Family Tree Maker support for California researchers
California research produces a particular kind of Family Tree Maker file: many counties, many source citations, and a hard cutoff at 1905 that sends you to county recorders instead of the state. That shape causes specific problems in the software. This page covers both the research boundary and the file problems it creates.
- Service area
- California, remote
- Delivered by
- Screen share & phone
- Updated
- September 2026
We work remotely. We hold no office in California. Sessions run over screen share, so a technician sees the same screen you do wherever you sit in the state.
The 1905 boundary, and why it changes your sources
California began statewide registration of births, deaths and marriages in July 1905. Compliance became general by about 1920. Before July 1905 the state holds nothing. County recorders hold what survives, and coverage varies by county.
| Event date | Who holds the record | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Before July 1905 | County recorder | Coverage varies by county. Some counties kept death records, fewer kept births. |
| July 1905 to about 1920 | State and county | Registration exists but compliance was incomplete. Gaps are normal. |
| After about 1920 | State | Consistent statewide coverage. |
The California State Archives is not the vital records repository. It does hold microfilmed and original county records from 28 counties, covering probate, marriage, birth, death and naturalization. Researchers who assume the Archives holds state vital records lose weeks. Confirm the holding institution before you record a citation.
Recording county sources so they survive a merge
A California tree carries citations from dozens of separate county offices. Family Tree Maker treats each of those as a distinct source, and that is correct. Problems begin when the same county office gets entered three different ways.
- Name the county, not the state. "Sonoma County Recorder" identifies the holding office. "California vital records" does not, and it collapses distinct offices into one vague source.
- Keep one source per office and add citations underneath it, rather than creating a new source for every certificate.
- Record the year range you searched in the citation detail. A negative search is a finding, and it stops you repeating the work.
Inconsistent source naming is the single biggest cause of the duplicate-source lists we see in California trees. Fixing it afterwards means merging sources by hand, which the software does not undo.
When a county-heavy tree starts to slow down
Deep California research generates thousands of citations and heavy media attachments from county microfilm. Both slow Family Tree Maker before the person count does.
Compact the file. Citation-heavy trees accumulate dead space faster than name-only trees.
Check where the media folder sits. Scanned county certificates are large. A media folder inside a cloud-sync folder causes stalls and broken links.
Back up with media included before any cleanup, so the scans travel with the file.
Let the Places workspace do the county work
A California tree is county-shaped by definition, and the Places workspace is the part of Family Tree Maker that handles that best. It lists every place in your tree and lets you pull up everyone associated with a town or county, which is exactly the question California research keeps asking. Researchers who compare the desktop program with the online tree most often name this workspace as the thing the website has no equivalent for.
Two habits keep it usable, and working with places in Family Tree Maker covers them in full. Run periodically, because a file carrying hundreds of unresolved places is also the file that stalls uploads and throws odd errors. And run the Data Errors Report from the Publish workspace now and again, which surfaces impossible dates and broken links before they turn into a puzzle.
One thing to know if you tidy places and then sync: short place names and map coordinates stay on your own computer. They are not carried to an online tree. Nothing is lost, but it is another reason the file on your desk is the copy worth backing up.
A warning aimed squarely at people searching for local help
Searching for support in your own state is reasonable, and it is also how people meet the operation that genealogy forums keep warning each other about. The pitch runs like this: your older tree files must be converted before a newer version will read them, and someone needs remote access to your computer to do it, for a fee.
That is not true. A current version opens older tree files directly and converts them itself as they load. Nobody has to touch your machine for it, and the publisher's own support is free and does not ask for remote access. Before you agree to anything, ask one question: what will you do that opening the file would not? A straight answer is easy to give when there is one.
We will hold ourselves to the same test. We do not charge for version conversion, because there is nothing to charge for. Read the fuller version in spotting fake Family Tree Maker support.
What we do for California researchers
We fix the software, not the research. Sessions run over screen share, and we tell you before you pay when the problem sits outside what we handle.
- Repairing trees that will not open or sync after years of county research.
- Merging duplicated people and duplicated sources created by large index imports.
- Relinking scanned certificates after a media folder moved.
- One-to-one training on source and citation structure, so a large tree stays usable.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have an office in California?
No. We work remotely by screen share and phone with researchers across California. A technician sees your screen during the session, so no visit is needed.
When do California birth and death records start?
Statewide registration of births, deaths and marriages began in July 1905, with general compliance by about 1920. For events before July 1905, contact the county recorder for the county where the event happened.
Does the California State Archives hold vital records?
The California State Archives is not the official vital records repository. It holds a limited set of county records from 28 counties, including probate, marriage, birth, death and naturalization records.
Can you help me find a California ancestor?
No. We support the software rather than the research. We repair files, fix syncing, merge duplicates and train you on Family Tree Maker. Record lookups belong with archives, county recorders and professional genealogists.
My California tree has thousands of sources and runs slowly. Can that be fixed?
Yes. Citation-heavy trees accumulate dead space, and large scanned media slows loading. Compacting the file and relocating the media folder resolves most of it.
What does a session cost?
We assess the problem first and quote before any work starts. If we cannot fix it, you pay nothing.
California tree misbehaving?
We repair the file, merge the duplicates and get syncing working again. No fix, no fee.