* Exporting from V2.3.5 to Ancestry

[upcountrygirl]

Please help, I'm a bit new to this.
I've spent several years researching my family tree and creating it offline using FH v 2.3.5, which I know is an old version but it works a treat and seemed to do everything I want --- until I uploaded my saved GEDCOM file to Ancestry.co.uk! My tree appeared all screwed up, with surnames where forenames should be, and many forenames missing. Needless to say I deleted it from Ancestry straight away so as not to look an idiot!

I'm not sure I want to pay for version 6 as some of you are obviously having problems. Also I don't know if v6 would work on my 32-bit Windows XP machine.
Any ideas?

[Nick-V]

I don't know the old FH version but a quick guess is that the surname should be like this "John /Smith/" - the surname is marked.

You might open your Gedcom with Notepad or whatever and look at the NAME records which ought to look like:

0 @I1@ INDI
1 NAME John /Smith/

That's how they need to look, if not you might experiment with the "/" thing within FH then export again.

[ColeValleyGirl]

V6 won't work under XP, I'm afraid.

[NickWalker]

Windows XP is 13 years old and is no longer supported by Microsoft and the recommendation is that you should upgrade to a newer version (probably on a new computer). In computing terms XP is ancient: it came out long before services like Youtube, Facebook and iplayer appeared. It is now very vulnerable to being compromised by hackers (for want of a better word) out there who are targeting people with older computers.

Version 6 is a vast improvement over version 2 of Family Historian. Naturally on a forum like this you'll mainly see people reporting problems because they come here for help, but for most users it works really well.

[LornaCraig]

Please help, I'm a bit new to this.
I've spent several years researching my family tree and creating it offline using FH v 2.3.5, which I know is an old version but it works a treat and seemed to do everything I want --- until I uploaded my saved GEDCOM file to Ancestry.co.uk! My tree appeared all screwed up, with surnames where forenames should be, and many forenames missing. Needless to say I deleted it from Ancestry straight away so as not to look an idiot!

You probably need to sort out this problem before you consider upgrading to v6.

In the Ancestry tree are all names affected, or only some?
Are some of the forenames missing for people where the surnames are in the right place? Or is it a case of surnames replacing forenames?
In the records window in FHv2, do the names all display correctly e.g. SMITH, John (surname in capitals followed by forenames in lower case)?

[tatewise]

Even if you sort out the Individual Name problems, it may only be the start of your problems.

Ancestry, along with many other genealogy software, is poor at handling Gedcom files.
Some features of FH Gedcom are best converted such that Ancestry undestands them.
This conversion is provided by a feature called Plugins introduced by FH V5 and in FH V6.

[upcountrygirl]

Thanks for all replies - really helpful!

I know my computer and software are ancient but I was hoping to find a workaround in the short term. In FHv2 my records show as /SMITH/ John and all the features of FH 2 work fine. Once uploaded to Ancestry, all the surnames appear as forenames and most (but not all) of the forenames are lost.
What I didn't realise till I read your replies was that I could have encoded the names as John /SMITH/ and maybe that will make a difference. I will experiment thus. Otherwise it's a case of getting new kit, it seems.

[Nick-V]

New kit MIGHT be the answer but irrespective fixing data WILL be necessary from what I understand.

Again, not knowing your old software I hear you have entered "/Smith/ John" in the NAME field. Check the GEDCOM file output. If you find it also appears that way it explains why Ancestry is taking surnames (in "/") and regarding forenames as a name suffix.

Upgrading to new software will not fix this data. And if you fix all your names your old software may work fine. As you suggested, try with "John /Smith/ BSc". If you want a name suffix like BSc enter it after the surname.

[tatewise]

Yes, the explanations given above are almost certainly at the root of your problem.

The GEDCOM required format for an Individual Name is:
Forenames /Surname/ Suffix
e.g.
John James /Smith/ BSc

Which in the Records Window should display in one of the following formats depending on your Tools > Preferences settings:
SMITH, John James BSc is the default
Smith, John James BSc
John James SMITH BSc
John James Smith BSc

Now your /SMITH/ John will probably display as:
SMITH, John which looks OK, but is actually Surname, Suffix with no Forename

[upcountrygirl]

Thanks once again to those who have replied to my post.
Yes, you are right, the root of my problem is putting the forename in the wrong place. I corrected this in a few names and uploaded it, and it's fine. So now I'll just go through and change the other 500!
Problem solved, thanks to you guys