THE FAMILY TREE CERTIFIED PROGRAMS: TREESEEK, RECORDSEEK, PUZZILLA, AND ROOTSMAPPER -- SUMMARY
    ©2015 by Donald R. Snow.  Last updated 2015-04-05.  This 2-page Summary Handout and the full notes are both posted on  http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html .  The numbering is as on the full notes.

    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION
    1.  Instructors are Donald R. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu ) of Provo and St. George, Utah and Linda Snow Westover ( linda.westover@gmail.com ) of Orem, Utah.
    2.  Tips:  (1)  Drag icon from in from of browser address to desktop;  (2)  Hold down CTRL key when clicking to keep place in these notes.
    3.  The problem:  How to use the FamilySearch Certified Programs TreeSeek, RecordSee, Puzzilla, and RootsMapper

    FAMILYSEARCH CERTIFICATION OF THIRD-PARTY PROGRAMS
    4.  FamilySearch -- https://familysearch.org/ -- has set up standards for programs to be Certified
    6.  The Certified Products page -- https://familysearch.org/products

    TREESEEK
    8.  This is Matt Misbach's program -- http://www.treeseek.com/ .
    11.  Go to TreeSeek website and log in with your FamilySearch account; retrieves your Family Tree data and generates the chart you want; can change root person by entering their PID
      Types of charts include regular pedigree, fan pedigree, photo, name cloud, Source Tracker, and Vital Records sources
      Charts can be saved as pdf's or TreeSeek Company will print them for a small fee
      Family History Solitaire card games -- generates 52-card decks, suits are your 4 grandparents -- temporarily removed from TreeSeek (Apr 2015) due to bugs
    12.  Data is saved in an Ahnentafel chart in the browser on your computer -- click on your name (upper right corner) -- shows some things that need correcting on FT
    14.  Helps for TreeSeek

    RECORDSEEK
    15.  Website -- http://recordseek.com -- easy way to save websites and sources
    18.  To install it on your computer go to their website and drag the Tree Connect bookmarklet button onto the toolbar of your Internet browser.
    19.  When you find a website to save as a source --highlight any text you want to go into the comments field, click on Tree Connect bookmarklet, enter your LDS or FamilySearch account info, and save the source in your Source Box or attach it to someone in FT
    22.  Helps for RecordSeek

    PUZZILLA DESCENDANT VIEWER
    23.  Website -- https://puzzilla.org/ -- helpful videos on their webpage
    24.      Descendants of your ancestors are your cousins
    Quote from Affiliate Products page -- https://familysearch.org/products/puzzilla -- "Looking for new relatives to take to the temple? Is your pedigree picked over? Is there really no work left for you and your family to do? The Puzzilla.org Descendants Viewer lets you see hundreds of descendants of your ancestors from an aerial view using compact symbols to reveal patterns of incomplete research. You can pick up where prior research left off. Click on a pedigree ancestor and Puzzilla will show you their descendants, revealing holes where research might uncover spouses, children, and generations of relatives waiting for you to find them."
    25.  Sign in on the Puzzilla website with your FamilySearch account and it starts generating a symbolic diagram of your pedigree; hovering cursor over a dot shows who it represents, birth and death years, PID, and three options: View Descendants, View Ancestors. and View in Family Tree; the first two generate new charts starting from that person and the third takes you to that person in Family Tree; further generations up or down are drawn in larger and larger circles surrounding the root person
    26.  Coding of the dots:  square blue = males; round pink = females; yellow boxes = person died young, so probably had no descendants; grey boxes = person was born less than 110 years ago, so you would need permission to do temple work; other dots represent your cousins born more than 110 years ago
    27.  Patterns to look for
      No siblings -- the original 4-Generation Program of the LDS Church only asked for ancestors, not families, so you may see only one person as descendant with no siblings; if the person had siblings, they may be in FT, but not linked, or they may not be in FT at all yet; find their families in census and other records and, if already in FT, link them, then check and merge duplicates; if not already in FT, add and link them, then check and merge duplicates; many people found this way will need temple work done; these are your cousins and those born more than 110 years ago can be submitted without asking for permission from anyone  
      End of descendant line -- most people who did not die young married and had children and these may be in FT, but not linked, or you may have to find who they are and add and link them in FT -- If they are not already in Family Tree, they need temple work done for sure.
    28.  Clicking on the View in Family Tree button opens that person in FT and then clicking on Search Records in the Research Help box on the right, automatically searches censuses, vital records, and other sources so you can find possible siblings and descendants of the person
    29.  For records that seem to extend the family, carefully verify that they are the right people, enter and link them in FT, and attach the record as the source
    30.  Before clearing names for temple work always check for possible duplicates and merge any you find
    31.  Helps for Puzzilla are at  https://puzzilla.org/training ,  https://puzzilla.org/faq , and  http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/2013/12/puzzillaorg-is-now-tree-access.html 

    ROOTSMAPPER
    32.  Website is -- https://rootsmapper.com
    34.  Log in on their website with your FamilySearch account and it generates a 3-generation interactive Google map of the birth locations of you, your parents, grandparents, and great grandparents; the circle marked 0 shows where you were born, 1 where your parents were born, etc. -- it uses birth information, not migration, so a line crossing the ocean shows immigration since the parent was born abroad and the child here
    35.  To change the root person highlight the PID and enter the new PID or else go to the end of one of the lines, click on the circle, and click on the icon to Show This Person's Parents -- Note:  in most cases you can't generate maps starting from living persons, other than yourself, since Family Tree will not show the birth information for them that RootsMapper needs
    36.  Lines on the maps are color-coded:  blue for the root person's father's lines and pink for the root person's mother's lines
    37.  Move the map by clicking and moving the mouse; hovering the cursor over a circle shows the name and birth and death years; clicking on a circle opens a card with name, PID, birth and death information, and clicking on their name takes you to the person's page on Family Tree
    38.  Clicking on circles at the ends of the lines gives person cards with an icon to extend that line further by selecting the number of generations you want.
    39.  Rolling the mouse wheel changes the size of the map; clicking on Satellite (upper right corner) shows a satellite view, rather than the map view; with the map view clicking on Terrain toggles the names of the physical features on and off and with the Satellite view clicking on Terrain toggles the terrain features on and off
    40.  The default is 3 generations (you and back to your great grandparents), but can be changed for up to 10 generations, in which case you will probably need to zoom in on the map since there will be many circles and lines
    41.  The Options box in the upper left corner contains options to toggle lines and pins on and off, Traceback to make the line black from anyone you click on down to the root person, Isolate with Traceback drops out all other lines; Pedigree shows root person and parents; can toggle country colors on and off, Country Statistics shows how many born in each country
    42.  RootsMapper can be used for articles, demonstrations, and slideshows for family reunions, family home evenings, classes, etc.; can use it live or else make screenshots of the maps and show them to illustrate migration patterns
    43.  Besides showing migration patterns RootsMapper may help you find problems in data; for example, the abbreviated place MA on one of my lines plotted somewhere in Brazil and needed to have Massachusetts spelled out to plot correctly
    44.  Helps for RootsMapper

    CONCLUSIONS
    45.  Four very helpful programs for working with and editing the data on FamilySearch Family Tree 
    46.  See the Certified Programs webpage -- https://familysearch.org/products/ -- for others