Research your family tree and share it with others online

Launch a web browser and click here to go to the My Heritage website. When the page appears, click the Downloads link at the top followed by the Free Download button. If the File Download Security Warning dialogue box appears, click Save and then choose a location for the downloaded file. Firefox users should select Save File to save the download to Firefox’s default download folder. Now locate and double-click the file that has downloaded and follow the prompts to install Family Tree Builder. At the end, leave the ‘Run MyHeritage Family Tree Builder 5.0’ box ticked and click Finish. Select English (UK) from the list of languages and click Continue. Click the Register Now button and follow the prompts to create your free MyHeritage account.

When prompted, click Continue followed by ‘No thanks, continue with the free version’. Leave ‘Enable Automatic Publishing (Online Backup)’ ticked and click OK. The Greetings Wizard will open – click Next, leave Create New Genealogy Project selected and click Next again. Give your project a suitable name and click Next again. Family Tree Builder will offer to publish the project as a site on the Myheritage.com website, where other invited people can view it. Make a choice before clicking Next. Choose language settings (the default is fine for most) and click Next followed by Finish.

Start by clicking Add Family. In the Add First Family dialogue box, type the names and details of the first partners. When entering birth and death dates, follow the format ‘Sep 23 1888’. Alternatively, click the calendar icon to open the Date Editor and apply date ranges or approximate dates. When entering a place, a question mark icon will appear. Click the icon to choose from a list of place suggestions – this helps with consistency. Tick the Deceased box to enter death details (if applicable), then finish by typing in the marriage details before clicking OK.

If the couple have or had children, click Add Son or Add Daughter to enter the first child’s details. Enter the basic information required and then click OK to move on to the next child or choose More Details to flesh out their details (see the next step). Once all children have been added, click Done. From here the tree can be expanded one of two ways. Either right-click a person’s entry and choose Parents followed by Add Parents, or click on a child to make them the focus followed by Add Family to enter details of their spouse and children.

Once the skeletal structure of your tree is in place, select a person and click Edit followed by Edit Details to record the particulars of their life. Use the Facts tab to add events and facts associated with that person. Click New Fact, then either select a category and fact type or type a custom entry and click OK. Enter the fact’s date, place and a brief description, then add more detail by clicking Fact Notes. Photos associated with a specific fact can also be added – see the next step for details.

Click the Photos button and choose Yes when prompted to search the hard disk for images. Assuming they are in a particular location, click the ellipsis (‘…’) button to select one or more folders to search, cutting down on the search time. Once you have done this, click OK followed by Search and wait while a list of supported photo file formats (JPEG, BMP and GIF) is displayed. Select folders in the left-hand pane to view their contents – either tick individual photos or tick the folder to include all photos. Once all the photos have been selected, click Import.

Use the People and Albums tabs on the left to organise your photos. Tag individuals to photos from the People tab – just drag their name onto each photo in which they appear. Click the Last Name column heading to sort the list by surname. This makes individuals easier to find. More than one person can be tagged in a photo, which is handy for group shots. Photos can also be organised into albums. Click the Albums tab and create an album. Either click and drag a photo into an album, or hold Ctrl (Control) and click on multiple photos to select them all.

To edit a photo, double-click it. Use the Info tab to record basic information (title, date and place) and switch to the Notes tab for any additional text. The Associations tab allows you to link the photo in a number of ways: to a person, family, fact or source – multiple links are allowed. If you are linking to a person, click Mark Face, then drag a rectangular box around the person to select them. Not only does this identify them in the photo, but the thumbnail created will also be used as that person’s primary photo if Personal photo is ticked.

Publishing to the web will allow it to be compared with other family trees hosted on Myheritage.com and enable other family members to view your work. Click the Matches button followed by the Update Now button to see what – if any – matches can be found. If any are found they will be listed in order of those with the most matches at the top. Click a person’s name to view all matches. Select each match in turn and click Compare to see if the match is genuine. Click Merge to combine additional facts from this record into yours.

Finally, your research can be shared in a number of ways. Choose My Sites from the Publishing menu and click Invite members to send an email invitation to family and friends to view the tree online. Alternatively, click the Charts button and choose Chart Wizard to quickly create one of a number of striking charts that can be printed or saved as a PDF file to distribute to others. Click the Reports button to create one of a number of reports. Choose Book Report to create a detailed account of a single individual with the help of a wizard.