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Family Tree Maker to be pensioned off. NOT!

Kate said:
Hi, as we seem to have been side tracked by cds....just read that Genealogy in time say that MacKiev's solution is only buying time for FTM users and that in the long term we should look for an alternative! Bit disappointed by this. Do not know why they say that. I don't care about the sync or hints but I do like the software.
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Here's a bit more of what they said:

This recent announcement buys some time for Family Tree Maker users. However, we are not convinced that it would be a good idea to remain with this software program over the longer term. Clearly Ancestry is getting out of the desktop software business. If you are a current user of Family Tree Maker, you might also want to seriously think about your options going forward.

The only thing that worries me about Ancestry's announcement is that they don't mention tree-syncing. They refer to hints, searches from within FTM, and the ability to upload an FTM tree to Ancestry, but that doesn't necessary include syncing. Nevertheless I can't see why the FTM users should be concerned - provided MacKiev can make money from supporting FTM there's no obvious reason why the arrangement shouldn't be successful, given the existing relationship and MacKiev's experience.
 
Tony said:
For what it's worth, the RootsMagic blog item RootsMagic and Ancestry: Working Together at Last mentions synchronizing with online trees.
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That sounds promising - and clearly if they can do it, MacKiev must surely be able to continue doing it. So, absolutely no reason to switch from FTM as far as I can see.

Incidentally, I know from talking to other software developers that they too would like to connect to Ancestry* in the same way that FTM already does - so there could be some good that comes out of Ancestry's decision to stop selling FTM.

* it was this that inspired me to link to Ancestry from My Ancestors Beta (for the Scotland 1881 census) - see the separate discussion
 
This just reached me and could possibly be relevant:

Salt Lake City: 6 February 2016

Time: 7am MT, 9am EST, 2pm GMT

Leading family history site, Findmypast announced today at RootsTech a range of new global partnerships with leading technology providers. This will further strengthen its reach in the U. S. as well as U.K. markets.

The raft of new partnerships include deals with RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, FamilySearch, Family-Historian, Puzzilla, Billion Graves and RootsCity. Findmypast will make its vast record collection of more than 8 billion records available to customers via these partners. The rollout of these partnerships will begin in 2016, with exact dates to be detailed later.

Customers using these various family history products will benefit from having Findmypast’s record collection embedded within the actual product in ways that each partner determines will benefit their customers most. Adding to the excitement, Findmypast also announced that in 2016 it will build on its extensive British and Irish data base by adding hundreds of millions of new U.S. records including the most comprehensive collection of US marriage records available anywhere.

Commenting Ben Bennett, Executive Vice-President North America and International for Findmypast said:

“2016 is going to see us expanding our partnerships across the U.S. Our aim is to provide our customers with more and more records and family history resources to aid them in their family history research. Regardless of where the customer is doing the research, Findmypast will bring the full benefit of the more than 8 billion records that Findmypast has in order to help them discover more about their family.”

Taking these essential steps to creating a healthy ecosystem of partnerships will help ensure that those searching for ancestors who have lived in the UK and/or the US can take full advantage of Findmypast’s world class record collections.
 
peter said:
That sounds promising - and clearly if they can do it, MacKiev must surely be able to continue doing it. So, absolutely no reason to switch from FTM as far as I can see.
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Amen to that, and as I've said many times before about anything that pays even lip service to 'My Heritage' as Roots Magic does (although not alone), be very cautious of the promises to opt in-opt out. Put simply: Beware the StrIdes of MarcH.

Lets just hope MacKiev retains the Ancestry sync feature as I'm sure they will as it is so important, and resists any overtures from MH.
 
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Norman said:
Here's the link for RootsMagic's page regarding the Ancestry tie-in.
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Thanks Norman - the most interesting part of this page is the last question:

Will the sync work exactly like TreeSync in FTM?
Ancestry is working on a new API that both RootsMagic and FTM will be switching to ("API" is a fancy word for the system with which Ancestry can communicate with other products).

The API is still in development, but syncing in both RootsMagic and FTM will likely be a bit different than the current "TreeSync". It will still allow you to share names, events, notes, sources, and even media between RootsMagic and Ancestry.

I wonder what this means for existing FTM users?
 
trebor said:
Thanks Norman - the most interesting part of this page is the last question:

Will the sync work exactly like TreeSync in FTM?
Ancestry is working on a new API that both RootsMagic and FTM will be switching to ("API" is a fancy word for the system with which Ancestry can communicate with other products).

The API is still in development, but syncing in both RootsMagic and FTM will likely be a bit different than the current "TreeSync". It will still allow you to share names, events, notes, sources, and even media between RootsMagic and Ancestry.

I wonder what this means for existing FTM users?
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That has the ring of a 'political' answer if ever there was one. Interpretation: There will be some differences in the way of working that will not suit everyone but at the end of the day you will learn to accept the new order. Not that far removed from Microsoft's introduction of Windows 10.
 
emjay said:
As with well loved food products : "new improved recipe" :mad:
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I suppose that going from the level of having absolutely no sync to having a "different" sync is an improvement.
I expect that we will have to wait and see.
 
I installed the MacKiev FTM software successfully and followed up with an order for the backup media 2nd January 2017. I have still not received this, I've only had excuses from MacKiev regarding the delay.
Anyone else having problems?
 
Does anyone have a problem with media processing on FTM? Whenever I sync with Ancestry now, the green media processing strip on FTM seems to either stop part way across and refuse to move further, or it continually moves across, suggesting the media has not finished loading. Does this mean that the items I have supposedly down loaded aren't stored? (Frequently I am unable to check as I have forgotten what I have downloaded!) I am not too bothered about the census entries, as I always type the details into the notes, but I don't want to lose the photographs.
 
Sorry, I gave up on FTM due to the uncertainty and went back to Legacy, I left a tree on ancestry so I still get the hints which, very occasionally, are useful.
 
chrissy1 said:
Does anyone have a problem with media processing on FTM? Whenever I sync with Ancestry now, the green media processing strip on FTM seems to either stop part way across and refuse to move further, or it continually moves across, suggesting the media has not finished loading. Does this mean that the items I have supposedly down loaded aren't stored? (Frequently I am unable to check as I have forgotten what I have downloaded!) I am not too bothered about the census entries, as I always type the details into the notes, but I don't want to lose the photographs.
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Are you using FTM as was supported by Ancestry, or are you on 2014.1 from MacKiev. I have no issues with the latter, it is definitely more stable.
 
FredC said:
Are you using FTM as was supported by Ancestry, or are you on 2014.1 from MacKiev. I have no issues with the latter, it is definitely more stable.
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I am using FTM as it arrived from Ancestry about 18 months ago. How do I know what I am on and how do I change?
 
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