View Full Version : Family Tree Maker
kiterunner
08-12-15, 22:39
Just come across this:
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/
I just received an email about this too.
I love this program and don't want it to go. I love how easily you can attach records to your tree.
The reason software sales are declining is that the program is so expensive, at least down under.
I'm going to need referrals to new programs eventually as I wont put my tree online. :(
This is a really poor decision, and one I don't really understand. My current sub runs out in February, and it was always my intention to get my trees finished by then, which I am well on course to do. However, what on earth are people to do now, in terms of syncing information and printing different types of tree and chart?
I hope more information is provided as to the reasoning behind this, but I now find it very unlikely I will ever renew my sub. It's already expensive, and now it just seems like it will make things a lot more difficult.
Reading the comments on the blog there are a lot of unhappy customers out there.
I wonder how badly ancestry will be affected by this decision. If FMP have ever thought of doing a tree program now would be the time to make the announcement.
Mary from Italy
09-12-15, 00:15
It's also going to have the side effect (maybe intentional?) of eliminating a cheapish source of Ancestry subscriptions.
WendyPusey
09-12-15, 07:30
I still use FTM 2006 as I prefer that version. No longer have my tree on Ancestry and stopped my subs there over two years ago.
I shall just continue to use FTM though.
kiterunner
09-12-15, 07:49
I also have FTM 2006 and although I also have a tree on ancestry, I manually update both separately and I only add records to the ancestry one, so the changes won't affect me as far as I can see.
Is there any real alternative to FTM? If I have got this correct, and reading comments on other sites, there is a complete move away from desktop genealogical programs towards complete online affairs. Which is all well and good, provided you can actually access your data offline as well.
I had a minor panic attack over that Ancestry email. (As you know Kate), I only uploaded my tree for the first time a few months back. But obviously the actual FTM will keep working - until something goes wrong and there's no backup or way of fixing it. So I guess we are all going to have to start looking for something new, even if we don't use it for a while.
Is there any real alternative to FTM?
It depends what you want, I suppose. I've never used FTM.
I prefer desktop to ipad/laptop for doing genealogy - I also like to be able to print off charts and reports so have a paper backup and for when I can't get access to the internet.
A lot of people started genealogy by getting a FTM with the free sub and once addicted carried on from there. If they don't get the FTM in the first place the enthusiasm probably won't be there. Think Ancestry may have shot themselves in the foot.
Give us a clue then Merry ............!! lol
What I want to begin with is something not too complicated to use, that can take photos, documents, notes (and notes that are not in one lump, like Tribes).
I can't really make suggestions as I've only ever used Brother's Keeper. I've just looked and I have 4,605 documents attached to it and about 10,000 individuals on the program. I've never had a problem with it so don't see a reason to investigate other programs. I'm not sure how long I've been using it -- maybe 15 years, but I see it's been around since before 1990!
Olde Crone
09-12-15, 09:23
I think Tribal Pages is (are?) missing a trick here. I have long wished that they sold an offline programme for their tree, although I could suggest a few refinements!
I do have FTM but have never been comfortable with it, so it's no great loss to me.
OC
Heather P T
09-12-15, 09:43
My biggest whinge is that we will lose the opportunity of a cheap sub attached to outdated FTM prgrams :( Am I imagining it or did the mormons sell the ancestry site a while back?
kiterunner
09-12-15, 09:44
Ancestry has been sold a couple of times in recent years, Heather, but I don't know whether it belonged to Mormons in the first place.
kiterunner
09-12-15, 09:45
Wow, 4,492 comments on ancestry's blog entry so far!
I'm not sure how long I've been using it -- maybe 15 years
Just had a look and I've been using Brother's Keeper for over 19 years! lol
Olde Crone
09-12-15, 11:05
Ancestry started out as the commercial arm of the LDS church although the two were kept (financially) scrupulously separate. One is a registered charity, the other a business. Several leaders of the LDS church had high ranking positions in Ancestry.
I am not suggesting they were doing anything wrong.
OC
Wow, 4,492 comments on ancestry's blog entry so far!
Boy, there are some very unhappy people out there! Every single post is slating Ancestry.
kiterunner
09-12-15, 13:49
I can see why people would be upset if they use the "Tree Sync" feature (i.e. they sync their FTM tree with their ancestry one), but a lot of the people commenting on there are reacting as though they won't be able to use FTM at all any more. Surely if it works on their computers at the moment, it will still work even when ancestry stop selling and supporting it, apart from the actual tree sync feature?
maggie_4_7
09-12-15, 13:56
Wow, 4,492 comments on ancestry's blog entry so far!
Now 5,226!
ElizabethHerts
09-12-15, 14:32
I can see why people would be upset if they use the "Tree Sync" feature (i.e. they sync their FTM tree with their ancestry one), but a lot of the people commenting on there are reacting as though they won't be able to use FTM at all any more. Surely if it works on their computers at the moment, it will still work even when ancestry stop selling and supporting it, apart from the actual tree sync feature?
I know it might be annoying, but people do tend to over-react to any changes.
Surely the point is that once software is no longer supported, things will start to go wrong?
I never have used FTM, so it's no skin off my nose, but I have known the wrench of migrating data to another program and inevitably discovering that some bit of functionality is lost.
Isn't the underlying reason for the fuss because Ancestry want us to gift all our trees to their website and many people don't want to?
Mary from Italy
09-12-15, 15:02
I'm also still using FTM 2006. There's nothing to stop us continuing to use that or the other existing versions, they just won't issue security patches etc. for them.
And there are other offline tree programs. Wikipedia's done a chart comparing their features, although it isn't quite up-to-date, because PAF's also been discontinued:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_genealogy_software
I have recently loaded Lotus (a product like, but superior to, Office) which was discontinued in about 2000. So I know you can do such things. However, no matter how simple it may be to use old programs on new systems, surely most of the people who use FTM do so because they are not aware of the multiplicity of other programs available, or how to use them.
Mary from Italy
09-12-15, 16:06
It isn't necessarily simple to use old programs on new systems. The main problem is that they may have security holes that need patching, or they may simply be incompatible with new operating systems. I only upgraded recently to Windows 7, and although some of my previous programs worked, at least 4 didn't.
FTM 2006 gives an error message when I use it with W7, but so far it seems to work. I haven't tried out all its features yet, though.
kiterunner
09-12-15, 16:27
As far as I know, I have never had a security patch for FTM 2006. Nor for FTM 2011 which I have on my Windows 10 laptop.
Mary from Italy
09-12-15, 16:39
As far as I know, I have never had a security patch for FTM 2006.
Nor have I, but I wondered if the later versions of the programs dealt with any security problems in the earlier versions.
kiterunner
09-12-15, 17:08
The latest versions of FTM are surely compatible with Windows 10 (and I have seen on another forum where someone said they were using a 20-year-old version of FTM on a new Windows 10 computer!) and Microsoft have said that Windows 10 will be the last ever Windows operating system, so I can't see that there will be any major problems in the future other than the tree sync feature and other online facilities eventually breaking.
Reading through the comments on ancestry's blog, they seem to be expecting ancestry representatives to come round to their houses, force them to uninstall FTM and stamp on the disk!
Mary from Italy
09-12-15, 20:25
:) :)
Ancestry have added a bit since yesterday, which I think makes the situation clearer:
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/09/more-information-on-family-tree-maker-desktop-software/
The most significant statements on it, I think, are:
"Most Family Tree Maker features are designed to work offline, and should continue to function unless a change on your computer, such as an operating system update, causes the functionality to break." According to my personal computer man, updates will ultimately be FTM's biggest problem.
"You will continue to be able to access your data through the desktop software beyond Jan. 1, 2017, however over time there will be a gradual degradation of features. You can always export your tree and save it." Not quite sure what that means in practice, but it doesn't sound good.
However, we have until 2017 to get sorted out.
kiterunner
10-12-15, 13:11
Thanks, Terri.
When people are saying they will buy a new family tree software package and move their tree over to it, I wonder how sure they can be that whatever they buy will continue to be "supported" by the vendors for any longer than FTM will be? If ancestry have taken a business decision to stop selling FTM because the demand for that kind of software has dropped, aren't other software companies likely to do the same thing in the near future?
If ancestry have taken a business decision to stop selling FTM because the demand for that kind of software has dropped, aren't other software companies likely to do the same thing in the near future?
Ancestry want everyone to move to online trees (all those lovely ongoing fees) which other software suppliers don't currently offer, so they might be available for a while.
I suspect you're right in the long run, though.
From their Head of Social Media:
"As someone who uses the product personally, I understand your concerns on being able to sync your online/offline trees easily and having a long term 'offline' home for your family history in the years to come. "
"There are discussions taking place on working with other desktop software solutions that would make it possible for their products to integrate with Ancestry so you could continue to sync your tree(s). The product team is also reviewing the opportunity to bring more reports and related functionality from Family Tree Maker into the online service."
"There will be more information available over the next couple of months and we will share as soon as we have more news."
http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2015/12/09/more-information-on-family-tree-maker-desktop-software/
'You will be able to use the software, exactly as you do now, including TreeSync, for at least the next year.'
Yay.
EDIT: Is it inappropriate for me to say that Terri is really, really hot?
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