New Tree Tool ???

[jbarry6899]

Consensus?

I've read all 75 posts on this thread. It seems to me that the consensus view is that, while there are some helpful features on the new tree, there is a strong desire for an option for a simpler display of ancestral names and locations that does not require changing views, zooming, dragging and clicking.

Jim

[larzus]

I like it so far

I like it and I find it quite workable. Some of the functions are a bit clunky - such as the dropdown menus when editing dates - but this only means that you can't get it wrong by using an ambiguous date format.

I find it quite manoeuvrable. I start by zooming out for an overview. I am, however glad that it keeps that path at the top to help navigate. Luckily I am showing as the principle person. When I first uploaded my gedcom back in April I was not and had to set myself then. This setting seems to have held.

I have updated the stories already. As an earlier poster said, I think this is a useful place to put such details as military service with overseas postings where children may have been born, status in society and other marriages or possible marriages to help identify half siblings.

Even in my own tree, I found ancestors showing as private who should not have been, and a couple of details missing which I'm pretty sure were there before. However, it was good to go over them all, update and add a few new lines. I have done the same for the other kit I manage too.

What I have not figured out is how to connect my confirmed distant matches. I'm not good with the '5th cousin twice removed' stuff. I'm hoping eventually I can link a match to my tree and have FTDNA do the calculation for me. I have a few where our common ancestor was born about 1700 - that's a long way back. Not sure how to link that in without building half the other persons tree into my own.

I definitely like the way I can now update incorrect details without uploading a new gedcom, but I hope the gedcom upload is still possible for new members. My tree is quite extensive and since I have now connected way back to 1700 I see good reason to add ancestors to an earlier date than that. That's a lot of people to type in by hand and I'm glad I didn't have to. I was properly trained to type and have a lot of time to put into this. Not everyone has this.

The matches list is greyed out in my tree but I am guessing it is being worked on. I'll wait and see.

So on the whole - I'm pleased with it. It has great potential for those situations where my matches' tree stops a generation or two short of my tree and I have to build their tree back to find our connection. I'm very pleased to see siblings at last. I just hope the no death dates issue is sorted because so many of my matches' trees are showing 'private' back for several centuries.

[tommypeters]

FTDNA has never allowed only 9 generations.

[tommypeters]

GEDCOM uploads work, but not at the usual place (Profile) - it's now in the Settings menu down in the right corner on you Family Tree page. Your GEDCOM should now be saved in UTF-8 format. If your program doesn't save in that format, open the GEDCOM file in Notepad and resave in UTF-8 format.

[WCoaster]

It's great to see that people are now able to edit tree entries easily, with no need to go into the GEDCOM to do it.

I hope we'll have a "View as" feature soon so that we can see how our own trees look to matches. I seem to remember having that before.

[GoofusBroadway]

Would love to give feedback on "new trees"...

Sure would like to see what all the fuss is about, but I've been unable to log on to any of our 3 accounts since last night. When I was able to log on yesterday, I couldn't run reports for matches.

Even without seeing the "new trees", I'll give it a thumbs down 'cuz I'll bet it's the reason I cannot even get on to see what I came here for... GENETIC genealogy.

[Smsitton]

more than 9 gens do show..

Tommypeters...you are right; the new tree shows more than 9 generations. Under the old tree, the default may have been 9 generations and I may not have used it correctly, but I am delighted to see many more generations in the new tree, although it seems to require some clicking around to get to the top of each line. I used to be disappointed that some of those generations over 9 weren't showing up but now it appears they were all there!

[MoberlyDrake]

Could group administrators, at least, have the old trees back as a tool??? I see absolutely no way to use the new one!!! I am not going to click on every name to get place info.

As for my own tree, which I never use (I uploaded it for each of my family members for the benefit of my matches, not myself)I notice everyone is private. I uploaded that tree for 4 family members. It appears that it is cut off at a certain number of generations. I don't care. I see that almost everyone is private. I don't care. I'm certainly not going to click on hundreds of people in 4 trees to fix it. So, for my matches, what you see is what you get. And I have the feeling that most of my matches who have uploaded trees (very few have) will feel the same way.

[tommypeters]

Is there any community benefit to adding collateral lines? For example, I can fill in the generations to the common ancestor for my known third cousin, but I already do that in my personal genealogy file. Would this information help somebody else when they look at my FTDNA tree?

Yes. We can't get back in time to infinity in our family tree search. Maybe one of your ancestors that is furthest back in time has a known sibling even though the parents aren't known. If you find that sibling as someone's ancestor in another tree, you'll know that your common ancestors are the unknown parents of those two siblings. If all trees only contained pure pedigree you wouldn't get a match, no person would be in common.

[Tenn4ever]

What a cumbersome tool.

This tool is terrible. I've been into research for over forty years and have never seen such a mess.

I need to see in one glance where the tree is going. I was so looking forward to this tool. It is cumbersome. and very unuseful.

[Ann Turner]

Yes. We can't get back in time to infinity in our family tree search. Maybe one of your ancestors that is furthest back in time has a known sibling even though the parents aren't known. If you find that sibling as someone's ancestor in another tree, you'll know that your common ancestors are the unknown parents of those two siblings. If all trees only contained pure pedigree you wouldn't get a match, no person would be in common.

My question is whether a person looking at my tree here at FTDNA would be able to find the collateral line. I filled in the line of descent for a second cousin who has tested here and dragged her name from the match list on to her icon. Then I logged in as my sister and looked at my tree. It doesn't show any of the collateral line. Is this by design? If so, I can more easily keep track of who's who in my Family Tree Maker file.

[T E Peterman]

Elise told me that the tree isn't collaborative yet. Would be nice. I don't intend to add any data to any of the 50 trees that I represent until entering the data once will affect all of the trees. Re-inventing the wheel 50 times over is borderline pointless.

Timothy Peterman

[Germanica]

It's better than the previous tree viewer. But I still have some complaints.

1. The default view is sized so you can really only see two people at a time. Scrolling around the page is annoying and it's difficult to see generations and how they link.

2. Granted, you can zoom out but in order to do so far enough that you can actually get an overview of the tree, you lose the birth/death dates.

3. When zoomed out, the first names are bolded - wouldn't it make more sense for the surnames to be bolded?

[justsmith]

I just received an email from FTDNA announcing the new family tree. It says " Stunning Visuals, See up to 10 generations at once." I am using a large desktop monitor and the only way that I can see 10 generations at once is to zoom out so far that the print becomes completely unreadable. I would love to be able to see 10 generations on one page, but I can't.

[MoberlyDrake]

I never thought about it, but I have never viewed my own tree since I uploaded a couple of years ago, until I looked at it after this upgrade and noticed that most of my ancestors are private.

Why would I ever want to look at my own tree here???

I have a genealogy program. When I don't want to open it for a quick lookup, I go to my own website. But, supposing I had neither of those, I would choose Ancestry over this new tree any day!