Last week I blogged about how to print your family tree from the three genealogy giant sites – Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and MyHeritage.com. If you don’t pay for a subscription or you don’t want to rely on FamilySearch’s free site because of other people changing the tree for the worse, there are more options for you. Many genealogy software companies that will allow you to purchase their package for under $50.00. Sometimes, you can even get it for as low as $20.00! Those specials are usually available for a limited time, especially during a major conference, like RootsTech. The next one coming up is the National Genealogical Society conference in May. This would be a great Mother’s Day gift or early Father’s Day one, as well! I recommend you check out the ones I’m mentioning below by visiting their website. They have cookies so will know you visited. These cookies don’t add pounds, they’ll just save you money as you’ll get offer discounts sent to you.
RootsMagic9 synchs with Ancestry.com. This means, if you decide someday to get a subscription to Ancestry, you can upload the tree you are building on RootsMagic9 quickly. If you have no intention of ever getting an Ancestry account, no worries! You still have a means to build a family tree, print it, save photos and records to individuals, create narratives, and share with family if they have the program.
FamilyTreeMaker (FTM) also synchs with Ancestry.com. This program does everything that RootsMagic9 does. So, which should you get?
I have both because they have slightly different options. What works for me might not be what works for you so my advice is to go to both websites and download a free version, though usually FTM doesn’t have a free version. They may be getting ready to put out a new edition so keep visiting as that’s usually the time for freebie or lost cost to purchase options. Play with it. If you like it and it meets your need, purchase it.
Legacy Family Tree does not synch with Ancestry.com. I can download a gedcom file from Ancestry and upload it to Legacy. That saves time in not having to type everything in my tree again but it DOES NOT SAVE MEDIA! This means, all photos will not be available to view on Legacy. If you think you might want to someday purchase a MyHeritage.com subscription, though, Legacy is for you because it does synch with MyHeritage. I really like some of the charts that Legacy has that the two others don’t have so yes, I have this software, too. Like with RootsMagic, try it for free.
There are other companies out there but these are the ones that are most used and which I am familiar with.
When you decide on a software program, PLEASE DO NOT save it only to your computer. If your computer crashes you have lost everything. That’s one of the perks of paying for a subscription – your tree info is saved in the cloud. So, save to a thumb drive if your tree is small, or a stand alone hard drive if your tree is large. Another option is to purchase your own cloud storage through Dropbox, Google, or Amazon. I personally recommend making a copy on a stand alone hard drive and giving it to a family member. In case something happens to your home, there is another copy somewhere safe. Periodically, you can get it back and update it.
Lots of options to think about! Whichever you decide you can always make another choice if it isn’t working out.
NOTE: This blog was posted on 25 Nov 2023 on the Empowering Genealogists with Artificial Intelligence Facebook group. Since my blog two weeks ago on using AI to write a narrative, I’ve been getting a lot of questions and comments. I’ve been told that AI doesn’t work with some sites; I have found that to be not true. I have also found a temporary work around for footnote/endnote citations that look more like what genealogists use – simply provide this prompt: Please write all footnotes in Chicago format style. You will have to go back and fill in some info, like the enumeration district for censuses, but it will be closer to what we are used to seeing.
I was interested in seeing how a narrative summary with endnotes from various sources that had similar data would be written.
I used the same prompt: You are a professional genealogist and expert writer. Please write a narrative summary with endnotes from the attached file. (AI seems to place all sources at the end, whether you make the request as a footnote or endnote. This could be due to my requested writings being short.) The endnotes for the example below are funky looking because they are sources from sources, meaning the information that was being compared was the main source, like Ancestry.com, and not where the source cited in Ancestry.com came from.
Each request was made using a new message on ChatGPT.
The files I uploaded individually were:
Ancestry.com from Life Story with and without AI. AI selected “What was (region) like when (individual) was (event).”
FamilySearch.org Source/Detail and About
FamilyTreeMaker from Individual Report
LegacyFamilyTree from Other Reports>Individual Summary
MyHeritage.com side view of Family Tree for named individual
Roots Magic from Reports> Individual Summary
The information for all but FamilySearch.org was generated by me over the years. The data was always entered into Ancestry.com, then synched with RootsMagic and FamilyTreeMaker. A gedcom from Ancestry was uploaded to both LegacyFamilyTree and MyHeritage so no media is available on either of those sites. FamilySearch.org does include a minimal amount of information from me but most of the data was generated by family members.
I then gave ChatGPT the following prompt:
Today you are an expert data analysis and professional genealogist. Prioritize fidelity to the information below; dry recitation, avoid editorialization. Process the data sentence-by-sentence, from beginning to end. Extract this structured data: “Name”, “Relationship”, “Event Year and Location Baptism”, “Event Year and Location Marriage”, “Event Year and Location Children”, “Event Year and Location Death”. The response should have the header row in line 1: “Data From:”, “Name”, “Relationship”, “Baptism” “Marriage”, “Children Name & Birth Year”, “Death”. Column A should have the header row: “Ancestry.com With AI”, “Ancestry.com Without AI”, “FamilySearch About”, “FamilySearch Source & Detail”, “Family Tree Maker”, “Legacy Family Tree”, “MyHeritage.com”, “RootsMagic”. Enclose all cells or fields in quotation marks; omit, ignore, and avoid commas and other punctuation in the original data in your response in an attempt to keep the CSV error-free. Display dates in military format meaning day month spelled out and not by number and year. Display your response in a code window for easy copy-and-paste.
The results are attached above. I’ve color coded them to denote synch (pale green), gedcom (blue), not my own data (yellow).
Interesting how the diacritical marks are shown by Ancestry, Legacy, MyHeritage, and RootsMagic. FamilyTreeMaker omitted them. The apostrophe before and after August was originally quotation marks. Not sure if that is standardization issues or software/technical limitations.
I was surprised that Ancestry, which has the full location for events, simplifies to only provided county and state. The complete marriage location would be Baileytown, Westchester Township, Porter, Indiana. I wondered why Westchester Township was omitted and discovered I had never entered that in any of my generated trees. I had mis-entered death location as Chesterton Township instead of Chesterton, Westchester Township. This is a nice way to enhance and correct your data. (Chesterton is actually in three townships but the events occurred in Westchester).
All of the sites had the names of children. FamilySearch provided the most information (child’s name and dates). Legacy and FamilyTreeMaker both named all children. Not sure why RootsMagic didn’t specify. And now we know MyHeritage considers six children as “several.” Personally, I’d call that a handful plus!
I can see another use for this when trying to figure out where online public trees vary from yours and what source info (if any) they might have. It’s also a nice clean timeline that takes little effort to create.
Next I decided to take the Excel info, re-enter it into ChatGPT and give the original narrative prompt again. Since every narrative had been slightly different I wondered what the final product with the full information available would be. (I should mention I did the first narrative a few weeks ago in RootsMagic and there were three hallucinations but the rest I did on Wednesday and there were none.) Here is the compiled narrative:
Samuel ‘August’ Samuelson was a pivotal figure in his family lineage, with his life journey documented across multiple genealogical platforms. Born on January 3, 1839, in Stora Haddebo, Västra Harg, Östergötland, Sweden, Samuel was the son of Samuel Howard Erickson and Anna Elisabet ‘Lisa’ Torstensdotter. His baptism, a significant event in his early life, is consistently recorded in these sources, reaffirming the importance of his Swedish origins.
Samuel’s life took a significant turn when he married on February 17, 1871. While the exact location of his marriage varies slightly in records, ranging from Baileytown to Westchester Township in Porter, Indiana, it’s clear that this event marked his transition into family life in the United States.
The couple was blessed with several children, though the records differ in detailing their names and birth years. FamilySearch Source & Detail provides the most comprehensive list, including Johan Victor (1872-1921), John Louis (1873-1919), Alfrida (1874-1886), Ada Emilia (b. 1876), and two sons named Gustav Theodore (the first born in 1877 and died the same year, and the second born in 1879). This detail adds depth to our understanding of Samuel’s role as a father and the legacy he left behind.
Samuel’s life came to an end on January 14, 1908, in Chesterton, Porter, Indiana. The consistency of this date across multiple records emphasizes its accuracy and the end of an era in the Samuelson family history.
Endnotes:
Baptism and Birth: Samuel’s baptism and birth details are consistently recorded across Legacy Family Tree, Family Tree Maker, FamilySearch Source & Detail, MyHeritage.com, Ancestry.com (with and without AI), and RootsMagic.
Marriage: The date of marriage is consistently noted as February 17, 1871, but the location varies slightly, as recorded in different databases.
Children: The most detailed account of his children is provided by FamilySearch Source & Detail, with other databases offering varying levels of detail.
Death: Samuel’s death date is uniformly recorded as January 14, 1908, across all sources, with slight variations in the location’s specificity.
Spring is just around the corner and at the top of your “to do” list, make sure you backup a copy of your gedcom. Yesterday, while hubby and I were painting away as the home renovations continue, I got a call from a former Client I had done some consulting work regarding his Irish ancestry. He called to thank me for making this year’s St. Patrick’s Day even more memorable as I had pointed him in directions that saved him time and money.
I had also recommended that he always save his Ancestry.com tree in another location and we had discussed several options. Why do I recommend that? I’m definitely not trying to start a malicious rumor here as I believe there is no problem at all with Ancestry.com but in this crazy world, you just never know. I’m a planner (and a little paranoid) so I think about the what ifs in life – what if I can’t pay for the service any longer, what if they get hacked and I can’t access my lifelong work, what if they get sold and the service becomes deplorable? (On a side note, my hubby thinks this is a little irrational and he’s probably right. I say some people fear immigrants and I fear losing mine!) So my concern led me to find alternatives for my trees.
My Client decided to download the free standard edition of Legacy Family Tree but he had difficulty following my Ancestry.com download instructions. I talked him through it remotely and understand why he had a problem which you, dear reader, may also encounter.
If you’re new to this process it’s quite simple, just follow these steps:
Log on to Ancestry.com
Click “Trees” on the Ribbon and scroll and click on “Create & Manage Trees”
Click “Manage Tree”
Under “Manage Tree” in the green box on the left, click “Download your gedcom file”
Be patient, it may take some time, depending on the size of your tree.
Once downloaded, if you open the file it will be gibberish so you must install a program that can read a gedcom. You have several options; I’ve listed those that I’ve used that allow you to save the program to your own computer and/or place in your own Cloud (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) so you have complete control over the data: Legacy Family Tree – free with the standard edition; small cost for a program that does more. Rootsmagic – small cost and by mid-April it will sink with Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker – small cost, used to synch with Ancestry.com but I experienced problems; supposedly works now.
Or, you can join another organization like Ancestry.com and save your tree there. I’ve used My Heritage as an alternative.
There are lots more options that I’m not familiar with – for a review of the opinion based Top 10 click here.
I haven’t done this but am exploring these as other options some day: Familysearch – free, however, you are donating your tree to their genealogical community and although it is a backup, you don’t control it any longer. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and follow the directions under “Contribute Your Research” Wiki Tree – free, however, when I tried to upload several years ago my tree was too large for them. Haven’t checked back to see if their system will take it.
Whatever you choose is your personal decision but you have to select one so you can access your data.
Here’s where my Client got stuck – on Ancestry.com, step 4 above, he clicked “Download Tips” and got information on deleting his tree so he panicked and stopped. That was wise as you DON’T WANT TO DELETE THE TREE!!!! Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
When I click on download instructions I get the following:
“If the “File Download” window does not appear and Windows automatically downloads a text file:
Right click on the “Download your GEDCOM file” button.
Select “Save Target As…”
A “Save As” dialog box will display. Select a location for the file that you will be able to find later, such as “Desktop.” Then give the file a name and click on Save.”
He didn’t need to follow the 3 steps above. Once he clicked “Download your gedcom file” he was able to successfully save it to his hard drive. He selected to install the free Legacy Family Tree program and I listened as he followed the Legacy prompts and uploaded the gedcom. He was quite happy when it was finished.
You’ll be really happy, too, when you know you’re hard work is safe and accessible. Personally, I think sitting on my derriere to download and upload a gedcom is the easiest spring cleanup to do!
Well, well, I’m feeling pretty righteous! I recently received the Fall Newsletter (which, BTW, is the ONLY newsletter that Family Tree Maker has emailed to me this year so it correctly should be labeled as the “First Fall Newsletter” since Software MacKiev bought the rights for the Microsoft version which is what I formerly used.)
The newsletter was designed to notify the public that they are running behind and don’t have the synch ready as they had earlier stated would occur before the end of 2016. Okay, glitches happen and I am pleased that the organization is taking ownership that they will not be able to meet their self imposed deadline.
IMHO, this is a major step forward. I’ve been blogging for quite a while about my frustration with FTM not syching with my large Ancestry.com tree. Every time I called customer service they would blame Ancestry. I’d call Ancestry and they’d tell me to call FTM. I’d wait a day or two and try again as I was hoping whoever was on duty would have the knowledge to assist me. I posted for help, too but no one seemed to know what the problem was. The only “help” I ever received was twice when I was emailed a useless pdf that supposedly would get the synch back but that never worked, either. The final time I called, the rep tried to tell me I couldn’t follow instructions. So much for service! That was the day I switched to Legacy Family Tree’s standard edition.
But back to the newsletter… I quote, “…So, should you get the latest build right now then? Well, it depends. The improvements are mostly in stability and performance. So if FTM is crashing or has slowed to a crawl with large trees, then have at it. ” Finally, they admit that the product doesn’t work well with large trees! Now it’s official who owned the problem and I don’t blame Ancestry.com one bit for cutting the prior company owners’ off last December. What a nightmare it must have been for Ancestry staff to have to take all those calls from unhappy FTM users! I also give kudos to Ancestry’s staff for handling the calls I made to them in a professional manner.
I tried to link to the newsletter but I don’t see it posted on their website so I’m providing the link to sign up to their Mailing List instead.
I would like to see FTM offer a goodwill gesture by providing the new version for free to anyone with a large tree to make up for the wasted time and lack of support. FTM could determine the size of the tree for the offer. For now, that’s the only way I’d be back.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 9 June 2016.
Maybe due to the recent passing of Tropical Storm Colin through my area my thoughts are fairly random today! Several days of heavy rain and wind is pushing me to get outside and do some cleanup yard work so this will be brief!
First up – did you know that Family Tree Maker is back. They have a newsletter that will keep you updated as to when they are going to start synching again with Ancestry.com. If you’re a faithful reader you know I gave up on them about two years ago but now I’m thinking that maybe the problem was that I had the 2012 version and when they moved to the 2014 version it interfered with the synch. Neither FTM or Ancestry ever asked me what version I was using when I repeatedly called which says a lot about their customer support. Anyway, the software is now owned by mackiev which used to make really good products, like Kidspics that my own children loved back in the day. For $29.95 they’ll sell you their latest version of FTM at a discount if you had a previous one and I may do that as another backup. To sign up for their newsletter click here.
Update to my last three blogs about frugality in genealogy – Should have definitely mentioned Linkedin and Facebook. I use both and they are free! Did you know that there are over 8,000 genealogy sites on Facebook?! To view the list of them click here.
Two more reason to DO IT NOW! – Had a colleague from my educational job thank me for giving her the “Mean Momma” look when she told me two weeks ago that she had 14 boxes of family documents stored in an unair conditioned shed near a major river that floods. I told her to move them in her house pronto but she insisted that she was going to spend the summer going through the boxes, one a week. She had gone through 3 of the boxes when the flood advisory hit the area and she wasted no time in getting the boxes relocated in her home. With the storm, she had time to go through them and found some wonderful genealogical stories that I’m encouraging her to write about and publish. She’s an awesome writer so in the near future, look for a guest blog from her.
Another colleague asked me about how to go about collecting family history information. I pointed her to my website that houses all of my blogs (www.genealogyatheart.com) and strongly encouraged her to talk with her parents when she went home for Memorial Day weekend. When she returned the following Tuesday she told me that she relaxed all weekend and never got around to talking to her parents about the past. Five days later one of her parents had a stroke and has lost the ability to speak. Understandably, she is devastated on so many levels. If that isn’t a wake up call for all of us, I don’t know what is! Don’t delay – send that email, make that phone call, take the older relative to lunch and get the info today!
Those are my three random thoughts for the day – got to go get on the garden gloves and start picking up Spanish moss.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 6 Apr 2016.
Last Friday I had the pleasure of attending an all day conference hosted by The Villages, Florida Genealogy Society for the New England Historic and Genealogical Society (NEHGS). I’m a member of NEHGS and I was interested in the topics, especially migration patterns . Although I found all the workshops fairly basic I always take something away from any workshop I attend so I did get some new info to use when I revisit my tree AFTER I submit my portfolio.
I want to mention two points that I think were most interesting. The first was during the workshop titled “Choosing a Genealogical Software Program” by Rhonda McClure. I enjoyed Rhonda’s talk even though I’m not shopping for a new software program. What was interesting to me was the number of attendees that couldn’t understand why someone would want to have their tree information on their own program. Maybe I’m just old and remember the first genealogical software program I used which was on a cassette that was inserted into a TI-84 computer. When we upgraded to Windows 3.0, I downloaded PAF from Familysearch.org and had to re-enter all of my tree info. I didn’t have a lot, about 100 individuals, but it was time consuming and a duplication of efforts.
I moved to Family Tree Maker (FTM) because it was supposed to synch with Ancestry.com but as I’ve written in previous blogs, mine stopped synching and between the two organizations I could never get it working. I then downloaded the Standard (Free) edition of Legacy in which to save my Ancestry.com Gedcom and about once a month, I update Legacy by re-downloading the Gedcom. I know Ancestry.com is in the works with synching with Roots Magic and maybe a resurrection of FTM. I really would like a feature that synchs and I would go with that. I do love the reports Legacy generates as I ended up purchasing the Deluxe version so I’d keep that, too. The problem with not synching is one gets updated and the other doesn’t. I have a lot of pdf’s and photos saved on Ancestry.com that’s not on Legacy so we’re back to time consuming and storage saving issues unless something is available to synch.
But back to why anyone would want to have their own software. I live in Florida where we have many storms, often severe, which means that our power is off and therefore, no internet. Even when there isn’t a storm we sometimes have no internet. Like yesterday, with our wonderful new internet provider, Frontier, who can’t figure out how to provide the service we’re paying for (but that’s another story!) With a backup generator I could still access my desktop, though it would be unlikely in severe weather that I would use a generator to do that. I’d rather save the food in the fridge but I like options and if I would be so inclined, I could get to my information. Although it’s also unlikely that Ancestry.com will cease to exist, one never knows. Companies come and go. I’m not trying to start a rumor – I think that is remote but in case, I want to have a backup. I also like to have my tree available when I research away from home on my Kindle or laptop as in some facilities that I’ve visited, the wireless goes down when you’re in the stacks and it’s a problem.
The next interesting observation from the conference was how the Ancestry.com relationship feature doesn’t work. I was surprised how many people rely on it. Mine comes and goes and sometimes is so convoluted it’s hysterical. I’m not blaming Ancestry for that; it’s my twisted family tree where I relate to my husband back in the day. It can’t figure out the connection and seems to take the long route. I think I figured out why it does that. Simply because of who I set at the home person. If you’re having that problem just go to settings and change the home person to someone else and it may correct the problem. If it doesn’t, then you’re going to have to figure out the relationship the old fashioned way. I’d recommend bringing up the family tree view from the person you are trying to determine the relationship from and look and see where you recognize a common ancestor.
Originally published on genealogyatheart.blogspot.com on 13 Mar 2016.
Tip 1: Did you know that Fold3 has lots more than just military records? If you have the premium or you get a free trial offer you need to explore the site by doing the following-
Click BROWSE at the top of the page
Click CATEGORY on the right side
Click ALL TITLES
Take a look at what they have!
I have found the Pennsylvania Archives most helpful. Scroll down to the bottom of the selected volume to check out the index.
I never knew Fold3 had FBI Case Files, slave auctions from the West Indies, orphan records and more. Why in the world don’t they advertise this?! I would have probably bought the premium membership years ago had I known.
Tip 2: Just learned this from the Pinellas County Genealogical Society and I quote, “Family Tree Maker users can now do a direct import including all media files (without GEDCOM) to RootsMagic. This works with FTM versions 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 and classic (version 16 with file extension.ftw) for Windows. Also works for FTM 3 for Mac. Read the details at http://goo.gl/VkKrUJ. They also offer a special low price for FTM users to buy the RootsMagic program.” Pretty cool if my Family Tree Maker hadn’t stopped synching with my Ancestry.com tree. Hope this helps you out!
