Ancestry.com family tree

phende · Post by **phende** » 18 Oct 2006 19:33

Are there any known problems with loading gedcom files generated by FH to the online family tree run by Ancestry.com on the MyFamily websites? When I upload mine, the data goes in but it will display only one person in the root position on a tree, no parents. You can have anyone you like at the root but still no parents. It is as if their program cannot interpret the links correctly. Gedcom files downloaded from the site, however, load perfectly into FH.

ID:1931

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 18 Oct 2006 19:44

I haven't tried it, what you could do is check the sequence the records are recorded in FH, Tools/Preferences/File Save

If you have 'Family Rrecord before Individual' ticked try unticking it and saving the file and uploading it again.

There is no restriction in the standard for this, but some import routines don't like the family records first.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 19 Oct 2006 09:55

Just to say I tried it out today and it seems to work fine with the families recorded after the individuals.

One thing to watch is the terms of use seems to allow ancestry to use any information you upload as they see fit., even if you mark the tree as private. So read them for your self before uploading any data.

Having said that the census source records option seems very efficient, so what I did was just to upload direct ancestors, I used the split tree to remove all the other people and all sources, notes, etc.

phende · Post by **phende** » 19 Oct 2006 17:18

My file does not have the 'family first' option ticked, so it's not that, but there is clearly something in the file that their family tree program does not like.

The good thing about the tree in the MyFamily site (which is private, not the World Tree option) is that the program dynamically checks all the trees in the World Tree for similar names. Once in a while, you will find someone researching the same line as you and you can download their gencom file. I have made some good contacts this way.

Peter

phende · Post by **phende** » 19 Oct 2006 22:50

The Ancestry.com people are baffled too. At their request I have emailed the file to them and await their comments.

Peter

phende · Post by **phende** » 05 Nov 2006 16:02

I've ground to a halt with Ancestry.com as well. I haven't been able to transmit my file to them for checking and they have gone quiet.

However, I have now transferred my file to Family Tree Maker, courtesy of the Sunday Times. I then exported it as a Gencom file in Ancestral File format and it uploads OK.

This would seem to indicate that there is some difference between FH gedcom files and FTM gencom files. Is any techie person willing to have a look at the two files to see what this might be?

Peter

Post by **Anonymous** » 13 Nov 2006 10:42

I'm not sure on the exact differences but I used to use Family Tree Maker and I notice that when importing it truncates place names if they are too long (tho' it doesn't sound like that's your particular problem) and when exporting it can use a number of formats (PAF, FTM, FTW or TempleReady).

I also noticed that it uses a lot of non-standard fields/tags ... when I migrated to FH quite a few fields came up as non-standard e.g. Military, Medical etc

I also tried their on-line upload facility ... I found it frustrating ... it looks very pretty but the twinkling leaves just came up with way too many hoax results so it's really hard to figure out which could be the genuine hits. I found this to be a general problem with Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker - whether or not you're using their upload areas - the auto-search facilities sound great but all too often come up with loads of really spurious results.

Post by **nsw** » 13 Nov 2006 20:06

The Family Historian GEDCOM files are almost certainly following the GEDCOM standard and therefore Ancestry ought to be able to read them in. If Ancestry is having trouble then this suggests a fault with their systems. Ancestry probably make sure that they can read in FTM files which don't generally use all of the GEDCOM standard as FTM is (I would guess) the biggest selling family history application in the world.

YouTube · Post by **Jane** » 13 Nov 2006 21:02

I did upload successfully a cut down version of my file to ancestry.

I used the split tree to remove all the media records, notes, sources, submitters, repositories etc and it loaded on Ok. I also cut my tree down to the minimum, only my direct ancestors.

phende · Post by **phende** » 13 Nov 2006 22:58

Thanks for your continued efforts. I'm still not sure what the trouble was. My file was quite sparse, no multimedia but with quite a large branch (an offshoot, really) that actually came from RootsWeb. I didn't inspect the Family Tree Maker deletions too carefully but I suspect the secret is in there somewhere. I any case, I think the best solution is to get my family to get a copy of FH and I'll just send them the file.

Peter[smile]

CR · Post by CR » 14 Nov 2006 09:46

Just to let you know. I ran my FH gedcom through Res Privata and uploaded it onto Ancestry no problem.
I find the potential links it gives you a great advantage and have found some great links into my tree. I agree there are a lot of spurious ones that come up but the world is a big place and unless you have a really unusual name I guess it is to be expected. I think it is a small price to pay for some good links.

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