description field where you can add more than information, perfect for including details that don't fit neatly elsewhere. If you lot don't see the Clarification field, get to the Person view, then select a fact. Under Options, select Fact Properties. Then brand sure Description is included under Fact Elements.

5. Sort through alien information.

If your ancestor has multiple details associated with a fact (such equally alien dates of nativity), 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 however determining which information is correct).

6. Clean up your names and places.

You lot can alter how your ancestors' names are formatted in majority under Tools>Catechumen Names, handy if they've been capitalized inconsistently. Too, Family Tree Maker tin help standardize your place names. Under Tools>Resolve All Place Names, yous'll come across all locations that Family unit Tree Maker doesn't recognize. The tool provides a suggested standardized place name, and you can either have the suggested alternative or ignore it altogether. Click Other to search for another spelling of the place proper noun.

7. Certificate censuses.

Utilise the Census fact to betoken if your ancestor appeared in an enumeration. In the Appointment field, use the full date—including the official day and calendar month the census was taken that yr. (See our listing.) Too, blazon the full address in the Place field. You lot tin also upload and adhere an image of the census return (or any record prototype, for that matter).

8. Copy facts from one person to another.

Adding events that affected multiple people—such as residence data from censuses—tin can exist tedious. Save time by copying such facts to others' profiles. Go to the People window, then the Person tab. Make sure Facts is selected in the menu, then correct-click the target fact and select Copy. Click away, then correct-click the fact again and select Paste. Then click the checkmark next to the contour(s) you want to add the fact to.

9. Record addresses.

Family Tree Maker has 3 carve up identify-related fact types: Address (the contemporary place someone lived or worked, generally used for postal purposes), Property (related to existent estate) and Residence (where someone mentioned in a record lived). Select which fact best applies to the issue y'all want to record, and be consistent in how you use that fact type. You can as well consider indicating some of the accost in the Place field of other facts, so including the rest in the Description or Note fields.

ten. Don't confuse will and probate.

Some genealogists think these two "events" are the same, but Family Tree Maker has separate fact types for a reason. Wills are written documents prepared before a person'due south decease, while "probate" refers to legal proceedings after a person'south death. So the Date and Identify fields of probate facts should refer to when and where the courtroom ruled on the deceased'due south instance, while those fields in the wills fact should indicate when and where that document was prepared.

11. Create reports.

Family Tree Maker offers several options for reports that you can generate and consign. These are great to share with family, friends and other researchers. In addition, reports tin help you look at your work with fresh eyes. Access reports under the Publish window.

12. Support your data.

In some means, desktop software is a safer repository for your family tree than an online service similar Ancestry.com. Y'all can admission your tree in Family unit Tree Maker without internet, and your tree isn't tied to an online subscription that could theoretically disappear. (And, different the FamilySearch Family unit Tree, no one tin can edit your tree in Family Tree Maker without your permission.) Still, be sure to export your family unit tree as a GEDCOM and store on an external difficult bulldoze or in deject-based storage. You lot never know when your hard drive could crash, wiping away years of hard work.

13. Follow these steps to export your tree from Family Tree Maker.

I of the most of import advantages of using genealogy software is that once you've entered information on your family unit into a program, it's easy to share your family unit file. You lot might want to email a branch of your family tree to a cousin. Fifty-fifty if she uses different genealogy software, she tin can still open your file and view your tree. Or maybe you lot'd like to submit your family tree file to GEDmatch along with your Deoxyribonucleic acid exam results, then your matches on the site can figure out how you're related. If y'all desire to switch to a different genealogy plan, you lot can brand a copy of your family file to upload to the other programme.

Users of the popular Family unit Tree Maker genealogy software were left wondering what to do with their family files in Dec 2015, when Ancestry.com announced plans to discontinue the program. Although the company after reversed its conclusion and instead sold Family unit Tree Maker to Software MacKiev, researchers were reminded of the potential for obsolescence when using any third-party data-storage tool.

Whether you need to transfer your family unit tree to new software or yous but desire to share information technology with relatives, you'll need to know how to consign a family file. Here's how to practise this in Family unit Tree Maker.

one. If you maintain a Member Tree on Ancestry.com, beginning synchronize information technology with your Family Tree Maker software.

This is so your exported file volition comprise the about upwardly-to-date information. To exercise this, open the linked tree in Family Tree Maker and click on the green leafage with the up and down arrows, located in the upper right corner of your screen. Then click on Sync At present.

two.You might desire your exported family unit file to contain only part of your tree.

Peradventure you desire to send just your shared branch to a cousin, for case. We'll advise two ways to do this:

• One method is to create a chart to select people to include in the file. This is the only style that lets you specify how many generations of a relative's descendants you desire to share. First, in Family Tree Maker, click the People tab and select the person whose descendants you want in the file. Then click the Publish tab, select a chart (such as the Descendant Chart) nether the Collection tab, and click on Create Nautical chart. Specify how many generations of descendants to include. If yous don't want to include all the descendants, select just the ones y'all want. Right-click on the chart, click on Export and cull either Selected Persons or Unabridged Chart.
• Another way to select whom to include in your new file is to select Consign from the File menu (shown). Highlight a name and click Include to select just that person. Click Ancestors and you tin can specify the number of generations to include. Click Descendants to include all of a selected person's descendants. You tin can make multiple selections, such every bit someone's ancestors and so that person's descendants. To offset over again, click the Exclude All button.

3. Choose an output file format.

The Family Tree Maker output option generates a backup file (.FTMB) that works only with the version you used to create information technology. Usually, you'll select another option, either another version of Family unit Tree Maker (2008/2009, 2010, 2011 or 2012) or a GEDCOM 5.five file. The former blazon of file has the extension .FTM; a GEDCOM file ends in .GED.

In general, if you'll share the file with someone who uses Family Tree Maker, select the version that person has. Otherwise, choose a GEDCOM 5.five file, a format uniform with nigh genealogy software and websites, such as GEDmatch. Merely if y'all're sharing with someone who uses RootsMagic software version 7.1.0.1 or higher, it's amend to share a Family unit Tree Maker file. RootsMagic can at present import all versions of Family Tree Maker for Windows and Mac, and it does a better job importing a Family unit Tree Maker file than a Family unit Tree Maker-generated GEDCOM file.

4. Specify what data to include in the file.

If you opt to privatize living people, simply their names will exist office of the file. You lot can optionally include private facts and notes, too every bit a inquiry to-do listing. If you include media files, such as photographs and document images, Family unit Tree Maker files will include them, but GEDCOM files volition have only links to them. (Note that GEDCOM files created with Family Tree Maker 2011 and before versions won't have links to media files, either.) If y'all're sharing your tree as a GEDCOM file, you'll need to ship epitome files and other media separately.

5. Select the folder on your computer where you want to save the file.

Give the folder a proper noun such as "jones-genealogy" and click OK. When the consign is finished, click OK again.

Rick Crume

Information in this article appeared in the July/August 2016 (Crume) and July/August 2020 issues of Family Tree Magazine. An before version of this commodity (by Melanie Rigney) appeared in the January 2000 consequence of Family Tree, and covered tips for Family Tree Maker six.0.

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