Family Tree Maker 2019 : Complete Guide With All Essential Features

Family Tree Maker 2019

The growth and improvement of any software go hand in hand with customer satisfaction. User experience, continuous analysis and regular enhancements play a vital role in determining how efficiently the software will perform. Family tree maker 2019 has developed on the same principle with a major focus on providing a smoother and reliable experience at every stage. From installation to preservation of your family tree, FTM 2019 is designed to help you enjoy a seamless and hassle free experience. 

All users working with this reliable software might be excited about it, as it includes a number of new features, including photo darkroom, turn back time, and treevault. All these features are designed to let the user discover how far they can go while assembling and preserving the sweet and crucial moments of their loved ones. As a user and reader, you might be wondering what this new update  has to offer to enhance  your family tree. 

Well, this guide will lend a hand to you via providing a thorough explanation about each and everything related to it. From key features, troubleshooting steps, family tree management, to improving the performance, we will provide you an insight of all. Keep reading to learn more.

What Is Family Tree Maker 2019?

A thorough understanding of what can be improved in FTM 2017 has led to the emergence of FTM 2019. It is designed to support a number of users in building, organizing, and preserving their family history. It helps users in various ways, including creating a family tree, adding photos and historical records, attaching documents, and keeping a perfect record of ancestors in one place. One of its most prominent features is its ability to sync the family tree with an Ancestry online tree using Tree Sync, making it easier to access and update all of your research across devices. 

Apart from all this, you will also get tools to help create reports, charts, books, and timelines, bringing the family history to life. If you have just begun your genealogy journey or manage an extensive family tree, FTM 2019 offers a number of features and remains a user-friendly platform for documenting your family’s legacy.

System Requirement 

Windows 

Mac

Operating system

Windows 7 or later, including windows 11 

macOs Yosemite (10.10) or later. including macOS sequoia (15)

Hard disk

900 MB available disk space

900 MB available disk space

Memory

2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended) 

2 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended) 

Display

1024 x 768 resolution 

1280×800 screen resolution 

Benefits Of FTM 2019 

Ancestry and FamilySearch Integration

Integrate with Ancestry and FamilySearch to import historical documents, synchronize genealogy data, and merge valuable research to update your family tree across platforms.

Restore Changes With Turn Back Time

With this feature, you can protect your research by rolling back individual changes or restoring your tree after major editing errors.

Explore Your Ancestors’ Locations

You can organize your family history by location, map your ancestors’ journeys, and identify incorrect place entries using geographic tools.

Turn Research Into Stories

Give an interesting twist to your family history by converting media, facts, and source citations into readable stories to stay in touch with your family tree.

Treevault Cloud Services

Provide security for your data through cloud storage, regular backups, and inheritance planning for your next of kin, along with convenient mobile access.

Built-in Photo Management

Improve your family photos with automatic face detection, zoom controls, and all with built-in editing tools.

Customizable Charts And Reports

Generate personalized family charts, pedigree charts, custom timelines, and relationship reports to print , publish, or share with relatives.

Who Should Use Family Tree Maker 2019

There are a number of ideal users who must use FTM 2019. Go through all of them at once.

  1. Beginners
  2. Families looking for preserving their heritage
  3. Hobby genealogists
  4. Experienced family historians
  5. Professional genealogists

Key Features Of Family Tree Maker 2019

Here are some of the key features of Family Tree Maker 2019 are mentioned below. Go through all of them at once.  

FamilySync

With FamilySync, you can easily synchronize your Family Tree Maker 2019 with its linked Ancestry online tree. It lets you transfer genealogy data between desktop software and Ancestry, helping keep both trees up to date. Family sync is designed to maintain consistency between two versions of your tree while continuing research simultaneously.

Tree Browser

It provides you with a central location where you can easily view and manage all of your family  trees. It showcases all the trees stored on your computer and includes links to Ancestry and Treevault trees (when available), making it easier for users to locate, open, and organize your genealogy projects.

Reports

You get a collection of reports within Family Tree Maker 2019 which summarize your genealogy research in various formats. All these reports provide you with insight into families, individuals, sources, relationships, and research progress, making it easy to analyze , print, and share what you have found.

Charts

You get a variety of customizable charts, including bowtie, pedigree, and descendant charts. All these kinds of visual representations help you explore family relationships and create attractive layouts to print, publish, and share with relatives.

Relationship Calculator

FTM 2019 provides you with a number of tools that help you identify how two individuals within your family tree share a relationship. It will give you an overview of family connections by automatically determining the types of relationships among the people you have selected in your family tree.

Media Management

It has become easy to organize photos, documents, and other kinds of media alongside your genealogy. You can easily attach media to families, people, and sources , letting users preserve supporting records and turn your family history prosperous with images and historical documents.

FamilySearch Integration

Family Tree Maker 2019 integrates with FamilySearch to help search for FamilySearch records and, ideally, compare them with information used in their family tree. According to the official FamilySearch compatibility listing, Family Tree Maker can retrieve information from a FamilySearch account, but it does not provide updates back to the FamilySearch family tree.

How To Install Family Tree Maker 2019 

The installation process of FTM 2019 is different for both the window and mac. 

For Windows 

  • Tap twice on the downloaded .exe file (or insert the FTM 2019 USB).
  • Launch Family Tree Maker and begin the installation process.
  • Take a look at the license agreement carefully, select “I accept the terms” in the license agreement, and click Next.
  • Select the installation location and continue with the process.
  • Click on install. Once it is done , click on Finish.
  • Open the newly created desktop icon and enter your registration key when prompted. 

For mac

  • Open the downloaded .dmg file.
  • Double-click on the installation box.
  • Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the backup, confirmation, and license agreement steps.
  • Enter your computer password if asked to authorize the installation.
  • Once you get a successful result, close the installer, open the app, and enter your registration key.

Backup And FamilySync

With regular backups, you can easily protect your family tree from sudden deletion, file corruption, or hardware failure. Family Tree Maker 2019 helps you create backup files which can include your tree , media, and other kinds of data, making it easier to recover your research or move it to another computer.

FamilySync helps you keep your linked ancestry tree and desktop tree synchronized by transferring supported changes between them. However, some items, including research data and unsupported content, might not sync.

If you notice any of the sync errors, you can check your internet connection, ensure you are signed in to your Ancestry account, and install the latest FTM 2019 before trying again.

If you have lost or damaged your tree, you can easily restore it by selecting File> Restore and opening a previously created backup file. Regular backups and sincere use of Famisync help you keep your genealogy research safe and up to date.

Backup And Sync Log

With Backup and Sync logging in FTM 2019, you can easily track backup history, monitor FamilySync activity, and identify synchronization errors. By reviewing the log, you can more easily troubleshoot issues and confirm that your family tree has been backed up and synced successfully.

Sync With Ancestry

Keep both the Ancestry and desktop tree up to date by syncing Family Tree Maker with Ancestry. Here you will learn how to link your trees and synchronize supported changes.

Troubleshooting Sync

If FamilySync is not working as expected, our troubleshooting syncing issues in FTM 2019 guide covers all common synchronization problems and practical solutions. It also provides insights into the steps that can help you restore a successful sync between your desktop and your Ancestry tree.

How To Connect FamilySearch

FamilySearch integration allows third-party genealogy software, mobile applications, and web platforms to properly connect with the FamilySearch database. It lets you seamlessly sync family trees , import ancestral data, search for historical record hints, and verify information directly from the reliable partner apps. With this, you can easily link individuals in your tree to their matching FamilySearch profile by reviewing the suggested matches to have better accuracy. This helps in keeping your research organized and up to date. In order to get more insight about connecting your account , linking individuals, and making the most of FamilySearch features, read our FamilySearch in FTM 2017 and FTM 2019 guide.

Ways To Manage Your Family Tree

Family Tree Maker 2019 provides a number of tools to help you organize, maintain, and update your genealogy research. Whether it is about taking care of multiple trees, tracking relationships, or combining duplicate files, these features make it easy to maintain accuracy in the family history and keep it organized.

Tree Browser

With Tree Browser in Family Tree Maker 2019, you can view and manage the family trees from one point. It lets you open, organize, and switch between local trees, linked Ancestry trees, and other supported tree file types with ease.

Relationship Status

The Relationship status in FTM 2019 features allows you to record and manage the relationships among the individuals in your family tree. Checking the relationship details regularly ensures your genealogy research remains accurate without losing its structure.

Merging Files

If you are working on multiple versions of the same family tree, you can merge them with the help of the Merge Two Family Tree Maker Files process. It helps eliminate duplicate information, gather all your research in one place, and turn it into a single, organized tree.

Charts And Reports

Charts and Reports in FTM 2019 offers a variety of charts and reports through which you can easily visualize , organize, and share your family history. With all these tools, it becomes easy to showcase your genealogy research in a clear and professional format.

Pedigree Charts

Pedigree charts present an individual’s direct ancestors across multiple generations. They help trace family lineage and identify ancestral connections.

Descendants Charts

It shows the descendants of a selected ancestor, giving an overview of children, grandchildren, and later generations within a single chart.

Reports

Family Tree Maker includes customizable reports, including family group sheets, individual reports, relationship reports, and source reports. Such reports help in documenting your research and can be shared with family members for further analysis.

Printing

You can customize the reports before printing by changing their layouts, fonts, colors, and the information within them. You can directly print them or export them for digital sharing and publishing.

To have a complete overview of how to create , customize, and print genealogy charts and reports, you can look into our charts and reports in the FTM 2019 guide.

Repair And Troubleshooting

As a user, you will encounter a number of issues when using Family Tree Maker, including corruption, missing media, or unexpected crashes. Software Mackiev suggests creating a backup before performing any troubleshooting and ensuring your software is up to date. If the problem persists, the built-in repair tool and additional troubleshooting steps can provide additional support to restore normal operation.

Corrupt Files

With the use of the Compact File Tool, you can easily optimize your family tree database through removal of unused space. It is a better way to ensure maintenance and to help improve overall performance. If the issue persists, look for our Repair a tree file in FTM guide to get the required help.

Missing Media

If you are unable to find the photos or documents, ensure you have not moved, renamed, or deleted the media files. Restoring the original file location or relinking media can easily resolve the issue. To get complete insight into the same, read our Fix Missing Media and Corrupt Files in FTM 2019 guide.

Broken Links

It happens when Family Tree Maker has trouble locating associated files. Managing the media in a proper folder structure will prevent all these issues.

Improve Family Tree Maker Performance

With the growth of your tree, the performance declines. Therefore, it becomes important to regularly improve Family Tree Maker Performance for better result.

Slow Loading

The reason for the slow performance is often a large database, numerous media files, and outdated software. With regular maintenance and updating, you can resolve the issue.

Large Trees

If you are managing enormous trees with thousands of individuals and media files, then it can have a large impact on the performance. One practical way to solve this issue is to organize the data.

Upgrade From FTM 2019 to FTM 2024

Upgrading from FTM 2019 to FTM 2024 lets you avail a number of advantages without losing the grip on the work you have already completed. With the restoration of the latest version, backing up your tree and continuing your research via improved tools allows you to enjoy better performance and a streamlined experience.

Benefits

  • Optimized performance with fewer issues.
  • Modern tools to enhance productivity.
  • Greater compatibility with new computer systems.
  • Improved cloud services and data synchronization.
  • Maintain software support.

Migration

  • Create a backup of your FTM 2019 as an .FTMB file.
  • Ensure media files are included in the backup.
  • Install Family Tree Maker 2024
  • Restore your backup and verify that all the tree data, media, and links have been transferred successfully.

Compatibility

FTM 2024 is quite compatible with FTM 2019. It lets you open and convert them with ease. Some older file formats need to be converted for proper import.

If you need a detailed overview of how to transfer tree files from FTM 2019 to 2024, you can go through our Transfer Your Family Tree Files from FTM 2019 to FTM 2024 guide to get an insight into the same.

Conclusion! 

Family Tree Maker 2019 is considered the most powerful solution for beginners and experienced genealogists. With a thorough understanding of its features, maintaining regular backups and adhering to the recommended troubleshooting practices, you can easily organize and protect your family tree. With the growth of your research, you can upgrade your FTM 2024 to avail additional tools and experience improved performance to support your genealogy journey.

📞 Call Family Tree Maker Support: +1-888-427-8070

💬 Live Chat with a Family Tree Maker Expert

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Is there any need to buy a new family pack license for FTM 2019 if I already have one for an earlier version?
    Yes, in order to use FTM 2019 on various home computers, you will need to buy a family pack license for FTM 2019. If you are thinking of upgrading from an older version, FTM support can guide you on the migration process.
  2. What should I prepare before installing Family Tree Maker 2019?
    Simply create a backup of your family tree. It helps protect your data during installation or upgrade.