Genealogy Chat

If you have a tree of any size on a free Tribalpages site, it is worth upgrading to a standard site ($19pa - just a few pounds) so that you can export your tree and then import it into FTM, rather than having to type it all again. Whether it is worthwhile depends upon the number in your tree, and the value you put on your own time.

be sure to try the PDF books option. I put one on my homepage, a bit rough and ready but there are some really good ones out there on some FTM homepages. Mine is a book about one rellie, his career and the places he worked complete with images etc. It took a while to get all the info together but was worth the effort. If anyone wants the links to some examples let me know via pm. Glen

HI Glen:-) I have just got my copy from Morrissons and am now getting all my data on it. I only have my tree on the free tribal pages so cannot export it and I deleted most of my tree on here ages ago. Its going to be a long winded process. A bargain at £5.99 though and I am very impressed so far Allie

Hi Glen, What a bargain....I'll definately be popping down the supermarket for the full version. Cheers, Diane

You will most likely find that some of the facilities of the 'full' version are disabled in the freebie. Thigs like exporting Gedcom and certain tyoes of tree prints and reports have been disabled in previous 'give away' versions. To be honest anyone who is looking to buy FTM can get hold of one for £5.99 from Morrisons. It is hardly worth taking the chance of not having a facility for that price. Re back up copies, whether you have a freebie or the full version make sure you make regular backup copies to disc/stick or some other source SEPARATE to your pc. If your hard drive dies and you don't have a back up copy then you will lose everything. The best method for backups is to use 3 discs/sticks, The first is 'grandfather' or #1 The second is 'father' or #2 The Third is 'son' or #3 Backups can be made daily,weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on how often you update your file as follows; Your first (daily/weekly etc) backup goes on Grandfather, Your second (day/week etc) goes on father Your third goes on son Your fourth backup goes on Grandfather Your fifth on father Your sixth on son, and on it goes. This method ensures that if your disc becomes damaged you can revert to a very recent backup copy and data loss is kept to a minimum. As a further safeguard ensure each backup is not damaged BEFORE you close FTM, a simple check is to try and open the file on the disc. It takes two minutes to backup and check the copy, you ignore this at your peril!!! Glen

After deliberating for some months I had just decided to purchase FTM in order to back-up, and continue my genesconnected tree research offline.....thanks to the recommendations on the Tips Board. Then my mother passed me the Sunday Times FTM free disk. I have loaded it onto my laptop (- it has never seen a copy of FTM) and have managed easily to upload the GEDCOM file that I exported from Genesconnected. It looks too good to be true. If you want to try for yourself, have a look at the help text on the FTM disk under GEDCOM, it will guide you through the process. Have any existing users of FTM noticed any significant differences between this free version and the paid for FTM 2005, except for a shorter free subscription period for Ancestry? Or is it still worth me purchasing the full package? Diane

The new CD that you installed has written over the program files that were already there for FTM. The data is still the same so your file is okay. If you had the full version before and the new CD was a trial version you will have lost some of the options/capabilities that are within the program, you will need to reinstall the original 2005. Ron www*genealogyprinters*com

Just been trying it out. I don't have FTM just an old version of Legacy. I think this is a really good CD apart from one thing... You can't import a GED.COM or PAF. Or anything else come to that. I will using FTM from now on though. Viv

Oh well, I suppose it will be useful to have a copy in case one goes wrong, and will save me having to keep backing it up on the hard-drive.Just thought, each time I load one of the 2 CDs , will it automatically copy any info I've input on the other then, or only info on the hard-drive?

It can see that your machine has a .ftw file on it and so it has just opened that. It is better than the offer with The Independent in Sep06 as that was a limited version. This APPEARS to be the all dancing and all singing version of FTM2005 with a one month free subscription to Ancestry.

Bookmaring this as I too am waiting for the same answers.... I wanted this new FTM to fill in my friends tree... Gerri.

Hi all. I've just received a free FTM CD in our paper. I thought I'd put it on to see whether it's exactly the same as the FTM 20005 CD I already have. As soon as I loaded it, it came up with all my family tree already on it! How? Extremely confused person.PS Have altered the title in case people think I'm just telling them about the offer!