FamilyStory is not like other family tree visualisation tools, where an imported GEDCOM file generates pages upon pages of unengaging statistics about long dead ancestors.
Instead, FamilyStory has been specifically designed to publish an engaging account of your family history, in a format that can be consumed by those less interested in the pursuit of genealogy itself.
Your journey with FamilyStory will require some effort, but the results will be worthy of your research – and of the time of anyone you invite to read it. If you’re familiar with blogging on WordPress, this may be a slightly different web publishing method than you’re used to.
Here’s how it works:
1
Install FamilyStory – this will be the biggest technical hurdle if you are new to web publishing, however it’s quite straightforward and there are support articles to help you get started.
2
Create some basic ancestor profiles – for example, a husband and wife, and their child. At this point, the three profiles will only need basic details such as names, birth year and death year (if known). We won’t even add relationships between the people yet – that will happen automatically in the next step. After adding these profiles, FamilyStory will automatically create new web pages for each of the ancestors.
3
Start uploading records – to start with, we’ll upload the birth registration for the child we created. FamilyStory provides templates for different types of genealogical records, so we’ll be specifying interesting details from the birth record – names, dates, relationships, residence, and occupations.
After uploading just one record, FamilyStory will automatically:
- Create a new web page for the birth record, showing the uploaded image, transcription, and any other relevant details.
- Update the child’s profile with their birth date and place and link them to their parents.
- Generate a map on the child’s profile showing their birth location, create a timeline showing their birth event, and generate a fan chart showing the relationship to their parents.
- Update the mother’s profile with her maiden surname and residence at the time of the child’s birth.
- Update the father’s profile with his occupation and residence at the time of the child’s birth.
- Generate timelines on both parents’ profiles showing the birth of their child.
- Create a page for the child’s birth location, linking to the profiles of all ancestors with known events in that location.
- Create a family group page for the family, showing maps and timelines of all events for the ancestors in that family group.
- Update the automated confidence ratings for the profiles of all three ancestors.
The more records you upload, the more information will be added to the profiles of those ancestors the records relate to.
4
Write your ancestor’s story – you can now complete the narrative around the records you have uploaded. FamilyStory allows you to easily embed images of the records you uploaded. Auto-generated text snippets for common events like births, marriages and deaths are also available for situations where there isn’t much more information than the genealogical facts.
In about ten minutes, you’ve created a website with multiple pages, interactive maps, fan charts, timelines, and records, as well as starting to build confidence profiles around your research!
Don’t believe how easy it is? Watch this video to see FamilyStory in action!
[Video of above process]