Tuesday, April 29, 2014

New Options on FamilySearch Family Tree "Tree View"

FamilySearch continues to add more features to the FamilySearch Family Tree to help visualize your ancestry and make it easier to navigate through the tree.

As a registered FamilySearch user (it's free!), I can add persons and information to the FamilySearch Family Tree, which is a universal, source-centric, open-environment tree (meaning it is not MY tree, but OUR tree, and anyone can add to or edit any profile).  I have been doing that over the past two years, and have added some photographs to the Family Tree recently for my ancestors.

One of the recently added features to FamilySearch Family Tree is more options to the "Tree View" when you access the Family Tree from the FamilySearch website (https://familysearch.org/tree/).

1)  Here is a screen shot of the "Traditional" pedigree chart when I open the FamilySearch Family Tree to view or use it:


For the screen shot above, I clicked on the down arrow next to "View Traditional" in the upper left-hand corner of the chart, and it showed me four options:

*  Descendancy
*  Fan Chart
*  Portrait
*  Traditional

2)  Here are screen shots of the "Portrait" view (two screens):

For the Portrait view, I clicked on the up arrow above Henry Austin Carringer and Abbie Ardell Smith to open more generations of their ancestors.  Note that the "head shot" images show on this view.

3)  The "Fan Chart" View is:


The "Fan Chart" view is a five generation chart and is the easiest way I've found to navigate back to earlier generations not on the "Traditional" view.  I can click on any one of the persons in the "Fan Chart" and see their five generation tree also.

4)  The "Descendancy" view lets me pick one ancestor and see their descendants.  I do have to click on a descendant of the top person to see their descendants one generation at a time.  Here is the "Descendancy" chart for Abigail A. Vaux and four more generations of descendants (two screens):


5)  As you can see, the "head shot" photographs that I recently added to the FamilySearch Family Tree appear in the "Portrait" view and the "Descendancy" view only, not on the "Fan" view of "Traditional" view.

Most of us run out of "head shots" of our ancestors in the late 1800s, so the "Portrait" view becomes fairly academic for ancestors that died before that time period.

I really like these options in the FamilySearch Family Tree.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2014/04/new-options-on-familysearch-family-tree.html

Copyright (c) 2014, Randall J. Seaver


1 comment:

Judith Richards Shubert said...

I really like this option, Randy. Haven't thought about using it before, but your screenshots make a great looking tree. I think I'll give it a try!