Family Historian User Group

I have recently discovered a backup cd that holds my family trees. The files are all in .uds format. The WINDOWS computer that I had used for genealogy is long gone. I may still have the original program software & am sure it was a Sierra product.
I would like to have the .uds files converted to GEDCOM as it seems that most new Genealogy software programs will read that format. I now use Windows10 but would be willing to purchase a MAC if that is what is needed. I had heard that “Reunion” would do the conversion but it is only MAC compatible. Any suggestions of who or what genealogy program could do the conversion would be greatly appreciated. My knowledge of computers is VERY limited.

Welcome to the group!

.uds is the extension used by the old Generations program. As you say, at one time it was produced by Sierra, though I think they sold the rights to someone else and not long afterwards it was discontinued.

There's a page about transferring data from Generations here:
how_to:import_generations|> Import from Generations (How To)
which includes a couple of suggestions for converting the file to a format readable by Family Historian. (Jane Taubman, listed there, is this forum's administrator.)

There are also a few topics about this in the forum. Good luck!

Thank you so much. I have sent an email to Jane Taubman hoping she can help me. Reading the info on the “Knowledge Base” link you gave me did not help. For starters I don’t properly understand the suggestions given. Wish I was 50 years younger right about now! Cheers!

I agree, it is all a bit daunting. However, a lot of it is about one-time tweaking of the file to be done as you import it to FH, and it does appear to be a step-by-step guide. Maybe it all becomes clearer as you actually work through it. But when you do, make sure you take a backup of the file first in case something goes wrong, or you decide to experiment with different settings.

Some of what it refers to is in FH-specific terminology, and the links to related pages at the foot of the page may help to clarify some of this. The things that I felt might need further explanation were the Uncategorised Data Fields (UDF) and the references to Notes. (These are issues that can occur with imports from other programs too.)

For Notes and the different kinds that are available in FH, this article might help too: glossary:notes#note_records|> Note Records

I do wonder if doing a tricky import at the same time as getting used to a new program might be a step too far, so maybe it would be useful to spend time getting used to FH first, either with the sample project or by inputting a few of your own people manually, and then try the main transfer a bit later on.