For 2009 we have planned some great new features for dynastree. One of these is the merging of individual trees to a common tree. In order to realize this idea, you need a number of options first to deal conveniently with a larger family tree. With the new rights management, we have now implemented part of these settings.

We will explain the new settings in three parts. Today, we will enlarge on the new role of “family” in the tree. So far we had the distinction between “Family Tree”, “Public” and “Friends”. Those of you who have a bigger tree will easily understand that one is somehow related to all the people in the tree, but certainly doesn’t know all people personally and only a few would be considered as part of the family.

Accordingly, we want to give the own family more rights in the family tree (photos, edit profiles, post messages, etc.) than the other relatives. For this reason, we now distinguish between the roles “Family,” “Relatives”, “Public” and “Friends.”

Who is part of your family circle and who isn’t, this can be set in the “Settings” > “Define my family“. You can keep the circle small and only allow direct blood relatives (parents, siblings and your children), or enlarge the circle gradually and admit blood relatives up to 5th-grade cousins. Your partner’s family and all in-law families can be added to the family circle, too. In the select box you can find the number of persons the selected family circle would consist of.

(Click image to enlarge…)

If you’d like to add a certain person to the family circle or exclude someone, that’s no problem. In each profile you can find under the profile picture the possibility to add to or remove the person from the family circle. These individually added / removed profiles are also listed on the page “Define my family”. Here you can edit your settings at any time.

To further explain the terminology “Xth-grade blood relatives” we have painted a small figure. Dieses zeigt euch ausgehend von euch, welche Profile zum Familienkreis gehören würden, wenn man die Einstellung “Blutsverwandte 1. It shows you from your point of view which profiles would belong to the family circle, if the setting 1st-grade blood relatives was selected.

First and foremost the direct blood relatives are part of the circle. These are parents, siblings and children, dark green in the picture. All persons you “meet on your way to your cousin” are in the family circle as well. In this image, it’s the grandparents, the uncle and the cousin himself (orange). Also, all partners of these persons are included, i.e. your partner and the uncle’s partner (light green). That’s it! Any siblings of the uncle’s partner (blue) are not in the family circle.

What rights you can assign to the different groups, this is what we’ll tell you in the next part.