6 Powerful Features of Family Tree Maker

Most family tree software programs have more features than you may realize. These 6 features of Family Tree Maker are genealogy game-changers.

I bought my first computer—an actual IBM PC—in 1985 and upgraded from DOS to Windows 3.0 in 1990. I remember how juvenile early software programs looked. My first version of Family Tree Maker had that 1990s look when I got it in 2002.

Today, Family Tree Maker has an excellent, robust user interface. (See "Comparing Family Tree Programs Is an Eye Opener".) Here's a look at 6 FTM features I've found to be a big help in building your family tree. If you're using another program, does it have all these features?

1. Color Coding

I first used FTM's color-coding feature to distinguish the 4 main branches of my family tree. I went to each of my 4 grandparents and in one click, gave each one and all their direct ancestors a color. I made Grandpa Adamo and his ancestors green and Grandma Mary and her ancestors blue. I made Grandpa Pietro and his ancestors yellow and Grandma Lucy and her ancestors pink. My grandparents Pietro and Lucy were 3rd cousins. Their shared ancestors have both yellow and pink bars beneath their names.

These colors come in handy when I'm working on an individual whose relationship to me is unclear. When I view the person in FTM and see green, blue, yellow, or pink ancestors, I know exactly which ancestors we share.

For more ways to use color coding, see "Using Color to Understand Your Family's Last Names".

2. Filters

There are a few other groups for which I was using color coding. Then I realized there was a better way.

Family Tree Maker lets you create custom filters so you can display only a select group of people in your index. When your family tree gets pretty big, this can be a big help. What I didn't know at first is that you can assign a color code to everyone in a particular filter. You don't have to add the color to a person or family unit one at a time.

Here's why that's so helpful. I have 246 people in my family tree who have no direct relationship to me. Some share my Grandma Mary's last name, and they come from the same little town as her parents. But a lack of vital records means I can't figure out how we're related. At first I was color coding unrelated people in red. But if I discovered their connection, it was a bit tedious to remove the red color from the correct people. Now if new research turns them into relatives, I remove them from the Unrelated filter and the red color is gone.

In fact, I recently solved a mystery that turned 14 unrelated people into relatives. You never know when you'll find the answer to those unanswered questions. Now my Unrelated filter contains only 232 people.

I've also created filters for:

• Everyone in my family tree with an Ahnentafel fact (more on Custom Facts in a moment). This restricts FTM's index to only my direct ancestors.
• All the Italians I know emigrated to Brazil. This helps me connect to the many people in Brazil with my last name. This filter uses a blue color code.
• All the DNA matches I've been able to place in my family tree. This filter uses a purple color code.
• Actor Tony Danza's direct ancestors. (See "Apply Your Genealogy Superpower to Other Families".)
• My Uncle Kenny's direct ancestors. He's my mother's sister's husband with roots in the same town as my father. I'm hoping to spot an ancestor overlap some day. This filter uses an orange color code.

To add a color to everyone in a filter, find Smart Filters in the lower left corner of FTM's Tree tab. Choose Manage Filters from the menu beside Smart Filters. Select the right filter and click a color. Done!

3. Custom Facts

When I learned about Ahnentafel numbers, I needed a way to add the right number to each ancestor in my family tree. FTM doesn't have an Ahnentafel fact, so I created it. (Discover the value of Ahnentafel numbers in "3 Things to Do with Ahnentafel Numbers".)

Over the years I've needed other custom facts, too. My husband's family is Japanese and from California. The U.S. government forced then into internment camps during World War II. There are documents for these people on Ancestry.com, so I needed a way to record dates and places. I created a custom fact called Internment. There's also at least one guy in my family tree with documents about his jail time. I created another Custom Fact called Imprisonment.

To find out how to add a custom fact in Family Tree Maker, see "How to Add or Delete Custom Facts in Your Family Tree".

4. Undocumented Facts Report

For months now, I've been creating source citations for the majority of people in my family tree. I knew this would be a huge task, so I started with the people who have no source citations at all.

Using Family Tree Analyzer, I generated a spreadsheet of people without source citations. I sorted the spreadsheet to put people with a blood relation to me at the top. They're my first priority. To find out how to create this spreadsheet, see "2 Keys to Tackling a Big Family Tree Project".

Working through everyone in this big spreadsheet is step one. Then I'll use a Family Tree Maker feature to see what I've missed. FTM has a report within the Source Reports category called Undocumented Facts. This will help me find people who have at least one source citation, but are missing others.

When the time comes, I'll export that report to Excel so I can again work on my closer relations first. I know there will be a lot of facts in that report that I'm not going to source:

• I don't include a source for a person's sex. Unnecessary.
• I can't cite a source for more recent events, like the birth of my niece's children, or even for my cousins' marriages.

I'll have to filter out and delete from the spreadsheet people whose facts I'm not going to cite. Meanwhile, I'll keep chipping away at the spreadsheet of "sourceless" people. I need to reduce the undocumented facts as much as I can before running that FTM report. Otherwise, with 81,492 people in my family tree, generating the report will take forever. In fact, I know it will. I'll have to generate the report in batches. I can choose one strategic person and run the report only on their extended family, not the entire tree. Mo' people, mo' problems.

5. Relationship Calculator

When someone writes to me because they found their ancestors in my family tree, I go right to this tool. FTM's Relationship Calculator gives me a clear understanding of a complex relationship.

When I heard from a man last week, I looked at his grandparents in my family tree. I used the Relationship Calculator to see who our common ancestors were. Then I turned to my relationship calculator spreadsheet (not part of FTM—I should have called it something else!) to see my relationship to the man who wrote to me. The spreadsheet says he's my 4th cousin once removed. And FTM's Relationship Calculator makes it clear who our shared ancestors are.

When you use the FTM tool, don't stop at the word description of your relationship. Click the View Relationship Chart button for a clear visual of the relationship. For an example of the Relationship Calculator tool in action, see "How to See Your Cousin Connections More Clearly". To download your own copy of the relationship calculator spreadsheet, see "Which Side the Cousin Falls On is Key".

6. Find and Replace

Anytime you use the find and replace feature of any software, you have to be careful. You may wind up changing part of a word, or even part of a name. Say I want to change an Italian man's occupation from "ferraro" to "ferraro (blackmith)". I must remember to make that change case sensitive. Otherwise anyone in my tree with the last name Ferraro will become ferraro (blackmith)!

The Find and Replace option is in the Edit menu of Family Tree Maker. I did use it to include English translations for the Italian occupations in my family tree. At least one of these changes went wrong. See "How to Handle Foreign Words in Your Family Tree" for other uses of Find and Replace.

You can restrict a Find and Replace operation by selecting or not selecting:

• Match case (change ferraro, not Ferraro)
• Find whole words only (don't change a word if it's part of another word)
• Use wildcards (*?); this could be trouble, so use with care.

You can also tell FTM only to make a change if it finds the text in:

• Facts
• Media
• Notes
• Tasks
• Sources

There's a final option of Places, but it's unavailable to me.

There have been a couple of times when I realized I was using the wrong spelling of a last name. For instance, I found the name Aucone in several old vital records, but I thought it said Ancone. I searched for the name in the Italian White Pages and the Cognomix website. Now I know Aucone is the correct spelling.

Before I do a find and replace, I have to think. Could another name in my family tree contain the same letters as Ancone? To be safe, I can select the Match case option to change all instances of Ancone to Aucone.

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Sometimes you don't realize you need a software feature until you read about ways to use it. I hope this article encourages you to dig deeper and explore your family tree software.

My 5 Favorite Genealogy Tricks

Get into a family tree research groove with these 5 time-saving, value-added genealogy tricks.

I've been working on a big genealogy project with such efficiency it's amazing. When I built a newfound cousin's family tree back several generations in one evening, I wondered what makes me so fast. A lot of it comes down to my 5 favorite genealogy tricks. Are you taking advantage of these tricks like I am?

1. Adding Details to Document Images

Building detailed information right into document images increases their value. Your entries in the image's title and comments fields stay with the image. That info is there with the image on your computer, and it's there when you put the image in your family tree software. You can view any image's property details by right-clicking and choosing Properties.

Use an image's title field to keep document images in chronological order in your family tree. Begin the title with the year, such as “1930 census for John White and family.” This practice:

• Helps you locate the document you need easily
• Provides a clear timeline of events, and
• Points out any gaps in a person's records.

An image's comments field also carries over into your family tree software. Include a detailed source citation and line numbers for the people of interest. Line numbers help when you're revisiting a document and can't find your person right away. For a closer look at this process, see step 4 in "7 Steps to Perfect Family Tree Document Placement."

When I synchronize my Family Tree Maker file with my Ancestry tree, each image displays the title I wrote. The comments field of the image in my family tree shows up as the description of the image on Ancestry. That lets future researchers or family members see exactly where the image came from.

Are you making sure your saved document images speak for themselves?

2. Using a Document "Holding Pen"

Since I work on my family tree every day, I set aside time each Sunday morning to make a complete backup of all my files. Significant changes can happen to my tree in one week! The best way to make sure I don't overlook anything at backup time is to use a "holding pen" for my new document finds.

My family tree is huge. For the moment, I'm avoiding adding more document images to my tree, but I have 11,688 images in there. If I go on a spree and add a bunch of document images to my tree, it'd be easy to overlook some of them during my weekly backup.

To make sure no documents slip through the cracks, I have a "holding pen" for new images added during the week. I have one folder on my computer called certificates. Any new vital record images wait right there until Sunday morning backup time. Each Sunday I know I have to look there.

Within the certificates folder is a sub-folder called DON'T FORGET TO BACK UP THESE. That's where I keep censuses, ship manifests, draft cards, and anything else that isn't a vital record. I have another sub-folder within certificates called working. That's where I keep anything I haven't processed yet. Let's say I downloaded a record from the New York City Municipal Archives, but haven't gotten to it yet. I'll keep it in the working folder so I don't forget about it.

A holding pen ensures that any new treasures get backed up and filed as needed. What steps are you taking to prevent documents from getting lost? To get a better look at the process, see "This 3-Step Backup Routine Protects Your Family Tree."

3. Sharing My Family Tree Online

It's fantastic when a distant cousin finds their ancestors in my family tree and writes to me. That's often the only way I can find out what became of my ancestor's cousins from Italy.

When I hear from someone, I go into research mode and figure out our connection. How crazy is it to be writing to a 5th cousin you never knew existed? Then I follow their ancestors to America, in most cases, and discover all I can about their family.

I like to provide new cousins with everything I can about their ancestors in Italy. That's the purpose of my enormous family tree. I want my quality research to be there for every distant cousin or paesan who finds my tree.

I keep my family tree up-to-date on Ancestry to help out people who've taken a DNA test. I also upload my tree to Geneanet to help European relatives. (See "A Major Family Tree Change to Fix an Ongoing Problem.") And I took the advice of one blog reader who said I can upload my tree to FamilySearch in such a way that no one can edit it. On my personal website, www.forthecousins.com:

• I list my ancestral towns and my primary last names from those towns.
• I publish my complete indexes of the vital records available for those towns.

Are you building your family tree in a vacuum? Don't you think a distant cousin's personal knowledge of their family could help you?

Make family-tree building easier, and genealogy source citations more consistent and valuable with a simple template.

4. Using Source Citation Templates

Lately I've been adding source citations for the thousands of Italian vital records I didn't cite. Shame on me! Since the documents are on my computer, I skipped citations in favor of building families.

But what happens when a distant cousin finds his grandparents in my online family tree? How can he be sure my facts are correct? Unfortunately, he can't be sure unless I provide links to the documents. When there's a link, he can see the facts for himself on the original document.

I generated a huge list of everyone in my family tree who has zero source citations. I did this in Family Tree Analyzer and exported a spreadsheet. The list contained more than 68,000 people, more than 14,000 of whom were actual cousins to me. Now I spend my days chipping away at that list.

A few tricks help me cross the most people off that list in the least amount of time:

• I sort the spreadsheet by (1) relationship to me, (2) last name, and (3) first name. That let's me focus on blood relatives before in-laws. And it keeps siblings close to each other in the list.
• I create source citations for one person from the list, and then I handle all their siblings. Reducing how much I need to move around within my family tree and within the spreadsheet saves time.
• I work one town at a time. I keep the Antenati web page open with all the available records from that town. Then I can quickly go to the register book I need and open it in a new tab. Sticking to one town reduces the typing needed for the citation.
• The vast majority of facts in my family tree come from Italian vital records. I use a source citation template so it's easy to capture all the important facts with consistency. When I'm making citations for a bunch of siblings, only a few details need to change. I turn into a copy-and-paste speed demon! Here's the basic Italian vital record source citation format I use:
  From the PROVINCE State Archives, YEAR DOCUMENT-TYPE, TOWN, document #, image # of # at URL

Are your source citations in decent shape? Templates and time-saving tricks can help whip your family tree into professional shape. Not sure templates are for you? Take a look at #2 in "How to Become a Genealogy Efficiency Expert."

5. Making Document Collections Searchable

Consistency can be such a help to you, particularly if you can't work on your family tree every day. Shortly after I began building my family tree, I knew I needed to use a consistent file-naming process. Within a FamilyTree folder, I created a sub-folder for each type of genealogy document:

• census
• certificates (meaning vital records)
• draft cards
• immigration
• and so on.

Within each folder, the file names follow a consistent format:

• Censuses: LastnameFirstnameYear (based on the head of household)
• Certificates: LastnameFirstnameDocument-TypeYear—2 names if it's a marriage. Examples:
  • AgostinelliFrancescoAntonioBirth1789
  • AgostinelliFrancescantonioCapuanoAngelamariaMarriage1828
  • AgostinelliTommasoDeath1800
• Draft cards: LastnameFirstnameWW1 (or WW2)
• Immigration: LastnameFirstnameYear (based on the head of the family if it's a group)

Because I use a consistent format, it's easy to search my computer for a particular document. For more detail, see "3 Rules for Naming Digital Genealogy Documents."

But the best thing I ever did for my family tree is rename downloaded vital records that aren't even in my tree. Years ago I downloaded entire collections of Italian vital records using third-party software. But websites don't like when you do that, so they throw up roadblocks against such software. (What can you do? See "Semi-Automated Process for Downloading Antenati Images.")

With those images on my computer, I began to view and rename them all. I made them easy to search for on my computer. If someone asks me about their branch in my tree, it's no problem at all to:

• search for more records
• build out their branch more completely, and
• share it with them.

For these documents, I use a different, more readable format. It contains the document number and the full name of the subject(s) of the birth, marriage, or death record. If it's a marriage record it includes both the groom and bride's names. If it's a birth or death record, it also includes the first name of the person's father. This is a tremendous help in finding the right record or putting together families. Here are some examples:

• Birth record: 1 Giovanni Luigi Stanziale di Antonio
• Death record: 16 Guglielmo Ciampi di Andrea
• Marriage record: marriage 7 Angelo Carpenito & Giuseppa Fioretto
• Marriage banns: banns 2 1st Francesco diFreda & Petronilla Panza

While a computer search may find what you're looking for, I want more power. I use a search program for Windows called Everything. (Find out how well it works in "My Secret Weapon for Finding Relatives.") It's so good at finding a particular record, and this helps a lot with my source citation project. I can find the document I need to cite, see its document number, and go right to it online to capture details.

Can you find any genealogy document on your computer in an instant? Consistent file-naming formats and a good search tool may be exactly what you need.

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A lack of efficient genealogy research methods can be a big source of frustration for you. Think about what you can change to work smarter, not harder—and make constant progress.

Apply Your Genealogy Superpower to Other Families

Use your genealogy superpower in unexpected ways. I built a celebrity's family tree and discovered he fits into my tree!

Genealogy skills are a superpower. Researching your own family history teaches you how to go back another generation. Sometimes it's a lot of fun to flex your genealogy muscles on someone else's family tree. Inspiration for this type of project can come from anywhere.

In the past, I was inspired by memorials in my grandfathers' hometowns or questions posted in Facebook genealogy groups. TV has played an inspiring role, too.

An Old Movie Triggers a Question

I watched a 1952 Dean Martin-Jerry Lewis movie on TCM called "Sailor Beware." I knew James Dean was in one scene, and I spotted him before I had remembered to look for him. But I also noticed one sailor who was in a lot of scenes but may not have said a word. It was actor Vince Edwards in his second-ever movie role. Vince was in a TV show called "Ben Casey" when I was too young to remember watching.

I started to wonder about Vince, with my first thought being, "He looks so Italian. How can his name be Edwards?" So I looked him up and discovered he was the son of Italian immigrants living in Brooklyn, New York. With a little more digging, I found his real last name was Zoino.

Bells went off immediately. I know that name from a couple of Italian towns that were home to my maternal grandmother's ancestors. Today you can find that name in the city of Benevento.

To begin, I went to the 1930 census to find Vince as a two year old. Then I search Ancestry records for Vince's father Vincenzo Zoino. I had his birth date and place narrowed down to two men: one from Avellino and one from Benevento. A set of naturalization papers ruled out the man from Avellino.

I went to the Antenati portal to find the right Vincenzo's 1887 birth record from the city of Benevento. With a bit more digging, I found Vince's mother's Benevento birth record, too. Both her parents had last names I've seen often in my own research.

I texted my mom to tell her that "Ben Casey" was our paesan. Not a relative, but a close countryman.

"Finding Your Roots" Strikes a Chord

A couple of years ago an episode of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "Finding Your Roots" featured Tony Danza. The moment the show began, I wondered if his name used to be Iadanza—a name I know from my own research.

Sure enough, Tony Danza's grandfather was Antonio Iadanza. He came from exactly the town I thought he should: Pietrelcina. This town neighbors my great grandmother's town of Pesco Sannita in Benevento.

I went up to my TV and took a photo when they showed Tony's family tree. Now I knew who to search for. I'd already downloaded all the Pietrelcina vital records from the Antenati website. I knew the town had plenty of intermarriage with Pesco Sannita and I'd need those records sooner or later. Having them on my computer made it easier to piece together Tony's ancestors.

I got as far back as two pairs of Tony's 6th great grandparents born in the early 1700s.

A genealogy hunch became reality with good old-fashioned research. Now this celebrity's family tree fits within mine.

The fun part of this research is that Tony and his ancestors fit into my family tree. Are Tony and I cousins? No. But his grandmother, Giovanna Zarro, has 22 different connections to my family tree. Each one ties back to my ancestors from neighboring Pesco Sannita.

I think it's fun to have Tony Danza in my family tree. And he could very well share some "Identical By State" DNA with me. (For insight into "Identical By State" DNA, see "This Spreadsheet Sorts DNA Matches By Branch.")

Use Your Superpower for Good

Keep your eyes open for a genealogy challenge that means something to you. Anyone with Benevento or Avellino roots is going to grab my attention.

Does someone have a last name from your family? My Girardi ancestors led me to research Joe Girardi, former manager of the New York Yankees. It turns out his family is from Northern Italy, so there's no relation. I have a 3rd cousin I never met who was a child actor. When he was a regular on a TV show, I saw his last name and had to wonder—is he one of ours? Now I know he is!

Is there someone you admire whose roots make you curious? See what you can learn about them. You may need to find an article to learn their parents' or grandparents' names. Then use the census, ship manifests, draft cards, naturalization papers and more to dig deeper. Prove to yourself how accomplished you are at this genealogy hobby!