Saturday, November 1, 2014

Sorting Saturday - NEW FTM SIG in town!


There is a new SIG (Special Interest Group) in town being sponsored by Root Cellar SGS

              
It's first meeting was October 16. I attended. I think I will attend the November meeting also.

I am completely involved with Legacy Family Tree Software but I am beginning to get a little frustrated with it. Nothing seems easy, there is always something more to learn in order to do a task. I used FTM several years ago, but then they stopped supporting it and I had to find something else to use for my family records/documents/pictures. So I picked Legacy FT. I have always liked it but as I said getting a little frustrated with it. Anyway, I attended the meeting hoping to get a little encouragement one way or the other. Lots of great discussions but none without problems.

One good thing I like about FamilyTree Maker is that you can use it whether you are a Mac user or a PC user. I am so tired hearing about there is nothing for the MAC or they don't support both platforms. So this is a very good thing. They of course are not the same program, each has its own version but they are more alike than not.

Family Tree Maker (FTM) Genealogy Software SIG  also discussed the interaction with the Family Trees on Ancestry.com. So you can register on Ancestry.com for a family tree and then import all or part of your family tree from your FTM program. You can then sync back and forth as you add more ancestors/descendants, documents, pictures. Pretty nifty.

A lot of discussion around this sync'ing, because it was not working for many of the participants. FTM Program were locking up when trying to sync. Others were going to look into that and see if they could come up with some solutions for the next meeting in November.

I am tempted to try out FTM again ..........I am considering it. I am a Legacy user now but don't know why you couldn't use more than one program  ..... but I see you can update your family tree from anywhere using FTM with TreeSync. With TreeSync you can keep your tree up-to-date no matter where you are. Access and share your family tree from any computer- even your iPhone or iPad. AND Yes, now there is an Ancestry.com APP to complete the entire circle. OMG technology can be so great and so overwhelming too.............  I do already have the Ancestry.com APP where part of my family tree exists. But it is the same partial tree that I have on Ancestry.com. Ok I have that part of it and the mobility of that family tree. I am just not using FTM yet. You don't have to use FTM to use the Ancestry.com APP. The trees on Ancestry.com are free to use and build on, however you can not add documentation from Ancestry.com unless you have a membership - which I do.

I am able to sync my Legacy software/family tree with a third party iPhone/iPad APP called Families. I do find it cumbersome to up date/sync. You can not add or make changes to the Families APP. It only sync's one way..........  even so, while traveling and researching I do have my entire family tree available to look at or through on my iPhone, which is a darn good benefit.

So I am not sure what I will do now. I think I would like to install FTM and upload part of my tree and work it that way right now. It doesn't do me much good to have only have access to part of a tree, DOES IT?



So here are the particulars for the FTM SIG if you are interested.
Come out, join in, ask your questions and see if this is right for you and then learn from each other.
Start at the beginning and grow with the group.

What: Family Tree Maker SIG
When: FIRST meeting 20 November  (3rd Thursday)
Time: 11:30am- 1:30pm
Where: Sylvan Community Center, 7521 Community Dr, Citrus Heights



No comments:

Post a Comment