* Getting started with Ancestral Sources

[imac_boy]

I wonder can anyone help me as I am feeling really frustrated with AS .

I started off my family tree on Family Tree Maker but became disillusioned by that program . This was mainly because when using the Ancestry website so many 'hints' came my way that I later realised my family tree was quite possibly wrong as I had imported too many changes resulting from copying over family members from trees that other people had 'researched' - I use the term loosely here because I did feel that a lot of the trees on Ancestry are just copies of other peoples and so are not reliable

After much research I decided to purchase FH 5 and run it on my iMac via Parallels . Owing to what I felt were errors in my tree I decided to start from scratch and build up my family tree only from properly researched and evidence based information.

However, I have found using AS really difficult even though I decided to make a copy of what I had researched so far (this is what is suggested on the Getting Started with AS) until I felt proficient enough with AS, but I haven't really got off the ground yet, so I am wandering if anyone can help?

You see I have lots of media to import like birth, marriage, death certificates, copies of census, etc and thought naively that using AS would be the simplest way of populating the various family members with this media. My understanding of AS seemed to suggest that this program would assist me in doing just this However, I am so disillusioned that I feel like throwing the towel in on my desire to research my family tree!

Can anyone help??

[ColeValleyGirl]

To get targeted help, I think you need to be a little clearer about exactly what problems you're having with AS. Perhaps give us an example of what you've done and what didn't come out as you expected?

[tatewise]

AS is aimed at simplifying a fairly specific problem.
That is the initial capture of the more popular BMD & Census source documents, that in FH can be tediously repetetive.

AS is not a general purpose alternative to updating your FH database.

If you have a compatible Source structure, AS can also add Media images to existing Sources.

Have you worked through at least some of the ancestralsources:index|> Ancestral Sources tutorials using the FH Sample Project?

Exactly what have you found difficult to do with AS?

If all you want to do is add Media to existing Source Records then that may be easier done directly in FH.
Adding them through AS has most benefit when the Sources were created via AS originally.

[jbtapscott]

As one who is planning to move from TMG to FH, I have spent quite a bit of time "playing" with data before I make the final cutover, and, I have to admit, was a bit sceptical about why I should use AS to help with future data entry. However, having toyed with the various settings and modified template wording (something which I am still doing), I can see some serious benefits in using it to capture data, and, in particular, the census data. BUT, you do need to spend some time working your way through the settings and making sure it does what you want rather than just accepting the defaults.

[NickWalker]

As the developer of Ancestral Sources I can say that I've had feedback from many hundreds of users that they find AS very useful. If you've not used it before then entering census data is usually a good starting point as this is where the greatest time savings can be found. Once you've selected the census country and year and entered the place then its just a matter of selecting individuals and entering data into the columns. You can also of course link multimedia and press 'Auto' to automatically generate a transcription which can be edited by hand to get it right. There are lots of other options which you can experiment with as you get used to it, but at its simplest you just click Save and AS will then add census facts, occupations, source, citations, multimedia, etc. to your FH project. You could do this manually in Family Historian but it will take considerably longer to do so.

I hope you give it a chance and please do email me (nick at ancestralsources dot com) if you would like me to give you any guidance regarding particular problems you're having.

I've put in a considerable amount of time over the years developing this software and I give it away free of charge, though a number of users do very kindly make donations to the project. Those satisfied users can't all be wrong and I do believe AS makes a tedious, time-consuming data entry job far easier. However, ultimately its entirely up to you whether or not you choose to use it.

Best wishes

Nick

[imac_boy]

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO REPLIED - I am now sorted! This I can see is a very useful addition to the FH program I can now see where I was going wrong & have managed to successfully use it on the sample project & live - after a few hiccoughs which were of my own creation! However, I can now see why this program is so highly rated! So once again a big big thank you to all who replied. It was really really appreciated.