How to plot a chart containing all relatives

[ckrummel 0]

One feature that I sorely need for my current ancestry research is to plot a chart not only containing direct relationships (child - parents - grandparents and so on) but also siblings including their relatives, children and other relatives if applicable.

 

Basically, I'm looking for a chart that shows every person in my project at a glance regardless the relationship. I know this can be a massive chart (depending on the level of complexity) but for research and collaboration purposes it would be greatly beneficial.

 

Does TMG Gold v6 offer this feature? If so, can anyone give me advise as to how to do this?

 

Much appreciated.

 

Kind regards,

Christian

[Roy_Delos_Reyes 0]

One quick and easy way is to find each end-of-line ancestore and make each one a child of one set of fictional parents, generate a descendants chart of either of the fictional parents and then remove the fictional parents from the chart.

 

Note that this will place all end of line ancestors on the same line and be a bit deceiving as to generational placement but it will get everyone .

[loribragg 0]

One quick and easy way is to find each end-of-line ancestore and make each one a child of one set of fictional parents, generate a descendants chart of either of the fictional parents and then remove the fictional parents from the chart.

 

Note that this will place all end of line ancestors on the same line and be a bit deceiving as to generational placement but it will get everyone .

 

 

What a good idea! I wish I'd thought of it! I made a similar chart using cut and paste of several charts for a friend's wedding. It was over 10 feet wide but it was the hit of the wedding as the large family could finally see how they were all related! It's tricky also as some people had to be removed -black sheep and some had to be artificially added - adopted/significant others/etc.

 

Also, I added a tag called 'Relationship' which I basically copied from the >Relation note in advanced preferences and added that tag to the chart. It would have been nice to have that as an automatic tag.

 

As complicated as a chart like this can be - and it really does take some maneuvering to get it to fit to 10 feet! - it is far less confusing than trying to verbally explain relationships or even use separate charts.

 

Lori Bragg

[RGC 0]

One quick and easy way is to find each end-of-line ancestore and make each one a child of one set of fictional parents, generate a descendants chart of either of the fictional parents and then remove the fictional parents from the chart.

 

Note that this will place all end of line ancestors on the same line and be a bit deceiving as to generational placement but it will get everyone .

 

I use a flag which I set up to include all end-of-line males. The criteria is that neither the mother nor father of a male exists, and the name is not an unknown. This gives me a drop for each surname, and only omits those females who are mothers of an end-line male's mother (e.g. a grandmother) where neither father is known. Generally these are the people one hardly ever finds anyway. Of course one could use all end-of-line people if they wish.

 

Then, of course, I do a descendant report where the criteria is persons with the flag set.

 

This technique avoids the need to establish an imaginary super-person.

 

Dick

[TonyC 0]

<snip>

Then, of course, I do a descendant report where the criteria is persons with the flag set.

 

This technique avoids the need to establish an imaginary super-person.

 

Dick</snip>

 

Dick

 

I assume you use one of the "Indented" charts.

If you use the "Box" chart, please tell me how, as I do not get the option of using that kind of filter.

 

Tony

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Dick

 

I assume you use one of the "Indented" charts.

If you use the "Box" chart, please tell me how, as I do not get the option of using that kind of filter.

 

Tony

 

In the VCF box charts, except for Fan, there is a check box below the name of the focus person for 'Only include people with this flag value' and a drop down list of flags. However, you still have to select a single focus person for the chart so I'm not sure how Dick is doing this.

 

Virginia

[jim.orrell 0]

One feature that I sorely need for my current ancestry research is to plot a chart not only containing direct relationships (child - parents - grandparents and so on) but also siblings including their relatives, children and other relatives if applicable.

 

Basically, I'm looking for a chart that shows every person in my project at a glance regardless the relationship. I know this can be a massive chart (depending on the level of complexity) but for research and collaboration purposes it would be greatly beneficial.

 

I've wrestled with this ever since I started genealogy and TMG. My answers:

 

1. Within TMG. as others have mentioned find all your "root people" (I created a ROOT tag to keep track of different branches). Then produce a chart (relevant depth) for each root person. Then cut/paste in VCF (make your page bigger). Very messy. I must try the "dummy parent", however this would not work if that person already has a parent and you only want to include part of their tree.

 

2. Create a GEDCOM, relevant lines of descent (collect in focus group) and parts (e.g. don't export all place parts if not needed). Import this to FTM (or GENBOX) and use the "All in one" tree. Also messy. I keep a master "empty" FTM dataset with my tree settings, fonts, items to include etc, then import the GEDCOM. I find this great to create an all in one tree of all my data, output to 1 page PDF and mail to others for PDF perusal (just magnify in adobe), its very efficient on space and esaily searchable.

 

As far as I can see, FTM and GENBOX are the only products to do an all-in-one tree.

 

Whilst FTM is nowhere as good a database as TMG, it also does a far far superior desendant chart which is efficient on paper, includes spouses, and spouses parents, much more useful as a working document. GENBOX seems very powerful and much "slicker" than TMG and I'm sure it will make strong competition if TMG neglect their reporting options.

 

3. Complain to whollygenes at the lack of this facility, and ask for an update. They should be able to do an "All in one" tree for say the focus group.

[Helmut Leininger 0]

3. Complain to whollygenes at the lack of this facility, and ask for an update. They should be able to do an "All in one" tree for say the focus group.

 

Hi,

 

I did already put this in a wishlist (I think twice) but did not get any reaction.

 

Here the last one: http://www.whollygenes.com/forums201/index...ic=7484&hl=

 

Regards

Helmut

[elevator 0]

Although I have not tried it myself maybe the following would work:

 

1. Make a backup of your project. (!!!)

2. Make a new Person (called RootPerson or something similar).

3. Add all your end-of-line ancestors as children of this person (even though they may not be related in real life)

4. Make a descendant chart with RootPerson as the focus person

5. Edit the resulting chart to remove the RootPerson person and cut all descendant ties to this person

 

Lot of work, but it seems to me, maybe a little less work than trying to copy and paste large end-of-line descendant branches into VCF?

 

Again, I have not tried this yet, so I may be completely and totally off with this.

 

Ken.

 

Just as a side note:

I used Sierra Generations many years ago (yuck), and that program could make a chart of the entire project, but with some nasty caveats: I for example have one ancestor, whose 4 children I am all a direct descendant of. And 20-30 other's where two siblings are both direct ascendants to me. So naturally in such a chart there would be a vast number of duplicate boxes unless an incredibly smart system is derived where the program detects such colliding branches and join them up where necessary. Sierra Generations made a total mess out of my complete tree, and I found myself never wanting to use that particular charting function again.

 

So in a way I can understand why WhollyGenes have been reluctant to discuss such a charting feature: it must be a nightmare to design. But if they can get it to work; it would be "totally awesome".

 

Ken.

[RGC 0]

Dick

 

I assume you use one of the "Indented" charts.

If you use the "Box" chart, please tell me how, as I do not get the option of using that kind of filter.

 

Tony

 

Sorry, I goofed. I thought you were talking about a journal report. Missed the "chart".....

 

Dick

[Virginia Blakelock 0]

Although I have not tried it myself maybe the following would work:

 

1. Make a backup of your project. (!!!)

2. Make a new Person (called RootPerson or something similar).

3. Add all your end-of-line ancestors as children of this person (even though they may not be related in real life)

4. Make a descendant chart with RootPerson as the focus person

5. Edit the resulting chart to remove the RootPerson person and cut all descendant ties to this person

 

Lot of work, but it seems to me, maybe a little less work than trying to copy and paste large end-of-line descendant branches into VCF?

 

Again, I have not tried this yet, so I may be completely and totally off with this.

 

Ken.

 

This is pretty much what Roy described in Post #2 above. It sounds like a great way to do it.

 

Virginia

[loribragg 0]

Whilst FTM is nowhere as good a database as TMG, it also does a far far superior desendant chart which is efficient on paper, includes spouses, and spouses parents, much more useful as a working document. GENBOX seems very powerful and much "slicker" than TMG and I'm sure it will make strong competition if TMG neglect their reporting options.

 

3. Complain to whollygenes at the lack of this facility, and ask for an update. They should be able to do an "All in one" tree for say the focus group.

 

I tried Genbox for my tree (see above post) but honestly it was a mess. I could not get anything remotely useful. I haven't used FTM in years; I think I grew past their database capability and they lagged on many important areas, such as source data.

 

I think several people have asked for the Everyone chart over time, so if they can do it I'm sure they will. Probably with a caveat that you may have a mess at the end. Other than this report, I think their reporting options are far more flexible than most software.

 

Lori Bragg

[elevator 0]

Oops, looks like I missed Roy's post. If it works it's great!

 

This is pretty much what Roy described in Post #2 above. It sounds like a great way to do it.

 

Virginia

[ckrummel 0]

One quick and easy way is to find each end-of-line ancestore and make each one a child of one set of fictional parents, generate a descendants chart of either of the fictional parents and then remove the fictional parents from the chart.

 

Note that this will place all end of line ancestors on the same line and be a bit deceiving as to generational placement but it will get everyone .

 

Hi Roy_Delos_Reyes,

 

First of all, thank you very much for such a brilliant idea.

I followed your advise straight away and created a set of dummy parents. Then I've set up parent-child relationship with all end of line ancestors. While the chart seems to contain nearly everybody in my project, I noticed a huge amount of duplication.

 

Just to be clear on the definition of 'end of line ancestor'. I've picked the last i.e. oldest person in each branch and made it a child of the dummy parents i.e. I linked both, 'Dummy Father' and 'Dummy Mother'.

 

I presume, the reason for the duplication of people on the chart is that each person can show up as a spouse in which case this person's siblings are not shown. However, the same person appears again as a child in which case all its siblings are shown. I'm not sure whether I've done the linking correctly or if it's probably the limitations of this work around. Your advise would be greatly appreciated.

 

I can only re-emphasise on my previous post, a properly designed 'all-in-one' feature would be most desirable.

On 19/07/2007 I wrote to support@whollygenes.com asking for this particular feature. Please see the response from WhollyGenes below.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello Christian,

We do not have an "all in one" chart, it is currently on our wishlist.

It is up to the developers as to if and when a wishlist item is implemented.

The developers never let us know before hand.

Glad to be of service, Dorothy Turner, Tech Support

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I suppose knocking on their door again - ideally from various people - would probably be most impactful what feature dev prioritisation is concerned. It would be great if you could drop them a line, too.

 

Best regards,

Christian

[Roy_Delos_Reyes 0]

Oops, looks like I missed Roy's post. If it works it's great!

 

Duplication is one of the drawbacks of an all in one chart if there were any intermarriages between descendants of end of line ancestors. That is one reason I've never cared much for them; that and they get so big that they become nearly unreadable- if you can find a space big enough to display it to begin with. I much perfer a descendants narrative where you can eliminate the duplications or at least have them with just a cross-reference.

 

I find it much easier to work with smaller charts and use the relationship calculator to find relationships between individuals.

[ckrummel 0]

Hi Roy_Delos_Reyes,

 

Thanks again for your invaluable hint outlining how to plot an 'All-in-one' Chart in TMG6.

 

Just to summarise steps I've taken to prepare a comprehensive end-to-end walk through the 'all-in-one' chart:

- Create an unrelated set of dummy parents (1 Dummy Father, 2 Dummy Mother)

- Add all your end-of-line ancestors as children of this set of dummy parents

- Create a descendant chart for the Dummy Father as the focus person

- Edit the resulting chart to remove the Dummy parents

- Draw bold lines (in the chart tool) to segregate one 'family stream' from another i.e. "Child - Mother - Grandmother and ancestors father's side" vs "... and ancestors mother's side"

- Consolidate/merge any unnecessary stand-alone trees to reduce the span (My family tree contains approx 350 people and even after this step the chart is still 17 A3 pages wide!)

- Label every 'stream' with the person(s) you want to discuss it with so you can see at a glance whom to talk to about which part of this massive chart

- Stitch pages together using adhesive tape

- Put the chart up on a wall using Blu Tack

I think this chart serves the purpose of going through end-to-end perfectly. But I have to admit, the chart is huge and it'll take hours to walk people through.

However, I'm very disappointed that TMG hasn't released a proper feature creating an 'all-in-one' chart yet. To me - and I hope to many others - that's one of the key requirements when reviewing progress to date with family members - especially at an early stage of your research.

 

Once again, I would like to encourage you to send a request to support@whollygenes.com asking for this particular feature. As per my previous response, developers put it on a 'wish list' but users could be months/years away from taking advantage of this hugely beneficial feature. (see one of my previous posts for further detail)

 

Best regards,

Christian