Family History software

Alexander, many thanks for an extremely informative tour of FTM and for your input, Tim. (I hoped that the arrows denoted direct line - does that come up automatically at the press of a button?) The places view looks extremely interesting, but without your information, I would have presumed that it applied only to US places. I bought all the 1" OS maps for the areas in which my ancestors resided and street maps for the larger places years ago.......but so much is available online now. I look forward to trying out the FTM and will definitely forward you my gedcom - but how do I get it to you? I haven't got an e-mail address for you.

I have never upgraded anything - FH program, Windows or anything else, but I am considering getting a new computer rather than merely upgrading from Vista, as my computer was new whenever Vista first came out - poss about 8/9 yrs ago? Would you recommend simply upgrading windows or getting a new desktop? If so, what sort of specification would I need to ensure that it lasts for a good while and serves my needs? What would I need to consider and is there anywhere in particular that offers good deals? My current computer was from Dell, but it had to have more memory installed a few years ago, as a friend rightly suggested it would increase its speed considerably, but I think the place where more memory goes is now full and it is pretty slow again. If anyone can suggest what spec I might want to look at or any particularly good deals I would be grateful.

 

I don't want a laptop as I like a desk to work on for my family history as I use reams of paper.... What kind of numbers denote 'lots of ram'. Any suggestions re reliable makes?

 

To be honest, I've been so busy adding people to my family (currently working on the descendants of the first set of great-great-grandparents) that I haven't really looked at the Places tab. Just today, I've had people married in Hampstead, Middlesex, then buried in Hampstead, London. Of course, they are still in the same place which, to me as an Aussie, is just a dot on a map of North-western London!

Now, I'm curious and may have to take some time to "play" tomorrow!

 

Four months ago, for £150, I bought a 2nd-hand IBM desktop computer, sold as a "gaming computer" complete with 500GB HD, dual monitor card and splitter cable; Windows 7 64-bit was pre-installed . I already had a good 21" Acer monitor, and bought another 2nd-hand for £35. So for under £200 I have my ideal set-up. This machine is definitely 3+yr old (!), and has only 4GB ram but honestly, it's running like a dream, and fast enough for my ageing brain The dual monitors are magic. I can have 2 browsers open with multiple windows, plus FH program (Legacy) and MS word. What more could one want? Hopefully it will last till Windows 7 falls off the desk. And if not, I have lost very little.

 

Alexander - sorry, I misread your comment re 4Gb, you do agree that's OK for our needs. Yes I think I did well with my purchase. I might pass on upgrading to Win10, always afraid with each new version, that it will reject some of my old hardware or software! Especially my Quicken 2004 which was the last UK version and nothing available to replace it.

 

When I click on 'computer' it says 112GB free of 288GB for the hard drive. I have clicked on the crucial link above but I am not sure if it is telling me how much memory the machine had as standard or after I upgraded. I think that initially only 2 slots were full and we bought 2 more so I think I may have 4GB now, of which 39% is full, but I am not sure. I have my photos stored on the computer and also my FH but that's about all. However, I am sure that it gets clogged up as it's a bit like a vacuum cleaner that doesn't get emptied......every year or two I have a brainwave or someone tells me how to improve its performance by clearing things off, but I am petrified of wrecking the whole set up by trying anything myself. I don't think it helps when I have 4 or 5 FH sites open at once along with 3 FH programs while I am trialling Rootsmagic and Legacy and other sundry pages from elsewhere....... However, I still use paper as I find it difficult to remember all the facts from one page to another when I am transcribing data and prefer to comit it to paper. It also helps me to see links. I often record everything on a particular surname on paper and then go through my tree to see what relates to my family and what connections I can make, particularly with online newspaper sites.

I totally agree about waiting for Windows 10. Seems pointless not to when Windows 8 wasn't that well received in many quarters and friends have reverted to Windows 7. I am in the UK, by the way.

 

FTA is installed but not tackled yet - the garden takes priority just now!

 

In Oz it is the opposite. Our days are getting shorter hence less time outdoors. I am determined to spend more time on family history this winter (and get a handle on Windows 8.1!). We'll see......

 

Many thanks for the info, Alexander. I haven't looked into prices for new computers yet, but if Dell is still considered a good make, I would happily get another. My only gripe with the last computer was that Word and Excel didn't come as standard - I got something inferior instead which I didn't like, but as I sometimes used the machine for work, they organised Word and Excel for me. (I am not sure if the program Dell offered was compatible with the documents I had stored already in Word.) I think my husband transferred the files over last time, but he's not always sure what to do, so thanks for the advice. If you let me know when Windows 10 comes out, I can revisit the question of a new computer then, but in the meantime, if you could keep an eye open for any offers you consider suitable for my needs, I would be most grateful.

I have e-mailed my gedcom to you, so can you let me know if it has arrived?

 

I have FTM up and running but 2 questions - why does the program always close down and tell me it was improperly shut down when I try to back it up and why is the latest back up only 2.4m KB whereas the previous one was 3.4m KB and the one before that 2.8m KB? Have I suddenly lost a huge proportion of my data?
Even when I follow instructions to compact the file, it only says it has decreased it by 1.2%, not 30%..........

 

I downloaded the recent update to FTM and 2 days later my entire tree on has disappeared. It says that it is still there when I try to download a replacement, but it isn't coming up. Having had lengthy discussions with the helpline (and numerous different 'solutions' offered, most of which didn't work) I had to delete reference to the tree from FTM and try to download my Ancestry version (which I was updating at the time things went wrong!). I have eventually managed to delete the tree from FTM and over 5 hours later, the new tree STILL hasn't finished downloading from Ancestry, though it appears to have progressed about 3/4 of the way through........

Has anyone else experienced problems following the recent update?

 

I assume that people subscribing to this thread are now aware that Ancestry has announced that it will no longer sell or upgrade FTM after 31 December 2015 and will cease support for it in 2017. This has caused a highly predictable furore on their website. They will continue to support their online version but that of course will require users to keep subscribing to Ancestry! At least one UK vendor of the software no longer sells it and Amazon simply say that they will offer support until 2017 (what they presumably mean is that Ancestry will).

Ignoring the difficulties that are referred to with this program above, if it works for you now it may continue to do so for some time to come, but one day when Microsoft does another upgrade you may find that FTM stops working and you lose access to your data. Hopefully you may still be able to export a gedcom file to other software at that time but I for one would not be prepared to rely on that.

EDIT: see the main discussion on this topic here - please do not post in this discussion. Peter