Beyond the Horizon: Direct Line Report Part 2

Bruce Buzzbee, a photo by midgefrazel on Flickr.

These are the directions that Bruce Buzzbee of RootsMagic posted to our discussion on Facebook:

1. Reports > Box charts, then set Chart Type to Descendants
2. Set Box style to None
3. Set Format to Name and events word wrapped
4. Uncheck "Include photos"

Now that will give you close to the format, except it draws the lines instead of putting leader dots. But there is one trick you have to use first to get the direct descendants only (instead of all descendants).

1. Create a new blank database (it will open up side by side with yours)
2. Drag and drop the descendant in question from your file to the blank one.
3. When RM asks who else to copy, select the person and his/her ancestors (just ancestors... not children)
4. Generate the above descendant report above for the desired ancestor from the new temporary database. It will give you just the direct line you want. You can delete that temp database when you are done.

Here's what I wrote so I could remember how to do this:

How to create a direct descendent chart using RootsMagic 4

Step 1

Open your genealogy data in RootsMagic

Launch RootsMagic to open your regular database.

Step 2

Create a new blank database with the "direct line" ancestors:

In RootsMagic click on the file menu and choose New and name your database test. This will put your regular database and this text database side-by-side on your screen.

The "test" database you are creating will be made up of your own "direct line" ancestors.

Drag-and-drop your own name from your regular database to the root person in your new database. RootsMagic will open a dialog box (called Drag and Drop) and ask you who to copy. Choose that person and the ancestors. Make sure the "generations" box is set to the number of generations (shown here as 13) you have in your database or it won't get all of your ancestors. Click OK when you are done.