Family Tree Activity for Dummies :)

jonri
Tue, 25 Oct 2016 21:35:36 +0000

I heartily recommend tribalpages.com. It offers both free and paid subscription versions.The free one has ads, much like this site. You can set it up two ways. In one, the person who runs the site issues “invitations” to family members–you plug in the email address but the site generates the message. Each person makes his or her own code which must be used to access the system. In the other, you create a single password which anyone can use to log in. (I prefer the first because as administrator I can cut off abusive people if necessary without affecting anyone else.)

I have two sites on it–one free for one side of my family and one paid. The paid version lets you upload a lot more photos. (The free one does allow some photos.) Each entry about a person is limited to fewer words on the free site.

One of the major benefits of the site is that it autogenerate GEDCOMs. GEDCOM is sort of a universal genealogy data language. If you save your data in a GEDCOM, almost all genealogy programs can “read” it. Otherwise, if Great Aunt Leah kept a lot of info on Family Tree software, you aren’t going to be able to open it without buying the same brand of software.

There are templates for everything and they are simple to use. I’d recommend trying the free version first and seeing if people really get “into” it. If they do, you might upgrade to one of the paid versions. (They are several different price options with different features.) I don’t know if it will be the case this year, but there’s usually a sale right around Thanksgiving. If you join for free now, you may be able to get a paid site for less around Thanksgiving.

The default version is that your invitees can change data for their own families, but only the administrator can change all data. I don’t know if you can change that, since I prefer than anyway. Sometimes, you’ll find that your second cousin enters all the info about her mother and some other family member will come in and “correct” it–not realizing that the person who supplied it has personal knowledge.

You can also hide the data for living people if you want --less of a security risk.

That’s probably more than you wanted to know. Good luck.