Family Historian User Group

I currently have an annual subscription to Ancestry and have created a family tree there. So, my question is how best should I use this and Family Historian ?

Is it just a case of keep udating the family tree in Ancestry and then importing the latest GEDCOM file into FH to work on it, or should I just import the GEDCOM file once from Ancestry and then start using all of the features of FH to grow and develop it ?

Any thoughts on how best to use the tools together would be appreciated.

Thanks

Personally I use Family Historian as the master and occasionally replace the part of my database I don't mind ancestry having on their servers by uploading a Gedcom and replacing my tree on the site.

I find adding the details in to FH rather than simply attaching a source to the online tree, makes me study the document properly and ensures I transcribe and analyse it for every scrap of information on it.

I use FH (and Ancestral Sources) as my primary "tool" for building my tree as it offers much more flexibility than Ancestry's tree builder, and I prefer to have it all under my own control. Then every so often I make a copy of the FH GEDCOM file, process it through ResPrivata *
(http://www.fhug.org.uk/wiki/doku.php?id ... vatisation)
to remove some details for living people, and then upload the resulting GEDCOM to Ancestry.

I find having my tree on Ancestry useful for research as it will automatically search for matches between my tree and it's database, including other members trees, and show "hint flags" on my tree that I can follow up.

The bit I've not yet worked out is how to enter a source reference in FH so that it gets exported to Ancestry in a way that it becomes a clickable link in the Source reference on Ancestry.

*FH can now do a lot of (maybe all and more) what Res Privata does, it's just that I've used it for years and it's become a habit!

Jane wrote:Personally I use Family Historian as the master and occasionally replace the part of my database I don't mind ancestry having on their servers by uploading a Gedcom and replacing my tree on the site.

I find adding the details in to FH rather than simply attaching a source to the online tree, makes me study the document properly and ensures I transcribe and analyse it for every scrap of information on it.

Thanks for the reply, it's very useful. I am very new to FH so still trying to discover what exactly it can do.

Can you conduct searches via FH or do you still have to do this within Ancestry, FMP etc and then add the info to FH ?

Does the updated GEDCOM file you upload to Ancestry just contain the basic family tree or does it also contain other info created in FH ?

Thanks

Robert

Unless you remove some data items from your GEDCOM file (as I do with Res Privata) Ancestry will import:

Full Names
Titles, places and dates of facts (birth, christening, marriage, divorce, death, burial, census, occupation, residence)
Source citations of facts (the title you gave to the source)
Individual notes (so be careful of recording telephone numbers or full addresses in notes)
maybe others that I've not come across yet.

Always best to check your tree after you've uploaded it to Ancestry, just in case there's anything slipped though that you don't want the world to see!

Regarding Internet searches for records, most FH users do that outside FH using Ancestry, FindMyPast, and many other web sites.

However, there is a Lookup Missing Census Facts Plugin for FH that offers shortcuts into Ancestry and FindMyPast for nominated Individuals who have missing Census Events during their lifespan.

Regarding exported GEDCOM data, you have a great many options in FH to choose what to export.

And you can mark any tree you upload as Private; the Ancestry site says this : Private Tree
This setting makes your tree "Private" so that it can't be viewed as a Public Member Tree. Note that the information from your tree will still be indexed for searching, but those who find your information can't view your tree without your permission.
I suppose that gives an adequate level of protection?

If you wish to exclude a private tree from searches, you can do so when you initially upload your information, or change the privacy selections to a previously created tree. The tick box option states:

Also prevent your tree from being found in searches.

This option includes the following additional information:

Note: Although your privacy setting will change immediately to public or private, it usually takes about a month for this update to be reflected in the search index

I use the Ancestry Tree system as a sort of organized version of the Shoebox. My trees are private, so if I make mistakes, I won't lead other users astray, but my settings on Ancestry allow communication with other users, so if someone asks, I write back and help them with the information they want.

Like Jane, I prefer to use Family Historian as my master file, and to enter the sources fully in Family Historian after I've had a chance to organize them.

The Ancestry tree is mostly to help me keep track of what I've already looked at on Ancestry, and to harvest hints (or ignore them).

There is one exception, where I have made a tree Public on purpose to share my research with everyone. A user on Find A Grave has joined one of my families with his in a 'Virtual Cemetery' listing, probably because he has been led astray by the Ancestry hint system, which suggests a 1930 Census record halfway across the state as belonging to the family I am studying.

I tracked the other family and found that I can establish them independently from mine from birth to death of the parents. So I have put up that "not my family" family group sheet as a public tree, so others can look at it, and I plan to keep adding records to it as I find them, or as Ancestry hints at them for me.

When I look at the detail pages for the records, I can see at a glance that I've already looked at the records and that I think they belong to the family I am NOT looking for -- and perhaps the information will help people who are actually looking for that family.

Every now and again, I download my private trees from Ancestry as an extra backup. I also download (or intend to) all the images of the sources, plus screen grabs of the 'transcription' or detail / abstract page (whatever you want to call it). But the main place I keep everything organized is in Family Historian.

I periodically replace my tree on Ancestry with a GEDCOM uplift of my FH tree, and make sure it's marked private. The main issues in doing this are that you need to re-invite anyone to view/edit the new tree that you previously gave permision to view/edit your old tree. The main reasons to use Ancestry have already been posted in that it does encourage people to contact you for further information, as well as automatically finding links to sources you might not have been aware of or have only recently been made available.

As far as sources are concerned, if a tree is private, you can still track down people shown as living if Ancestry BDM sources have been provided . Useful, perhaps for your own research, but does rather go against the reasons for making the tree private in the first place!

NSK,

I concur with mezentia, but as Ancestry trees have problems with "notes" (by their own admission) I also upload a simple gedcom file to their sister site Rootsweb, this seems to take any old gedcom and display it all, and fast. I also leave a note on Ancestry that there is a better copy on Rootsweb. The downside to this method is a lack of media. I've not had time to do it yet, but I suspect another option would be to upload an FH created "website" family tree and also leave a message+link to it on your Ancestry tree.

For many things I am a fan of Ancestry.com is, but their "trees" seem such a mess to me. Ancestry online trees and Family Tree Maker are supposed to synchronise with each other but there are no end of issues with that (see various forums). To be fair to Ancestry I have always found "syncing" of most forms of data "troublesome" (lost data, multiple records etc) and find it best where possible to keep and update one master and then make copies.

Melanie, sorry to be blunt, but you are running before you can walk.

Family Tree Maker as reviewed by http://www.beautifullife.info/web-desig ... -builders/ is simply another genealogy product just like Family Historian that is also in that review and is just as capable of producing family tree diagrams and uploading Gedcom to online tree builders.

It is misleading to call Family Tree Maker an Online Family Tree Builder because it runs on your PC just like Family Historian. The only difference is that it can be synchronised with an online version in Ancestry.com. To get the full benefit of that synchronisation you not only have to buy Family Tree Maker but also subscribe to Ancestry.com.

Hi Melanie

I can also add that FTM 2017 is still in controlled roll out phase as it experienced some major issues when the synch between FTM and Ancestry was updated earlier this year. So choose carefully.

My main software is Family Historian, but I like to have copies of other programs in case I need to help someone else out or open a file from other software. I've been following some of the FTM user groups on Facebook, and I can second what David Potter has just said -- the FTM2017 has been ugly.

Recently RootsMagic has released its new update which will Sync with Ancestry. I purchased it but I haven't played with it yet -- I bought it to pull my online trees down from Ancestry, and view them side-by-side with my data within FH.

Watching the FTM rollout has confirmed my original assessment to not get dependent on syncing. My Ancestry trees are 'sandboxes' but my main work is in Family Historian. There are too many annoying features of Ancestry trees, including how Ancestry attaches Census records as a "residence" instead of a census.