Family history made easy

Frequently Asked Questions

F.A.Q: RootsMagic General Questions General questions and answers about RootsMagic genealogy software. 1. How can I delete an entire line from my database (or a group of people)? 2. Where do I go to find out how many people I have in my tree? 3. Can RootsMagic allow conflicting data, such as two birth dates? 4. When I drag and drop people from one database to another, they don't seem to show up in the new database. 5. Is there a quick way to get back to the home person when you are out 10 or 15 generations on your pedigree? 6. How can I rearrange an individual's facts? 7. How do I show natural and adoptive parents for a child? 8. How can I tell what version of RootsMagic I'm using so I'll know what patches I might need? 9. I have a child that was born out of wedlock. How do I handle this such that the father does not show up as a spouse to the mother of the child? 10. When I open windows, some windows don't fit in my screen. I have to keep moving them back and forth to see the edges of them. 11. I have a name in my file who is the father of another entry. How can I enter him as a father without duplicationg records? 12. When I merge two like names how do I remove the duplicate parents and/or spouses? 13. How do I merge duplicate sources? 14. How do I enter foreign letters, such as vowels with dots over them? 15. How can I back up my data to my CD burner? 16. Sometimes when I enter a source in the Source Wizard, the middle box (short version) has a comma at the beginning. 17. When I try to apply the patch, I get an error message. 18. I have a person with multiple spellings of their name. How does Rootsmagic handle multiple names? 19. When opening a data base one is given the choice about numbers to show connected with persons. What is the difference between Record Number and Reference Number (REFN)? 20. How do I add children of a second spouse? 21. Will RootsMagic work on a Mac or under Linux? 22. How can I quickly return to the root person? 23. How do I find a woman by her married name? 24. The person I am editing divorced his first wife, married another, divorced the second wife and remarried the first. Rootsmagic will not let me add the remarriage because it says they are already married. 25. How do I rearrange children and spouses? 26. How do I change the default root person? 1. How can I delete an entire line from my database (or a group of people)? - Top You can't mass delete people but there is a way to remove a group of people from your database. 1. Do "File > Export GEDCOM" from the RootsMagic menu. 2. Choose to export selected people. RootsMagic will bring up a list of people in the database. 3. Click the "Select people" button and choose "Everyone in the database" 4. Click the "Clear people" button and choose whatever option you want to clear the people you don't want in your database anymore (ancestors, descendants, etc). You should now have 'X's next to only the people you want to keep. 5. Click OK 6. Make sure to check the boxes to include all the different info (notes, sources, etc). 7. Click "Export" and save the GEDCOM file. 8. Now create a new database ("File > New") and import the GEDCOM into it ("File > Import GEDCOM"). 9. You now have a database minus the people you wanted deleted. - Updated: November 30, 2004 2. Where do I go to find out how many people I have in my tree? - Top Do "File > Properties" from the main menu and you will get a list of how many people, families, events, sources, etc. are in your database. - Updated: November 30, 2004 3. Can RootsMagic allow conflicting data, such as two birth dates? - Top Yes. You can enter two (or more) birth facts for a person by clicking the "Add a fact" button on their edit page and entering another birth fact. When you are entering a fact there is a checkbox in the lower left corner of the fact edit page called "Primary fact". If you are entering a conflicting birth or death fact, you can mark this checkbox in the copy of the fact that you want to show on the main screens and in printouts like the pedigree chart (where there is only room for one copy of the fact). - Updated: November 30, 2004 4. When I drag and drop people from one database to another, they don't seem to show up in the new database. - Top When you drag and drop people, it just copies them from one database to the other. It does not link them to the other family since it doesn't know how (or if) they should be linked. If the people you dragged into the new database contain duplicates of people already in the database, use the merge feature ("Tools > Merge" from the menu) to merge the duplicate records together which will link them up. If they aren't duplicates, use the "Add" commands ("Add > Parents", "Add > Spouse", or "Add > Children" from the menu), and then use the "Select existing person" option to link existing people to the new people you dragged into the database. - Updated: November 30, 2004 5. Is there a quick way to get back to the home person when you are out 10 or 15 generations on your pedigree? - Top You can do "Search > Go to root person" from the RootsMagic menu, or press Ctrl+Home. If you want to add a button on your toolbar to do this, right click on a toolbar button and click the "Customize" menu that appears. You can add a "Home" button to your toolbar. - Updated: April 28, 2004 6. How can I rearrange an individual's facts? - Top When you edit a fact, notice in the lower right corner is a field called "Sort date". This date determines how RootsMagic sorts a person's events. When you enter a date in the regular "date field" for the fact, RootsMagic will automatically calculate the sort date. But you can change the sort date at any time to make the fact sort any way you want. - Updated: January 11, 2004 7. How do I show natural and adoptive parents for a child? - Top You can add more than one set of parents to a child using the "Add > Child" command from the menu. You can then add an adoption fact to the child, and choose which set of parents adopted the child. You can switch back and forth between the two sets of parents by highlighting the child on the main screen, then clicking the "Parents" button in the upper left corner, and choosing which set of parents you want displayed at that time. - Updated: January 3, 2004 8. How can I tell what version of RootsMagic I'm using so I'll know what patches I might need? - Top Do "Help > About" from the main menu. It will display the version you are using. If you are connected to the internet, you can also do "Help > Check for updates" and RootsMagic will go online and tell you if there is an update available for you. - Updated: December 22, 2003 9. I have a child that was born out of wedlock. How do I handle this such that the father does not show up as a spouse to the mother of the child? - Top The best way to do this is: 1. Add the child as an unlinked individual (do "Add > Individual" from the main menu). 2. Then highlight the child and do "Add > Parents". 3. When you are asked for the father, just click "Cancel". 4. When asked for the mother, click "Select existing person" and choose the mother from the list. 5. RootsMagic will list the mother's families (one at a time) asking if you want to add the child to that family. Just keep choosing No. 6. RootsMagic will add the child to the mother without any of her "husbands". - Updated: December 22, 2003 10. When I open windows, some windows don't fit in my screen. I have to keep moving them back and forth to see the edges of them. - Top The RootsMagic dialogs are designed to fit on a screen using normal fonts at the lowest Windows resolution. It sounds like you have either your font size in Windows set to extra large, or your screen resolution set too low. Right click on your desktop in Windows, then select "Properties" from the little menu that appears. Then click the "Appearance" tab to check what size your fonts are set to. You can also increase your screen resolution by clicking the "Settings" tab on that same dialog. - Updated: December 22, 2003 11. I have a name in my file who is the father of another entry. How can I enter him as a father without duplicationg records? - Top Highlight the child you want to add the father to, then do "Add > Parents". It will ask if you want to add a new person or select existing person. Choose "Select existing person". Then choose the father from the list that appears. If the father has a wife already entered, RM will ask if you want to add the child to that family. If you do, choose Yes, but if the child belongs to a different mother, choose No. - Updated: August 20, 2003 12. When I merge two like names how do I remove the duplicate parents and/or spouses? - Top You need to merge the duplicate parents and spouses as well. If you just delete the duplicate parents or spouses, you will end up with "Unknown" spouses. - Updated: August 20, 2003 13. How do I merge duplicate sources? - Top Do "Tools > Merge > Automatic merges" and choose SourceMerge. It is best to also choose RepositoryMerge when doing SourceMerge so that merged sources don't end up with duplicate repositories. - Updated: August 20, 2003 14. How do I enter foreign letters, such as vowels with dots over them? - Top In the text fields, press Ctrl+T and it will bring up the character map to select the foreign character from. - Updated: August 20, 2003 15. How can I back up my data to my CD burner? - Top You can't back up directly to the CD burner, because files need to be "burned" to the CD and not "written". You can back up your database to your hard drive using the "File > Backup" command, and save it to a folder like "My Documents". Then run your CD burner software and burn that backup file from your hard drive to the CD. - Updated: August 20, 2003 16. Sometimes when I enter a source in the Source Wizard, the middle box (short version) has a comma at the beginning. - Top You are choosing a source where the first item is a person's name, and it asks for the name with slashes // around the surname. If you don't put slashes around the last name, then the name doesn't print in the middle box (because the short version of a source *only* prints a person's last name... and you haven't entered one). - Updated: July 18, 2003 17. When I try to apply the patch, I get an error message. - Top There are several things you can try: 1. Do "Help, About" from the main menu in RootsMagic and see if the version number shows that the patch was already applied. 2. Make sure that the folder in the patch matches where you actually installed RootsMagic. 3. Try uninstalling RootsMagic, then reinstall it, and then apply the patch. Uninstalling the program from the control panel will not uninstall your data, but you may want to make a backup of your data first just for peace of mind. - Updated: May 2, 2003 18. I have a person with multiple spellings of their name. How does Rootsmagic handle multiple names? - Top You should add your "primary name" for a person in the name fields on their edit screen. Then add the additional names as "Alternate name" facts for the person. Click the "Add Fact" button on the person's edit screen, and select "Alternate name" from the list. - Updated: November 30, 2004 19. When opening a data base one is given the choice about numbers to show connected with persons. What is the difference between Record Number and Reference Number (REFN)? - Top The "Record Number" is the number that RootsMagic assigns to each person when it creates their record. The "Reference Number (REFN)" is a number you can add to a person using the "Add Fact" button on their edit screen. It can contain letters and other characters and isn't limited to being a simple number. - Updated: March 26, 2003 20. How do I add children of a second spouse? - Top First, add the second spouse (if you haven't already) by doing "Add, Spouse" from the main menu. Second, highlight the person on the main screen, and click the "Spouses" button in the upper left corner of the screen. Select the second spouse from the drop list that appears. Third, highlight either the person or the second spouse and use the "Add, Children" command to add the child. - Updated: March 7, 2003 21. Will RootsMagic work on a Mac or under Linux? - Top Not directly. But some Linux users have reported being able to run RootsMagic under Linux using Crossover Office. - Updated: August 8, 2003 22. How can I quickly return to the root person? - Top Use CTRL-HOME on the keyboard, or go to the Search pull-down menu at the top of the main screen and select Go to root person. - Updated: February 26, 2003 23. How do I find a woman by her married name? - Top 1. Open the search screen (click the "Search" button on the toolbar, or do "Search, Person list" from the main menu). 2. Click the "NameFind" button on the search screen. You must be using version 1.03 or later for the NameFind button to appear. If you are using an earlier version click here to download a free patch to update your program. 3. Enter the woman's given name(s) and her married surname. 4. Click "OK" and RootsMagic will highlight the first matching person. You can then use the "Next>>" button to highlight additional matches. - Updated: August 22, 2003 24. The person I am editing divorced his first wife, married another, divorced the second wife and remarried the first. Rootsmagic will not let me add the remarriage because it says they are already married. - Top Just open the man's edit screen and add another marriage event for the couple. You don't need to do "Add > Spouse" again because they are already linked as a family and don't need to be relinked. They simply had another marriage event. - Updated: November 19, 2003 25. How do I rearrange children and spouses? - Top Highlight the father or mother, then select "Edit, Family" from the main menu. You can rearrange both the children and spouses from the dialog that appears. - Updated: February 11, 2003 26. How do I change the default root person? - Top Do "Tools, Options" from the main menu, then select "Database options". The top of the dialog will then let you change the root person. - Updated: November 27, 2002 [e-Mail me the FAQs]    -     [Search our FAQs]    -     [Question Not Answered?]