This is a three part blog post.
Yesterday, I noticed a lively discussion on Facebook about a kind of genealogy software report that I often need to make. I was surprised to discover, from this discussion that the newer software programs don't support or don't make this common chart.
To join a lineage society, one must create a "direct" line chart to have to start to gather proof for joining. This proof consists of many types of documents but before you can start that process, you should have the people connected correctly and have a way to have the dates and places for birth, marriage, death and burial in one document. It can take many months of work to join one of these organizations.
To prepare this report, I have used Family Tree Maker v. 16, 2006 to prepare a list of persons that are descended directly from an ancestor down to me. It is an easy process. But, now I find out this easy process is no longer part of Family Tree Maker. I already knew that the copy I have was so outdated that it will probably not work on my Windows 7 computer so it stays on my laptop.
I upgraded from Personal Ancestral File (called PAF) to RootsMagic 4 because I no longer need free software to teach people how to do genealogy. Now, I make them join Ancestry.com to get them started and them start teaching them to enter data, be critical of what they find and to use census records for their ancestors. I don't do this very often anymore as I find people who really want to learn more about genealogy are already doing this process.
But, reports are basic to genealogy and this is the tyope of report I wanted to learn how to create, save, print and share. Here's a screen shot of that that type of report. It is just a part of the report I created.
Yes, I made this with RootsMagic. In the next posts, I will show you how it is done.
5 comments:
What? You're gonna make us wait? I've been trying to figure this out WITHOUT creating a new database in which my siblings were unattached! Ok...I will patiently await...
Tomorrow....
Midge, I'm still using FTM 10. Guess I'm WAY behind the times. It won't work on my VISTA laptop and I haven't forked up the money to buy the version necessary to work on VISTA. Is is 11? Anyway, I can still create my direct line reports using FTM 10 on my old desktop. I guess that is sufficient.
I do have Roots Magic4 that I downloaded free when I was listening to a speaker on Genealogy Gems but have yet to use it. Do you think I am losing out by not diving in and learning how to use it, especially since I have it here on my laptop? I would have to input all my infomation since I cannot transfer FTM 10 to VISTA. But maybe I could at least do one family line to see if I liked it. Hmmm?
Judith - FTM Version 10 should run on your Vista PC. Just make sure you are running it As Administrator. If you have issues with it, please email me and I'll help. ( hrworth@gmail.com )
FTM2012 is the current version, just released and it will read and open your Version 10 file.
As Midge has posted a solution for Roots Magic 4, I have done that same for FTM2012, if that helps,
Russ
I'm getting the new FTM - it is supposed to have an interface that mimic FTM 16 - I'll let you know if it works. It has always been my preferred genealogy program because I like the keyboard shortcuts...
Post a Comment