How Many People Can You Add to Family Tree Maker?

Family Tree Maker doesn’t impose a strict cap on the number of individuals you can include. It’s designed to grow with your research, limited mainly by your computer’s hardware like RAM, processor speed, and storage. Users report trees with 50,000 people running smoothly on modern setups. Older machines might slow down around 10,000 to 20,000 entries, with lag in searches or chart generation.

For charts and reports, size matters more. An all-in-one chart for 10 generations could cover over 1,000 people, but exporting large ones depends on RAM. If your tree balloons, focus on optimizing rather than worrying about a hard limit.

Tips for Managing Large Trees

To handle more people effectively, upgrade your hardware. Aim for at least 8GB RAM and a solid-state drive for faster loading. Regularly compact your file via the Tools menu to remove bloat from deleted records.

Syncing with Ancestry? There’s no upload limit there either, but file size caps apply—typically under 100MB for GEDCOM imports. Break big trees into smaller ones if needed, like separating maternal and paternal lines.

Adding multiple spouses or blended families? Use the People workspace to link relationships accurately. This keeps your tree organized without hitting artificial barriers.

How Many People Can You Add to Family Tree Maker Without Issues?

In practice, how many people can you add to Family Tree Maker boils down to your setup. Start small, add as you go, and monitor performance. If it slows, archive inactive branches or use filters to view subsets. Tools like the Index of Individuals help navigate huge datasets quickly.

For collaboration, share via Ancestry for multiple users to contribute without size worries. Remember, quality trumps quantity—verify sources to keep your tree accurate.

In summary, Family Tree Maker offers flexibility for vast trees. With smart management, you can add thousands without trouble. Ready to expand yours? Grab the latest version and start mapping your heritage today.

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