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Surname list

TERRYHILLIS
TERRYHILLIS ✭
January 18 in Suggest an Idea

A function that would really be helpful is some method of listing all the surnames that exist in my family ancestry. I understand this could be compiled manually, but I was hoping for an easier solution.

Tagged:
  • Family Tree
  • Surname Directory
  • Family Tree Enhancement
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2 votes

Active · Last Updated January 18

Comments

  • LauraleeT1
    LauraleeT1 mod
    January 18

    @TERRYHILLIS Thank you for your suggestion. It has been forwarded to the engineers who will take a look at it.

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  • Julia Szent-Györgyi
    Julia Szent-Györgyi ✭✭✭✭✭
    January 18

    Given that this is a shared tree, defining "your ancestry" is a non-trivial task: do you want just direct ancestors, or their spouses, too, or direct ancestors and all of their descendants, or something else? How many generations? And so forth and so on.

    One solution to both the definition and the surname list is to use third-party software. There are three major ones that can synchronize with Family Tree (Legacy, Ancestral Quest, RootsMagic), and they all have free versions. Pick one, download your relatives into it, and run a surname report. If there isn't one available (which I find unlikely, but who knows; I haven't actually checked), you can create a GEDCOM file and use that in some other genealogy software (there are zillions of choices, many of them free of charge) to get your list.

    0
  • dontiknowyou
    dontiknowyou ✭✭✭✭✭
    January 22

    Actually, I want a surname list of every ancestry and descendancy tree I look at in Family Tree. That would be a huge time saver! I wouldn't have to export so many trees to RootsMagic or Puzzilla merely to generate their list of unique surnames.

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  • Gail Swihart Watson
    Gail Swihart Watson ✭✭✭✭
    January 22

    Well, all of you need to remember how good FS is at using the relationships. Not very. I assume people would want only the blood relationships, and not the preferred parent or preferred spouse, should the the non-biological ones be selected. I fiddle with those all the time when I am researching.

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  • dontiknowyou
    dontiknowyou ✭✭✭✭✭
    January 24

    Since I don't use the ancestor tree viewer in Family Tree I simply ignore the preferred parent and preferred spouse selections. I work with ancestor trees in the Puzzilla tree viewer, which displays all parents.

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