Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission: Impossible music, please!):
1) Go into your genealogy management program (GMP; either software on your computer or an online family tree) and figure out how to count how many places (e.g., towns, counties, states, countries) you have in your family tree database.
2) Tell us which GMP you're using and how you did this task.
3) Tell us how many place names are in your database and, if possible, which place has the most entries. If this excites you, tell us which surnames [places?][ are in the top 5! Or 10!! Or 20!!!
4) Write about it in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, in a status or comment on Facebook, or in Google+ post.
I use Family Tree Maker 16. I was unable to learn much information from my lovely family tree program for this task.
First I had to figure out where I could get a list of the locations that appear in my database. Searching through the help index got me nowhere, notwithstanding Randy's suggestion to look for "count places." (My FTM doesn't call them "places"; they are "locations.") So I started working my way through each menu. Under "View" I clicked "Map", which finally gave me something:
According to this minimal information, I have 3,591 different locations, 3,431 of which the program was able to locate. I didn't ask it to check for the other 160 locations, as this computer is not connected to the Internet.
After I clicked OK, the output was 41 pages long. The locations were in alphabetical order based on how they were entered in the program. I would have to go through the entire list and rearrange them manually to learn anything useful.
This is probably the worst disappointment I've had when trying to find informtion in FTM.
If anyone out there knows a more useful way to find this information in Family Tree Maker, I would appreciate learning about it!
When I had FTM it used to have a feature that would generate a map with all the locations pinpointed. Not sure if it still does that. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that the first of the 41 pages was indeed a map with some, but not all, of the locations marked. It was only for the U.S., and many of my locations are in Europe. I'm not sure if it got all of the U.S. locations.
DeleteHowdy Janice and Mary,
ReplyDeleteThanks for trying the FTM ' Location Options' and sharing your results. I'll have to try this on my FTM. I'm stunned that no locations in Europe were listed. So Janice were you saying that if a location was manually entered by City first and then State, it would be alphabetized by the City ( not the state)? Surely there must be a better genealogy program that would allow separate input of country, state, county, city, etc.. that would allow us to query and organize data by those filters. Maybe not?! I'm not a computer programmer but maybe it's time we found one!
I apologize for not being clearer about what the report contained. The 40 pages that listed locations listed all locations in my family file, including ones in Europe. The map, however, was only of the U.S., and it did not appear to have all U.S. locations shown.
DeleteFor your other question, yes, whatever the first word of the entry in the file is -- city, state, county, country, cemetery, whatever -- that's how it's alphabetized. I was disappointed, to say the least.
What a great concept! Reunion (v.11 for Mac) has a sidebar count for Places, of which I have 354. Deduct 7 street addresses and probably 20 states, and I'd have over 300 different towns for 1326 people. It will also do reports, such as searching for all the people buried in San Jose CA or born in Sherborn MA, which would probably be my highest counts.
ReplyDeleteSo it seems like most programs other than FTM can do a pretty decent job at the location search. Sigh.
DeleteIs this the software http://www.leisterpro.com? It may be time to buy a Mac. I've been delaying that purchase for a few years but I know Mac programs are much better overall and allow for much more creativity than Windows-based.
ReplyDeleteYes, Leister Productions is the publisher of Reunion, the leading Mac family tree program. I don't know that I would say Reunion is better or worse than FTM overall, but it does do some things differently. I have also used Mac Family Tree, (old) Mac FTM, PAF, and Legacy. They all work.
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