Add, edit or delete a fact in Family Tree Maker

Let’s face it… Genealogy is not just about names and relationships. It is about telling the story of a person’s life. Using facts for events that occurred is the way to help others understand more about the history of your family.

This article discusses the following:

• Commonly used facts
• Shared facts
• Adding a fact
• Adding alternate facts
• Choosing a preferred fact
• Copy and paste a fact (Family Tree Maker 2012-2014)
• Editing a fact
• Deleting a fact
• Making a fact private

Commonly used facts

In addition to birth, marriage and death facts, here are some facts you will probably encounter as you record your family history.

• Address – Addresses can be useful for recording the contact information of living relatives or for recording the area where an ancestor was known to have lived.
• Also Known As (AKA) – If an individual was known by a nickname or AKA rather than their given name, you may wish to record this in your file to distinguish them from other people in your tree.
• Cause of Death – Knowing your family’s health history may help you prevent and treat illnesses that run in your lineage. You can record an individual’s cause of death or enter any details you feel are important about the individual’s medical history.
• Christening – Birth records are not always available for people in your tree’ therefore, christening records become useful because they may be the earliest available info you can find for someone.
• Emigration/Immigration – Emigration and immigration records are the first step in finding your ancestors in their homeland. Use these facts to record dates, ports of departure and arrival or even ship names.
• Physical Description – Although not necessarily beneficial to your research, a physical description of a person can be a fascinating addition to your family’s history.
• Title – If an individual has a title, such as Captain, as part of their name, you’ll want to record this information in order to distinguish them from other in your file.

Shared facts

Some facts you can enter into your tree are shared with another individual. These will be marked as Shared on the fact selection dialog when adding a new fact to a person. On your list of facts in the Person tab, shared facts will be listed in their own section with the name of the person who they are shared with.

Most of the pre-existing facts you’ll find within Family Tree Maker will be related to marriage or divorce type events. However, when creating a new, custom fact, you have the option of marking it as shared which can be tied to another individual as well.

Adding a fact

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button. The information you’ve already entered for the individual will show in the Individual and Shared Facts section.

   

3. To add a fact press F4 on your keyboard, Right-click in the workspace and select Add Fact, or click the button in the toolbar and the Add Fact window will open.

   Note: Be advised that if you click the down-arrow next to the + sign, you will only get a list of your most commonly used facts. Be certain you’re clicking on the + sign itself if you want to have the option to add any type of fact.

   

4. Choose a fact from the list and click OK.

   

   Note: If the fact you want to use is not in the list (for example, Pac-Man high score), you can add it by clicking the New button in the Add Fact window. Family Tree Maker then adds the new fact to the list for future use.

5. Complete the Date, Place, and Description fields as necessary.

   

6. When you are finished entering your data press either Tab or Enter on your keyboard, or click another field in Family Tree Maker. This will cause your cursor to exit the field you were editing and automatically save the information to your file.

Adding alternate facts

As you’re recording details about an individual, you may discover that you have conflicting information about the same life event, such as two different birth dates. When you have multiple facts for the same event, one fact will be preferred and the other facts will be alternate.

Note: An alternate fact doesn’t have to contain conflicting information. For example, you may have several Address facts for a person, all of which are correct.

Choosing a preferred fact

If you do end up with multiple facts of the same type, you will have to choose one to be preferred. Typically, this is the fact that you believe to either be the most accurate/complete or the one that is more relevant (in the case of facts that are all correct). Once you mark a fact as preferred, it will be the default fact displayed in various views, charts and reports throughout the program. To set a preferred fact:

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button.

   

3. Right-click on the fact that you want to be the preferred fact and choose Set As Preferred from the drop-down list.

4. Note: If the fact is already the preferred fact the option to Set As Preferred will be grayed out.

   

5. The Preferred column in the Individual and Shared Facts section now shows the fact as preferred.

Copy and paste a fact – Family Tree Maker 2012-2014

With Family Tree Maker 2012-2014 you can copy a fact and paste it to anyone in your tree. This is useful when you have a fact (such as a residence) that may apply to more than one individual. To copy and paste a fact:

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button.

   

3. Right-click on the fact that you want to add to one or more other individuals and choose Copy.

Paste fact to immediate family members

1. To paste the fact to anyone in the immediate family for this person right-click on the fact again and choose Paste.
2. In the Paste fact window select any additional family members you want to add the fact to by checking the box to the left of their name. You can also select all family members by clicking on the Select all button at the bottom.

   Note: The individual that you copied the fact from will be listed in Bold. Be sure to uncheck this individual or you will create a duplicate a fact for them.

   

3. Click Ok to add this fact to your selections.

Paste fact to someone else

1. To paste a fact to anyone else in your tree press F2 on your keyboard or click on the Index of Individuals button at the top.

   

   Note: Be advised that if you click the down-arrow to the right to the folder you will only get a list of your most recently accessed people. Be certain to click on the folder if you want to have the full index to select from.

   

2. Select an individual in the index that you want to add the fact to and click Ok.
3. Right-click on their name fact and select Paste.
4. In the Paste fact window will be the name of the individual you selected and their immediate family members. You can select any additional individuals you want to add the fact to by checking the box to the left of their name. You can also select all family members by clicking on the Select all button at the bottom.

   Note: The individual that you copied the fact from will be listed in Bold. Be sure to uncheck this individual or you will create a duplicate a fact for them.

   

5. Click Ok to add this fact to your selections.

Editing a fact

Once facts have been entered, you can also edit them to change the information.

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button; then click the fact you want to edit.

   

3. In the editing panel to the right you will have several areas (such as Date, Place, Description, Notes, etc..) that can be edited. Click into the appropriate box and enter the necessary changes for your fact.

   

4. When you are finished, press either Tab or Enter on your keyboard, or click another field in Family Tree Maker. This will cause your cursor to exit the field you were editing and automatically save the information to your file.

Deleting a fact

If you wish to delete a fact that you have entered for an individual:

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button.

   

3. Right-click on the fact that you want to delete and select Delete Fact from the drop-down list.

Making a fact private

You may enter facts about an individual that you do not want to share with other family members or researchers. If you make a fact “private,” you can choose whether or not to include the information on reports or when you export the file. Setting a fact as private also prevents it from showing in your online tree when it is uploaded to Ancestry and prevents it from syncing to your online tree when you are using TreeSync in Family Tree Maker 2012-2014 or Family Tree Maker for Mac 2. There are several options available for setting a fact as private.

Setting a fact as private for one individual

1. Go to the Person tab on the People workspace for the appropriate individual.
2. Click the Facts button.

   

3. Right-click on the fact that you want to set as private and select Mark Private from the drop-down list.
4. You should now see the icon next to the fact in the list.

Setting a fact as private for all individuals

If you use a certain type of fact (like social security numbers or phone numbers) and decide that you would like to keep them private for the entire file you have two options available to use.

Set a fact as private by default – Family Tree Maker 2012-2014

This option is available in Family Tree Maker 2012-2014 and allows all data entered under a certain fact type to be private all the time. To use this option:

1. Click on the Edit menu in the upper left area of your program and select Manage Facts.

   

2. Scroll through and click on the fact you want to set as private by default in the list of facts and select the Properties button on the right.

   

3. Place a checkmark in the box for Private by default and click Ok.

   

   Note: This will only set this fact as private going forward from the time you make this change. If you have used this type of fact for any individual prior to making this change the data that has already been entered will remain as it was originally entered. If you want to privatize all entries for this fact within your file continue with the steps listed below.

   Set all facts of a specific type as private

   If you have used a certain type of fact in your file and decide that you want to set all entries for that fact as private please follow the steps listed below.

   1. Click on the Edit menu in the upper left area of your program and select Manage Facts.

      

   2. Scroll through and click on the fact you want to set as private by default in the list of facts and select the Data Options button on the right.

      

   3. A Backup prompt will open. We highly recommend backing up your file before continuing since any changes that are made in the Data Options screen cannot be undone. For information about backing up a file click here.

      

   4. Once you have completed your backup a data screen for your fact will open and display the names of individuals that you have used this fact on and the data that was entered. To set all instances of this fact as private place a check mark in the box at the bottom for Mark the selected fact as and set the drop down box to the right as Private and click Ok.