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Family Tree Maker 2014 and Where to Start

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  • Family Tree Maker 2014 and Where to Start

    I've been a Family Tree Maker "newby" user for over a decade. I'd start and I'd stop, add a few entries, try to create "sources" and "source citations", and add media over the last several years. I've tried to get serious about it recently, having found the time in retirement to devote to "doing it right". As a type A person, I'm not one to be satisfied with a history I can't prove.

    My challenge is that due to my years of dabbling, and also to a another Ancestry's member Tree I downloaded from Ancestry and merged with mine at some point, I'm left with a family Tree of some 1000+ individuals with definite but unsourced (unproven) connections. I have a lot of media files with numbers for file names or otherwise labeled that make it difficult to identify who or what they are (although most are linked by FTM to individuals). I may have created multiple sources when I should have only linked my source citation to the original and may have done the same to source citations. And the formats and entries I used in both may be incorrect as I've only recently discovered the templates I should have used from the beginning. As a result, I've created a bit of a mind boggling mess.

    I've thought about going into the media folder and start renaming the files for better to understand who they relate to (yes, I've learned how to do that within FTM so as not to break the links). I've also thought about digging into my Sources and Citations to try and correct them to the proper format. This method of attack seems too daunting. I'm thinking, instead, that I should start with myself, and work backward, one person at a time, correcting the sources, source citations, and media that apply to each person. That way, I would feel as if I was making progress. I wish there was some way to change the color of a person in the tree display so that I could show them as complete. In any case, I will keep a list of the people I've "vetted" as checked for accuracy.

    Am am I heading in the right direction or do some of you Family Tree Maker users have a better idea or suggestion? BTW, I'm using FTM 2014.

  • #2
    I agree with your conclusion. If your tree is in the state you describe it is better to be systematic. One way to keep track is to add a simple task to each individual as you consider them: "Proof read" say with medium priority and no due by date. This will turn up in the Plan screen with the name of the individual and an empty check box, once you are satisfied check the task as complete and move on. Not so visual as colours but does at least keep a list of the work done
    David

    Added in Edit. Should have said that if you select a task in the Plan screen and click the Go To button at top right then that takes you to the individual in question.
    Last edited by DavidNewton; 08-12-16, 09:05.

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    • #3
      One way would recommend is to print a chart(s) showing all the people in your tree and use that as a worksheet to mark those you have completed.

      I use this method to show beginners how to work up a basic tree with records - I get them to note each entry on the chart with the records they need to find eg someone born in 1858 needs 1861, 71, 81, 91 + census plus B M D records.

      Helps to keep a structure around what is being done since we all know how easy it is to get distracted )

      Margaret

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      • #4
        Why not leave the old tree as it is and start a new tree?
        You can copy the information from the old tree one record at a time checking the sources and recording them at the same time.
        That way you know exactly how far you have got with your accurate & sourced tree each step of the way and you still retain everything you had previously.

        Just remember to use a different name for the new file (tree).

        Cheers
        Guy
        Guy passed away October 2022

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        • #5
          Thanks for all the suggestions. They gave me a direction to proceed.


          Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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          • #6
            hmmn,

            is the tree on a Mac platform? or are you using it via Windows? do you have Ancestry? [I was going to suggest creating a GEDCOM from your tree and uploading it to Ancestry and working from there]

            BUT

            Guy's idea is much better and simpler!..
            Julie
            They're coming to take me away haha hee hee..........

            .......I find dead people

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