Giving a title to your tree One of the two requirements for registering a tree is that you specify its title (the other is that you specify its availability). If you are registering a single tree, as opposed to a collection of related trees (an option you can specify), your title should reflect whether the tree lists ancestors of a person (e.g., "Ancestors of John Smith"), or, if it is a tree of descendants, the surname(s) of the progenitor(s) of the tree or their earliest descendants who used surnames (e.g., "Smith Family" or "Descendants of John Smith and Mary Jones"). If possible, you should also include in the title a place associated with the tree, such as a place where most of its members resided, or a place where its earliest progenitor(s) resided (e.g., "Smith Family From Nantucket" or "Descendants of Juan Garcia From Cordoba, Spain"). If you are registering a collection of trees that are not related by surname, then you should indicate in the title how they are related (e.g., "Jewish Families From Nantucket"). Availability of your tree You must specificy the availability of your tree (i.e., where to find it). There are four types of availabilities: private, online, published, and repository. "Online" should be used only if your tree is available online, in which case the reference field should indicate the corresponding URL (http://...). "Published" should be used if your tree has been published in print, such as in a book, journal, or magazine, in which case the reference field should indicate the title of the publication, date, etc. (just like a bibliographic citation). "Repository" should be used if your tree is stored in an archive or other type of repository outside of your home, in which case the reference field should identify that repository and describe where in the repository your tree can be found (e.g., by providing a call number). In all other cases, you should indicate the availability as "private," such as when the tree exists only on your computer, in an unpublished manuscript, or in your head! Describing your tree (optional) You have 600 characters with which to describe your family tree, in addition to the fields allowing you to specify ethnicity, religion, places associated with surnames, etc. You should not use the description to list every surname appearing on the tree - you can do that by adding surnames to the tree (see below). The description field exists to allow you to provide other distinguishing features about the families on your tree and the tree itself. For example: sources used in compiling the tree, the scope of the tree (if not well summarized by the tree's title), famous members, hereditary occupations, hereditary diseases, religious conversion, personal details about the progenitor(s), dates of migration, and your suspicions of relationships to other families. Please do not use the description to request lookups or other help with your research. Ethnicities, religions, dates, and other optional tree fields When registering your tree, you may specificy as many or as few of the other optional fields as you wish. The more you specify, the more easily other researchers will be able to identify your tree as being of interest to them, as long as you specify these fields accurately. So, if only one person on your tree of 1000 people was a Buddhist, it would not be appropriate to list Buddhism as a dominant religion for the tree. You might, however, wish to list Buddhism as a religion for that person's surname when adding surnames to the tree (see below). Adding surnames to your tree - optional, but strongly advised It is strongly advised that you add surnames to your tree. When you have finished specifying details about your tree and click on the "Continue" button, you will see a form allowing you to add one surname or many in bulk to your tree. You can also add surnames at any later time by logging in, clicking on "Register/Edit a Family Tree," clicking on the title of the tree you want to add to at the right, then clicking on "Add a Surname" at the top. You need not add every surname on your tree, but the more you add, the greater the likelihood that an interested researcher will find your tree. Entering surnames in bulk When using the bulk surname entry field to add many surnames at once to your tree, note that any other options you specify will be applied to all of the bulk fields. Therefore, you should only specify other options that apply to all of the surnames (e.g., they are all associated with the same place, or all of the same religion) - or to most of the surnames, if you intend to later edit those surnames to which they do not apply. Despite adding the surnames in bulk, you can still edit them individually afterwards. Providing a native surname spelling and variant surname spellings The surname field only allows Latin characters, so, if you wish to add a surname that is spelled in a different alphabet, it is recommended that you provide a Latinization using the surname field and the actual spelling using the native surname spelling field. The native surname spelling field can be searched just like the surname field, with the only difference being that "sounds like" searches are not yet implemented for the native surname spelling field. If there are variations on the surname's spelling, you should provide these in the variant surname spellings field, and they will all be searched when someone searches for surnames. Other optional surname fields Just as when registering your tree, you can specify additional fields to describe a surname, such as religion, ethnicity, place, dates, etc. These can be especially useful if your surname is common or not unique to a single religion or ethnicity. Adding a surname more than once There are situations when you might wish to add a surname multiple times to the same tree. You should only do this when the different surname entries are not identical with respect to their other fields. For example, if your Smith family lived in London from 1700-1800 and Boston from 1800-1900, you can add two Smith entries, each with a different corresponding place and range of dates.