Family History software

[MaryY]

I have downloaded my tree onto a free copy of Legacy 8, but over the past few days I have had problems with it crashing every time I input new data. Obviously it's extremely annoying as I then have difficulty locating where I was as I have yet to find a usable index to jump straight to the person I require. (I am only typing data in manually - nothing fancy.) Has anyone else had problems with Legacy crashing? Is there a limit as to the tree size on the free version?

chrissy1, Legacy Family Tree Standard (free) is the full program. There is no restriction on numbers of individuals you can add. Paying for DeLuxe just unlocks some extra tools, reports and added features. As I recall, some time ago the maximum number of individuals was somewhere in the low millions!! Now Legacy say file size is limited to 2GB.
So there's no obvious reason why your new installation of Legacy 8 should be crashing at all, let alone every time you input new data. I've been using Legacy for years (I've lost count) and perhaps have one crash per year. As Raven says, a quick File>File Maintenance>Check and Repair usually fixes it. It's best to run this two or three times in succession, just to be sure.
What OS are you running?

 

[chrissy1]

Thanks, Raven. I wondered if it might be something to do with the size of the file as my tree is very large, but so far I have only transferred over my own family tree and not all the other files I hold for friends, family and one name studies. There are no photos or documents, either, just words! I also wondered whether Legacy objected to my using Windows Vista. However, as I am not very patient when things go wrong and I generally have no idea how to fix them, it is making me lean towards Rootsmagic, but I would like to see FTM before making a decision to purchase. I don't find Rootsmagic as easy as Legacy to navigate, but it seems to work without crashing, which has to be a plus. Another advantage of the free Rootsmagic over Legacy is that it appears to allow photos to be added to the basic version, whereas it seems Legacy only allows that with the deluxe version, but Legacy highlights direct ancestors, which my old program allowed, for ease of navigation.
Thanks Gillian that's a great help. I had previously tried the list which you directed me to, but when I clicked on it , nothing happened, so I assumed it was a 'view only' list, but this was always immediately after the program had crashed, so I presume it wasn't working properly, as it is taking me to the appropriate person now.
MaryY - what is an OS?
I shall keep persevering with both programs and see which I prefer overall, but I have never experienced a program crashing before. It's a bit disconcerting!

 

[jorghes]

OS = Operating System

 

[LynneB]

Hey, Alexander. Thanks for your reply -- very helpful.

I have not been able to see anything in the interactive viewer for many months so have used right click to open in a new window for so long I do it automatically! Today, after reading another forum, I found out there was an upgrade -- I've followed the instructions and voila! I can see things in my interactive viewer again!

The same forum also showed me that many people (using FTM 2010 and 2012) are having trouble with "script errors" which started on May 23: Ancestry is trying to locate the problem and resolve it!

I found the snipping tool, and copied the screen shot to my clipboard and saved it to my computer but I can't figure out how to add it to this forum post! I tried 'right click' and 'paste'; and I tried Ctrl + V; neither option worked. I could, however, paste the screenshot into a Word document, so please, can you tell me where I'm going wrong?

I'm still considering upgrading to FTM 2014 even though FTM 2010 is now back in almost functioning order but it's not as urgent now! Is there a reason you upgrade so frequently?

 

[Tim]

Hi LynneB, as a security measure for the Forum you can't add files until you have posted 5 or more times. You are currently on 3.

 

[chrissy1]

OS = Operating System

Thanks - I am on Vista.

 

[LynneB]

Ah, thanks, Tim; I guess this makes four!

 

[Tim]

It did, it now says 5.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

but I would like to see FTM before making a decision to purchase.

Hi Chrissy

I'd be happy to do a demo of FTM for you. There is a program I can get you setup on to allow you to view my machine. I could then let you play around with FTM on my machine so that you got the chance to test it. Not as good as having it on your own machine for a test drive but better than not seeing it at all.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Is there a reason you upgrade so frequently?

I'm an IT guru, upgrading frequently is my life

 

[LynneB]

Alexander, here is the screen shot of FTM 2010, family tab and person tab .

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Yes as you will see from these screenshots FTM 2014 is radically different...



So you can see totally changed!! From blue to green!!

Seriously though, the extras are things like the little leaves you get on the website appear against a person so you can investigate further from within FTM. You can customise the right hand column for quick entry of common facts. You can do that in FTM 2010 too but your example shows you haven't done that, click customise view button at bottom.

 

[LynneB]

Alexander, you've convinced me! LOL

The leaves appear on FTM 2010 too -- I just don't have any hints for these people!

I work from the Person tab most of the time but have customised the right column of the family tab to include my version of AFN -- it reminds me to create one for every person in my tree. I have also made a "residence shared" fact (on the person page) so that I don't have to enter the same information for each spouse in a couple when there are a lot of Electoral Roll entries! Some of my relatives seem to have moved every year!

I did also have a fact for Lost Cousin entries but FTM crashed and when I went back to my back up it wasn't there and I never got around to creating it again. I now keep that information on an Excel spreadsheet which helps me see at a glace where I'm up to with each person: have I used Ancestry, FMP, FamilySearch, Google, cited sources for all info, found the parents and siblings of spouses, entered all individuals on my trees on Ancestry (it has less data than my FTM tree) and Genes Reunited, entered them on my pedigree chart where appropriate, etc.

 

[chrissy1]

Hi Alexander - that sounds like an excellent idea - assuming my dire computer skills can handle that! Could we try that some time after June 6, as I am a bit wrapped up in wedding arrangements at present as my son gets married in 10 days' time and would need to give this my full attention.

Does FTM always work in pedigree form rather than descendant, or is this just the format you have chosen to give as a screen shot? I can see it gives the highlighted person's details on the right and presumably an icon to click on RHS to reveal any notes(?) and the children of the highlighted person below, but presumably you then have to move to the parents to view that person's siblings? I see that you have some coloured arrows against the children. Does this mean that direct lines can easily be marked and identified? ...and also the lines of active correspondents, perhaps marked in a different colour/font or otherwise.....? It looks as if all facts are allocated specific storage areas(?), so would it accept my somewhat lengthy narrative facts somewhere, which include all census info (excluding reference numbers), information gathered from PR and info gleaned from correspondence, all lumped together under 'notes' in my current programs, or would I have to go through each set of notes and re-write them? Also, would FTM 2014 run successfully on Vista?

 

[Alexander Bisset]

I did also have a fact for Lost Cousin entries but FTM crashed and when I went back to my back up it wasn't there and I never got around to creating it again. I now keep that information on an Excel spreadsheet which helps me see at a glace where I'm up to with each person: have I used Ancestry, FMP, FamilySearch, Google, cited sources for all info, found the parents and siblings of spouses, entered all individuals on my trees on Ancestry (it has less data than my FTM tree) and Genes Reunited, entered them on my pedigree chart where appropriate, etc.

Your Lost Cousins fact should also help when using FTAnalyzer as it will then report who has a census fact but no matching Lost Cousins fact.

 

[Tim]

Hi Chrissy,

No you can change it to descendant view.

The filled in arrows (black) show that family have been added. The yellow arrow shows it part of your direct ancestry.

Notes should get transferred successfully.

I think it will work with Vista, but you need to think about upgrading very soon!

 

[Tim]

I did also have a fact for Lost Cousin entries but FTM crashed and when I went back to my back up it wasn't there and I never got around to creating it again.

Hi Lynne, I had an issue like this when I upgraded from FTM2012 to 2014. These facts are still in your gedcom, it's just that FTM doesn't know to display them.

Just create the Fact again and they should all appear. And as Alexander has mentioned, they are SO useful when using FTA.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Hi Alexander - that sounds like an excellent idea - assuming my dire computer skills can handle that! Could we try that some time after June 6, as I am a bit wrapped up in wedding arrangements at present as my son gets married in 10 days' time and would need to give this my full attention.

After the wedding next month suits me fine.

Does FTM always work in pedigree form rather than descendant, or is this just the format you have chosen to give as a screen shot? I can see it gives the highlighted person's details on the right and presumably an icon to click on RHS to reveal any notes(?) and the children of the highlighted person below, but presumably you then have to move to the parents to view that person's siblings?

The tree view in the window split between pedigree at the top and family view at the bottom is the default view I usually work with. You can select anyone in the pedigree view and it will show their family view at the bottom. Although I typically use the index view on the left to navigate around. ie: I search on the index view and click on the person it then opens their record in pedigree view and the family view. I rarely use the person view tab preferring instead to open their data as a form by right clicking the person and choosing Edit Person or by pressing F3. This brings up a form with all their facts and tabs for notes, pictures/audio recordings/videos etc (called media), links to sources etc as per this example. Note my devotion to recording sources against each fact.


To view someone's siblings you might notice a small drop down arrow under "Margaret Sheret" on the left and next to her husband "Harry Ross". Clicking the drop down shows Margaret's siblings so you can navigate that way or in the bar at the top in person view you see there are little drop downs to navigate around the tree. Instead of Pedigree view you can also use tree view which then looks like this.



Note there is a +/- slider under the orange tree view icon on the left hand side near the top of the tree to the right of the index. This allows you to zoom in/out of the tree which is another way of navigating around.

I see that you have some coloured arrows against the children. Does this mean that direct lines can easily be marked and identified? ...and also the lines of active correspondents, perhaps marked in a different colour/font or otherwise.....? It looks as if all facts are allocated specific storage areas(?), so would it accept my somewhat lengthy narrative facts somewhere, which include all census info (excluding reference numbers), information gathered from PR and info gleaned from correspondence, all lumped together under 'notes' in my current programs, or would I have to go through each set of notes and re-write them? Also, would FTM 2014 run successfully on Vista?

The orange coloured arrows show your direct lines and the helpful text top right under the person's name always tells you the relationship to whomever you have set as the root person. eg: John Sheret is shown as my 2g grandfather.

You can use the notes section for your lengthy notes. It also supports GEDCOM standard facts which make recording quicker and easier and better for finding again in future than sticking text in a note. That said the import should import your tree painlessly. What might be an idea prior to the demo is to send me a GEDCOM of your current tree I can then load it into FTM so when you see the demo you are dealing with your familiar data not mine.

Yes it works on Vista.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

I also find the places view very useful to see everyone at a specific place. It has helped make some interesting links I wouldn't have realised otherwise.

 

[LynneB]

Alexander, does the place view recognise same places if some places are listed as "Hampstead, Middlesex, England" and others as "Hampstead, London, England" (the entry depended on the time in history) or should I go through and make them all the same county?