Family Tree Software

[Tim]

My backup file is 5,403,100Kb so I'm sure FTM can cope with it.

One suggestion, create your backup on the PC's hard disk and then move it to your external drive or to something like Dropbox. It will be much quicker then.

Compacting the file is good to do.

When I moved to FTM I had the same issue with the hints, 4 or 5,000 of them. But as you add the censuses to the family's, then it quickly comes down. New hints are often worth looking at, they can occur when other people add facts to the same (or similar) people in your tree.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

The reason that the number of hints rapidly goes up is that it only typically adds hints for the parts of your tree that you browse. So as you browse other parts of the tree the number of hint grows quickly before settling down.

 

[chrissy1]

My backup file is 5,403,100Kb so I'm sure FTM can cope with it.

One suggestion, create your backup on the PC's hard disk and then move it to your external drive or to something like Dropbox. It will be much quicker then.

Compacting the file is good to do.

When I moved to FTM I had the same issue with the hints, 4 or 5,000 of them. But as you add the censuses to the family's, then it quickly comes down. New hints are often worth looking at, they can occur when other people add facts to the same (or similar) people in your tree.

Thanks, Tim. That is reassuring regarding the size. I will try saving to the hard drive next time, but as I am intending to get a new computer and this one is going slower by the minute, I thought the hard drive might be safer, especially as I have spent about 3 weeks working non stop about 18 hours a day to try to get some of this media onto FTM. I wondered if it was objecting to my using Vista which FTM no longer supports.

Regarding the hints, I started off with about 1700 and by clicking at the top of the screen as well as I managed to erase them (from view or permanently?), but the number quickly rose again. I am estimating at this rate perhaps another 6 weeks before I get rid of them.....or more.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

When viewing hints you have the option of accepting or ignoring them. If you choose to ignore a hint it won't show you it again. Thus the numbers reduce. As you view other people in your tree it will search for hints for them thus the numbers rise. Ie: it doesn't search for hints for everyone in your tree in one go. Instead it searches as you move about the tree. This keeps the speed and number of hints manageable an more relevant to whom you are searching. You would expect the numbers to rise and fall as you work around different parts of your tree.

 

[Tim]

If you click on the Shaking Leaf at the top of the page, at the bottom of the menu that appears it says " See all Recent Hints in". By pressing this and selecting the tree, you can then view all hints and by which type of Hints.

 

[chrissy1]

Thanks, Tim. I will try that. Having spent most of the day ploughing through hints, I have a mere 1889 left, but I am not sure if that refers to the number of hints or people for which hints exist.

Alexander, that means the further I travel through the tree, the more hints I get? Might be finished by Christmas, then......?

 

[trebor]

My understanding of the hints is that Ancestry provides links to records not previously recorded through the Ancestry system.
So you may find hints referring to facts that you have entered from other sources.
I find this useful as Ancestry includes the source information that you may not have recorded previously.
However there are instances when the record has no relevance to your ancestors but this is Ancestry trying to be helpful.
I have lots of links yet to be checked but I have all the time in the future to check these as they will not disappear.
I hope that this helps you understand the system better because I find FTM linked to Ancestry an invaluable combination.

 

[Alexander Bisset]

Alexander, that means the further I travel through the tree, the more hints I get? Might be finished by Christmas, then......?

Isn't the joy of family history that you can never be truly finished as you discover more you open up more parts of your tree as more records are added there is more to find.

 

[jorghes]

As trebor says, when Ancestry adds records, often that will add hints to your tree - for example when the Cheshire records came online, I suddenly had a whole heap more hints, even for relatives who don't live in Cheshire (and as far as I know, while my ancestry covers multiple counties and I mean multiple, none of them have ever lived in Cheshire). So even when you have "cleared" the hints for some people (either by accepting or ignoring), and you're not "developing" that section of your tree, you can still get more hints as more information and databases are added.

 

[Gillian]

Isn't the joy of family history that you can never be truly finished as you discover more you open up more parts of your tree as more records are added there is more to find.

Yes, in a sense. But, for me, the greatest joy is being able to concentrate on one particular branch for long enough to become familiar with them and get to know them well. I start getting jittery when new names keep cropping up in other branches and I don't have time (or even interest sometimes) to do anything more than simply note names and vital events.

 

[emjay]

Yes, in a sense. But, for me, the greatest joy is being able to concentrate on one particular branch for long enough to become familiar with them and get to know them well. I start getting jittery when new names keep cropping up in other branches and I don't have time (or even interest sometimes) to do anything more than simply note names and vital events.

Yes I find that I may have to end a session (e.g. called to a meal,"It's on the table!") and forget where I was when I return. So the data I've entered is just that...names and numbers; or just a census image downloaded to be stared at a later date,"Hmmm who is this?"

 

[chrissy1]

It's getting a bit boring now as I already have 99.9% of the census info Ancestry has found plus a lot of other relevant census entries that Ancestry hasn't located which I am having to search out. Luckily I have transcribed all the census entries in my notes as Ancestry's search engine doesn't seem as efficient as it used to be. Sadly, very little new information and no new people have turned up as yet, but I still have a long way to go - 4899 hints to be precise on yesterday's count.....but I am sure I must have shifted about the same amount!

for example when the Cheshire records came online, I suddenly had a whole heap more hints.

This is what I WANT to see - but I need to clear the odd 5000 other hints because I can't see the wood for the trees at present despite working hours each day on it!!! I am hoping that a few more PRs will be online in due course, particularly the Harwich/Trimley area of Essex/Suffolk and the Tavistock area of Devon/Cornwall, neither of which are on IGI - and some more merchant marine records would be nice, along with some Jersey PRs.......... hint, hint, Ancestry.

 

[chrissy1]

Yes, in a sense. But, for me, the greatest joy is being able to concentrate on one particular branch for long enough to become familiar with them and get to know them well. I start getting jittery when new names keep cropping up in other branches and I don't have time (or even interest sometimes) to do anything more than simply note names and vital events.

I am going through my tree systematically, as I too find it easier to concentrate on one branch at a time. I have my old Reunion program open concurrently so that I can easily navigate around without losing my place/chain of thought on FTM while I am inputting the (mainly census) media. The notes on my old program help me to locate the census entries that Ancestry has failed to find. With numerous identical names/dob even for unusual surnames - two Eliza Mintofts born the same year to different parents and a whole host of John Hortops.....it is too difficult to jump in at randomly and like you, I don't always want to record details of very distant relationships by marriage unless I feel that their ancestors/siblings could be related to mine.

 

[chrissy1]

If anyone has an old program (like my Reunion for Windows from ca 1995) which produces a gedcom which isn't acceptable to FTM as it is too old a style, it might be helpful to know that it WILL load onto Rootsmagic 7 free trial program, whose gedcom is in turn accepted by FTM.