Related Articles | Index
MacFamilyTree:
How Do I (Re-) Connect Relatives?
Lost Connections
This is a step-by-step guide about adding already existing, yet isolated, single persons to a family. Whenever a person in your family tree seems to be unrelated to any of his or her ancestors, siblings or kids, this little tutorial will help you bring them all together.
What you will learn, not only works for single individuals with absolutely no connections at all: if you need to connect an entire branch, e.g. from a GEDCOM import, to your existing family tree, you simply have to identify the one related person and proceed similarly to establish the one missing link.
To keep it simple we will first create a completely new family from unconnected, solitary individuals: you will learn how to connect partners and how to add children to their parents. However, in another case, you could also start from an existing family where there's only one person missing. Or from any person's editor to e.g. add parents or a partner.
Create A New Family With Persons From The Database
Step 1 — Select The »Target«
In this example, we start with an empty family, so you have to create a new family from scratch: click the »+« (plus) button underneath the »Families« list, and a new family will be created. Depending on how you configured MacFamilyTree, it either opens in »Edit Mode« immediately, or you must double-click the row »No Man, No Woman, No Children« in the list:
Step 2 — Choose The Person(s) To Add
Instead of using the »+« buttons to add persons, you will need to use the »Magnifying Glass« button to select the already existing parents or children.
Whenever you click on a »Magnifying Glass« button, the »Person Chooser«, a small floating window, pops up with a list from which you can pick the person for the entry you are working on (»Man«, »Woman«, »Child«):
Step 3 — Complete The Family
Once you have selected the father (»Man«), mother (»Woman«) and their children, all those persons form a family with the appropriate relations in the database. All relations already existing for any of those persons will also be preserved accurately.
Growing An Existing Family
Step 1 — Select The »Target «Family
Switch MacFamilyTree's main view to the editor for the family, you want to add a single individual or branch of family members to.
Step 2 — adding Ancestors…
If you want to add an ancestor to a parent who is present in the database with his or her partner and possibly with their children, please click on the pink and blue »Silhouettes« button in the bottom-right corner of that parent's pane in their Family Editor.
A small requester opens, warning that you are about to create a new, empty family with the parent you started out from as a child. Click »Create«, and the view will switch to another Family Editor with all the person's siblings and him- or herself as children.
In the Family Editor, look for the two empty »Man« and »Woman« panes for the parents. Single-Click the »Magnifying Glass« button below the pane you want to add the new person to as a parent. The Person Chooser opens. Please select the person to add from the list.
… or Descendants?
If you are attempting to add a descendant to a family, best is to search the family of which that person is a child. Then, click on the »Magnifying Glass« below the »Children« list and choose the individual person to add from the Person Chooser.
Re-Connecting (To) A Loved One
Imagine, you have accidentally removed one partner from a family by clicking the »–« (minus) button, either below one of the parents' panes or below the list of children.
To re-establish the lost link, you do not need to create the entire family anew. Just look up the partner or child who went missing using the same »Magnifying Glass« we described before.
The Family Editor — An Overview
Related Articles | Index
|