Your mission this week, should you decide to accept it, is:
(1) How many different "trees" do you have in your genealogy management program (e.g., RootsMagic, Family Tree Maker, Reunion) or online tree (e.g., Ancestry Member Tree, MyHeritage tree)?
(2) How many trees do you have, and how big is your biggest tree? Do you have some smaller "bushes" or "twigs?"
(3) Tell us in your own blog post (please leave a link in Comments here), in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.
Well, the program that I use is Family Tree Maker v. 16, and it apparently can't do what Randy's RootsMagic can. I don't seem to have any function that counts the different trees and twigs in my database. On the other hand, I can count files manually, and I have 45 separate FTM family trees. My primary database has about 7,956 people in it. Some of the other trees are working subsets of my main tree, but most are other people's trees, either friends and extended family, people who have shared trees with me because they thought we were related, or people for whom I have done research. Some of the other trees are probably superfluous at this point, so it would probably be a good idea to move those out of the main folder and get them out of the way.
I've mentioned previously that I have several genealogy management programs installed on my computers (I'm bilingual: I use both Mac and PC). I've actually built three family trees in Reunion for people using Macs. The largest one of those has 131 people in it.
I think Reunion is the only other program I've actively used. I keep telling myself I'm going to look more at RootsMagic, especially since Randy keeps showing all the cool tricks it can do, but there are only 24 hours in a day.
I used FTM for years. I did find when I switched to a MAC that it was a little clunky in the MAC version of it. So about a year and a half ago I got frustrated enough to switch to a program designed for MAC - Reunion. I have been satisfied. Each of the software programs for managing our genealogy do a few different things but Reunion does more than I know still yet so I will stick with it. I am satisfied with it. Cool that you have so many trees.
ReplyDeleteEven though I primarily use a Mac, I have used FTM on a PC for years. I only tried Reunion when I was helping someone with her tree. I found some of its functions amazingly nonintuitive, and I could not find ways to do what I thought were straightforward reports. I guess that's why there are so many programs — everyone's mind works a little differently.
DeleteYour primary database is way ahead of mine, over twice as many folks.
ReplyDeleteIt seems all of the big guys have RootsMagic, so maybe it is something that we need to further consider. Do you know if it also can sync with Ancestry like FTM does?
Have a blessed day. :)
There's always someone who has more people in his database than you do. Randy has more than 23,000! Don't worry, it's the quality that counts. :)
DeleteI really do need to check out my RootsMagic. I believe it does sync with Ancestry as FTM used to do, but since I don't have a tree on Ancestry, I admit I'm not sure of the details.
Oh yeah! Randy has a massive oak tree in comparison to my little twig of a tree. haha I think that is great!
DeleteI have mostly public trees on Ancestry, but I do have one private tree for only close family members to view. Assuming that I did it properly, hopefully no one's privacy is breached on my public trees. It is a scary world out there.
Have a blessed day. :)
I have been told that if you have all the privacy settings on, then your tree will not show up, not even in searches.
DeleteAs for scary, keep in mind that almost all the information people put in family trees comes from information available to the public to begin with.
Very true. Sometimes maybe folks put more on their tree pages than they should, though. Like full names and birth dates of their children, which may not be available to the public ordinarily, and are things we're told to not put online anyway.
DeleteHave a blessed day. :)
This is true. One should always respect the privacy of the living, unless you have permission to post their information.
Delete