* Structuring your project

[petere]

Hi All,

A quick question from a complete beginner.

I have started my family tree using V6.2.7 and have come to a point where I now want to add trees for all the Mother's sides, with their own surname, parents and kids.

My question is, do I add them on to my existing tree or do I create separate projects for each surname?

I don't yet understand the pros and cons of the two strategies.

Please help
Petere

[Valkrider]

Petere

There are two schools of thought as you describe.

The thing you need to consider is the manageability of multiple projects and how you handle marriages between surnames. With separate projects for each surname you will potentially be doubling your input having to enter people twice in two projects. Keeping this all in sync as you find more information will be come problematic and may lead to errors.

Unless you have a very good reason then I would suggest one project for everyone. Some users have many thousands in their project so there is no problem with the software and you can easily report on jut one branch of a family.

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG.

That is a recurring question.
It is generally advisable to keep everyone in one family tree.

Otherwise, it is impossible to produce Reports and Diagrams of each person's relatives.
e.g. If you put maternal ancestors in a separate Project, you cannot produce a complete descendants Report or Diagram.
Unless, as Colin says, you have a lot of double entries.

Also it is surprisingly common to discover that a maternal ancestor is closely related or even married to a paternal ancestor.
If they are in separate Projects, then it is easy to miss that connection, and impossible to produce a Report or Diagram showing the connection.

If you create separate Projects and later have a need to merge them together, then that can be quite a complex process.
Conversely, if you need to produce temporary sub-tree Projects from a master comprehensive Project, then that is quite easy.
Do not worry about the size of a single comprehensive Project as FH is good at handling that, and many FH users have Projects involving 10,000 Individuals or more.

Don't overlook studying how_to:key_features_for_newcomers|> Key Features for Newcomers as many newcomers say they would have done things differently if only they had known more about FH features and family history research techniques.

[Gowermick]

I agree with the other posters, one single tree is the way to go. I currently have 17,000+ people in my tree and FH handles these with ease. ( unlike Charting Companion, however, which takes forever to load or refresh data which FH loads in seconds!)

[victor]

I agree with what has been said here. I have 77,000 on my tree!
Obviously not all directly related to me but it just takes One who is not marrying one who is then the rerlationship of that part changes.

Victor

[petere]

Many thanks to Colin, Mike, Mike and Victor - your advice is much appreciated. Not only sound advice but delivered quickly - you have saved me from a terrible mess!

Best regards
Peter