Good programs exist
Yes, Ancestry did announce yesterday that it’s discontinuing its Family Tree Maker software.
No, it’s not the end of the world.
Really.
Promise.
Would The Legal Genealogist lie?1
Okay… deep breath.
Yes, it is very frustrating to many users that a program they’ve relied on for a long time seems to be suddenly going away.
But the demise of this program really isn’t going to happen overnight — even thought the program isn’t going to be sold any more after the end of 2015, Family Tree Maker will be still supported for more than a year, until at least 1 January 2017.
There’s time, in other words, to do what this graphic says: Keep calm … and check out the alternatives.
And there really are alternatives — very good alternatives — available for us all.
First off, let’s start by getting the facts. And there isn’t any better way to do that than to read what Ancestry has to say.
It’s got a blog post about this here, where we learn that:
• You can still buy the current version of Family Tree Maker if you want it. But that’s only until the end of this year. Act before December 31, 2015, or forever hold your peace.2
• Family Tree Maker will continue to be supported for at least a year after the last copy is sold: “Ancestry will continue to support current owners of Family Tree Maker at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™, will continue to work, and Member Services will be available to assist with user questions. We will also address major software bugs that may occur, as well as compatibility updates.”3
Read that part again: “Ancestry will continue to support current owners of Family Tree Maker at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™, will continue to work…”
In other words, we all have at least another year and some-odd days to figure out what to do if we’re now using Family Tree Maker.
Secondly, we need to spend a good bit of the first part of that year doing… yep … just what this graphic says: Keep calm … and check out the alternatives.
You can start by tuning in tonight, Wednesday, December 9th, to DearMYRTLE’s WACKY Wednesday discussion of the question It’s a starting at 9 p.m. Eastern (8 Central, 7 Mountain, 6 Pacific), and it’ll be recorded if you’re not a Google user and can’t join in. There’s no doubt that it’ll discuss, among other things, staying with the software until it just stops working, regardless of whether it’ll be supported.
But, I’m sure, it’s also going to start looking at the alternatives — other software genealogists can use to record their research findings.
There are several, but I want to mention two in particular, because (a) they’re full-featured, (b) the people involved with them either are genealogists themselves (Bruce Buzbee, the developer of RootsMagic) or are heavily involved with the genealogical community (Legacy Family Tree puts on that wonderful webinar series — its webinar host Geoff Rasmussen is himself a genealogist), and (c) both moved swiftly to open their doors to panicked Family Tree Maker users.
So… in purely alphabetical order:
Legacy 8.0 from Legacy Family Tree
With a free standard edition and a deluxe edition usually priced at $29.99 and on sale now for $19.95, Legacy 8.0 software from Legacy Family Tree has a lot to recommend it — including a very easy import path for Family Tree Maker users. Legacy’s features include family view, pedigree view, a to-do list or research log, the ability to bookmark individuals, birthday and anniversary reminders and free support — even in the free version.
In the deluxe version, added features include research guidance, mapping, a location database, timelines, ability to record DNA markers, a chronology view, descendant view, index view, relationship calculator and the ability to compare two files for duplicates. Full sources, reporting and publishing options and integration with FamilySearch.
If you want to try Legacy out before you buy it, the free standard version can be downloaded here; that’s the same page for the deluxe version if you’re ready to make the full switch.
And when I say the import path from Family Tree Maker is easy, I mean it is easy. So easy in fact that it has only two real steps: exporting from Family Tree Maker and importing into Legacy. If you want more help, Legacy’s Geoff Rasmussen has already put a short video on the Legacy site explaining the import process. You can find the video here.
Legacy 8.0 works on all Windows machines, on newer Macs with Windows installed under Bootcamp, Parallels or Fusion, and on Linux machines with a Windows emulator like Crossover, VMWare or Sun’s Virtual Box.
And Family Tree Maker users can be assured of a warm welcome — it’s already on Legacy’s blog.4
RootsMagic 7
RootsMagic 7 is the premier software from RootsMagic, which also offers a free trial and a free alternative, RootsMagic Essentials. RootsMagic founder and President Bruce Buzbee is himself a genealogist. His responsiveness to the wants and needs of the genealogical community is legendary — and deservedly so.
Even in the free RootsMagic Essentials version, the software has unlimited capacity for facts, notes, sources and multimedia items. It offers sophisticated search tools, multimedia support, plenty of reports and source options, and power tools. You can download it from here.
The more powerful and full-featured RootsMagic 7 adds multiple view screens, online searching, sophisticated sourcing, reporting and publishing options, mapping, integration with FamilySearch and more. A trial version can be downloaded here.
There are videos and guides showing how to import from all versions of Family Tree Maker, special pricing for folks transitioning from Family Tree Maker (a special $20 price, down from the regular $44.90), all on a special website set up by RootsMagic — just click here.
RootsMagic works on all versions of Windows and directly as a native application under Mac OS X.
And Family Tree Maker users can be assured of a warm welcome — it’s already on the RootsMagic blog.5
So… take a deep breath.
Relax.
You have a year.
That’s plenty of time to do what this graphic says: Keep calm … and check out the alternatives.
These two — and others still — are out there waiting for you.
SOURCES
- The answer is yes, of course I would, but not about that. ↩
- Kendall Hulet, “Ancestry to Retire Family Tree Maker Software,” Ancestry blog, posted 8 Dec 2015 (http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/ : accessed 8 Dec 2015). ↩
- Ibid. ↩
- Geoff Rasmussen, “Update on the Family Tree Maker announcement,” Legacy News, posted 8 Dec 2015 (http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/ : accessed 8 Dec 2015). ↩
- Michael Booth, “Family Tree Maker® users have a new home at RootsMagic; Upgrade offer with Free Book and Magic Guides,” RootsMagic Blog, posted 8 Dec 2015 (http://blog.rootsmagic.com/ : accessed 8 Dec 2015). ↩
You might also like to include Family Historian in the list of options. It’s the program I use. It’s very flexible, is highly customisable, and even allows you to edit on the fly directly from diagrams. You can download a free trial here:
http://www.family-historian.co.uk/
That’s one for sure. There are also (in purely alphabetical order) Ancestral Quest,
Heredis, TNG for online trees, and others as well. The key here is: there’s time. Time to research the options, choose the right one for each current FTM user… and move forward without panicking.
If anyone is interested in moving over to Family Historian there is currently a 20% discount for FTM users for the download version:
http://blog.eogn.com/2015/12/09/family-historian-offers-20-discount-for-family-tree-maker-users/
Another enthusiastic recommendation for Family Historian here. Most of the time I work in the trees (diagrams), clicking and dragging to add people similar to drawing a family tree on paper. Very easy and intuitive. Lots of advanced features including icons displayed below people in trees denoting what source image information has been saved and linked to each person. The ability to crop heads and shoulders from a single group photograph and link those individual images to the people concerned. Just a couple of examples of many.
Thanks for joining the discussion!
Another enthusiastic user of Family Historian here. The program is extensible by means of plugins, there is a (free) companion program Ancestral Sources which aids in data entry, and a welcoming user group at FHUG.org.uk.
Thanks for joining the discussion, Jan!
It looks like the makers of Family Historian are actively courting FTM users by offering them a special discount. Maybe some of the other competitors will also offer discounts in order to entice FTM users into their camps.
See: http://www.family-historian.co.uk/ftm
I have tried Family Historian and liked it–BUT i was unable to produce an Ahnentafel on this program. there was something similar that was not totally successful. Any suggestions?
Checking with tech support at the software company is always a good idea.
Excellent post, Judy, as always. There also are other alternatives available than the two major ones you addressed. MyHeritage.com offers a free desktop software program called Family Tree Builder at . There are a number of commercially available programs for the PC, such as Family Historian and Genbox, and for the Mac such as Reunion, Mac Family Tree, and Heredis. It really is not the end of the world. As with genealogy record types, there are alternative resources available.
Thanks for the additional suggestions, George.
Maybe I don’t understand this, but how can you upload a tree onto Ancestry without using FTM? Does this mean no more new trees online on Ancestry, then?
(a) All programs create gedcoms which can be uploaded to Ancestry. (b) Ancestry has a year to figure out how (or whether) to let people sync with a family tree on Ancestry using other programs. (c) Even now, data entry can be made directly online.
I think the effect of this announcement will vary according to how people use FTM, in particular in relation to their Ancestry online trees. If they don’t use Ancestry online trees, or just upload a gedcom from time to time as “cousin bait”, then they can just switch (relatively painlessly) to another software program, as your blog post suggests. But many people, including myself, use the online trees at Ancestry to actually conduct their research (it’s quicker that way, basically) and then sync with FTM in order to produce reports in various formats. It is these users who seemingly are not being offered any alternative, at least at the moment, unless we maintain our trees on Ancestry without proper software back-up. So, I for one, will just have to go back to doing my research the “old fashioned” way. So much for progress……….
I do understand the issue with the tree sync issue. There’s time for Ancestry to consider opening its link up to other software — or to make it a whole lot easier to really sync (and not just upload) via gedcom or some other mechanism.
The most important part of the equation is the reporting issue, Judy. The syncing isn’t a big deal, the Ancestry folks can write the code to sync to anything I’m sure.
FTM has reports that you can’t make on the Ancestry Member Tree system. Things like data errors, lineage and descendancies, etc. Mycanvas is limited and very expensive to use for simple reports and such.
The other end of reporting is OUT of the Ancestry system – their GEDCOM export tool is severely limited and puts user information at risk. If I download my GEDCOM today it includes everything, even the information about living/private individuals. If I didn’t already know that, I could easily upload my GEDCOM onto say, WikiTree, and put that information at risk without realizing it. They need to seriously upgrade the options available in AMT to match the GEDCOM export tool in FTM.
All of the other software packages have excellent, full, reporting and publishing features and all of the tools like data error checking.
Yep, Legacy and the others have great reporting capabilities. But the AMT that the Ancestry folks are suggesting people to use does not.
Ouch.
I research in a similar way using my trees at ancestry.com to assist in the search process and then syncing to FTM to make sure I have a local copy with all the source image documents and also to expand the source text. I transcribe the information from the images to text and then add more facts to people.
Syncing is the key. If we have to download every image and attach to our local software by hand, this will be very annoying and time consuming.
My concern is that ancestry is planning to drop syncing in 2017 to save money in their server infrastructure. Syncing costs servers and support dollars. If that is their motivation, then they will not allow Legacy or RootsMagic to connect and sync.
Repeat: syncing is the issue. We will have a year for ancestry.com to come up with a good solution for us. I am not optimistic.
I agree, and we’ll all have to keep hammering on this.
It’s not only the tree synch issue. It’s access to documents. I bought FTM simply to get the Ancestry images of media downloaded. Could there be a copyright or usage issue with downloading images of documents, now or in the future? I could easily see Ancestry.com having the existing membership AND fees for downloading images. I am grabbing all my images now.
I always always always download the images, Bonnie, because the database may change, Ancestry may have only licensed its use, etc., etc. So it’s a good idea to do that anyway.
Hi, Judy,
It’s obviously the subject of another post, but could you share your strategy for organizing the photos and other documents you download, and/or point us towards other resources that discuss this?
I started out trying to do so but quickly found it too cumbersome, so I stopped. I now have thousands and thousands of records, and the idea of having to find my way back through them all to manually download everything is daunting, to say the least, so hopefully having a good way to organize them will help me at least start up doing that from here on out.
Definitely another post down the road, Wendy!
Like Wendy (comment above) I have thousands of records and images on my Ancestry tree where I do my main research. I have downloaded and saved some but to go back and check over 15years worth of research is mind numbing! I have always used FTM sync to back up my Ancestry tree and allow me to print off if needed.
Does this mean a) I will lose those records that I have not saved to my computer
b) If I purchase another programme such as RootsMagic7 will it transfer all images and docs that I have on FTM via sync with my online tree?
Joanna, you’ll need to ask that of the folks from the other programs. Do take heart, however, from the second blog post by Kendall Hulet on December 9th that “We are exploring possible relationships with other desktop software solutions that would make it possible for their products to integrate with Ancestry API. Stay tuned.” If that integration is allowed, it could ease a lot of the pain of this transition.
Do any – or all – of these other family tree programs allow other folks to view your tree on line? Just starting to look at alternatives. Thanks.
You can continue to maintain your tree online — no need to change that and you can keep it at Ancestry. You won’t be able to sync it through the software unless Ancestry opens its code to outside developers.
Thanks, Judy. I’ve had my tree on ancestry for many, many years – I don’t care to enter data on there – just enter data via FTM. Last time I uploaded my tree it took 5-6 hours (may be better now with higher internet speeds) so if FTM will no longer sync after next year, looking for an alternative, but would like other folks to be able to view my tree/photos in whatever program I decide to use.
I understand the concerns, and can only hope that Ancestry works out a TreeSync alternative long before January 1, 2017.
RootsMagic does allow you to upload your tree to their free web site. I’ve found it to be very easy to do.
Good to know, thanks!
I had FTM twice and it crashed both times. I went back to a free Legacy and it works very well.
I have a working Ancestry tree which is private and the one I use for DNA which is public. Both can download into my Legacy and then I update a free Tribal Pages tree.
A gedcom is a gedcom and works everywhere..
So I am not affected at all.. Just need to get the best price I can for the World Deluxe Ancestry annual.. I can’t do AARP again they tell me but the AncestryRep said I should get some offers before my 1/7 deadline
Good to know!!
Hi Kathleen and everyone, I have used the AARP discount with the Ancestry World subscription more than once. I’m wondering if it depends on which Ancestry sales rep. you talk with.
I have a question for you: I am on Ancestry now but have not paid for FTM. Should I go ahead and get FTM and expect to convert to say, Legacy later?
I am looking for a way to save all the work I have done on Ancestry and be able to access it without paying a yearly fee, as sometimes I might work every day for a month on it, and then not touch it for 8 months.
Thanks
Teresa that would be a PERFECT question for the FTM experts who’ll be in that Google Hangout with DearMYRTLE tonight.
For Mac users there are three that tend to lead the pack. MacFamilyTree, Reunion and RootsMagic. I have MacFamilyTree and RootsMagic and test drove Reunion. My go to program is RootsMagic out of the three. It meets my needs. It might not meet your needs. I also have an old abandoned version FTM Mac 2. Reunion and RootsMagic have trial versions for you to try. I believe MacFamilyTree is one that must be purchased before trying. Double check that one though. It’s been so long since I bought that.
Thanks for adding to the discussion, Jody!
I have used the full purchased copy of Reunion for several years. I would highly recommend it for those on the Mac Platform.
I have used FTM for over 20 years and my research includes lots of media files. I don’t like using the online Ancestry.com and will be moving my research to a new program that will be supported. What is the best genealogy program for importing media files from FTM and for organizing multi-media files?
Jody, that would be a PERFECT question for the FTM experts who’ll be in that Google Hangout with DearMYRTLE tonight.
I don’t have this SYNC program BUT am considering getting it before they no
longer offer it in order to get all my gallery photo’s and stories…I have not saved everything to my computer over the years as I work on a laptop so I try to limit the documents I save on my computer.
I DID read of one person who said he had to buy a new computer to run the program and having a laptop I am concerned whether I would even be able to “fit” all this stuff on my computer…so I was wondering if I could get a large memory stick to accommodate it if I cannot get it to fit on my computer.
I have a LARGE tree (10,000)due to going back to the Pilgrims and the fact that I try to do at least 3 generations along my pedigree lines…I also have tons of docs and “photo”s that are actually documents I have found in places other than ancestry.
#1 should I be able to work this out with the largest memory stick available?
#2 do any of the alternate progams you have discussed accommodate photo’s and docs that I could transfer from the almost defunct FTM system…that is the ONLY reason I would be buying it as I DO run FTM 2006 BUT that does not D/L photo’s from ancestry–only a simple GEDCOM which often leaves a lot to be desired.
Time is obviously of the essence for me so if anyone could address my questions quickly I sure would appreciate it…I don’t have much time to make this decision.
I thought I could put this off for a while but obviously I can’t now…given ancestry’s absolute refusal to keep OLD ancestry even though so many people protested it–I highly doubt they are going to change their mind on this either.
I cannot believe ancestry is hooting itself in the foot AGAIN so quickly and I HOPE they are doing this in order to sell the company and that some buyer can be found that listens to their customers and cares about genealogy.
The OLD owners did listen and did care but it is obvious the “new owners” for the last 3+ years don’t. I keep hoping that this company gets sold again to another company who gives a HOOT.
THESE owners obviously don’t.
Thank you!
Joyce
Joyce, your questions about FTM are better addressed by the FTM experts who’ll be in DearMYRTLE’s Google Hangout tonight, and your specific questions about the other programs and their capabilities can be readily answered by the support teams from each company. There are guides available for each, Facebook groups of users, and plenty of handholding.
Joyce, depending on what Operating System you are running, I would recommend that you obtain a suitable version of Family Tree Maker (for that OS) before the stocks run out. You will then have a year to sync your tree (including all the media) into that software. I would recommend that you also use an external data storage drive (e.g. I use one Terabyte) via a USB port if you don’t have enough storage space for all the files. Hope this helps.
Joyce,
Firstly, you still have just over a year, so please don’t feel like you are in crunch-mode to get it done.
You will only run into operating system issues if your computer is older and not really capable of running FTM 2014 / FTM3 (depending on your platform of Windows or OSX). To know for sure, check your system’s specs and compare with those recommended for the version of FTM that you are looking to purchase.
Having a laptop does not–in and of itself–mean that you don’t have much available hard drive space. Of course, if your machine is older, then that is probably the case; however, most newer laptops are equipped with massive amounts of storage.
I would not necessarily recommend buying a “memory stick” (more commonly known as a USB Drive) for this task, simply based on what you stated about purchasing “the largest available.” The reason for that is not that it would be incapable, but rather, it is not really the best option on a cost vs space ratio. For example, on Amazon, you can purchase a reputable brand portable external hard drive in 1 terabyte of space (1,000 gigabytes) for under $60. A reputable USB flash drive or “memory stick” in that same size is very often in the several hundred dollar range. In fact, just earlier this year, a reputable brand (that has a better track record with data) of that same size was almost $900. I have a 3TB (3,000 gig) external hard drive that I purchased 4 months ago for $119.
Of course, as always, you should back up your data in at least two separate places, one preferably offsite–such as a cloud backup, or a safety deposit box for your external drive/USB flash drive.
Which reminds me, there are plenty of good cloud-based options that are extremely economical and available from anywhere you have internet access.
I love USB flash drives (memory sticks) and own several from a few years ago; however, there are just so much better options now than going that route…not to mention how easily lost they are. And oftentimes, when they do turn up, it’s in the lint trap of the dryer…oops.
One thing you might want to add to your evaluation of alternatives is a ‘best guess’ on which of the alternatives to FTM will survive the declining market of desktop applications- you may find your self doing transition after transition in the future. FTM is not the only genealogy program to go under recently, and isn’t likely to be the last. I have no insight into the financial health of any of the FTM alternatives, so I don’t have any idea which is the best alternative. But having made two transitions in the past using GEDcom- the standard that isn’t- I can sympathize with the frustration you FTM users feel. All I can say is, from my experience- moving your data using a GEDcom is not smooth, but with perseverance you can do it. I wish you all well, whatever you choose.
That was in the back of my mind when I chose these two, Jim. I think they’ll be around for at least a few more years. (Sez this TMG user…)
What is best to run on Macintosh??
See the comments above, particularly Jody Pryor and George Morgan.
Judy,
You forgot Family Tree Builder by My Heritage.
What do they have to offer?
Online Trees
Smart Matches
Record Matches
and their new feature Discoveries
Just a thought
Russ
Good to know, Russ. They could end up being THE tree site if they keep it up/
That very well may be, Judy, especially since MyHeritage bought out Geni.com a year or so ago. Geni now has something on the order of 7,000,000 or more records that are crowdsourced, extensively researched, and maintained, in many cases by professional or semiprofessional genealogists. I know that Geni draws on data on MyHeritage, although I’m not up on how, or if, it goes the other way.
I think the future of genealogy is the Geni format of a single worldwide tree, and doubt that any other site could ever catch up, but it is really not a good solution for research, and definitely needs better documentation format. MyHeritage databases are extremely limited, too, with nowhere near the range that Ancestry offers.
GEDCOMS can be downloaded from Geni (and probably MyHeritage as well), but I’ve noticed the options seem to be more limited now than they used to be. I think you can still upload them to MyHeritage, but most people cannot upload to Geni anymore. Because there were too many duplicates, they shut that down. A few of us have been granted access to be able to upload them, but there is still the problem of transferring photos and other documents, and then merging the dupes and resolving data conflicts.
I really don’t know where MyHeritage plans to go with the two platforms.
hhm I went to tonight’s broadcast and it appears it is centered on hardware not the ancestry issues—sigh—I will keep researching but really don’t have time to listen to people talking about video recorders LOL she says in intro ancestry FTM is the focus that is not at all what the menu suggests…and it certainly is not where the conversation seems to be going…of course getting in at the last minute (being on the west coast) and not being a member so I can ask questions does not help 🙁
I will keep poking around in the dark as all I need is to try to find a quick way to copy all the docs I have … I have TONS of them as I believe in being thorough…
Thank you to the person who suggested the SIZE I need for a memory stick…Hubby assures me we have the “stuff” to store this amount of data…
what I THOUGHT I was going to see was a focus on the FTM issues…I really don’t care so much if the data I save from the almost defunct is transferable I was just curious if other platforms would ALSO take the photos and docs I have saved over the years to my tree–
I just want it saved somehow after 15+ years of work— I was just curious about whether other programs also would take this all this data…
I want to save it all for posterity but my niece and nephews are too young to care… no one else in the family seems interested except for my brother who is ONLY interested in our last name…very typical from what I have seen from many males LOL
Sigh there are 2 lines to every generation…and much DNA and many connections “hide behind women’s skirts”
It will be recorded so you can see this later — and you can ask the developers of the programs you’re considering using how to do exactly what you want to do.
A major problem is that if people have extensive media added to the FTM trees, I do not know of any way to transfer that. A gedcom won’t do it.
That is an issue for sure. But starting now to ensure that all those documents are downloaded is a good way to get ready for whatever happens.
Diane,
I successfully synced my online tree to FTM3 including media files. I then exported a GEDCOM. Then I placed that GEDCOM in a folder and copied all the related media files into that folder (FTM puts media in a seprate media file). Then I went into MacFamilyTree imported the GEDCOM and the media came with it. That is over 600 media files and over 10,000 individuals. So it can be done.
Kelly
VERY good to know, Kelly! Thanks.
I’ve been using OneFam.com as an alternative to Geni.com for the last month or so. A recent newsletter from the company has confirmed a free desktop version will be available in December, which will be more research focused. Music to my genealogy ears.