A possible replacement for Family Tree Maker

Question

With Ancestry announcing that they will stop selling Family Tree Maker software soon and my reluctance to keep ALL of my DATA online I began my search into other software.  I just concluded my first test by downloading a GEDCOM from here for my Family Tree. I then downloaded A program "My Family Tree"  from http://download.cnet.com/My-Family-Tree-32-bit/3000-2127_4-75553957.html and imported the GEDCOM from here.

I am impressed! everything transferred, including the biography section with sources and privacy warnings with very little format changes (line breaks did not all make the transition)

I for one will be keeping my personal family data on that program on my computer from now on.

Comments

Thanks for the suggestion Dale ...once Family Tree Maker stops working with Ancestry my subscription ends. Before I end my subscription I will make my tree private... which seems to be the current trend on Ancestry lately.

Answer 1

We find that Ancestral Quest is a effective program; we have used it for over 10 years.   There is a  basic version that is free. Ancestral Quest 14 is $29.95

Comments

My Family Tree program is totally free.

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Dale, I don't recall the name of the program that I have seen Eowyn recommend several times, when answering questions here about what they can use to import their gedcoms in order to edit them before exporting them to a gedcom that can be imported on WikiTree.  As I recall, it's also free, and she seems to think it's very good.

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Gaile you misunderstand, I am not recommending this program to anyone for use in uploading a GEDCOM to WikiTree, I am recommending it as a program to store your data outside of WikiTree.  I don't think that WikiTree is going anywhere anytime soon but I prefer to keep my work on an offline location in addition to here for safety and security. That way all of my hard work is not lost for any reason.

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Dale, I think I didn't express myself clearly.  What I meant is that there is a family tree program that runs on a local computer that Eowyn seems to have a high opinion of.  She recommends that people use this program to work on their gedcoms that they downloaded from someplace else before uploading them to WikiTree.  My impression, therefore, is that this is a program that she thinks is a good one to use for keeping their family trees on their computer.

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The only thing I am going to say further about this program is that the excellent reports are showing me a large number of errors that I have in my personal line and if I seem to be missing from G2G it is because I am going to be trying to get those errors corrected before Friday.
I am not mad at anyone, Just very busy correcting my mistakes both here and on my computer.

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I use two different programs for different purposes, both free. MyHeritage (Family Tree Builder https://www.myheritage.com/family-tree-builder) has a nice visual/editor display, you can ignore the project sync, no subscription required. Gramps has very powerful filtering/editing/display capabilities. Both have different data validations (LACKING in wikitree): FTB finds things like inconsistent names, place spellings, females married to females, missing gender; Gramps find things like impossible dates/relationships with many variations, and finding/removing unrelated people (good when relationships change but people remain on your watchlist). Gramps has a very nice ancestor/descendant display, reminds me of the old rootsweb user interface where I can see 20 generations in a single screen, some would consider it 'bare bones'. For both programs I fix any data errors found in the 'System of Record' (wikitree). Now that Chris has fixed most of the import/export quirks such as biography converted to valid notes, the imports work well. Some wikitree-specific tags are not understood (PGVN, MARN, AUTH, WWW), also missing relationships when only ancestors are exported (automatically fixed by program), not a big deal because they can be converted to notes on import. At least the wikitree URL for the profile is included.

For those importing a new gedcom - please please please fix all validation errors and add any missing dates (even estimated).

Another tip - for location validation - to make sure it really exists and is spelled correctly - use https://familysearch.org/catalog/search (location search is the default).