Ancestor Explorer Mapping FAQ/Instructions

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Ancestors Explorer Mapping FAQ/Instructions

Fix Coordinates. This link in the heading takes the user to features that allow the user to correct the coordinates for a location.

Option buttons - generally. The map has a number of option buttons across the top. Options that are currently active are outlined in blue. Some options may only be available if certain other options are active or inactive.

Location markers - generally. The app can map both birth and death locations. Birth locations have green markers (as in “go/start”) and death locations have red markers (as in “stop/end”). Hovering over or clicking on a marker will open an info window above the marker, containing the name of the person, date, and location name for the marker. So long as neither Parents on Click or Children on Click are active, double clicking on a marker will move the marker to the bottom of the stack of overlapping markers so that you can access other markers in the stack. Note you can also access other markers in a stack by zooming in, which will cause the markers to separate.

Location marker clustering. In order to avoid a map with lots of markers being an undecipherable mess, and in order to make sure markers at the same location are separately accessible/viewable, that app clusters together markers at lower zoom levels and spreads them apart at higher zoom levels. As a result, at least at certain zoom levels, individual markers may appear at a different place than their proper place. At high zoom levels, if there are multiple markers at the same location, they will be organized alphabetically in rows.

Timeline. The timeline option allows you to see the birth and/or death markers of ancestors who were living at a particular date. You can play the timeline forward or backward are various speeds and pause the animation at any date. When the animation is paused or stopped, you can drag the date line to any particular date to see the ancestors living at that date. For purposes of this option, ancestors without a birth date are assumed to have been born 60 years before they died and ancestors without a death date are assumed to have died 60 years after they were born.

Parent-Child Lines. Shows a blue line connecting ancestors to their fathers and a red line connecting ancestors to their mothers. This option is not available if both birth and death markers are active.

Birth-Death Lines. Shows a black line connecting ancestors’ birth and death markers. This option is only available if both birth and death markers are active.

Birth-Death on Click. When activated, clicking on a marker for an ancestors will open up the info windows for both the ancestor’s birth location and their death location. This option is only available if both birth and death markers are active.

Parents on Click. When activated, clicking on the marker for an ancestor will make the markers for the ancestor’s parents visible (if they had been hidden using Hide Closed) and open the info windows for their markers. This option can be used to walk up ancestral lines. This option is not available if both birth and death markers are active or if timeline is active.

Children on Click. When activated, clicking on the marker for an ancestor will make the markers for the ancestor’s children visible (if they had been hidden using Hide Closed) and open the info windows for their markers. Note that only the markers for children on the ancestor list that was mapped will be show. This option can be used to walk down ancestral lines. This option is not available if both birth and death markers are active or if timeline is active.

Hide Closed. When activated, hides all markers that did not have an open info window at the time the option was activated or was subsequently made visible by using ‘Parents on Click’ or ‘Children on Click.’ By selecting an individual ancestor using ‘Hide Closed’ and ‘Parents on Click’ and/or ‘Children on Click’ allows you to go up or down an individual ancestral line. This option is not available if both birth and death markers are active or if timeline is active.

Find. Shows a dropdown list of all ancestors whose markers are then visible on the map. Selecting an ancestor from the drop-down list will open the info windows for that ancestors markers that are then visible.

Return to List (or Return to Line). Returns the user to the ancestor list page or the lines of descent page, depending on which one the user came to the mapping function from.