Problem with FTM version 2014.1

[PhilGee]

It seems Chrissy’s FTM 2014.1 is corrupt.
Therefore there is little point in trying to export the tree to anywhere because it will only replicate the errors.
Chrissy does not want to lose her Notes.

Strictly, there is nothing wrong with FTM 2014.1 - it is the data that has been corrupted. Also, it will be next to impossible to export the data due to effects of the corruption. FTM 2019 may have some protection against recursion - my attempts to generate a loop all failed, including a GEDCOM modified to create a loop!

It may be that installing FTM 2019 and specifying a new data folder, which will be (nearly) empty, then copying all the files and folders associated with the FTM 2014 tree to the new folder and opening in FTM 2019 will resolve the problem in some way*. There is no guarantee it will work, but FTM 2019 will provide what Chrissy wants with, I believe, the bonus of syncing with Ancestry without syncing the notes (that will be probably be best done by creating a new Ancestry tree).

I do not recall the terms of use for FTM but, if Chrissy is worried about losing everything when changing to FTM 2019, it could be installed on a different computer and the data folders transferred using an external drive (or even loading the tree from the external drive) before installing and using it on her own machine. The first action, of course, will be FTM converting the file format from 2014 to the 2019 version (the formats are NOT compatible), so you need to use different folders just in case it results in an unusable file.

* I would offer to try it, but there are, obviously, privacy problems and a large amount of data would need transferring.

 

[Bob Spiers]

What happens when they are copied from Ancestry to FTM and subsequently locked or there are notes already locked, I will leave as an exercise for the reader!

Now that's much more in the old style Phil..I was beginning to get worried.

 

[At home in NZ]

if Chrissy is worried about losing everything when changing to FTM 2019

Perhaps Chrissy would like to let us know what she thinks about the solutions put forward?

 

[chrissy1]

If not in a newer version, simply delete the tree in FTM 2014.1 and replace it with a GEDCOM from your Ancestry tree, as I suggested in thread number 29.
If you are not confident enough to do that, please say so. Nobody will think any the less of you for asking for help to do it.

I have no qualms whatsoever about admitting that I am not confident enough to do that. I am not even confident about dealing with a download of FTM. At least with a disc I have a concrete item which I can definitely locate and use again if required. I don't know how I acquired the update for FTM 2014.1, but as a result of updating, I no longer have a copy of my tree on my husband's computer as that version is still FTM2014 and I didn't manage to update it.

However, I am terrified of deleting my tree on FTM 2014.1 before I have successfully transferred the details to another program, as that is the only complete copy of my tree as none of the notes have been transferred to Ancestry after FTM 2014.1. After syncing stopped about 5 yrs ago, there are names and sections of tree which have inadvertently been omitted on Ancestry as my main full tree is on FTM. Transferring the notes is generating thousands of 'hints' on my online tree - over 5,000 to date and I have only reached surname D!! The online tree already has some 23,000 names already, so I am now terrified that I won't be able to create a GEDCOM in the light of above information regarding large trees......but I think I am probably best pressing on with updating the online tree and then transferring it to FTM 2019 in due course. That way I will definitely have a complete tree online.

My notes are all 'person notes' apart from a few rare instances where there are some research notes, (though I am not sure which people the research notes are attached to). I could try saving the notes and reintroducing them, but I am not confident with this. Can they be copied and pasted in the same way as I am doing now from FTM to Ancestry?

Otherwise click on Share and save the report using one of the Export options and file it.
I am not sure what this means...........

I think my best option will be to purchase a copy of FTM 2019, but is it possible to run this with a copy of 2014.1 still on the computer? I will attempt to transfer a tree from Ancestry (if that is possible), but how can I prevent another copy from becoming corrupted? I have no idea how this copy became corrupted in the first place. Will it simply happen again? I am not bothered about syncing the 2 trees as I have managed without for the last 5 years, updating Ancestry manually. The notes will not be visible as it is a private tree - to quote 'Notes can only be viewed by the owner and by those invited to the tree as an “editor”.

Many thanks to Phil Gee
That is exactly the effect of the recursion I mentioned as they are the same person. Also, all the people in that branch will be replicated, so you need to find the person at the top of that branch and delete that person as they are the key. They will appear as a child of themselves or a descendant of theirs. As soon as they are deleted there is no loop and you can (after a backup, of course) insert a new person to replace the one deleted.
This is it exactly. I have no idea how it happened, but as it affects at a rough guess some 2000 names, it will be a mammoth task to sort out the duplicates as they do affect entire branches of a family in some instances. I can live with this problem, but I cannot solve the problem with the name with a 10 times duplication which will NOT allow me to delete and opening the name freezes the tree. Luckily it is in a remote corner of my tree, but if I could solve this problem, I would tackle the other duplicates.

MANY thanks to EVERYONE who has contributed to this thread. It has helped me decide the best way forward...

On a lighter note, I have made a truly incredible discovery today as a direct result of the newly acquired Ancestry 'hints'. Up popped a photograph of my friend's parents' wedding. The longtime childhood friend was my chief bridesmaid and it seems that we are 5th cousins. Even more amazing as she was born in Cambridge and her parents were from Yorkshire whilst mine were from Warwickshire and Gloucestershire and we met in Bristol. Absolutely unbelievable that we are related and it makes all this hassle with my tree worthwhile. I still can't get over this discovery.

 

[At home in NZ]

MANY thanks to EVERYONE who has contributed to this thread. It has helped me decide the best way forward...

I am so pleased you have decided what to do.

Otherwise click on Share and save the report using one of the Export options and file it.
I am not sure what this means...........

If you look at the screen in the image I posted with that 'instruction' you will see two buttons at the top right, one called Print and another called Share. Click on the Share button and choose which type of file to save the report in your computer. Personally I would use RTF because you can copy and paste more easily.

is it possible to run this with a copy of 2014.1 still on the computer? I will attempt to transfer a tree from Ancestry (if that is possible), but how can I prevent another copy from becoming corrupted?

You can have as many versions of FTM in your computer as you want, Ancestry will only sync to the tree it is linked to.
in order to stop the data from becoming corrupt, I suggest you follow the 'rules' for syncing. Once you have your tree from Ancestry safely synced to FTM2019 make sure you sync often because syncing too much data at once can make for a messy ending which happened to me a couple of years ago.

My notes are all 'person notes' apart from a few rare instances where there are some research notes, (though I am not sure which people the research notes are attached to). I could try saving the notes and reintroducing them, but I am not confident with this. Can they be copied and pasted in the same way as I am doing now from FTM to Ancestry?

Yes, you can copy and paste. But, if you run the report it will save a lot of time trying to locate them.

Good luck Chrissy.

 

[PhilGee]

This is it exactly. I have no idea how it happened, but as it affects at a rough guess some 2000 names, it will be a mammoth task to sort out the duplicates as they do affect entire branches of a family in some instances. I can live with this problem, but I cannot solve the problem with the name with a 10 times duplication which will NOT allow me to delete and opening the name freezes the tree. Luckily it is in a remote corner of my tree, but if I could solve this problem, I would tackle the other duplicates.

It may be worth a try to select each of the parents of the person you "cannot open" and detach that child so that they start a their own "mini-tree", then detach them from the spouse and children. If that works, exit and start up again and check if the the replications still exist. Now that person is isolated, it should be possible to delete him/her and re-insert them without recreating the loop.

 

[chrissy1]

It may be worth a try to select each of the parents of the person you "cannot open" and detach that child so that they start a their own "mini-tree", then detach them from the spouse and children. If that works, exit and start up again and check if the the replications still exist. Now that person is isolated, it should be possible to delete him/her and re-insert them without recreating the loop.

I will try that. Thanks for the suggestion, Phil. However, as it sometimes takes a day or so before I can get the tree open again, as it seems to want to open up on the same name that froze the program initially, I might wait until I have finished the current amendments.......
My plan is to transfer all the notes to Ancestry first, then attack the FTM tree, so it could be a while. Lucky we are shielding then, as I probably have until Christmas confined to home! Plenty to keep me occupied here.

 

[chrissy1]

If you look at the screen in the image I posted with that 'instruction' you will see two buttons at the top right, one called Print and another called Share. Click on the Share button and choose which type of file to save the report in your computer. Personally I would use RTF because you can copy and paste more easily.

In the past I have had problems finding things I have saved. I inadvertently saved my GEDCOM back onto my FTM program rather than in 'My Documents' where I wanted it! (Still not managed to get a copy in My Documents as I don't know what I did wrong!)
I am not sure what you mean by 'choosing the type of file to save the report. What is RTF?
Sorry to be so thick, but I really do have a mental block when it comes to technology and nobody to guide me. Family history was easy to handle on paper, but the benefits of technology for FH are immense when you get it right.......

 

[chrissy1]

I am so pleased you have decided what to do.


Yes, you can copy and paste. But, if you run the report it will save a lot of time trying to locate them.

Run the report

....??? Do you mean they will come up in alphabetical order and then I copy and paste them form the report to Ancestry??
Currently I have FTM index open alongside Ancestry index and I am methodically copying and pasting each set of notes over as each program has an index of names which is almost identical. This way I can also detect names/families which I have inadvertently forgotten to add to Ancestry - and there are quite a few of those as I update Ancestry manually!

However, this process is generating a multitude of new hints, which I am worried will totally overwhelm the Ancestry tree before long. ( 375 new pages of over 5000 hints generated up to surname D and it's taken me all week to process just 30 of them! 350 remaining......)
However, it's proving to be an excellent method of finding a multitude of new cousins, as Ancestry generates new hints associated with any name that is accessed...........but each hint takes time to research its authenticity and add or discard. It should help enormously with common ancestors for DNA matches too.

 

[jorghes]

However, this process is generating a multitude of new hints, which I am worried will totally overwhelm the Ancestry tree before long. ( 375 new pages of over 5000 hints generated up to surname D and it's taken me all week to process just 30 of them! 350 remaining......)
However, it's proving to be an excellent method of finding a multitude of new cousins, as Ancestry generates new hints associated with any name that is accessed...........but each hint takes time to research its authenticity and add or discard. It should help enormously with common ancestors for DNA matches too.

I wouldn't worry too much about the Ancestry hints - they won't overwhelm Ancestry itself. I have over 11,000 hints over 574 pages, and I only slowly wade through them. But even just visiting a section of your tree you haven't in a while is enough to prompt a barrage of new hints. It's the way it works! (When you've processed the good hints, the silly ones start appearing).

RTF stands for "Rich Text Format" and it's a reasonably generic file type.

 

[chrissy1]

I wouldn't worry too much about the Ancestry hints - they won't overwhelm Ancestry itself. I have over 11,000 hints over 574 pages, and I only slowly wade through them. But even just visiting a section of your tree you haven't in a while is enough to prompt a barrage of new hints. It's the way it works! (When you've processed the good hints, the silly ones start appearing).

RTF stands for "Rich Text Format" and it's a reasonably generic file type.

This is now the 4th attempt at a reply as I have lost the previous 3!! Must be pressing something that inadvertently deletes the text.
Many thanks Jorghes - good to know the tree won't be overwhelmed. I don't usually allow the hints to get above about 5000. At this rate I will be heading for around 25,000-30,000!

I had been purposely revisiting certain surnames in the hope of generating new cousins and hopefully placing more of my DNA matches, particularly on the branch where I have virtually no known matches. However, revisiting every person of a particular surname is producing far superior results. Plenty to keep me occupied in lockdown until Christmas. (Christmas 2021 that is!). However, I still can't get over the discovery that I am related to my long time childhood friend and bridesmaid, as our families had not lived within 200 miles of one another since 1750!! All the effort has been worthwhile for that discovery alone.

 

[Tim]

If it helps to ease your mind Chrissy, I have 45,177 hints. So it's not the tree that's in danger of being overwhelmed!

 

[jorghes]

I had been purposely revisiting certain surnames in the hope of generating new cousins and hopefully placing more of my DNA matches, particularly on the branch where I have virtually no known matches. However, revisiting every person of a particular surname is producing far superior results. Plenty to keep me occupied in lockdown until Christmas. (Christmas 2021 that is!). However, I still can't get over the discovery that I am related to my long time childhood friend and bridesmaid, as our families had not lived within 200 miles of one another since 1750!! All the effort has been worthwhile for that discovery alone.

A number of people can be (rightly) suspicious of Ancestry hints, but I find more to like than dislike. It's been amazing how many times a hint has popped up which brings information that you haven't considered and then enables you to delve a little further and tidy up a few spots.

Some of the issues come unfortunately from those trees where people have simply attached everything that Ancestry has offered without consideration to what it is - one which keeps coming up on mine is hints from censuses for families who have emigrated sometimes years before the census date. Therefore, often if Ancestry "recognises" the same person in your tree, they will offer hints that others have accepted, with mixed results!

 

[Bob Spiers]

A number of people can be (rightly) suspicious of Ancestry hints, but I find more to like than dislike.

I agree with that statement...period! In fact of late, for whatever reason, the hints have been very helpful and have led on to some remarkable discoveries. Of course it will always be 'Caveat Emptor' (Buyer Beware) and include 'silly gremlin' nonsense. I do not find it all that difficult to reach a decision on whether to accept, investigate or reject outright. Ancestry Hints get my vote every time.

 

[Helen7]

Of course it will always be 'Caveat Emptor' (Buyer Beware) and include 'silly gremlin' nonsense. I do not find it all that difficult to reach a decision on whether to accept, investigate or reject outright.

I fully agree. Ancestry comes up with all sorts of hints to details that you'd probably never discover otherwise. I had one hint suggesting a relative by marriage had been a Turkish bath attendant on the Titanic. My first reaction was 'no way', but on further investigation I found it was absolutely true (she survived, by the way, and later settled in the US).

As others have said, I don't worry about the size of my hints list (mine's currently just under 10,000). I just look at them as I investigate a particular branch or individual, and as Bob and Jorghes have said, they can prove very useful.

 

[Pauline]

Ancestry comes up with all sorts of hints to details that you'd probably never discover otherwise.

I wish they would for my tree. I always check out new hints hopefully but almost invariably they are either details I already know about, or things which are logistically ludicrous and can't possibly relate to the person concerned.

 

[Bob Spiers]

The best Hints for me appear when I am exploring a part of my Ancestry Tree that I have not visited for some time rather than those Ancestry invites me to check out, which I agree are often already known or perhaps 'other-worldy' for want of a better description. It is then I find the Hints can lead on to some surprising discoveries, or at least an advancement to what I already know.

 

[Helen7]

The best Hints for me appear when I am exploring a part of my Ancestry Tree that I have not visited for some time rather than those Ancestry invites me to check out

Same for me, but then I don't get any emails from Ancestry inviting me to check out any hints - and if I did, I'd probably ignore them. Perhaps explains why I have 10,000 unchecked hints.

 

[chrissy1]

If it helps to ease your mind Chrissy, I have 45,177 hints. So it's not the tree that's in danger of being overwhelmed!

Yes that helps a lot, thanks. I am already up to 11,ooo+. I too use them on particular branches of the tree I am investigating and recently discovered I am related as 5th cousin to my childhood best friend! Amazing!!

 

[chrissy1]

I think that the suggestion made by 'At Home in NZ' to try ticking all the boxes when compacting might have removed the duplicates which were only duplicated once..... but I am going to play around with my 'spare' corrupted tree and see if I can remove of the 10x duplicated names which freeze the tree using first compacting and then detaching people related to the names which freeze the tree.............
I will attempt that this evening or the wee hours as the weather is too good to be inside! So rare to see this much sunshine that I feel the need to take advantage. So many outdoor jobs awaiting my attention.