Most people keep their tree in a genealogy program and upload it to the site from time to time. That is the recommended way. But some things are done on the site itself, and RootsPersona can also be the only place where the tree is kept.
Two ways of working
| The tree is kept in your program (default) | The tree is kept on the site | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you add people and facts | in your genealogy program | on the site, in the edit form |
| How the site is updated | upload a new GEDCOM file | at once, when you save |
| What you edit on the site | biography, photos, privacy of a person | everything: names, facts, families, new people |
| Setting | — | Data is entered on this website (system of record) |
Choose one. Do not edit facts on the site and upload GEDCOM files at the same time: the next upload brings the data of the file, and changes made only on the site can be overwritten. If you work in a program, make the changes there and upload the file again.
Editing a person
Log in as administrator and open the person’s page. At the bottom there are two buttons, which visitors never see:
- Edit Person — opens the edit form.
- Delete Person — deletes the person from the site. You are asked before anything is deleted.
The edit form has these parts:
- The person — name and main data.
- Biography — the notes about the person.
- Facts and Family Groups — only when the tree is kept on the site.
- Privacy — the level of this person: Default (follow the rules of the site), Public, Members only, Private, or Exclude. See Privacy.
- Photos — the photos of the page and an Add photo button.
Press Save, then View to return to the page.
To hide the Edit buttons on your own pages too, untick Edit links at the bottom of the page in Settings → RootsPersona → Persona page.
Excluding a person
The Exclude level deletes the person’s page and keeps them out of future uploads: the person will not be offered a page again. To bring excluded people back, open Tools → RootsPersona → Review Excluded Persons and include the ones you select.
Keeping the tree on the site
If you have no genealogy program, or want to build the tree right on the site, open Settings → RootsPersona, find Editing on the site and turn on Data is entered on this website (system of record). Then:
- the edit form also edits facts and families;
- the form has a New button, and Tools → RootsPersona → Add Individual adds a new person from scratch.
Back the tree up from time to time: Tools → RootsPersona → Export GEDCOM gives a file that any genealogy program can open (see Exporting the tree).
Other tools for pages
On Tools → RootsPersona:
- Sync page titles from database — after a new GEDCOM upload, brings page titles up to date (for example after a name was corrected).
- Validate persona Pages — finds pages without a person in the database and people whose page is gone, and pages under the wrong parent page.
- Add Evidence Pages — creates missing pages for sources.
- Delete persona Pages — deletes all persona and source pages at once. You are asked before anything is deleted; make a backup of the site first.