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It may seem sacrilegious to ask, “Do you need to downsize the unnecessarily large family tree you’re attempting to maintain across multiple platforms and/or in a genealogy software program?”
If your family tree includes upwards of 10,000 people, you need to consider downsizing it to become laser-focused on quality research.
How My Family Tree Grew Unnecessarily Large
If you’re anything like me, when you find a new person connected to someone on your tree, you quickly add them. You found them, after all.
These new people in your database may have the same surname as you or be your cousin's spouse. Soon, you follow rabbit trails, and your family tree quadruples in size.
Or, you may do advanced genealogy and add your ancestor’s FAN club (friends, associates, and neighbors) to your family tree.
By researching your ancestor’s ‘social network,’ you may find new family members. If you’re wise, you’ll keep the FAN club in separate database trees, but many people don’t. Their family tree expands exponentially.
Why An Unnecessarily Large Family Tree Is A Problem
Unless you are working on a specific project that warrants a large tree, the quality of your research suffers.
Let’s say it takes 15 hours to conduct reasonably exhaustive research for one person in your family tree. If you have a family tree with 10,000 names in it, it will take:
150,000 hours, or
6250 days, or
~ 17 years
… to conduct reasonably exhaustive searches for everyone in the tree.
That’s working 24 hours a day! It will likely take 60+ years to do quality research on everyone in your tree.
Additionally, if your family tree is online on a platform with record hints, you’ll receive a flood of suggestions from branches of your tree that are not in the area you want to target. Soon, you’ll climb ‘other people’s trees’ rather than your own.
To become a laser-focused genealogist, you should downsize your tree.
Large Family Trees Happen to the Best of Us
When FamilySearch rolled out its current online family tree in 2012, I excitedly began migrating sources, documents, and images to their website. It took me months to migrate all the facts I had gathered into my tree of 8,000 names.
Additionally, I had to merge duplicate profiles, fix inaccurate relationships, add explanations of my changes and additions, and add new relatives to the family tree.
I could not make new discoveries because I was lost in the extended branches rather than the lines I cared about most.
With the advances in the FamilySearch platform and tools like RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker, I could reduce the months of work to a few weeks, but the problem remains. I was managing people who were not in my target research group.
In short, the trouble with an unnecessarily large family tree database is the time it takes to manage, maintain, and process the information.
Are Some Large Trees Necessary?
Your tree should only be as large as necessary to work on your current research project and make a few cool pedigree charts.
If you are working on researching your maternal ancestors, expand your database to accomplish that goal.
If you’re conducting a One-Name Study, your database will be more extensive, but keep it narrowly focused. If you’re researching Howse’s, don’t add extensive Zumstein family members to the tree. Only add the Zumsteins necessary for you to reach the Howse lines.
Use Technology to Help Your Downsize Your Unnecessarily Large Family Tree
Several years ago, I broke from the temptation to collect people and recklessly add them to my genealogy software program or my online family trees. I downsized my research family trees to focus only on curating information on the lines I’m actively researching and curating.
Step 1: Build an Extended Family Tree on FamilySearch or WikiTree
Since FamilySearch and WikiTree strive to have one world tree, you can utilize their platforms to maintain the extended lines. This is where you can store research for all of my family lines: your 512 seventh great-grandparents (if you don’t have tree collapse or other complications) and beyond.
Additionally, you can add in-laws and those FAN Clubs that you previously added to my database. Whenever you need to revisit these individuals, you go to those platforms and leverage the research others have conducted.
FamilySearch and WikiTree also store your theories. While researching, you likely build source-based theories. If those theories don’t lead to your family, you'll likely abandon those lines. However, your investigation and conclusions are still valuable.
Instead of discarding your discoveries, use FamilySearch or WikiTree as a repository of information for other researchers who may need the answers you uncovered.
FamilySearch and WikiTree can track biological, adopted, step, and guardianship relationships. This is important when you see how to focus your family trees using MyHeritage and Ancestry for DNA discoveries.
Step 2: Create a Biological Family Tree on Ancestry and MyHeritage for DNA Matches
Ancestry ThruLines and MyHeritage Theories of Family Relativity released technology that has changed how their platforms provide clues for DNA test-takers.
As such, you should create a biological tree to avoid confusion when the platforms make relationship suggestions.
Watch this video for more information on Ancestry ThruLines's struggles with distinguishing biological and adopted relationships.
Who To Add To Your Ancestry Or MyHeritage Tree?
Limit your biological family trees to your 5th great-grandparents. You have DNA from 120 ancestors, so your DNA matches will typically link only to this generation of common ancestors.
Then add all the necessary descendants of the 5th great-grandparents that enable you to sort out your matches, but you don’t need everyone.
Consider adding at least one generation of children to your 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th great-grandparents.
Add another generation of descendants if you are not interested in filtering DNA matches.
Add all the descendants for the lines you are most interested in researching.
Ensure you set these trees to ‘Public’ to enable the DNA match relationship suggestions to work. Then, use this tree for DNA matches, not for record research.
Your DNA tree can explode in size as you add more individuals than you typically would for genealogical purposes. You will not deep dive into these relatives, so don't build it with the intent to maintain record research. In short, ignore record hints on this tree!
You can add the information to your second tree when you find a discovery that would benefit your downsized family tree.
Step 3: Create a Genealogical Family Tree on Ancestry and MyHeritage for Research
If you subscribe to Ancestry and MyHeritage for record research, keep a separate research tree on those platforms. These trees allow you to take advantage of the auto-hinting features of both platforms, but you will keep your trees downsized for the projects you are working on.
Keep the tree narrow so you can focus on thoroughly researching your ancestors.
You can also link these trees to your genealogy software programs, such as RootsMagic or Family Tree Maker, to back up your family tree.
For more tips about Downsizing with Family History in Mind, pick up our book by the same name.
Step 4: Downsize Your Genealogy Database
Many genealogy experts say you should keep a backup of your family tree on your computer to:
Fight changes on FamilySearch
Have access to your tree if you let your subscriptions lapse
Manage sources from multiple platforms.
These principles are not wrong, but to increase your efficiency, you want to downsize your unnecessarily large family tree and focus on the lines you are actively researching or need to create a family tree.
In addition to organizing your genealogy research, software programs are great for organizing digital media files on your computer and writing family histories. Your database file should be downsized to the point where you can accomplish these goals.
↪️ Are you looking for more genealogy resources?
Grab your copy of these FREE Genealogy Research Guides.
How Big Is My Genealogy Family Tree Database?
My database had exploded to 10,000 names before I began downsizing. I am actively researching the Geiszlers, Hoppes, Zumsteins, Townleys, and Townsends. I am not researching Clabaugh/Claybaughs or the Comforts.
I removed all Clabaugh and Comfort relatives who are not spouses to the main family lines from my database. If I need them, I can find them on my DNA family tree or in FamilySearch's WikiTree.
When I transfer information between FamilySearch and my genealogy software program, I use the Tree Share feature and only exchange information about my downsized list.
Since I have many generations of small families, I now only have about 1,000 names in the database. An unnecessarily large would exceed that number for my family. My DNA trees have about 3,000 names, but 'my' FamilySearch Family Tree has 1 billion names!
Find out what your necessary number is and delete the rest from your database. For you, perhaps 5,000 names would be optimal. It might climb higher. However, if you brag about a database with 100,000 names or more, I recommend you downsize.
Free Yourself From the Burden of Unnecessarily Large Family Trees
Downsizing your family tree in your database and online tree will free you from the burden of an unnecessarily large family tree. Removing other people's relatives from your database is also freeing; they are accessible online if you need them again.
To free yourself from digital clutter, remove images, citations, and facts pertaining to extended lines you're not actively researching from your database and hard drive.
By downsizing your family tree, you can free yourself to begin writing your family’s history or make cool videos to excite your children, grandchildren, or nieces about their legacy.
And you might also do a little housework.
(I still find ways to avoid housework, but it is possible.)
