3 Reasons to Build Your Family Tree Offline

You can find my massive family tree on Ancestry.com and on the free website Geneanet.org. But I don't build my tree online. Family Tree Maker is the only desktop genealogy program I've ever used, and I'm a devoted fan.

Building a tree on Ancestry can be fun, and I've done it for other people. It has some nice features, but when you're creating your legacy, you want to do your best work.

Here are 3 reasons it's better to build your family tree offline and then share your work online.

Be proud to be a family tree control freak.

1. Full Control

Call me a control freak, but I want things done right. Using desktop software, I can see a list of all my existing:

• Sources. You can look for duplicates, sources with no citations, and source titles that need an edit. Collections on Ancestry.com will have a title change if they contain more years than they did before.
• Places. It's easy to see which ones aren't recognized by the software, and make global edits as needed.
• Media. In one place, make sure each media item has a category, spot the ones you should crop, and see who's attached to what.
• People. You can see a full list of all your people sorted by last name, first name, birth date, death date, or marriage date. Check the bottom of the list while it's sorted by birth date to see who you entered without a birth date.

I can add a color-code to one person and it will repeat that color for all their ancestors and descendants, if I choose. I've used color to make certain people recognizable instantly:

• My 4 grandparents each have a unique color, and it's displayed for all their direct ancestors. This makes it clear which branch I'm viewing. It also shows where my paternal grandparents' lines cross (they were third cousins).
• I have quite a few unrelated people in my tree. I added them to a Family Tree Maker filter so each one displays a red color-code. It's always a victory when a new discovery removes someone from the unrelated filter.
• My maternal aunt's husband's line shares DNA with my father. Interesting! So I added my uncle's direct ancestors to a filter and gave them an orange color-code. I'm always on the lookout for anyone displaying orange and another color.
• I placed all my DNA matches into a filter and they display a purple color-code. If new information makes a DNA match a cousin, I want to know right away.

Family Tree Maker gives a more complete view of everything in your family tree.

This Family Tree Maker feature can uncover surprises.

2. Fewer Mishaps

I can't count how many times I've seen online family trees displaying duplicate people. You may be looking into one person of interest to see what you can learn about her. You notice this tree has a second husband for her while you only have one. Then you click to see the second husband and find he's an accidental duplicate of the first husband. This happens too easily when you're building online. It's a big risk if you aren't very careful how you accept hints.

Let's say you're entering a new person into your Family Tree Maker file. He's the husband of a woman in your tree. You enter his name, then his birth date. But wait a second. Family Tree Maker sends you an alert. You already have a man with that exact birth date and the same or very similar name. It asks if you want to merge them.

This safeguard prevents errors before they happen.

3. Consistency

Having a consistent style in your work leads to a better product. Think of it as quality control for your family tree. The date format in my family tree is always the same. It's 18 Mar 2025—a two-digit day, three-letter month, four-digit year. My tree's description fields use the same wording to explain certain things. For instance:

• Let's say a couple in your family tree has two babies with the exact same name. It's a safe assumption that baby #1 died before baby #2 was born. But there's no death record available for proof. My routine is to use a stock phrase beneath baby #1's approximate death date. Her sister of the same name was born on this date.
• Sometimes I know a couple married on a certain date because it's written on their birth records. The marriage record itself isn't available. My routine for documenting the marriage date is to use one of these stock phrases:
  • From her birth record.
  • From his birth record.
  • From both their birth records.

Then I can use the birth record's source citation for the marriage date.

Family Tree Maker's predictive typing capability makes it easy to stay consistent. I begin typing the stock phrase, such as from her bi, from his bi, or from bo. Then I choose the correct phrase from the list of matching phrases found in my tree.

This also applies to addresses, and it's a huge help when entering a long address. Yes, Ancestry.com also shows you the similar addresses already in your tree. But it doesn't let you see all your addresses at once. There's no easy way to make corrections and overwrite incorrect versions.

My family tree has tens of thousands of baptism and marriage facts. They all include the name and full address of the church. I'd hate to have to type out "Chiesa di San Leonardo Abate, Via Roma, 6, Baselice, Benevento, Campania, Italy" over and over again. But I don't have to. All I have to type is chiesa di san l and the full address appears.

If you're serious about creating a valuable family tree, build it on your computer. Then you can export a GEDCOM file and share it online wherever you please. As an Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker customer, I can synchronize my offline work with my online tree. I do this daily because I add so much to my tree each day. Then I upload my GEDCOM file to Geneanet.org, replacing my previous file with the latest and greatest.

Unsure about which family tree building software to use? Do a comparison using free trials or free software. I found that "Comparing Family Tree Programs Is an Eye Opener".

To learn more about why I love Family Tree Maker, see:

• Exploring a New Feature You Didn't Know You Need
• 6 Powerful Features of Family Tree Maker
• How to Add or Delete Custom Facts in Your Family Tree
• How to Handle Foreign Words in Your Family Tree