A family tree is much more meaningful when it includes the people behind the names. Adding photos to your family tree can tell you things that names and dates cannot.
Family Tree Maker gives you a place to keep those photos with your genealogy research. You can add pictures to the media collection, attach them to individual family members, and use the same photo for more than one person when needed.
Let’s go through the steps of adding photos to your family tree.
How to Add Photos to a Family Tree Maker?
Before you begin, find the photograph you want to add on your computer. It can be a scanned old photograph or a digital picture you already have.
The steps can look slightly different depending on your version of Family Tree Maker and whether you use Windows or Mac. The basic process, however, is much the same.
1. Open the Media workspace
Open your family tree in Family Tree Maker and go to the Media workspace.
Select the Collection tab. Here you can see the photographs, documents, and other media you have already added to your tree.
2. Add the photograph
Look for the Add or Add Media option and select Add New Media.
A window will open showing the files on your computer. Go to the folder containing your photograph, select it, and click Open.
If you have several photographs ready to add, you can select more than one file at a time. This is handy when you are working through a box of scanned family photographs rather than adding them one by one.
Mackiev’s Family Tree Maker Support documentation explains the process for adding one or multiple media files.
3. Decide whether to copy or link the photo
FTM gives you a choice about where the photograph should be stored.
You can copy the file into the Media folder associated with your tree, or you can leave the photograph where it is and have Family Tree Maker link to it.
For family photographs you don’t want to lose, copying the file to the tree’s Media folder is generally the safer option. The copy stored with the tree will still be available, even if you later move the original photograph to a different location on your computer.
If you choose to link to the original file, be careful about moving or renaming it. FTM may no longer know where to find it.
4. Add information about the photo
Adding media items to your family tree means you can organize your media using categories and descriptions.
For example, an old photograph could be categorized as family, wedding, or military. You can also add information that might help someone identify it later.
If you know the people in the photograph, the approximate year, the location, or the occasion, write it down.
It is easy to think, “I’ll remember who everyone is.” Ten years later, you may not.
How Do I Add a Photo to a Person in My Family Tree?
Adding a photograph to the media collection does not necessarily mean it is attached to a particular person. If you want a picture to appear with an individual in your tree, you can add it through that person’s record.
Select the person and open their Media section. From there, choose New and then add the photograph.
Can I Add the Same Photo to Several People?
Yes, you can add the photograph once and then link that existing media item to the other people shown in it. This keeps your media collection cleaner and avoids creating a pile of duplicate files.
This is one of the useful features to understand when adding photos to your family tree.
How Do I Use a Photo as Someone’s Main Picture?
You may want a particular photograph to appear as a person’s portrait in Family Tree Maker.
If the photograph is already in your Media collection, you can use the existing picture instead of adding another copy.
You can also add an entirely new picture if the photograph isn’t already in your tree.
FTM 2024 also has an Auto-Crop feature. If you have a group photograph, the software can help you crop one person’s face for use as their portrait.
You can adjust the suggested crop yourself, so you don’t have to accept the first selection.
What If My Photo Is Missing From a Family Tree Maker?
You may open your tree one day and see that a photograph is no longer available. That does not necessarily mean the photograph has been deleted. Think about what happened to the file outside Family Tree Maker. You might have moved it to another folder, reorganized the photographs, or moved your family tree to another computer.
If the photograph was moved, FTM may still be pointing to the old location.
This is where Find Missing Media can help.
How Does Find Missing Media Work?
The Find Missing Media tool searches for media files that Family Tree Maker can no longer find in their previous location. For example, perhaps you originally saved your grandfather’s photograph in the following:
Pictures → Family → Grandparents
and later moved it to:
Pictures → Genealogy → Family Photos
The file is still on your computer. It is just somewhere different.
The Find Missing Media tool can search for it and, if it finds the correct file, restore the connection.
Mackiev notes an important limitation: the tool can help locate media that has been moved, but it cannot recover a file that has been deleted or renamed.
If your photograph is missing from the computer, restore it from a backup or another copy.
What Should I Do When Adding Media Items to My Family Tree?
A little organization goes a long way. If you are adding media items to your family tree regularly, try not to treat the media collection as a dumping ground.
Give files sensible names when possible. For example:
Grandpa-Wedding-1960.jpg is much easier to understand later than
IMG_1298.jpg
You can also use categories in Family Tree Maker to group photographs and documents.
And don’t rely only on your memory. If you know that a photograph was taken in 1948 at your great-grandparents’ house, add that information to the description.
Someone else may be looking at the same photograph many years from now.
Can I Use My Photos in a Family Tree Book?
When your family tree contains names, dates, photographs, and documents, you have much more than a database of relatives. You are gradually building a record of your family’s history.
You can use the reports and book-building features of Family Tree Maker to bring your research together. A family tree book can include family information, charts, reports and supporting material, so you can create something to share with relatives or keep as a family record.
That is why it is worth attaching photographs to the correct people as you go. You don’t have to sort through hundreds of unrelated files later.
Are You Having Trouble With Photos in Family Tree Maker?
Sometimes the problem isn’t adding the photograph. It is figuring out why something isn’t working afterward. You might have a missing photograph, a broken media link, or a media option that doesn’t appear where you expect it to. This is where Family Tree Makers Support can be useful.
Choosing the best Family Maker support resources means you get troubleshooting information for different versions of FTM, including FTM 2024, FTM 2019 and older versions. They also provide chat options for users who need additional assistance.
Final Thoughts
Adding photographs is one of those small Family Tree Maker tasks that becomes more important as your research grows.
Start with the media collection, add your photographs, and connect them to the people who appear in them. If a picture belongs to several relatives, link the same media item rather than creating unnecessary copies. And if something goes wrong later, check whether the file was moved before assuming it has been lost. The Find Missing Media tool may be able to reconnect it.
Most importantly, keep your family photographs backed up. Names and dates can often be found again. An old photograph of a great-grandparent may be something you can never replace.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I add more than one photograph at a time?
Answer: Yes, you can select multiple files when adding media to your Family Tree Maker tree. The keyboard shortcut for selecting multiple files depends on whether you are using Windows or Mac.
- Can one photograph be connected to several family members?
Answer: Yes, you can link an existing media item to multiple people. This is useful for group photographs.
- Should I copy photographs to the Media folder?
Answer: For important photographs, copying them to the tree’s Media folder can be helpful. It reduces the chance of losing the connection if you later move the original file on your computer.
- Why did my photograph disappear from FTM?
Answer: If you moved or reorganized the photograph on your computer, Family Tree Maker may no longer know where it is. Try the Find Missing Media feature.
- Can I use photographs when creating a family tree book?
Answer: Yes, organizing your photographs and attaching them to the correct people makes them much easier to use when preparing family history reports and books.