Cyber Solutions: Catch All

Q. I’m new to genealogy software and I’d like to create a printout of everyone in my family tree. How can I do this?

A. Previous versions of Family Tree Maker <www.familytreemaker.com> could print an All-In-One Chart showing all of a person’s relatives. (Updates to version 2008 might bring it back.) Other programs don’t offer this report, primarily because an All-In-One Chart works fine with a small number of relatives — say, 25 or fewer — but quickly becomes unwieldy with a larger family.

If you’re researching your ancestors and some of their descendants, you’ll find it more useful to print several charts and reports, each focusing on a single family or one person’s ancestors or descendants. For example:

• Family group record: Summarizing your information on a couple and their children, this letter-size report is ideal for your research notebook.

• Pedigree or ancestor chart: Usually showing three to five generations in a tree format, these charts are also handy for quick reference.

• Register report: A narrative report outlining someone’s descendants, it uses a standard numbering system so you can easily trace family lines.

• Ahnentafel report: It’s like a register report, but shows a person’s ancestors.

• Hourglass chart: A “root” person appears in the middle, with ancestors branching upward and descendants branching downward.

Some programs, such as Legacy Family Tree <www.legacyfamilytree.com> and RootsMagic <www.rootsmagic.com>, can combine several reports into a book with a table of contents and index.

From the July 2008 Family Tree Magazine