* Back-up using Ancestry?

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nosaieux
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by nosaieux »

I have been hoping that a friend of mine would buy into Family Historian. Here is what he says:
I started winding myself up to invest in FH; and then remembered that it does not come in a Mac version. Having rejected the idea of investing in the software to allow a Windows programme to run on a Mac (at a cost of approaching £150, as you have to buy a copy if Windows itself as well as the interface) I wondered about running it on my PC laptop. But that would mean it was on a separate machine from the one where I do my research. So I wondered whether FH allows easy exchange of data with Ancestry; if it does, I could maintain my tree on both FH and Ancestry without lots of double entry. Clearly one could keep exporting GEDCOM files; but if the only way to import them was to start a new tree each time, that is unlikely to be satisfactory. What I would want would be a mutual update facility. Sound like a long shot.

Is there hope for him?

Michael C




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Merenwen
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by Merenwen »

The only program that does that is Family Tree Maker 2012, but even then only imperfectly and it's expensive. It boasts synching the online and offline tree, but I've read horror stories of people that have had to start over because their file got corrupted. It's not as nice for data entry either.

I regularly import & merge ancestry data into FH and back out to ancesrty again. Due to the very detailed merge function of FH, it isn't nearly as messy as it sounds as long as you double check the right persons & families are being merged.

A word of warning about ancestry: it does not deal with data consistently. For instance, when you find someone in the 1881 census, it does not create a census event for them, only a residence. For 1871 it creates both residence and census. But only very rarely will it record occupation.

My advice to your friend would be to use ancesrty to get the images, record everything properly in FH and then upload the gedcom from FH to ancestry.
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nosaieux
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by nosaieux »

Thanks for this helpful reply. I have relayed it to said friend for him to ponder. Thoughts from other readers would still be v welcome.
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Dagwood
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by Dagwood »

nosaieux said:
............  So I wondered whether FH allows easy exchange of data with Ancestry; .............
I had wondered if it was possible to import a Gedcom based on a section of my tree from Ancestry but can only see the option, in Ancestry, to import a Gedcom. Is there a facility to save a Gedcom in Ancestry? Can it be exported to and imported by FH? Can anyone point me in the right direction if this is possible and if so would it include census images or links to them?
Dagwood
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RogerF
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by RogerF »

If you display the tree and select Tree Pages > Tree Settings > Tree Info, then on the LHS of the window you can edit the tree's name and description. On the RHS of the window, there's a button to Export your family tree data, as a GEDCOM file, to your computer. FH will read that GEDOM. However...

You can export only the whole tree, not a subset. And I'm pretty sure you don't get census images (or even links in a useable form).
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Dagwood
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by Dagwood »

Roger Firth said:
However...
You can export only the whole tree, not a subset............
Thanks Roger. I guess the answer would be to make the transfer into a new project ,then delete the bits I don't need  before merging the file or records wit
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Dagwood
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Back-up using Ancestry?

Post by Dagwood »

Well that worked perfectly. I imported my main project Gedcom from Ancestry into Family Historian as a new project; used the Split Tree Helper to delete the bits I did not want to merge;  then did a File Merge which added loads of records it would have taken an age to import manually!

Now I'm thinking of exporting my FH Project to Ancestry as a totally new project to see what comes up in the way of Hints. We'll see how that goes .
Dagwood
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