Create your genealogy (M)

Create your genealogy, usually starting by drawing a tree with yourself in the center, adding the information of your birth, and adding your parents from a family album, followed by adding your grandparents.

We will show you how simple it is to do it with Ancestris, to create the first individual, his immediate ancestors and his close family, thus having your first genealogical tree with one or two generations.

Create the first individual

You have seen, during the guided tour, the Bourbon genealogy, bourbon.ged file. It is an example supplied with Ancestris. Let's close it and create a new one. This is just to save space, we could as well leave it open. To close bourbon.ged, click on the red cross on the tools bar.

And now, let's create your own genealogy.

From the Welcome page, click the big button "Create a genealogy" or click on the menu bar.

The creation wizard will start. Follow the steps until a dynamic tree appears with right in the center of it !

Enter your name and your gender.

Enter the information regarding the author of the new genealogy, probably you.

Define the places format to use across the entire genealogy. Below is the standard format. If you don't know, click Next. It can be changed latter.

Else, use the available buttons to add, change or delete jurisdictions.

Enter a description for your new genealogy and click Finish.

Ancestris will then ask you where to save the file and the name of the Gedcom file that will be created.

And that's it. Ancestris will show you the beginning of the genealogy with the dynamic tree with you as root.

To the right, Cygnus editor is also opened with you in it.

On Cygnus editor, complete the information, e.g. your birth date and place.

Add a photo by clicking in the respective area.

Add other names and surnames, if you haven't done so before.

When finished, click OK that will appear at the bottom right when you change your data, to save the changes.

Develop good habits

You will soon generating hundreds of cards: individuals, families, etc.

It is advisable that, from the beginning, a uniform and harmonised method of writing be adopted for recurring words, such as :

Also, if you are adding already a birth certificate, document it as fully as possible:

Ancestris allows it.

Create the immediate ancestors

Create people related to you can be done either from the dynamic tree or the Cygnus editor.

From the tree, right click the desired individual. This is a more visual method. Here is an example:

 

From Cygnus, we use the buttons for new parents. This a more faster method. The "Father" button is at the top left on the Cygnus editor.

In either case you get two more boxes on the tree, above your own, your parents. Your father is created, but only a placeholder is visible for your mother, her entity is not yet created.

Ancestris default settings create only one parent at a time. It could be interesting to try and create both. To do so, go to preferences, menu Options / Preferences / Editing, or click on    at the top right of the main window.

Check the option Automatically create both spouses during the creation of a link Parent - Child.

On the father's box, the surname is already entered.

On the Cygnus editor, enter your father's information (name, date and place of birth, etc.). Click OK once done, to save the data.

To create the mother, whether you right click the individual and choose 'Add a spouse' or click the corresponding button on the Cygnus editor, or you right click your own box and just add your mother.

Create the close relatives

And next, create your brothers, sisters, children, etc.

If you make a mistake, it is always possible to correct the information directly or simply delete the new individual by clicking on 'Delete this individual' button on the tools bar and start over.

Once you have create all the individuals of your new family, just click on your box to return to yourself.

Add information about your family

Let's suppose you want to enter your parents marriage date.

Click on the family box, the one between yours and your parents's. It is box number F00001 on the image below.

Cygnus positions itself on your father, and the new family on your mother.

From there, click on "Marriage" on the Cygnus editor. The marriage event is created. Indicate the type of marriage (for example : Religious), enter the date and place, if known.

Click OK and that's it. Here is the result:

Let's proceed and generate the Sosa numbering for this 3 people family.

This is the current tree:

Right click on your box and choose "Manage Sosa / d'Aboville numbering", a window will open. Just click OK and the Sosa numbering will be created for you: 1 for you, 2 for your father and 3 for your mother. G1 and G2 codes are the generation number.

You should now have something similar to the tree below, where the Sosa numbering is visible on every box at the top right corner, above the identification numbers.

This first tree is now finished. Save it clicking    on the tools bar.

You can now close your genealogy by clicking the red cross on the tools bar.

If you haven't saved your data before, a window will popup and ask you to do so now.

We will then see the Welcome page again, since it is now the only one opened.

From there, your genealogy will show on the My Ancestris tab, and at the top left on the section "Last opened genealogies".

It is here that you will probably gain the habit of opening your genealogy.

 

You are now ready to take advantage of all the other features of Ancestris. The other chapters of this book will help you do so.

We wish you all the best.