New Tree Tool

[Dixieau]

++1 to the Pedigree view.

I have to shrink the tree down to boxes with names to navigate on my laptop and when I do the given names are bolded and dominant, is there a way of changing this so the the SURNAME is the dominant name? (See attached).

Also, I am getting "possible matches" of people that I can't find in my matches! Anybody else having this issue?

[AngeliaR]

But, what will it *DO*?.... How will this new tree help?

@grahcom

I'm really not as concerned about whether it will merge trees as I am about what this new "feature" to drag and drop picture/profiles into my tree will do. If it has no value other than to make a pretty tree, I probably won't use it. If there is a real function that helps in my search, either now, or in future plans, that would be good to know. I would love to have some form of segment matching that ties into my tree, but no one has said where this is going.

So far, the only "function" I have seen is to send out an email to the profile "matched" and placed on my tree without me knowing or having the ability to review, edit or cancel the sending. Well, that and once I have dropped a profile into my tree, I am stuck with the data that was input on the matches end, such as different naming conventions etc... I use maiden names, some use married.

It may be more beneficial to me to continue to "grow" my tree via external means and just load an updated tree toFTDNA once and a while. Because I still have a lot of gaps I am working on, my tree is not static and it tends to grow fairly rapidly when discoveries are made. The reality is that my tree on FTDNA is not going to replace my "real" working tree. If there is no actual or planned mechanism (new since last upload) for updates and growth, which is what we are all working toward, what's the point? What will this new tree on FTDNA do better to support my research and justify my time in using the match feature?

Because I manage several family accounts and advise many others, streamlining and efficiencies have to factor in on whether I use and recommend the use of a tool. There has to be a REASON or benefit to be derived. I haven't seen a clear answer about how the linkage is supposed to help our underlying research and quest for family.

Another poster pointed out an important distinction that may have been missed during the roll out. We're mucking about in the details of this new tree, but perhaps instead of a program, the focus should have been on a GEDCOM viewer/interface. Valuable resources are going into the development and support of this tree, when perhaps customers would be better served by tools that help us leverage our dna data. http://forums.familytreedna.com/showthread.php?t=35794

It all goes back to the questions of 1. Just what is the core business? and 2. What do the customers want/need/expect from it?

[Ann Turner]

AngeliaR -- Good question about "what will it do?" I thought of a theoretical answer, but it would take exceedingly complicated programming to implement.

Suppose I've taken the trouble to fill in the collateral lines that link my second cousin to me. I use the drag-and-drop method to move her from my match list to my tree. FTDNA now knows exactly how we are related: our great-grandparents are X and Y. Along comes someone else who matches both me and my cousin on the same segment(s). FTDNA could then report that the connection must be through the ancestors of X or Y. Not a simple thing to do!

I don't know what the programmers had in mind for this function. If it's just a way for us to keep track of known connections within our own files, I'd rather do that in my genealogy program.

This ties in to one of my early questions -- is it worthwhile filling in collateral lines?

[justagen23]

Shrink screen and given name is BOLD????

Dixieau wrote: "I have to shrink the tree down to boxes with names to navigate on my laptop and when I do the given names are bolded and dominant, is there a way of changing this so the the SURNAME is the dominant name?"

I noticed this immediately and unfortunately this "feature" speaks volumes as to the input of any kind of genealogical oriented thought into the new Family Trees. What family history enthusiast -- who has done even just one hour of research -- looks for related GIVEN (first) names when they are trying to find ancestral connections.

So many other issues...like the ease of hovering over names/dates/LOCATIONS that FT DNA used to provide that actually set it apart, that is now gone, replaced by a lot of clicks and moving of cursor over a vast waste of screen space.

Trying to stay open minded...but increasingly wary of this direction.

[John McCoy]

After quite a bit of hunting around, I eventually found the small notation that GEDCOMs have been replaced by Family Tree. However, when I click on Family Tree, I get only a BLANK SCREEN instead of the extensive pedigree from my previously uploaded and functional GEDCOM, even though the surnames in my profile remain populated from what was in that old GEDCOM.

What's the trick to displaying my own Family Tree? How do I know if the information is still there or not?

Also, I don't see any indication of how I would go about replacing this (non-displaying) information. Where are the instructions hidden?

So far, this improvement is worse than useless for me.

[MMaddi]

After quite a bit of hunting around, I eventually found the small notation that GEDCOMs have been replaced by Family Tree. However, when I click on Family Tree, I get only a BLANK SCREEN instead of the extensive pedigree from my previously uploaded and functional GEDCOM, even though the surnames in my profile remain populated from what was in that old GEDCOM.

What's the trick to displaying my own Family Tree? How do I know if the information is still there or not?

Also, I don't see any indication of how I would go about replacing this (non-displaying) information. Where are the instructions hidden?

So far, this improvement is worse than useless for me.

I participated in the webinar on the new tree features on Tuesday. I have had my GEDCOM posted to my FTDNA account for a long time. As the webinar proceeded, I was using the new family tree which used my GEDCOM to follow along.

So, there was no problem for me. My pre-existing GEDCOM's information had been transferred into FTDNA's new tree format and I could use it. I just checked now to see if that's still the case. It is.

One thought just occured to me. Where are you clicking to access your family tree information? If you're clicking anywhere else, try clicking on the icon labeled "Family Tree" with a red "New" flag on it. It's on your account home page. Maybe that will solve your problem

If it doesn't solve your problem, it seems that there's a glitch with your account using your GEDCOM information in the new tree format. You should contact customer support to give them your kit number and report the problem.

[jbarry6899]

Dixieau wrote: "I have to shrink the tree down to boxes with names to navigate on my laptop and when I do the given names are bolded and dominant, is there a way of changing this so the the SURNAME is the dominant name?"

I noticed this immediately and unfortunately this "feature" speaks volumes as to the input of any kind of genealogical oriented thought into the new Family Trees. What family history enthusiast -- who has done even just one hour of research -- looks for related GIVEN (first) names when they are trying to find ancestral connections.

So many other issues...like the ease of hovering over names/dates/LOCATIONS that FT DNA used to provide that actually set it apart, that is now gone, replaced by a lot of clicks and moving of cursor over a vast waste of screen space.

Trying to stay open minded...but increasingly wary of this direction.

How about having a button to select "See simplified view" and " See full view" like on the match lists. That way we could choose a simple pedigree display or the more elaborate setup depending on what we wanted to do with our matches.

Jim

[John McCoy]

As I said, I click on the Family Tree NEW icon, I get a new screen. There are a few links at the top of the page -- Matches, a + sign, an upgrade icon, navigational links back to the rest of the Family Finder etc., but the bulk of the screen is BLANK, no scroll bars, and there is no indication that that page is actually loading (no "spinning" icon). Leaving the page as it is for a long time does not seem to result in any change, it seems to be stuck in this state.

Further supporting the idea that the page is stuck, I notice that the tools icon in the upper right corner remains inactive, although it does change color on MouseOver.

I gather this is not what other people see?

I also tried to display the pedigree of a match. Same thing happened, seemingly identical blank screen, except that the word Matches and the + sign are not there.

This behavior was in IE 11 under Windows 7. On a hunch I tried Chrome, and saw a completely different screen, with 2 ancestors.

Now that I see it, I declare it almost useless. Huge waste of my time in scrolling all over creation to follow the lines on the chart to locate the next ancestor, and exceedingly cumbersome process to show the dates and places. I will avoid using this "tool" as much as possible, in preference to the easy and far more productive GEDCOM tools on GEDmatch.com (if and when they are all restored after the recent server migration). In particular, the GEDmatch pedigree display manages to get all the necessary information on a screen that is easy to use AND CAPTURE for easy printing if necessary.

A customer survey is needed right away, to find out what people are doing with this thing, how they are reacting to it, whether it has caused existing customers who never bothered to upload a GEDCOM to contribute usable data, who hates it and why, who likes it and why, etc.

[justagen23]

Suggested matches y, not FF

Also, I am getting "possible matches" of people that I can't find in my matches! Anybody else having this issue?

I noticed the hints are trying to connect yDNA matches to a FF test. These yDNA matches are on Gedmatch and we see very little DNA in common -- even at very low cM threshold levels. So, why would these people be suggested "matches" in FT DNA FF (which has higher thresholds?) Just because the name is somewhat similar? If so, this is very alarming situation.

[jkuehn8]

Family Tree Metrics request

Just posting this here to cover my bases

That leads me into a feature request that should be pretty simple to implement.

A couple of metrics/stats about the tree,
1.The total number of nodes/individuals in the current family view tree.
2 the number of nodes/individuals in the direct line ancestry view tree.

I guess I could count the dots in the tree drop down.

[TMontes]

New Tree tool-what a mess....

I manage over 27 FTDNA kits.
This new tree issue is a MESS for me....the icons, no location at a glance, just an absolute headache. I would like to just go back to what it was....simpler. I am not a computer whiz and I spent a lot of time this weekend trying to do anything with this new system. It is worthless for me at this point. I spend hours almost every day on genealogy for my own project and now this tree system has created a real mess. PLEASE no icons, hovering for location IS VERY IMPORTANT, and simple trees as the older ones were.....

[T E Peterman]

I manage over 50 kits & must echo what TMontes said. Now... if the trees were all linked, so that if I change one, it would change all of the others, this could be workable. But as it is, I have more important things to do with my time.

Timothy Peterman

[dove6338]

Gave it a change but it is not working for me!

I agree with Montes and Peterman. I manage 12 DNA accounts. Give me back the old pedigree display. It was clumsy but better than what is displayed now. I was excited about the upgrade and like the concept but HATE the presentation. The new tree presentation is much clumsier and makes it much harder and time consuming to work matches. It takes WAY TOO MUCH time clicking and dragging the screen just to view information. It would be much better if trees could be presented like the TEXT pedigree used on RootsWeb--then if I find a name that I think is a match I could click on the name and see family info.

[WCoaster]

Surname lists

I continue to find the new Ancestry view awkward and would prefer something simpler.I just don't have the time or patience to maneuver my way through this thing. ..which brings me to the issue of surname lists. Given the difficulty of using Ancestry view, I know I’ll be relying on surname lists to narrow things down to just a few likely names and (sometimes) places.

Since collateral relatives can now be displayed in Family view, will their surnames be picked up and included in the surname list? I really hope NOT. Please find a way to prevent this and save us all a lot of frustration.

[McBlzr]

New to the message boards here and only been a FTDNA member for about 1 year. But, I have been using Ancestry & RootsWeb for 15 years. Their format does seem to work well and be easier to use.