Friday, May 5, 2017

My RootsMagic Family Tree Online Revisited

When RootsMagic added the capability to add a family tree to their website, and to a smart phone, several years ago, I jumped on it.  I've left the website alone for years - it's the same one I added in 2013 (?) - at http://my.rootsmagic.com/rjseaver/index.html.

1)  Here is my Home Page:


There are five links to the left of the photo on the screen above - for Home, Name Index, Pedigree, Contact, and Help.

2)  If I click on the "Pedigree" link, I can see a colorful four generation pedigree chart:

Each person on the chart includes full names (some are truncated for space reasons), their birth dates and death dates.  On the name line there are three icons - for the "Individual Page," "Show Families" and "Pedigree Chart."

3)  If I click on the "Individual Page" icon for a person, I can see the information I have for that person, including names, event information, family with spouse(s), family with parents, sources and media.  The same icons are on the family members to facilitate navigation from one person to another.  Here's the top of the "Individual Page":


In the Events list, there are icons on the right side of the screen for "Sources" and "Media."  I clicked on the Birth source icon and saw the source citation for the event:

I clicked on the "Media" icon for the 1851 England and Wales Census, and saw the image of the census enumeration:

Further down the screen are the lists of the families, with spouses, children, parents and siblings, along with their birth and death dates:


4)  The presentation on this web site is very nice, I think.  I love the vibrant colors.  I have my family tree online and can access it anywhere that I have computer access without my laptop, like at the Family History Library or at a friend's home.  In fact, anyone can see my family tree and find significant information about persons in my tree - they just need the link to my tree (the one at the top of this blog post).

The RootsMagic app works in a similar way.  I often use it when I'm talking to persons about genealogy.  The pedigree chart colors never fail to impress!

5)  Unfortunately, the information in this online family tree is not found by a search engine, so the information remains hidden.  There is a link to it on my "Randy's Genealogy" page on my blog - see  http://www.geneamusings.com/p/randys-genealogy.html.

6)  Did I mention that this online family tree is FREE to create and access?  A RootsMagic user can create this tree by going to the top menu, picking Internet > My RootsMagic (publish online) and following directions.  After you fill in some forms and pick some controls, your web page will be created and added to the RootsMagic site.

Of course,  this is a STATIC family tree, meaning I cannot update it.  To update it, I would have to go through the process of creating it again.

7)  I really think that, at some time, family tree programs like RootsMagic (and Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Maker, Reunion, etc.) will be stored in the cloud and accessed through a web browser rather than be resident on a desktop or laptop computer.  Users will be able to update their information, add media, and share their tree information with family and friends.

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The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2017/05/mr-rootsmagic-family-tree-revisited.html

Copyright (c) 2017, Randall J. Seaver

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4 comments:

mottgene said...

Randy, Do you know if, when FTM 2017 comes out, will I be able to import all the data, including pics in to Roots Magic? I use FTM as my primary genie program, but I also like Roots Magic.

Jane said...

Randy, what about privacy issues? Does this tree contain living people, or can they be hidden?

Randy Seaver said...

Jane,

I forgot about the privacy issue - good question! I checked the Help function on RootsMagic, and there is a checkbox to privatize living people. I think I did that, but it looks like it included my two living brothers somehow.

Randy Seaver said...

mottgene,

I know that RootsMagic 7 can import a Family Tree Maker 2014 file directly and include media. I doubt that they have modified the coding to import a FTM 2014.1 file, and I'm sure they haven't done so yet for an FTM 2017 file. It may be that they will do that eventually, or not.