My guess is that you entered the [family-tree root = ‘___’] as text rather than as code. If you go to the text view of the editor and then start with [family-tree root = '___'] it should work.
I had the same question. How are people ordered on the list page. At the moment, it seems rather random.
Is there a way of excluding deceased people? Can I indicate that someone is deceased if I don’t know their death date?