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Family History software

Alexander, many thanks for an extremely informative tour of FTM and for your input, Tim. (I hoped that the arrows denoted direct line - does that come up automatically at the press of a button?) The places view looks extremely interesting, but without your information, I would have presumed that it applied only to US places. I bought all the 1" OS maps for the areas in which my ancestors resided and street maps for the larger places years ago.......but so much is available online now. I look forward to trying out the FTM and will definitely forward you my gedcom - but how do I get it to you? I haven't got an e-mail address for you.

I have never upgraded anything - FH program, Windows or anything else, but I am considering getting a new computer rather than merely upgrading from Vista, as my computer was new whenever Vista first came out - poss about 8/9 yrs ago? Would you recommend simply upgrading windows or getting a new desktop? If so, what sort of specification would I need to ensure that it lasts for a good while and serves my needs? What would I need to consider and is there anywhere in particular that offers good deals? My current computer was from Dell, but it had to have more memory installed a few years ago, as a friend rightly suggested it would increase its speed considerably, but I think the place where more memory goes is now full and it is pretty slow again. If anyone can suggest what spec I might want to look at or any particularly good deals I would be grateful.
 
A new desktop (or laptop) would seem the best solution for upgrading your old spec PC and Vista.
Lots of RAM memory is always good to have, but final spec depends on budget.

The yellow/orange lines denote direct ancestors and yes they come up automatically. The maps are for anywhere in the world.
 
Tim said:
A new desktop (or laptop) would seem the best solution for upgrading your old spec PC and Vista.
Lots of RAM memory is always good to have, but final spec depends on budget.
Click to expand...

I don't want a laptop as I like a desk to work on for my family history as I use reams of paper.... What kind of numbers denote 'lots of ram'. Any suggestions re reliable makes?
 
LynneB said:
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?
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Place names by their very nature will vary over time, boundaries change, etc. In the UK we are lucky things are relatively stable I'm sure those with European ancestry would love to have the stability of boundaries we have had. There are towns in modern France that were in Germany and changed several times. There are modern towns where the country boundary goes through the middle of the street. I understand there is even a restaurant on the border between Netherlands and another country, not sure which, where the country boundary actually goes through the restaurant and due to different licencing laws they move customers from one side of the restaurant to the other to move into a different country where they can serve alcohol later in the evening. (NB. that story may be apocryphal).

So I wouldn't worry too much about similar but changed names of locations. What you can do is move the pin on the map so that you can save the location for each place in your file. It does take a fair bit of effort though.
 
To be honest, I've been so busy adding people to my family (currently working on the descendants of the first set of great-great-grandparents) that I haven't really looked at the Places tab. Just today, I've had people married in Hampstead, Middlesex, then buried in Hampstead, London. Of course, they are still in the same place which, to me as an Aussie, is just a dot on a map of North-western London!

Now, I'm curious and may have to take some time to "play" tomorrow!
 
chrissy1 said:
but how do I get it to you? I haven't got an e-mail address for you.
Click to expand...
I'll send you a private forum message with my email address.

chrissy1 said:
I have never upgraded anything - FH program, Windows or anything else, but I am considering getting a new computer rather than merely upgrading from Vista, as my computer was new whenever Vista first came out - poss about 8/9 yrs ago? Would you recommend simply upgrading windows or getting a new desktop? If so, what sort of specification would I need to ensure that it lasts for a good while and serves my needs? What would I need to consider and is there anywhere in particular that offers good deals? My current computer was from Dell, but it had to have more memory installed a few years ago, as a friend rightly suggested it would increase its speed considerably, but I think the place where more memory goes is now full and it is pretty slow again. If anyone can suggest what spec I might want to look at or any particularly good deals I would be grateful.
Click to expand...
A new computer rather than an upgrade would be the best long term solution as the old hardware might not cope so well with the newer operating systems, and something that is 8-9 years old will last less time than something new. Note that Microsoft are launching Windows 10 in July (6-8 weeks away) so I'd wait till then before purchasing a new computer as you are likely to get good deals with a new version of windows already included in the price. Dell is a particularly good make, avoid Packard Bell (aka Packard Hell).

You should get something with between 4Gb and 8Gb RAM. 4Gb as a absolute minimum these days for a new machine. Have a look to see what size your current disk is and how much space is free. That will give you a good idea of what size of disk you require. My guess would be 250Gb-500Gb would be fine. However if you have a lot of data or photos etc you might be better with a 1Tb disk (ie: 1000Gb). Practically any processor these days would be fine as that is not typically the bottleneck these days. Most of the rest is just fluff.

If you give me an idea of budget in a private email I'd be happy to source a good deal once windows 10 comes out in July. I suspect there will be lots of companies offering good competitive deals to cash in on the new version of windows being released. BTW are you based in the UK? I forgot to ask.
 
Tim said:
Alexander has replied about the RAM, however I would suggest at least 8 Gb and if you want to future proof then try 16 Gb.

Am I the only person that doesn't use paper?

I also wanted to say that you can get FTM2014 for $99 or £39 from Amazon, both of these includes 6 months subscription to Ancestry.
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For what Chrissy is suggesting her use would be 16Gb would be an expensive luxury that is unnecessary. It is far far cheaper with RAM to buy what you need now and upgrade later when the larger sizes are more common and thus considerably cheaper. For those with a slow 3+yr old machine with less than 4Gb RAM you could probably speed up your machine very cheaply and quickly. I'd recommend using Crucial they have a wonderful tool on the front page of their website that analyses your machine works out what RAM you have and shows you what the cost of a compatible upgrade would be. A year ago I doubled the RAM in my PC for £15, and significantly improved its speed.
 
Four months ago, for £150, I bought a 2nd-hand IBM desktop computer, sold as a "gaming computer" complete with 500GB HD, dual monitor card and splitter cable; Windows 7 64-bit was pre-installed . I already had a good 21" Acer monitor, and bought another 2nd-hand for £35. So for under £200 I have my ideal set-up. This machine is definitely 3+yr old (!), and has only 4GB ram but honestly, it's running like a dream, and fast enough for my ageing brain :-) The dual monitors are magic. I can have 2 browsers open with multiple windows, plus FH program (Legacy) and MS word. What more could one want? Hopefully it will last till Windows 7 falls off the desk. And if not, I have lost very little.
 
Mary that's why I suggested that 4Gb is probably sufficient for Chrissy. A gaming PC will have been designed to be super fast and efficient and have support for multiple monitors something that is not common with £150 (aka budget) new PCs. As for upgrading Windows 7 in July Windows 10 will come out and its a free upgrade for Windows 7/8/8.1 users. So you could be bang up to date and extend the life of the PC further.
 
Alexander - sorry, I misread your comment re 4Gb, you do agree that's OK for our needs. Yes I think I did well with my purchase. I might pass on upgrading to Win10, always afraid with each new version, that it will reject some of my old hardware or software! Especially my Quicken 2004 which was the last UK version and nothing available to replace it.
 
When I click on 'computer' it says 112GB free of 288GB for the hard drive. I have clicked on the crucial link above but I am not sure if it is telling me how much memory the machine had as standard or after I upgraded. I think that initially only 2 slots were full and we bought 2 more so I think I may have 4GB now, of which 39% is full, but I am not sure. I have my photos stored on the computer and also my FH but that's about all. However, I am sure that it gets clogged up as it's a bit like a vacuum cleaner that doesn't get emptied......every year or two I have a brainwave or someone tells me how to improve its performance by clearing things off, but I am petrified of wrecking the whole set up by trying anything myself. I don't think it helps when I have 4 or 5 FH sites open at once along with 3 FH programs while I am trialling Rootsmagic and Legacy and other sundry pages from elsewhere....... However, I still use paper as I find it difficult to remember all the facts from one page to another when I am transcribing data and prefer to comit it to paper. It also helps me to see links. I often record everything on a particular surname on paper and then go through my tree to see what relates to my family and what connections I can make, particularly with online newspaper sites.

I totally agree about waiting for Windows 10. Seems pointless not to when Windows 8 wasn't that well received in many quarters and friends have reverted to Windows 7. I am in the UK, by the way.
 
chrissy1 said:
When I click on 'computer' it says 112GB free of 288GB for the hard drive. I have clicked on the crucial link above but I am not sure if it is telling me how much memory the machine had as standard or after I upgraded. I think that initially only 2 slots were full and we bought 2 more so I think I may have 4GB now, of which 39% is full, but I am not sure. I have my photos stored on the computer and also my FH but that's about all. However, I am sure that it gets clogged up as it's a bit like a vacuum cleaner that doesn't get emptied......every year or two I have a brainwave or someone tells me how to improve its performance by clearing things off, but I am petrified of wrecking the whole set up by trying anything myself. I don't think it helps when I have 4 or 5 FH sites open at once along with 3 FH programs while I am trialling Rootsmagic and Legacy and other sundry pages from elsewhere....... However, I still use paper as I find it difficult to remember all the facts from one page to another when I am transcribing data and prefer to comit it to paper. It also helps me to see links. I often record everything on a particular surname on paper and then go through my tree to see what relates to my family and what connections I can make, particularly with online newspaper sites.

I totally agree about waiting for Windows 10. Seems pointless not to when Windows 8 wasn't that well received in many quarters and friends have reverted to Windows 7. I am in the UK, by the way.
Click to expand...
Ok so if you have 112GB used then anything at least double that will give you plenty of room to grow. Typically the smaller disks these days are around the 320Gb mark. The Crucial website program shows what is currently physically installed in your existing machine. From what you describe most likely then you have four chips each is 1Gb giving 4Gb in total, if your current computer runs ok with all those programs open then 4Gb is probably fine, 8Gb would give room to grow. The 39% full is disk space not system memory ie: 112Gb divided by 288Gb is indeed 39% full.

As for transferring everything. That should be fairly simple as you could just use an online service such as Dropbox to copy everything from one machine to another. All you would do is to drag the files and folders you want to keep across NB. if in doubt keep it as it is easier to delete stuff you don't need later than to leave stuff behind that you do need. It would be a bit slow but would be straightforward. Alternatively if both the old machine and new could be powered on at the same time and connected to the same internet connection then you could copy the files between the two machines.
 
MaryY said:
the garden takes priority
Click to expand...
In Oz it is the opposite. Our days are getting shorter hence less time outdoors. I am determined to spend more time on family history this winter (and get a handle on Windows 8.1!). We'll see......
 
Many thanks for the info, Alexander. I haven't looked into prices for new computers yet, but if Dell is still considered a good make, I would happily get another. My only gripe with the last computer was that Word and Excel didn't come as standard - I got something inferior instead which I didn't like, but as I sometimes used the machine for work, they organised Word and Excel for me. (I am not sure if the program Dell offered was compatible with the documents I had stored already in Word.) I think my husband transferred the files over last time, but he's not always sure what to do, so thanks for the advice. If you let me know when Windows 10 comes out, I can revisit the question of a new computer then, but in the meantime, if you could keep an eye open for any offers you consider suitable for my needs, I would be most grateful.

I have e-mailed my gedcom to you, so can you let me know if it has arrived?
 
It has arrived. It will need to be zipped though as the size of it means the email program has been "helpful" and split it up which means it doesn't load properly :( I've sent instructions by email.
 
I have FTM up and running but 2 questions - why does the program always close down and tell me it was improperly shut down when I try to back it up and why is the latest back up only 2.4m KB whereas the previous one was 3.4m KB and the one before that 2.8m KB? Have I suddenly lost a huge proportion of my data?
Even when I follow instructions to compact the file, it only says it has decreased it by 1.2%, not 30%..........
 
I downloaded the recent update to FTM and 2 days later my entire tree on has disappeared. It says that it is still there when I try to download a replacement, but it isn't coming up. Having had lengthy discussions with the helpline (and numerous different 'solutions' offered, most of which didn't work) I had to delete reference to the tree from FTM and try to download my Ancestry version (which I was updating at the time things went wrong!). I have eventually managed to delete the tree from FTM and over 5 hours later, the new tree STILL hasn't finished downloading from Ancestry, though it appears to have progressed about 3/4 of the way through........

Has anyone else experienced problems following the recent update?
 
I assume that people subscribing to this thread are now aware that Ancestry has announced that it will no longer sell or upgrade FTM after 31 December 2015 and will cease support for it in 2017. This has caused a highly predictable furore on their website. They will continue to support their online version but that of course will require users to keep subscribing to Ancestry! At least one UK vendor of the software no longer sells it and Amazon simply say that they will offer support until 2017 (what they presumably mean is that Ancestry will).

Ignoring the difficulties that are referred to with this program above, if it works for you now it may continue to do so for some time to come, but one day when Microsoft does another upgrade you may find that FTM stops working and you lose access to your data. Hopefully you may still be able to export a gedcom file to other software at that time but I for one would not be prepared to rely on that.

EDIT: see the main discussion on this topic here - please do not post in this discussion. Peter
 
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