Family Tree Maker

[Dargie]

Thank you Arthur..I will keep trying.

I appreciate your interest and help. One day I may have a book!

Meanwhile I do like the way RootsMagic stores all my data.

I will watch for the next version.

Marj.

[Ireland]

Hi,

I've just bought FTM 2009 with the thought of exporting my family history information from Ancestry to FTM. According to the blurb this is supposed to be one of the features but being a bit of a tecno-drongo (i.e. not good at all!), I'm stuck!
Can anyone please spend the time just to point me in the right direction for taking my info off Ancestry & dumping it into FTM?

Thank you,
Val

[polly.88]

Gosh Val, I am in the same position as you! I have just seen your post and that no-one has replied!! I just seem to stumble about, doing things by accident almost! My original tree was on GR; I then did a GEDCOM (yes!) and transferred it to Ancestry. This is fine. But, like previous posts I do not want to be tied to them forever. I have a FTM which was free (can't remember where from) but I have no idea what to do with it! Help! I hope someone does reply now there are two of us. (I admit I don't always understand the jargon when kind folk try to explain computery things to me.)

[MarkJ]

Not being familiar with Ancestry or the programs mentioned, can you not simply create a gedcom in Ancestry and import the gedcom into FTM? I thought that was one of the ideas of gedcoms - a means of transferring data between computers and different programs.

Mark

[v.wells]

Yes. On Ancestry go into manage trees on your account tab and download the GEDCOM. Save to Desktop or whereever easiest to find and then in FTM simply import the GEDCOM into a new file. There is plenty of information on the FAQ/Help sections in either Ancestry or Genes.

BEWARE of your notes in any of these sites. Print them off first as they will not be imported with your GEDCOM.

Download your GEDCOM from your Tree Settings on the Ancestry toolbar. It's a drop down box - I just looked.

[MarkJ]

I suspect that any media - e.g certificates, photos etc - which you have on your Ancestry or GR account will also need to be imported manually. Gedcom does not include those by default and they probably won't get copied over - thus it would have to be done seperately.

Mark

[polly.88]

Thank you so much for the replies. I am on loads of different forums but this is by far the fastest, most comprehensive ever. I am very nervous of importing the GEDCOM into my FTM, as when I first started doing my tree I stupidly and very randomly, started three different trees at the same time! Why, I can't explain now. Madness. Anyway, I stopped doing the GR tree and the FTM and just concentrated on Ancestry. But that means I've got half a tree on my FTM. I do find Ancestry a very easy to use and explicit site but as I said I don't want to subscribe to them forever. Maybe I should get another more up-to-date software package and GEDCOM to that.

[v.wells]

You can have several trees on FTM - just give them different names.

[stringbean]

If I use GEDCOM to transfer my tree from RM to FTM will it include all the notes and reports? What exactly is downloaded?

[v.wells]

Downloaded is the same as import/export. You download/export your GEDCOM or other files from another site directly to your pc (I use the desktop so I can find it). I don't know if notes/reports can be transferred from RM to FTM. Save the notes/reports and import from their location on your pc to the programme of your choice. If the notes are the ones from the notes space on the tree programme they will be transferred but may need fix-ups.