World Family Tree How-To: Preparing your Family Tree

Before contributing to the World Family Tree Project, we recommend that you prepare your family tree in the following four ways:

1. Review the contents of your family tree for confidential information.

If there is any information that you want to keep confidential, make a copy of your family tree, delete the information that you don't want to share with others, and then contribute the new, edited version of your family tree to the World Family Tree.

The World Family Tree will not include any information about living individuals, except for their names, genders, and links to others in your family tree, so you don't have to delete information about all living individuals. However, if you suspect that someone in your family would not want to be included in the World Family Tree, we recommend that you replace his or her name with "Private" and remove all information about the individual.

2. Check for possible errors in your family tree.

Although we understand that you can't always avoid errors, we do encourage you to avoid contributing misleading or confusing information.

If you own Family Tree Maker for Windows version 3.0 or later, you can check for potential errors by printing a Data Errors Report. To find out how to run a Data Errors Report, refer to your Family Tree Maker for Windows version 3.0 manual or DOS version 4.0 supplement.

3. Cite as many of your information sources as possible.

The more details you provide about where you obtained your information, the more valuable your family tree will be to others. They will be able to go to the original records for further research if necessary.

If you are uncertain how to document your sources, see Documentation of Sources, check the genealogy books at your local library, or ask a local genealogical society for information. Family Tree Maker provides special Source fields where you can enter this type of information. You can also record sources in Family Tree Maker's Notes and Facts dialogs. For more information about recording sources in Family Tree Maker, look under "Sources" in your Family Tree Maker manual's index.

4. Make sure that the names in your family tree conform as much as possible to the World Family Tree name standards.

You are not required to follow these rules in order for your family tree to be included in the World Family Tree although non-standard names may be excluded from the Index. Since this Index is the easiest way to locate your ancestors in the World Family Tree, we recommend that you follow the guidelines below.

• Enter the name in the following format: First Middle Last. We prefer that you not write any of the name completely in capital letters. For example, you should enter "Louisa May Alcott," not "Louisa May ALCOTT" or "Alcott, Louisa May."
  
  
• When entering information in the name fields, do not use quotation marks, parentheses, brackets, commas (except to set off "Junior" or "Senior" from the name), periods (except after an initial), question marks (except within a name to indicate uncertainty about a character in the name), exclamation marks, asterisks, slashes, backslashes, greater than signs, less than signs, or other punctuation. (Note: it is OK to use \Last\ to set off the last name.)
  
  
• Enter nicknames in the "aka" field in the Lineage dialog box. If you are not using Family Tree Maker, check your program's manual to see where you should enter nicknames.
  
  
• Enter comments about a person in the Notes or Facts dialog box, rather than in the name field. If you are not using Family Tree Maker, check your program's manual to see where you should enter comments.
  
  
• Enter titles (such as Dr., Col., Rev., etc.) in the "Title" field in the Lineage dialog box, rather than in the name field. If you are not using Family Tree Maker, check your program's manual to see where you should enter titles.
  
  
• Do not use numbers in a person's name, except for Roman numerals or ordinal numbers. For example, "John Smith III" and "John Smith, 3rd" are acceptable, but "John Smith 3" is not.