After Ancestry.com announced that they were abandoning (aka “retiring”) their venerable Family Tree Maker (FTM) desktop application in Dec 2015, many users and genealogy bloggers asked, “What do I replace FTM with?” Several genealogy desktop app retailers offered discounts and help guides on how to transfer a family tree from FTM to their software. Most of them make it sound as if it’s as simple as exporting your FTM tree to a GEDCOM file and importing the GEDCOM into their application. I say, “Not so fast.” [Read more…] about Family Tree Software Alternatives, Part 1: How to Scrub Your Data (Updated 16 May 2018)
sources
Deleting Branches in Reunion 10
Removing branches from your Reunion 10 family file is one of those tasks that you (hopefully) won’t have to do often. It’s also one that can leave you lost for how to carry it out. Combine this with the potential for data loss if not done properly (or junking up your file with unneeded data) and you’ve got the makings of a super handy GenealogyTools video!
When you find yourself needing to remove more than a single person from your genealogy software you’ll want a clear method for removing not only the direct ancestors, but the collateral people linked to them. Oh, and there’s also the source records that become orphaned when people records are deleted. Here are the basic steps to the method I devised: [Read more…] about Deleting Branches in Reunion 10
The Secret to Standardized Source Citation Ratings in Family Tree Maker 2012 and Mac 2
Using standardized source citation ratings in Family Tree Maker can help you make solid conclusions about facts. You’ve probably heard of original versus derivative sources, primary versus secondary information, and direct versus indirect evidence. That’s what FTM calls standardized source citation ratings. They also add a rating for clarity of the information–clear versus marginal. And both the Mac and 2012 versions support standardized ratings.
Unfortunately, the feature’s isn’t used by default. The source rating stars are there for you to set. The standard ratings are a bit hidden in the source rating window. The bonus is that by using the standard ratings, the number of stars is set automagically!
[Read more…] about The Secret to Standardized Source Citation Ratings in Family Tree Maker 2012 and Mac 2
Source Citation Find and Replace in Reunion for Mac
Finding and replacing text in your family file is irregularly needed, but can save you time when you can use it. Turning over this tedious task to Reunion makes more family history research time available to you. That is, provided you carefully define your search criteria and backup your Reunion family file first!
Reunion has search and replace well covered everywhere except source citation details. The fields within the source record are all available to the Find -> Replace feature on the menu-bar–no problem there.
The trouble is that source detail isn’t a field in the source record and it isn’t a field in the event or fact. It’s a link between a source record and an event or fact. This is as it should be; it allows you to cite a single source for multiple events and facts and on different person records.
[Read more…] about Source Citation Find and Replace in Reunion for Mac
Safely Move from Free-form Citations to Source Fields in Reunion
As you saw in a previous video about the dangers of free-form citations, genealogy software Reunion for Mac allows you to create source citations by entering source information into a free-form text field, but there are pitfalls to entering citations this way.
The free-form citation field in Reunion for Mac is exported with a GEDCOM tag that may not import as desired. Most of the source fields on the other hand, will export with well supported tags. Moving your free-form citations into source fields will help you preserve the effort you’ve put into your genealogy research.
In this video I show you a process I developed for safely moving free-form citations to source fields. It even works when the source is used for multiple people and events.
[Read more…] about Safely Move from Free-form Citations to Source Fields in Reunion