In the past, it was difficult not only to create maps to accompany my genealogy records, but it was also hard to picture exactly where ancestors lived, because state, county, city, and township lines didn’t always remain constant. In fact, ancestors who were born in one county but died in another county may have actually never moved. It was the county line itself that shifted. These types of confusing events only made it more difficult to know where to search for the families of long-lost ancestors. Even if I did locate all of this information, it was difficult to convey the facts to readers in the family history I’ve been writing. I just don’t have the mapping skills. This is where RootsMagic’s Family Atlas can really help. It provides you with all of the tools you need to make quality maps that display family data.

Map Your Family Data

With RootsMagic Family Atlas, you can import your genealogy files directly from RootsMagic, PAF (Personal Ancestry File), FTM (Family Tree Maker), or Legacy Family Tree. If you use a different genealogy program, you can still incorporate your genealogical data into Family Atlas. Just export the data as a GEDCOM (GEnealogical Data COMmunications) file from your genealogy software and then import the GEDCOM file into Family Atlas.

Family Atlas includes a built-in database of 3.5 million name places and provides automatic geocoding, which lets you see, for instance, the latitude and longitude of a location in your genealogy data. As you map genealogical data, you can use Family Atlas to track your ancestors’ migration from country to country, state to state, county to county, and more. You can zoom in for a closer look at state and county boundaries. This not only helps you have a better feel for how your family evolved over time, but it also can provide valuable clues to where you may find missing ancestors. Once you can see where your ancestors were and which counties were nearby, you know which census and land records may include records of other family members who lived at the same time.

Family Atlas can even help you identify surrounding locales with its Nearby Places List. There are several women in my family tree for whom I have no information. I used Family Atlas’ maps and the Nearby Places List to identify townships near where the family settled. I now hope to find census or land records in one of these nearby locales that will offer clues to these women’s backgrounds and ancestry.

I really liked how customizable Family Atlas was. Not only could I change the colors, fonts, and other basic display options for my maps, but I could also add photographs and important notes to my maps. This gave me the freedom to create maps that will be the most useful when I travel to historical societies and that will be the most informative and attractive in the family history I’m writing. You can also choose between a spherical or a flat map. When you’re finished, you can print the maps on your own printer, or you can save maps as PDF (Portable Document Format) files to email to someone or to have printed professionally.

Extend Your Roots

RootsMagic Family Atlas is not a program that everyone needs, because its primary function is creating maps. To manage your basic genealogy records, you’ll still need a genealogy program, such as RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, or PAF. However, for those who are serious about tracing history and learning about their ancestors’ migratory patterns, Family Atlas is an indispensable tool. Family Atlas will help you create informative maps for your family history and uncover clues to the origin of missing branches of your family tree.

by Kylee Dickey

Send your comments to kylee@smartcomputing.com

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