* Ancestry to Retire Family Tree Maker Software

[BillH]

Big news from Ancestry.com.

http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015 ... -software/

Bill

[tatewise]

Are you sure? That link goes nowhere.

The only blog I could find is talking about retiring the old Ancestry web site style.

[BillH]

Interesting. The link worked fine when I posted it. Now when I search around I can't find it. Was this some kind of hoax or hack that they caught? Was it an announcement that wasn't supposed to be posted yet? Who knows.

[tatewise]

May be best to delete this thread??

[BillH]

content deleted by author

[BillH]

The story is back now on the Ancestry blog.

[tatewise]

The actual blog is now back online!

[BillH]

Mike,

Well... you should get ready for a lot more questions on migrating from FTM to FH.

Bill

[tatewise]

I'm working on it...

[mezentia]

Received from Ancestry:

"Dear Family Tree Maker™ community,

Ancestry is proud to have made a significant investment this year to bring valuable new content and records to the Ancestry site. In 2015, we’ve made 220 million searchable historical records from Mexico available, more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of U.S. will and probate records, among others. We’ve also introduced new features such as Ancestry Academy, and major advancements for AncestryDNA.

As we strive to provide our customers with the best experience possible, we are constantly evaluating our services and product offerings. True to this focus, we’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide new content, product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the tough decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015.

We will continue to support existing Family Tree Maker owners at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™ will continue to work. Our Member Services team will also remain available to assist with questions or issues you may have.

These changes are never easy. But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on continuing to build great products for our loyal Ancestry community.

You can find additional details about the retirement of Family Tree Maker on our blog."

Time to start an FH sales campaign, methinks

[jmurphy]

I just heard the story on Facebook and am talking up Family Historian for the people who are Christmas shopping. This is not a hoax - got confirmation from Crista Cowan.

From the blog post:

[W]e’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015.

Our subscription business and website, on the other hand, continue to grow and we are doubling down our efforts to make that experience even better for our Ancestry community.

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.
- See more at: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015 ... Sg7qW.dpuf

If and when they pull the plug on TreeSync, I expect all the remaining desktop software companies will see users move over.

[Bute01]

For many users Ancestry has made family history "too easy", and to some extent taken some of the fun and satisfaction out of finding a new discovery. What with hints, that get accepted, and then downloaded to our computers when we next open FTM.
Speaking for my own tree, it has jumped to over 2000 people, many I do not want or need. It's too easy to make mistakes. For a while I have been thinking of doing some "pruning' and double-checking, and this maybe the push I need. Sometimes I think it's been a bit of a competition with FTM and Ancestry of how many people you have in Your Tree, many with 10,000+

I know I can import a Gedcom file easy enough, but it's the many census and various record images that are attached to people which I do not know how to handle. I'm not sure if I should start completely from scratch with FH and Ancestral Sources, or try attach images etc. Either way I think this news from Ancestry will give me a new project for 2016!

[tatewise]

I know I can import a Gedcom file easy enough, but it's the many census and various record images that are attached to people which I do not know how to handle.

FTM + TreeSync exported GEDCOM usually include attached Media images that are NOT included with an Ancestry exported GEDCOM. But maybe you are talking about where the Media are attached (to Individuals instead of Sources) rather than whether they are attached?

[linnet27]

For many users Ancestry has made family history "too easy", and to some extent taken some of the fun and satisfaction out of finding a new discovery. What with hints, that get accepted, and then downloaded to our computers when we next open FTM.

Thought I was being silly, but this is exactly why I decided to leave and move to FH. Looks like I jumped before I was pushed! Looking forward to some free time over Christmas for some serious research!

[Newsham57]

I have used Family Historian continually since 2003 and find it excellent. A couple of years ago I uploaded the trees that I created using Family Historian to Ancestry (before Family Historian began to link with MyHeritage) as I wanted to take advantage of Ancestry’s suggestions for record matches and potential links to other trees. To manage the Ancestry online trees I have been using Ancestry’s product, Family Tree Maker 2014 (which nowhere near as good as Family Historian 6), due to its ability to synchronise information between the desktop software and the online trees. This unfortunately means that the version of my trees that are in Family Historian are now very out of date. Given that Ancestry is discontinuing FTM at the end of this month I would like to transfer the up to date FTM versions of the trees back into my Family Historian 6 software and I suspect many other FTM users will want to do the same. Ancestry have said that they will continue to support FTM until 2017 – does anyone think that Family Historian may be able to provide a means before 2017 to easily import FTM files without losing information or attached media? Within 24 hours of the announcement by Ancestry there are 4,500 negative comments on their blog so a lot of people will be looking for new software to safely export their data to!

[Nick-V]

Sad, FTM filled a vital gap.

Ancestry provides an excellent service helping us find information (matching to formal records and other people's tree) and then making it very easy to selectively apply/add this information to our tree (manual transfer to PC being slow, laborious and prone to error).

And, PC software like FH and FTM enables our data to be possessed by us, moved between software and presented in ways not available on-line (tailored charts and reports, PDF and web output etc.).

I recognise that dual development work (PC and web) by Ancestry may involve some cost and duplication and distract the company from its primary goal (records), but surely it is essential for its customers that our data including attached images (not in the GEDCOM):

1) can be moved to local software or some other web service provider (monopoly)
2) reported upon, maintained and exported in far better ways than currently available on line.

Technically, the main issue is not the demise of FTM, but the absolute need for an open standards interface from Ancestry that enables synchronisation. If such an interface existed (continued to exist but as an open standard) it would enable developers such as FH to provide a mass market with the full set of tools required, release Ancestry from it PC software maintenance burdon and keep researchers happy!

Is FH working with other software houses and users to lobby Ancestry for such an facility (or is Ancestry planning one anyway?). I believe there are legal precedents relating to this.

[rocksrock]

Well I am one relieved FH user.

I started with FTM c. 14 years ago: eventually got a bit fed up with it, so that when FH started to be getting really good reviews and also was orientated towards UK records I jumped into the FH ship and stayed. At v nearly 70 I'm glad I don't have to get up to speed on a completely new thing even if it is as good as FH. I feel like I ask too many questions already, being frequently

My family history Christmas wish is that FH keeps going, at least until I go the "wrong side of the grass" (and I hope that is MANY years in the future), otherwise ......................................

Happy Christmas one and all, and esp to all the folk who answer up on the Forums.


PS (tongue in cheek) any hope of the Christmas fairy lights coming back?

[John Butt]

I migrated from The Master Genealogist to Family Tree Maker 2014 (with difficulty as an FTM update deleted the bridge software). Now with FTM on the way out I have downloaded a trial version of Family Historian 6. I was hoping that it would be simple to import an FTM file but it looks as though its going to be export/import Gedcom. Am I right or am I missing something?
John

[tatewise]

Welcome to the FHUG John.
You are correct, but have a look at how_to:import_from_family_tree_maker|> Import from Family Tree Maker (FTM).

[hinsby41]

If I change from FTM to FH6 is there a facility to export/save reports and charts as image files. I use these in family history books and the facility is very important to me.

[RSpencer]

I'm another long term user of FTM, and very annoyed with what has happened to the program. I like the look of FH6, and I'm willing to undertake the considerable effort to sort out the media etc again after the import. However I don't want to be in this position again! Please can you let me know what, if any, features of FH depend on a subscription to MyHeritage. Thanks for your advice!
Richard

[Nick-V]

FH is a great program, much better than FTM. But we cannot match against records and trees and automatically update our data from Ancestry (or wherever).

There are two separate issues...

1) what software to use after FTM (and get our image data there from FTM or Ancestry)
2) how to update our chosen PC software with Ancestry hints/matches.

The second is the far more difficult issue if you don't want all updates to be manual. Ancestry could either:

1) provide PC software type features in their web site (unlikely) or
2) provide a synchronisation interface that FH and others can use to integrate with Ancestry.

I believe the retirement of FTM is way premature until one of these two alternatives is available. Lets hope they quickly regard this as a poor business decision...loud noises from the user base would help !

[LornaCraig]

If I change from FTM to FH6 is there a facility to export/save reports and charts as image files. I use these in family history books and the facility is very important to me.

Reports can be saved as PDF, Web Page (HTML), Word Processor Document (RTF) or Text file (.txt).
Charts (known as Diagrams, as Chart has a slightly different meaning in FH) can be saved in a variety of image formats or as PDF.

[LornaCraig]

Please can you let me know what, if any, features of FH depend on a subscription to MyHeritage. Thanks for your advice!
Richard

A MyHeritage subscription is not essential at all. The feature giving 'hints' from MyHeritage was only introduced in V6, and you don't need to use of this feature. It is a way of giving automatic hints similar to Ancestry's, but MyHeritage has far fewer records than Ancestry. I maintain a subscription to Ancestry and Findmypast (although FH does not link automatically to these) but not to MyHeritage.

[NickWalker]

This is probably quite a smart move from Ancestry. A lot of users will take the easy option of leaving their trees on Ancestry rather than having to face the daunting task of moving to another program and this will encourage them to keep subscribing to Ancestry who will then be taking yearly payments from a user rather than occasional payments every few years when they used to upgrade their FTM version.

Of course this is also a great opportunity for Family Historian to pick up more users and this should help increase the usage of Ancestral Sources too! Don't forget to mention Ancestral Sources when you're encouraging users to migrate to Family Historian, many users tell me that it is one of the reasons they like to use FH.