Using Family Tree Maker Course

I have been a user of the Family Tree Maker Genealogical programe for some years, and when Trainer Deborah announced a short course featuring FTM I decided to enrol . I have attended other family history courses run by Deborah and was impressed by her knowledge and professional presentations.

So, this morning I drove to my cousin and club members Ron Taylor's nearby home and picked him up. Ron is also a reguler user of FTM. On arrival at our ComputerPals club training rooms, we found that we were amongst 9 members attending that course, but we all squeezed together in the training room. We were too many for the six computers, but Deborah told us that would be ok, as she had brought her laptop along, and her course would be presented by way of the screen, using her laptop containing her personal family history.

Deborah's short course, over two hours, covered how to -

• identify the benefits of using genealogical software
• enter data into Family Tree Maker and also, importantly, to record sources
• create reports from FTM
• use FTM to plan and follow up our research
• connect to Ancestry.com to match people on our family tree to Ancestry records
• export our family tree to a GEDCOM file and upload it to Ancestry.

Deborah's knowledge of FTM was excellent and she imparted her knowledge to us in a clear manner. Although I regularly use FTM I learned a number of things that made my attendance at the course worthwhile. Short courses of two hours on one day are ideal for family historians.

I  recommend members watch for future family history courses to be run by Deborah, and get on the waiting lists early.