Library Visit - Family Tree Maker Version 16

From time to time, you may visit a Genealogy Research Library or a Library where you can not take your computer. You may or may not know what type of information that they have, but you want enough information with you to take advantage of what might be there in your research.

When I am in this situation, I take with me three reports created by Family Tree Maker Version 16. These same steps can be used with previous versions as well.

1. Birth Report, for a specific Location, Sorted by Name
2. Death Report, for a specific Location, Sorted by Name
3. Marriage Report, for a specific Location, Sorted by Name

It may also be helpful, depending on how many people are in that Location, these same three reports sorted by Date.

There may be other reports that may be helpful for you, but using the technique below, you should be able to generate a report that is useful for you.

From the Family View screen, you click on View (1), Select Reports (2), and Custom (3).

Figure 150

This will bring up a Default Custom Report (Name, Birth, and Death Date). or the last Custom Report that you had created.

In order for the Sort to be done by Name, I want the Names to be sorted by Surname.

From the Contents Menu, Selecting Items to Include, will bring up the Fields and Format of those fields in a new window. The current Name format (from the Default report) has First, Middle, and Last Name. Hi-lighting that entry in the Right panel of that window (1), then selecting Options (2), will bring up a new window (3), where you select Last, First, Middle.

Figure 151

Wanting to focus this report on the Name, Birth Date, and Birth Location, the Death Date field needs to be removed. Return to the Contents, Items to Include, hi-light the Death Date field and clicking the < Button.

Figure 152

Now, we want to add the Birth Location, return again to the Contents, Items to Include, select the Birth Location Field and push the > Button.

Figure 153

As you complete these steps, you will see what the current report will look like. At this point there are too many people in this report. Most likely, including Individuals who have no events in this specific location.

To reduce or refine the list, return to Content, Individuals to Include in Report ....

Figure 154

That will bring up a small window, where you select Selected Individuals and click on Individuals to Include.

Figure 155

The new window will indicate that no one has been selected. If there ARE names in the Right Panel, use the << Button to remove everyone from the Right Panel.

Selecting Find > will allow you to select only those that meet certain criteria. The Help menu is very helpful at this point. For this example, Everyone with a Birth Location in New Jersey is what is wanted. Click on Find, in the Smaller window, there is a downward pointing button, you can select any of the FACTs that are listed. In this example, Birth Location is what is wanted. In the Right side of that window "New Jersey, USA" is typed. Looking at the complete report, from Figure 153, New Jersey, USA is what was there, and the individuals that were to be included.

Figure 156

Those individuals who meet this criteria will be listed in the Right Panel. Notice the number of Individuals at the top of the list. In this example, there are 14 people with the Birth Location of New Jersey, USA.

Figure 157

The Custom Report looks like this:

Figure 158

There is a choice, when you select the Items to Include, to only show Preferred Only FACT. You will notice in Figure 158 that there are multiple Birth FACTs for these individuals. Some have Dates while others have multiple locations. Since the report is only One Page, a Sort by Date is not required. Please note that you have a Sort by option available with two choices. Sort by Birth Date, then Sort by Name would be the 2nd report, if required.

In this specific file, a lot of the information was taken from Headstone Information after a visit to a Cemetery. There is very little Death Location information in this file, for these individuals. However, Burial Location information is within this file. This file also has very little Marriage Date and Location information, that report would not be generated. However, changing the Birth Date and Birth Location to Death Date and Death Location; and then Death Date and Death Location to Marriage Date and Marriage Location would be used to generate the other two reports.

Important: remember to clear the Individuals in the Right Panel of the Individuals to Include screen before selecting that Find, Death Location, or Find, Marriage Location criteria, as shown below.

Figure 159

From the Headstones, the Death Date information was available, and the Burial Location was also know, those are the FACTs that were selected in Content, Items to Include: (Death Date and Burial Location). The Individuals to Include where those with New Jersey, USA in the Burial Location field.

Figure 160

When this report was first displayed, the Page Break lines indicated that the lines were too long. Clicking on File, Page Set Up and selecting the Landscape mode, allowed the report to print on one page.

There is enough information in these two reports, for this trip, to have a successful research trip.

For more information, please click on the following links:


How to Select a group of Individuals?

FTM: How do I sort the custom report?

Getting Files Organized

After listening to Family History Made Easy, Episode 32, a podcast Genealogical Hard Drive Organization by Lisa Louise Cook, I patiently waited for her next Podcast. There was no disappointment with Episode 33, Hard Drive Organization Part 2.



Having a recent Hard Drive issue, I realized that over time, I had my genealogy information all over my C: Drive, Several CD's of information, and a number of Folders on a new External Drive. Over time, we each may have our own way to organize our information and over that time we may figure out to organize differently. That we me.



After listening to Liza, I wanted to see how her suggestion would work with a Family Tree Maker Version 2009 might look at how we store our Genealogy information and Family Tree Maker program information.



The suggestion that Lisa made was to have a Genealogy folder created. So, I have, under My Documents, a folder called Genealogy. Actually, I already had one, but the next step was from Lisa. I have found that with Vista, the My Documents folder is Documents (no My). That will be reflected below.



Note: below you will see \..\ to indicate information that may be specific to you, especially with Vista



C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\



Now, I maintain four (4) very separate family lines, so I have each of those four lines as a subfolder of Genealogy.



C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Byberry (where this line arrived in the US)


C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Dunblaen (an AKA for this line)


C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Nicholas (a line that came into the US about 1649 in New England)


C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\CaptJohn (my line)



I have also done for a friend.

C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Deats (for this blog)



Some other researchers, have for years, understand these names. Lisa is more specific of how she has her files, this i just my implementation of her Podcast and show notes.



For more details to Expand these folders, please read her show notes. I have.



Now to the Family Tree Maker program.



If Family Tree Maker was installed by default, Family Files would be stored in:


C:\..\Documents\Family Tree Maker\



Each of the four (4) lines mentioned above, there are four different Family Files, each with a specific filename.



With Version 2008 and 2009, the program will create a media folder for storage of any images that are included in the Family File. The change in 2008 and 2009 is that the images are NOT included in the Family File, but are linked to the file in the media folder. If a Web Merge is done, as talked about earlier, any Media (image) of the web merge will be saved in this folder.



So far, my Family File is in the Family Tree Maker folder and amy images are saved in a subfolder.



C:\..\Documents\Family Tree Maker\Nicholas-Media\



Going back to this entry in the blog: Family Tree Maker 2009 - Web Search #1, Figure 15, you will see a way [1] to view the images from Ancestry.com. What wasn't in that blog was the when that Images is displayed, to look at in more detail, I SAVE that image as a PDF file and need a place to store it.



This is where Lisa fits into the picture again. That PDF file would be saved in:



C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Deats\Census



The filenaming that I use is YearFamilyLocation. Since it is a Census Record, census isn't in the filename. Seeing that there may be other families in that location at that time, the naming convention, for this example, that I use is:



C:\..\Documents\Genealogy\Deats\Census\1860-DeatsHiram-FranklinHunterdon.pdf


Year if four characters
Surname and Head of Housefold forename
Town County



The use of Upper case and Lower case helps seperete the information.



For me, this process and filing does a couple of things.



1 - When my automatic Back Up application backs up the Document folder and sub-folders, ALL if the information is backed up



2 - Can easily locate an Image without opening the Family Tree Maker program



3 - Have an extra "copy" of the image



The same image can be seen directly from within the Family Tree Maker program.



Another entry here will expand on filenaming within the program.



There will also be an entry in this blog about handling of images / photographs both within Family Tree Maker and the organization within the hard drive.



Please leave any comments on how YOU organize your files.

Add Repository to a Source Citation

In reviewing Source Citations in this file, one of them does not have a Repository as an indication of where the Source is located.

From the Source Work Space you right Click on the Specific Source-Citation in the Left Hand Panel on this Source screen, Under Manage Sources, Source Group.




Figure 145

Clicking on the Edit Source item on the pull out menu will show that the Repository has "No repository is specified for this source."

Figure 146

Click on Edit on the next window

Figure 147

Here, type in the Repository Name. It is in the Local "Family History Center". That is typed into the Source Repository Field(1), then Click New (2).

A New Repository Source(3) window will open and click OK.

Figure 148

This Source-Citation now has the appropriate Repository.

Figure 149

Clicking OK completes this task.

Adding LiveRoots.com Search Engine

In an earlier Blog, I described how to Add another Search Engine from the Web Search Tab.

I have started to use another search engine on the LiveRoots.Com website. For me, it helps to search various Subscription based and Free based websites from one website.

In figure 142, below, I have two individuals with the same name and similar birth date.

Figure 142

The task is to determine if these are two individuals or one individual. In previous posts on this blog, it does appear that there were two Hiram Deats, in the same area of New Jersey, born about the same time. Not able to find any information on the normal search engine to determine the answer to this problem.

Using the Blog entry at the beginning of the Blog Entry, I added http://liveroots.com to my Personal Favorite Site list. Figure 143 is the result of adding that site to my Favorite list.

Figure 143

#1 shows the new Favorite. #2 gives the information of the Individual that I am searching for. Entered the Name in #3. Clicking on Search Button in LiveRoots.

Figure 144

The results shows a number of from a number of websites. There is an indication of where the "hit" was from and IF the website is a subscription based website or not. Again, the information in the Family File is still showing.

Following the links in the results, let to a free website at Find-A-Grave with a picture of a headstone. This page provided

Birth:	unknown
Death:	Nov. 22, 1887
Aged 77 years, 7 months and 10 days.

Now this really didn't answer the question BUT it did provided a Death Date and more detailed Birth Information that can be determined using the Date Calculator.

Another items to add to the ToDo list. Added the New Information there to follow up with.

Bottom line here, is that I don't have to move out of Family Tree Maker to do a broader search on the Internet.

FTM2009: - Minor Update

The Family Tree Maker Blog has just been updated with the following:

Family Tree Maker 2009: Minor Update

• Posted by Michelle Pfister
• May 5, 2009

Today we are making available a minor update to Family Tree Maker. The update resolves a few key issues in Family Tree Maker 2009.

To receive the update,

1. Start Family Tree Maker 2009.*
2. An update notice will appear with options to “Update” or “Remind Me Later.”
3. If you click “Update” another screen will appear. Make sure “Family Tree Maker 2009” is checked and click “Update.”
4. A third screen will give you options about installing or scheduling the update.
5. Click “Start” to begin the update.

If you decide not to update now, you can install the update later by choosing “Check For Updates” from the “Help” menu in Family Tree Maker 2009.

For more information on the update, visit Family Tree Maker Update.

* Note: If you’re running Vista with User Account Control (UAC) turned on, run Family Tree Maker 2009 as an administrator to start the update. To do this, right-click on the Family Tree Maker 2009 icon on your desktop and choose “Run as administrator” from the menu.

About Michelle Pfister

Michelle Pfister is a senior product manager for Family Tree Maker. She wishes she could help each individual person with their questions, but she's glad there are many resources available that can help even better (see the blog post "Getting Help"). She wants to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the latest version of Family Tree Maker.

For users who have already updated Family Tree Maker 2009 to Service Pack 1 (build number 18.0.0.305) a new update is now available that resolves a handful of reported issues. For information on Service Pack 1, visit the update page.

Fixed in this update:

• Task category creation and use in Person view.
• Calendars fail to display when showing February 29th.
• Memory usage grows after using "Export to One Page PDF" function.
• Book items are not retaining changes.
• Reports not being created due to brackets in facts and notes.
• Chronological facts displaying incorrectly in Individual report.
• Ahnentafel numbers displaying incorrectly in the pedigree chart.
• Images aren't added when merging information from Ancestry.com.
• Photo Album reports creating memory usage problem.
• Sorting multiple spouses for a woman working incorrectly.
• Landscape charts in a book are rotating incorrectly.

For help downloading the update visit the update help page.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Family Tree Maker Versino 2009 - Date Calculator

It's Saturday Night, I needed a brain break, and Genealogy Blogger Randy Seaver submitted his weekly Challenge to use. Please visit Randy.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Where's Your Date Calculator?

It's Saturday Night again - time for a little Genealogy Fun. My readers waxed very poetic last week both in comments to my SNGF post and on their own blogs. Well done!


This week, let's do something quick and easy in your genealogy software program. Are you able to calculate an age at death from a birth date and a death date? I usually can. Are you able to calculate a birth date from a death date and an age at death (in years, months, days)? I usually cannot.


Here's the challenge:


1) Open your genealogy software program and search for a "Date Calculator." You could go exploring in your Tools or Options menu, or you could use the Help menu to find it.


2) Open the "Date Calculator" and put in a death date for one of your ancestors and put in an age at death (use the one you know, or just make one up - we're just testing this feature today). Do the same thing by entering a birth date and a death date in the "Date Calculator" and see how old someone was when they died.


3) Tell us what software you're using and where you found the "Date Calculator." Tell us the information you found out from using the "Date Calculator."




I can do this:



On my Tombstone Blog, I post photographs of tombstones on Tuesday, so I have a number of examples, on line now, or will be soon, of headstones with a Death Date and the Age at the time of Death. No birth date. So, here is how I use Family Tree Maker to identify the Birthdate. Of course, other documentation is used to confirm this date, but it provides a starting point.

On the People Tab, Person screen for Charles T. Deats the following information was in my family file.

Figure 129

From a census record, I knew that he was born about 1899. The Tombstone stated that he died January 21, 1987.

The cemetery visit is documented with a Source Citation found in Figure 130.

Figure 130

With a digital image of the headstone, in this specific example, the dates were one a Family Monument.


As part of the Source-Citation, the Image will be attached to that Cemetery Visit source-citation. Do to that, Clicking on the Media Tab, in the Right Hand Panel, clicking on New, will open a small window with two choices. This image is not yet in the family file, so Add New Media is selected, as seen in Figure 131. Since we are documenting the Death Date, that is on the monument, the Death fact is selected.

Figure 131

Clicking on Add New Media will open a navigation window where the image will be selected.

Figure 132

As is my custom, I keep the original image in a seperate folder on the computer but want the image included in the Media folder associated with this family file. When the image is selected a Copy to Media Folder window opens and the Copy Image to Media Folder is selected. WATCH this window as the Default selection is a Link To image. This is a User Choice.

Figure 133

The images is now part of the Media Folder for this family file. The image now appears in the Media Tab for with the Source-Citation for the Death Date.

Figure 134

The image says that he died Jan. 21, 1987, aged 88 years, 9 days. All of the dates on this monument included the full number of Years, Month's and Dates. Unless otherwise proven differently, the number of months is zero (0). For a better view of the monument information double clicking on the image in Figure 134 will open a View Detail window. Other information will be included in another blog dealing with images.

Figure 135

Here is where the Date Calculator comes in very handy. You will notice on the right end of the Birth Date fact is a Calculator ICON. The Cursor needs to be in the Birth Date fact field

Figure 136

Te Date Calculator window will open with some information selected. Since we are trying to calculate the Birth Date, that bullet is selected. The Date is filled in from the information already included and the 88 Years, 9 Days are entered and the Copy button is selected.

Figure 137

The information that is know, from the monument has been entered and the Calculate button pressed and the date is displayed.

Figure 138

Clicking on Close will close this window and return you to the Birth fact.

Wanting to have the image to be supporting information for that date, return to Media Tab and selecting New. This time the Link to Existing Media is selected.

Figure 139

The Find Media window will open and the Image used in Figure 133 is selected.

Figure 140

After clicking OK, you will be returned to the Source-Citation, Media tab with a thumbnail view of the image.

Figure 141

Additional information can be found on the Family Tree Maker Online Help Center.

http://ftm.custhelp.com/


Searching for 'calculator' will return a number of Knowledge Base articles, but these are specific to this blog.

Adding Media Items in Family Tree Maker 2009

Calculating a Birth Date in Family Tree Maker 2009

Calculating an Individual’s Age on a Specific Date

Calculating the Date of a Specific Event in Family Tree Maker 2009

How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 4

Continued from How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 3

A look at the Outline Descandant Report from Samuel Osbun, seen in Figure 114, will show the two relationships that this Intra Famial Marriage created. The two individuals are listed, with their spouse, under their Parents. Note the order of the names.

Under Fred and Nancy (Osbun) Pittenger is Nathaniel Pittenger and Elizabeth Osbun
and
Under Isaac Osbun and Eileen Gilbert is Elizabeth Oshun and Nathaniel Pittenger

The Child is listed first, then the Spouse with a "+" sign in front of the name.

Figure 126

Returning to the People, Family View and the Index, those "duplicated" names in Figure 126 does NOT appear in the Index. Each Individual is listed once in the index but multiple times in the Outline Descendant Report.

Figure 127

There is a Nathaniel Pettenger Jr listed, as he was the child of this marriage. Nathaniel was added the same way as in Figure 116 of How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 1.

More information on how to handle Relationships can be found on the Family Tree Maker Knowledge Base website. Go to this website: http://ftm.custhelp.com/ Enter 4202 into the Keyword Search box and read that Article.

How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 3

Continuing from How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 2

We left of in How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 2 where Nathaniel Pittenger and Elizabeth Osbun were married. We were on the People, Person, Attach/Detach, Attach Spouse screen in Figure 121. From there the "Select The Spouse To Attach" screen. Here we select Osbun, Elizabeth from the list.

Figure 122

Once Elizabeth has been selected, the Attach Spouse screen will change to a New Family window, where you will click on the button to the Left of the New Family entry.

Figure 123

Clicking on OK will take you back to the People, Family View showing the New Family and relationship.

Figure 124

Going back to the Kinship Report will indicate that Nathaniel and Elizabeth are "Self" and "Wife".

Figure 125

Continued on How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 4

How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 2

Continued from How to Enter a Intra Familial Marriage - Part 1

Following the marriage of Isaac Osbun and Eileen Gilbert, they had a Daughter, Elizabeth Osbune. Clicking on the Add Child, again, will open the Name window.

Figure 118

A quick look at the Kinship Report, at this point, might be helpful. Select Nathaniel Pittenger, the Child in Figure 118, then Click on Publish in the Workspace will open the Collection tab, from which Relationship Reports will be selected. The select the Kinship Report.

Figure 119

The Kinship report for Nathaniel will be generated. Not that Nathaniel is listed as "Self", as that is who was selected, and that Elizabeth Osbun is listed at First Cousin.

Figure 120

Now, Elizabeth Osbun and Nathaniel Pittenger marry. Both are currently in the Family File, to the trick is to ATTACH the two together. This is done by clicking on Person, on the People Workspace. A drop down menu will appear, where Attach/Detach Person will appear and another menu will open to the right. Select Attach Spouse. Remember that we are on Nathaniel's record.

Figure 121

To be continued on How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage Part 3

How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 1

A listener of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, Episode 63, asked How to Enter a situation where Cousins Marry. A term that might describe this is "Intra Familial Marriage".

Here is the question:

MAILBOX: Listener Question regarding Family Tree Maker 2009 Platinum Edition.
"I have at least one instance in my husband's tree where two first cousins married. This, of course means that some of the tree overlaps itself. I can not get the FTM software to recognize that the people are the same…Do you or any of your listeners know if I am just missing something or can it not be done??”

This post will describe how to create this relations.

1. Go to the People, Family View
2. This list of of Individual in the first family

• Father - Samuel Osbun
• Mother - Sarah Holmes
• Child - Nancy Osbun
• Child - Isaac Osbun

Figure: 114

You can see the Relationships within the family above.

Nancy marries Fred Pittenger. One of the ways to do this is to click on the Add Spouse under Nancy's name. In this case, Double clicking on Nancy, in Figure 114, changed the view to Figure 115. A small window will open to enter the name.

Figure 115

Fred and Nancy had a Child, Nathaniel Pittenger. Clicking on Add Child, below the Parents will open a small window to Enter the name and select the sex of this new child.

Figure 116

Now, Isaac Oshun, the second child of Nathaniel Pittenger and Elizabeth Oshun married Eileen Gilbert. She was added by clicking on the Add Spouse to the Right of Isaac. Again the Name and sex small window will open where Eileen Gilbert is entered.

Figure 117

To be Continued on How to Enter an Intra Familial Marriage - Part 2.